Kenyans’ perspectives on parenting roles and strategies used to raise young children in Kenya

Abstract

Research and parenting programs across the world emphasize two dimensions of parenting: warmth and control. Cross-country literature demonstrates many commonalities across samples on warmth; however, differences are evident with control, largely due to cultural and contextual nuances. Scant literature exists on parenting in Kenya, where half of Kenyans report experiencing child maltreatment typically by parents. Kenyan culture is a unique developmental niche important to understand and inform policies and parenting program development to reduce maltreatment. The purpose of this study was to understand perspectives on parenting strategies with young children, from a sample of Kenyans with varying experiences involving children (e.g., parents, community members). To our knowledge, this study is the first qualitative assessment of parenting practices among children under age 6 in Kenya. The 91 participants (62% female, all ≥18 years) completed interviews or focus groups. Based on a thematic data analysis, five themes emerged: 1) parental roles, 2) expressions of warmth, 3) cultural practices with children, 4) control strategies, and 5) factors impacting effective parenting. This study’s findings have several implications for both informal and formal supports of families with young children. The findings offer insight into how Kenyans engage in parental warmth and control strategies, including which are seen as culturally acceptable or harmful, and can inform the development or adaptation of parenting programs for Kenya. Furthermore, these findings offer important considerations for local and federal leaders in how to advance Kenya’s policies and efforts to reduce childhood violence and promote healthy child development.

How parents engage with their children impacts children’s lifelong physical and psychological trajectories (Bronfenbrenner, 1989). Research around the world documents the important connection between parenting and child outcomes (Sorkhabi, 2005). However, little research exists about parenting in Kenya, especially with children under age 6. Understanding the cultural context in which Kenyan parents engage in warmth and control strategies is important in a country where over half of children experience abuse largely by their parents (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Kenya & Department of Children’s Services, 2019). Kenyan culture is a unique developmental niche necessary to understand parental warmth and control to inform development and adaptation of parenting programs to mitigate the significant impact of child maltreatment in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to gather qualitative data from a sample of Kenyans to understand their perspectives on parenting children.

Parenting and Child Development

International parenting research and parenting programs commonly focus on two parenting dimensions considered the cornerstones of effective parenting: warmth and control (Blizzard et al., 2018; Bornstein et al., 2021; Lansford, 2022; Lansford et al., 2021). Warmth and control receive significant attention because they are both linked to children’s adjustment and are interrelated in regard to their impact on child development (Lansford et al., 2014).

Parental warmth refers to parents’ engagement in behaviors that show their children love and acceptance (Bornstein et al., 2021), such as verbal praise and physical affection. A meta-analysis of 428 studies involving participants from 52 countries found some variability in the level of warmth expressed as influenced by cultural expectations (Pinquart & Kauser, 2018). However, based on decades of cross-country research, children exhibit a universal desire to experience warmth and acceptance from their parents (Rohner & Lansford, 2017). Moreover, a systematic review of a series of meta-analyses involving participants from 31 countries on five continents demonstrated a universal connection between parental warmth and improved psychological adjustment in childhood and adulthood (Khaleque & Ali, 2017). With respect to studies conducted on the African continent, Devlin and colleagues’ (2018) review of 44 studies conducted in 13 sub-Saharan African countries found that parental warmth was associated with positive child outcomes, including mental wellbeing, better academic achievement, and higher adaptive functioning. These findings mirror those from studies in high-income countries. Warmth seems to serve a protective function against poor mental health outcomes for children across cultures (Rothenberg et al., 2020); however, cultural differences occur in how parents demonstrate warmth towards their children (Lansford, 2022).

