Parental Orientation and its Impact on Students Discipline in Secondary Schools in the Buea Municipality

The study investigated parental orientation and its impact on students’ discipline in some selected schools in the Buea Municipality. The study generally was aimed at examining the role of parental nurture, parental involvement, parental counseling and home environment on students’ discipline. The descriptive exploratory survey research design was adopted for the study. The instrument used for data collection was a structured self-built questionnaire for students, questionnaires for parents and an interview guide for guidance counselors and discipline masters. The questionnaire was made up of both closed-ended and open-ended items to collect quantitative and qualitative data from selected participants. The close-ended items were prepared using a four-option Likert scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD), with 174 student participants; 16 each for parents and guidance counselors respectively. Pearson Product Movement Correlational Analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between parental Nurture and students’ discipline (Гxy = 0.293) meaning that the higher the parental nurture, the better the students’ discipline. Findings also revealed that there is a significant relationship between involvement in students’ education and students’ discipline (Гxy = 0.173) meaning that the better parental involvement in student education, the better the students’ discipline. Findings equally revealed that there is a significant relationship between parental counselling and students discipline (Гxy = 0.408) implying that the better the parental counselling, the better the students’ discipline. Findings further unveiled that there is a significant relationship between home environment and students’ discipline (Гxy = 0.408) meaning that the better the home environment, the better the students’ discipline. The findings therefore revealed that there is a significant relationship between parental orientation and students’ discipline. It was therefore recommended that parents, teachers and counsellors should work hand in hand to address the issue of indiscipline in school and help students get rid of problems.