Relationship between Psychological Distress and Parenting Styles: A Case Study of Parents from Mathare Informal Settlement Nairobi, Kenya

The purpose of the study was to establish if there was a relationship between psychological distress and the parenting style among parents from Mathare informal settlement. Objectives were: to asses levels of psychological distresses among parents; to establish different parenting styles exercised by parents; and to examine whether there was a relationship between psychological distress and parenting style among parents. Mixed research method was adopted while simple random sampling was used to sample the wards and purposive sampling for the households. The result of the study showed that the respondents, had a mean of 27.6 (SD = 6.02) on the overall psychological distress, while on the subscale of Stress (M = 19.62, SD = 6.34), anxiety (M = 17.45, SD = 4.91), and depression (M = 17.93, SD = 4.47). In summary, 69% of the respondents had severe levels of anxiety, 73.7% moderate level of depression, and 43.4% moderate levels of stress. On parenting style authoritarian parenting had a mean of 23.11 (SD = 4.87), authoritative parenting (M = 38.05, SD = 6.35), and permissive parenting (M = 10.14, SD = 2.83). On the determination of the relationship between psychological distress and parenting style, the finding showed that there was no significant correlation (r = 0.01, P = 0.94) between psychological distress and parenting style. Hence, this study recommended that family therapy, psychological support and community sensitization be carried out among parents living within Mathare to reduce cases of psychological distress.