Most research focuses on the broad concept of warmth, using standardized measures to assess parents’ level of warmth (Devlin et al., 2018; Khaleque & Ali, 2017), with little exemplification of the specific illustrations of warmth within cultures. In an exception to this general approach, Cheah and colleagues (2015) queried mothers who identified as Chinese U.S. immigrants and European Americans. European Americans showed warmth through affective involvement (e.g., paying attention, listening, and communication with child), and physical and verbal expressions (e.g., hugging, kissing, and saying ‘I love you’), whereas Chinese immigrants focused on promoting positive affect and comfort (e.g., telling child how proud parent is, comforting when sad), attending to needs and daily routine (e.g., making sure needs are met and making favorite foods) and providing guidance and learning opportunities.

Control refers to the strategies parents use to regulate and modify children’s behaviors (Bornstein et al., 2021). Control can be exerted through behavioral (e.g., rule setting, removal of privilege), or psychological (e.g., withholding love, guilt induction) strategies (Bornstein et al., 2021). Behavioral controls tend to reduce risk of delinquent behaviors; whereas psychological control can be a form of child maltreatment and significantly impact children’s experiences of mental health difficulties (Bornstein et al., 2021). Moreover, as reported by Devlin and colleagues’ (2018) review of studies in sub-Saharan African countries, the use of harsh control strategies (e.g., corporal punishment, psychological punishment) correlated with poor mental health and lower educational attainment. Research on parental control suggests it is culturally influenced in both level of control and the strategies used (Bornstein et al., 2021; Pinquart & Kauser, 2018). Like warmth, research on control largely examines the broader concept, with limited illustration of specific control strategies (Devlin et al., 2018; Pinquart & Kauser, 2018). However, Cho and colleagues (Cho et al., 2021) demonstrated commonalities among Chinese U.S. immigrants, Korean U.S. immigrants, European Americans or Turkish mothers on use of non-physical punishment strategies (e.g., use of time out and removal of privileges). However, differences were found for Chinese immigrant mothers who were more likely to use psychological control (e.g., withholding love, shaming, and inciting guilt) than European American mothers.

Kenya’s Cultural Implications for Parenting

Since parents’ expressions of warmth and control strategies are rooted in cultural perspectives (Deater-Deckard et al., 2011; Lansford et al., 2014), illuminating those perspectives is critical to better understanding parenting and associated intervention strategies. Harkness and Super’s seminal work on the Developmental Niche and parental ethnotheories provides a structure for understanding how parenting is influenced by culture (Harkness & Super, 2020; Super & Harkness, 1986), defined as the values, beliefs, and behavioral characteristics of a specified social group (Lansford, 2022). The Developmental Niche theoretical framework describes three subsystems that interact with the developing child (Harkness & Super, 2020). The first subsystem is the child’s social and physical environments, the setting of daily life, including where the child resides and with whom the child lives (e.g., who is the primary caregiver). Contextual factors (i.e., poverty, marital discord and single parenting) in which the child is raised can impact these settings, and in turn impact the other subsystems (Harkness & Super, 2020). The second subsystem is the cultural practices and customs of caring for children. This refers to the routine or natural strategies in raising a child that are often “deeply held beliefs and related emotions about the nature of the child and about the proper functions of a good parent” (p. 3) by members of the culture (Harkness & Super, 2020). The third subsystem is the parent’s psychology, comprised of the parents’ personal characteristics (e.g., mental health) and their cultural beliefs, also referred to as parents’ ethnotheories. Parental ethnotheories are a framework for how culture and parents’ beliefs impact parenting behaviors that in turn influence child development. Within this subsystem, cultural influences to parental warmth and control can be understood through how parents believe one should interact with their child (Super & Harkness, 1986). The Developmental Niche and parental ethnotheories offer insight into how parents’ individual experiences, along with the culture in which they are raising their child, influence the strategies they engage in with their child.

Thus, to best understand parenting, it is important to evaluate parenting practices within the cultural context in which parents raise their children. Kenyan culture is a unique niche that is important to understand to inform parenting interventions around parental warmth and control. The limited Kenyan research is largely with parents of school aged children and adolescents and focuses on parenting styles and attitudes (Ayiro et al., 2019; Oburu & Rothenberg, 2021). For example, Ayiro and colleagues (2019) found, among a sample of 7 to 10-year-old Kenyan children, that both authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles were common among mothers and fathers. The presence of both parenting styles maybe reflective of changes in Kenya’s policies around corporal punishment (Alampay et al., 2021), as well as broader social and political changes (Oburu & Rothenberg, 2021). However, Oburu (2011) found that Kenyan mothers and fathers of 8-year-olds tended to exhibit authoritarian attitudes (e.g., strong focus on obedience) about parenting, aligning with pre-ban perspectives of control strategies. Oburu and Rothenberg (2021) examined parental warmth and control among Kenyan parents of 7-year-old children through adolescence. In this sample, parental warmth decreased from age 7 to 11 before increasing then stabilizing in mid-adolescence. Control, on the other hand, increased through age 13 before slightly decreasing. The authors noted that the children in their sample were 10 at the time Kenya banned corporal punishment (Alampay et al., 2021), which may have influenced the increase in parental warmth (Oburu & Rothenberg, 2021). Ayiro (2019) examined parenting styles and maltreatment for a sample of Kenyan families with 7 to 10-year-old children, finding that mothers who engaged in more control were more likely to physically or psychologically maltreat their children. Fathers who were higher on control engaged in higher rates of psychological abuse. Collectively, these studies provide insight into parenting in Kenya; however, most are with school age children or older, leaving little known about the fundamental practices of raising young children in Kenya. To support maltreatment prevention and early intervention efforts, research needs to focus on parenting practices with younger Kenyan children.

Current Study

To our knowledge, the present study is the first qualitative assessment of Kenya’s parenting culture for children under age 6. We examined the perspectives from Kenyans to gain an in depth understanding of the following research questions: Who are primary caregivers of children? How do parents express warmth towards their children? What control strategies do parents use? What impacts parents’ abilities to care for their children?

Method

Participants

This study took place in Kibera Constituency in Nairobi City, Kenya. Kibera is an informal settlement where a quarter million people reside representing the majority of Kenya’s numerous ethnic groups (Kibera Facts & Information, n.d.) The area has high rates of child maltreatment, unemployment, poverty, and substance abuse (Winnie, 2011).

Ninety-one Black Kenyan adult (≥18 years) participants (62% female) were recruited to complete focus groups or interviews as part of a larger study to understand Kenya’s service infrastructure and readiness to implement a child maltreatment prevention program. Non-probability purposive sampling was used to recruit participants due to their role as a parent or as one who supports children/families in professional roles (i.e., Community Health Workers (CHWs), Village Elders, Traditional Healers, and other community leaders). Nine focus groups were conducted with 78 participants. Parents (n = 46; 59%) participated in gender specific focus groups (mothers = 27 across three focus groups; fathers = 19 across two focus groups). Parents were eligible if they were 18 years or older, had at least one child under the age of 6, and resided in Kibera. Parents were between 21 and 53 years old, with an average age of 29.6 (SD = 7.5), mostly married (70%) and had an average of two children (SD = 1.2; range one to six) from newborn to 29 years old, with an average age of 6.2 (SD = 6.8).

The remaining four focus groups (n = 32 participants) included one group of Traditional Healers (n = 6; 50% female), one group of Village Elders (n = 9, 44% female), and two groups of CHWs (n = 17, 82% female). Thirteen key informant interviews were conducted with five parents (three mothers, two fathers; 21 to 52 years old, M = 36.6, SD = 11.5), two female CHWs, and six community leaders (50% female).

Nurses at a public health care facility and CHWs recruited parents. A sub-county’s community health contact helped recruit CHWs. These CHWs and the study’s stakeholders assisted in recruiting Traditional Healers, Village Elders, and community leaders. CHWs were selected based on active submission of health reports to the Ministry of Health in the last six months and resided in the study area. Community leaders and Traditional Healers were selected based on their community work related to children for at least the past six months. All participants consented to participate and were provided travel reimbursement for participating.

Materials

Interview Questions

The U.S. and Kenya-based research team developed semi-structured interview protocols with open-ended questions, from which facilitators could deviate to gather additional, pertinent information. A major focus of our questions was to inform the cultural and systemic adaptations to a parenting program. The questions were influenced by the program’s foci (e.g., positive parenting, reducing maltreatment). Slight variations in questions were developed across participant types and are provided in the Supplemental Material.

Research Design, Data Collection and Analysis

A qualitative approach was utilized due to the limited research in Kenya on parenting children under 6. This approach offers a deeper exploration of this study’s research questions to gain a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of parenting (Palinkas, 2014).

This study was approved by Georgia State University in the U.S. and Maseno University Scientific and Ethics Review Committee in Kenya prior to commencement. This study was not preregistered. We report how we determined our sample size, all manipulations, and all measures in the study (there were no data exclusions). The data collected for this study is not publicly accessible; the interview questions are provided in the Supplemental Material in attempts to replicate findings.

Data were collected between January and June of 2019, led by a doctoral level, experienced interviewer along with a clinician and social worker. All were Kenyan. The interviews and focus groups were conducted in Swahili, one of the official languages in Kenya. The study consent and interview guides were developed in English, translated to Swahili and then back translated by multi-linguists to ensure consistency in the original translation. Interview/focus group sessions were transcribed then translated into English, and back-translated again to ensure consistency to the original transcript. The NVivo (version 12) software was used to store, code, retrieve, and analyze the qualitative data.

To analyze the qualitative data, the researchers relied on the thematic data analysis method (Guest et al., 2012) to analyze the English transcripts, aiming to derive reliable and valid themes through an iterative process. A diverse six-member team (e.g., European American, Asian American, and Black African) carried out the study’s data analysis. Five of the six coders were clinical psychologists or PhD candidates in psychology, all of whom focused their work on children and families in clinical and community settings. The sixth coder engaged in community-based work with families in Kenya. Two coders were also parents. The researchers used an iterative process to create codes, combine codes into key ideas, and arrange these ideas into broader themes informed by the participants’ statements. First codes were clustered into key concepts, which were then organized into broad themes.

Two triangulation methods were used to enhance the study’s rigor (Korstjens & Moser, 2018): methodological (i.e., collection and analysis across two data collection methods—focus groups and interviews) and investigator (i.e., at least two independent coders coded, analyzed, and interpreted each transcript in NVivo). Meetings among coders involved a reflexive component to balance cultural differences among participants and coders (Arriaza et al., 2015). In meetings, the full coding team reviewed consistencies and inconsistencies in coding to finalize codes and coding rules to optimize rigor and inter-coder reliability. Coders also routinely engaged in comparative analysis across data collection methods, participant type and transcript.

Results

Five major themes were evident in the data across the respondents. These themes included: 1) the caregiving roles of parents with young children; 2) how parents express warmth towards their children; 3) cultural practices when interacting with children; 4) control strategies used by parents; and 5) factors impacting parents’ abilities to engage in effective parenting.

Primary Caregiving Roles

Most participants (79% of responses) reported that mothers are primarily responsible for taking care of children and spend most of the time with them, largely because fathers are working. One mother (focus group) stated, “The father spends less time with the child. The child knows both of us but knows me more because we spend a lot of time together and they only see the father at night.” A father (focus group) commented, “I am mainly working and it’s my wife who spends most of the time with the children. All the same, I look for time to spend with my children, to monitor how they are doing.”

However, several fathers indicated that they are jointly raising the child with the mother or that the person who spends the most time is the parent who is not working (16% of responses). “It’s the role of both father and mother to raise a child in the community” (father, focus group). A second father (focus group) stated, “If it’s the mother [breadwinner], then father is the one to who will spend more time. If it’s the father and he goes out to look for work, then mother will take up that responsibility.”

A few participants noted that some children spend considerable time with domestic paid workers, in daycare, or with other caregivers (e.g., grandmother) due to parental work demands (5% of responses). A mother (focus group) elaborated on caretaking for parents who work:

For working parents, they have no time for their children. They take their children to the daycare services, come back in the evening, pick the baby and take her home. The following day they do the same and the cycle continues. They have no time at all with their children even to sit down together with them and talk. All their time is invested in work. That is why you find some children don’t even know their parents too well, because they have neglected them.

Some participants reported the necessity of parents serving as the sole caregiver due to potential abuse by others who may care for their children. One mother (focus group) stated, “I spend the most time with my child as I go to work with him too. Our community has become so insecure. I cannot leave my child behind; he will be abused.”

Expression of Warmth

Participants described a variety of warm interactions, such as the focus group mother who reported, “Parents spend time with children training them how to walk, holding them by hand and playing, repeating the words children are speaking, making them happy and appreciating them.” In response to, “What do parents do when their child does something appropriate?”, responders also acknowledged reliance on praise or appreciation, gifts, and quality time. Participants talked about the importance and the impact of parents’ verbalizing approval and praise for children (42% of responses about responses to children behaving well), providing gifts or extra food (44%), and spending quality time (14%) when their child behaves well. “When a child does the right thing first is to praise the child. This helps the child to feel good and know that they did the right thing.” (Community Health Worker, focus group). A father (focus group) stated, “I congratulate the child but ‘I don’t break their hand’. I don’t over congratulate.”

Another father (focus group) stated, “When a child has done something good, I buy them a gift,” Tangible rewards were reported to include clothes, dolls, and food, and quality time included playing games together and going to places the child enjoys.

Cultural Practices with Children

When asked about traditional practices parents engage in with their children, respondents noted a range of activities, including singing, teaching through proverbs and stories, and interacting through traditional games and activities. Singing, including gospel and traditional songs, was the most frequently mentioned cultural practice (57% or relevant responses). “I sing with them the songs my grandmother used to sing to me and they follow” (Community Health Worker, focus group). A mother (focus group) discussed singing with her child, “My three-year-old son likes singing often. Every time he tells me to sing for him or teach him how to play.”

Some people talked about sharing proverbs and stories with their children, with some emphasizing the importance of teaching children these traditions (30% of relevant responses). A father (interview) stated, “It’s important parents teach children proverbs as well as songs. This helps children to learn their traditions.” A Community Health Worker (focus group), said that “Parents do share proverbs with their children like the story of hyena and hare.” A mother (focus group) commented that, “I often share cultural stories with my very young children. For the elderly children, I share proverbs with them to make them think deeper and wiser”

Games and activities (e.g., ball, pretend play, cooking) were also described by participants (13% of relevant responses). One Community Health Worker (focus group) described such an activity:

‘Karungurungu’ [game] is the act of cooking some little Ugali on one side, some little rice on the other side, using tins. This helps children to setup the three stones traditionally used when cooking as cooking Jikos. As children play this karungurungu game, they learn to cook early in life. In the game, some other children will be cutting papers to act as onions as well. Now as the game goes on, a child develops certain skills of cooking. Karungurungu creates awareness that people cook in the community.

However, some participants expressed concerns about a reduction in engaging children in cultural and physical activities as children desire more modern, secular activities. Participants expressed concern about increases in ‘digital play.’ “So now, these children don’t learn these traditional songs as much because we have gotten into modern secular songs so much. That is what we find trending nowadays.” (Community Health Worker, focus group)

Things to do with proverbs are no more and so we are heading into digital era. And, a great percentage of children this time round, even playing games itself, even skipping a rope, things like running, they don’t want to participate in such…They simply want to sit down over a PS…I am worried about where we are heading. (father, focus group)

Control Strategies

Many different control strategies were discussed among participants. These strategies ranged from verbal correction and redirection to removal of toys, denying food, physical punishment, and abusive actions.

Several respondents discussed the importance of verbal correction as a primary form of control (52% of relevant responses), with many noting this should be the first attempt to control a child’s behavior. A father (interview) elaborated on the use of verbal correction:

Correct verbally, I tell the child, No! that is not how it’s supposed to be done. Another time, I still tell the child, No! That is not how it’s supposed to be, but it’s on the third time the child repeats the same mistake that I decide on the mode of punishment to apply on him / her. I have to consider between caning the child or simply giving a strict warning so that the child learns, that was wrong, and had been warned about it.

Some participants expressed an understanding that discipline needs to be developmentally tailored to the child. One father (interview) said:

But now this other child is a bit grown, four and a half to five years old, this child needs to be talked in a much stronger tone. They need to understand that failure to do an assigned duty must be punished. So, the tone used on this age group is a bit tough, like, ‘do this,’ and if you find the child appearing a bit hesitant, you tell the child that you are going to cane him.

Though only mentioned by three participants, another form of discipline was parents denying their child food. A Community Health Worker (focus group) stated, “Some other times, parents deny their children food. Children are forced to spend the whole day without food.”

More commonly (43% of responses) participants reported caning as a common discipline strategy; however, there was variability among participants regarding the use of physical discipline. Some noted the caveat that this is usually when it seems like the other alternatives (e.g., talking to the child) have failed and conditional implementation depending on the child and the problem behavior. One father (interview) stated: “It’s not all the time a child does something wrong that you cane them. If you remember in the past, we used to be beaten very much.”

Participants discussed escalation in discipline-use of warnings before physical punishment. One mother (focus group) said that: “Other times, parents evaluate the kind of mistake the child has committed. Some mistakes warrant canning while others may involve a child to be talked to slowly by slowly and let to understand that what they did was wrong.”

Some respondents acknowledged that physical discipline could lead to child physical abuse, causing serious injury or even death. A mother (interview) stated that “Excessive canning of a child, depending on their age, is child abuse. One may be caning a child with a good motive of correcting the child, but in actual sense they are hurting the child.”

Some participants noted several factors contributing to the reliance on corporal punishment as a discipline strategy, including socioeconomic status and parenting stress. A Community Health Worker (focus group) reported that:

Parents are already stressed and so they take slippers and beat the child ruthlessly. Others take a cane and beat a child until they faint. Some children develop mental disorders from this. Some children are beaten till they lose their hearing ability. Others are beaten until their eyes loose vision while to others, they cannot speak clearly, they cannot pronounce words clearly because their parents used to beat them severely.”

Conversely, a few participants expressed concern about the overall lack of parental discipline among parents today raising young children. One Community Health Worker (focus group) reported that:

Most Nairobi parents normally don’t punish their children even when they misbehave. That contributes so much because, you find the mother goes to work, the father also goes to work, but even when they return in the evening and may be this child wronged a neighbor’s child, when the neighbor attempts to explain what happened, this other neighbor shouts back to the neighbor. Now the child gets motivated to think that the act they did was right. Now the child grows knowing that they have no one to correct them.

A few participants also identified gender specific discipline. One father (focus group) stated, “If it’s a girl child, you [the father] inform the mother to counsel the child. If it’s a boy child, you [the father] talk to the child.”

Factors Impacting Effective Parenting

Responders discussed a series of factors that impact parents’ abilities to effectively care for their children. Contributors to compromised parenting include macro- (e.g., poverty, lack of parenting programs) and micro-level (e.g., alcohol abuse, marital discord, parent time) factors.

Poverty was the most frequently offered risk factor described by participants, with 39% of responses related to limited economic resources. One Village Elder (focus group) elaborated on how poverty impacts parenting.

A factor that can contribute to a parent not to take care of their child is mainly due to lack of money. A parent may lack money, and no matter how much he/she tries, is simply unable to take good care of their child because of the problems he/she has back in the household. Take for instance where we live in the community, residents here are economically unstable. So, parents suffer lack. They lack something to give to their children, they lack money to raise their children well or put them in a good house.

Furthermore, lack of parenting knowledge/skills, with an absence of available parenting programs, were reported (23% of responses), with some stating that reliance on poor parental models, often their own parents, contributed to poor or harmful parenting. One Village Elder (focus group) stated, “Parents fail at times, not because they choose to, but because they don’t have the necessary parenting skills. I would therefore request if we could have a parenting program, where parents would be trained on child parenting.” Another Village Elder (focus group) spoke about how parents were raised and how this influences parenting.

The main reason that makes a parent not be responsible for their child is mainly depended on how the parent was raised up. If the parent was not adequately trained as a child, this will negatively affect his or her parenting.

At the micro-level, substance use/abuse (e.g., alcohol, drugs) was noted to contribute to parents’ inability to care for their children (8% of responses). A Community Health Worker (focus group) stated, “Drunkardness amongst parents is a contributing factor.” Marital conflict and extramarital affairs were yet other risk factors for poor parenting practices (9% of responses). A father (interview) stated:

The other reason would be that parents are separated. In such a case, either the husband or the wife, transfers that bitterness to children. The mother will look at the children and hate them because of their father and vice versa. The father may then decide to leave the children with their mother. In the custody of their mother who is unemployed or not having adequate income, the children suffer.

Parents’ inadequate time for the child due to work demands or experiencing stress as a single parent were other factors contributing to poor parenting (21% of responses). “Time, it’s time they don’t have. Both parents are busy working” (father, focus group). A Village Elder (focus group) stated, “It’s mostly due to stress. If this is a single mother, whenever she remembers the circumstances in which she got pregnant with this child, she gets irritated and speaks harshly to the child.”

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first known qualitative study to explore Kenyan parenting practices with children under 6. While, cultural beliefs and norms influence parenting (Lansford, 2022), Kenya’s culture presents a specific niche necessary to understand. From the perspective of Harkness and Super’s (2020) Developmental Niche framework, to describe the culture of raising a child involves learning about the cultural practices and customs of caring for children (e.g., warmth and control strategies), the social and physical environments (e.g., who is the primary caregiver, socioeconomic factors), and parent’s psychology (e.g., mental health) and ethnotheories. The qualitative data revealed five themes: 1) parental roles, 2) expressions of warmth, 3) cultural practices, 4) control strategies, and 5) impediments of parenting.

Parental Roles in Kenya

Our findings indicate that the mother is often the young child’s primary caregiver in Kenya. This is not an unexpected finding and has been observed in other Sub-Saharan African countries, as well as other parts of the world, where the father is usually the employed parent, leaving the mother to take care of the children (Hatch & Posel, 2018). However, in light of the emerging trend of both parents working and increasing rates of girls being educated, there has been a paradigm shift in caregiving roles (Hatch & Posel, 2018). Specifically, women have more job opportunities, and, with both parents working, parents spend less time with their children. As in many other countries, children with working parents are cared for by domestic workers or in a daycare centers (Amos, 2013; Muasya, 2016). Some participating parents expressed concern that their children may be neglected or abused when cared for by others. However, the high levels of poverty in Kenya (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 2020) can result in the need for both parents to work to meet the family’s needs. Given these shifts, it was not surprising that some participants reported changes in who serves as the primary caregiver.

Expression of Warmth towards Children

Participants acknowledged the importance of expressing warmth and appreciation toward children. Several strategies were stated by participants, including praise and other verbal expressions, physical interactions, and tangible rewards. Participants largely noted reward systems as a way of encouraging good behavior. Operant conditioning, particularly positive reinforcement, is an effective tool for behavior modification especially among children (Kirby, 2020). Although parents may not be aware that they are applying this technique, it was a reported tool to positively reinforce a desired behavior. Some of the reinforcers mentioned were related to verbal encouragement, which is also observed in European Americans (Cheah et al., 2015).

Several participants noted that parents do not regularly engage in appreciation of their child, and others stated the importance of not overpraising. In a comparison of nine countries with culturally diverse settings, Kenya was found to demonstrate a lower level of warmth than the study’s grand mean (Bornstein et al., 2021). This may provide insight into why there was some concern that parents do not convey a sufficient level of warmth though it is seen as desirable for child development. Further examination as to the frequency of warmth expression in Kenya is needed to better understand how much expression of warmth is culturally acceptable.

While cross-cultural research suggests a universal desire by children to experience warmth from their parents (Rohner & Lansford, 2017), the way parents express warmth is culturally influenced (Lansford, 2022). Based on our findings, Kenyans engage in both verbal and nonverbal expressions of warmth. It was not surprising to see a range of expressions of parental warmth, or lack thereof, given past research indicating that both high warmth and low warmth parenting behaviors are common in Kenya (Ayiro et al., 2019; Oburu, 2011). The results of this study provide insight into how Kenyan parents express warmth or how others perceive parents should express warmth, an important consideration for parent support programs.

Cultural Practices with Children

Culture dictates the medium through which traditions are passed down (Amos, 2013). Participants reported that parents share proverbs, stories and songs with their children, although this practice is slowly fading with increased access to technology (Amos, 2013). With technological advancement, new forms of entertainment are available for children, and parents may decrease reliance on cultural practices to inform parenting. As noted by participants, as children become more exposed to digital media and entertainment, parents are challenged with how to approach parenting in this new age (Livingstone & Byrne, 2018). When developing or adapting parent support programs for Kenyan families, program developers should be aware of common traditions and support families to determine how much influence from traditional versus modern practices are preferred for the specific family with which they are working. Also, incorporating an understanding of parenting in a modern world with technological advances is necessary given the challenges this has for parents.

Parental Control Strategies

Participants discussed various control strategies in the Kenyan setting, including verbal correction, redirection, and punishment. Non-physical punishment strategies were also found common in Cho and colleagues’ (2021) study of Chinese U.S. immigrants, Korean U.S. immigrants, European Americans, and Turkish mothers. Parental control includes two types of strategies employed by parents to modify the child’s behavior: psychological and behavioral control (Bornstein et al., 2021). Many of the control strategies reported by parents in this study aligned with the behavioral control dimension, which may be due, at least in part, to the young age of children on which this study focused.

Some of the control strategies reported in the current study qualify as child maltreatment in Kenya. Kenya’s Department of Children’s Services conducted a survey in 2019 regarding Kenyan children’s experience of violence (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Kenya & Department of Children’s Services, 2019). Half of respondents (56.1% of males and 45.9% of females) reported experiencing violence as a child in Kenya (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Kenya & Department of Children’s Services, 2019). Given the high percentage of Kenyans reporting childhood abuse, it is no surprise that some participants in the current study expressed awareness and concern that the level of physical control used by some Kenyan parents can be viewed as abusive and may even result in the death of a child.

In 2010, Kenya initiated the legal ban of corporal punishment (e.g., punching, kicking, whipping, or caning—beating with an object), which resulted in a decrease in caregivers use of corporal punishment (Alampay et al., 2021), and Kenyans’ report of experiencing child physical abuse declined by nearly 20% in the following decade (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Kenya & Department of Children’s Services, 2019; UNICEF, 2012). These changes signify a cultural shift in Kenya away from physical discipline, and in 2022, Kenya formally banned the use of corporal punishment in all sectors, including the home environment (Republic of Kenya, 2022). Unfortunately, the results of the current study make clear that corporal punishment remains a prominent source of control by parents, perhaps because they are not made aware of more effective control strategies through wide dissemination of parent support programs. Specifically, many participants noted parents’ use of ‘beating’ and ‘caning’ to discipline their children; however, some affirmed that these strategies were more common in the past than present. The positive change could be attributed to Kenya’s 2010 policy to ban corporal punishment, which revealed a drastic reduction in corporal punishment post-ban (Alampay et al., 2021). However, high levels of normalization of physical punishment were seen in Kenya’s 2019 violence against children survey that revealed 42% of young adults (18–24 years old) viewed corporal punishment as necessary by parents in raising their children (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Kenya & Department of Children’s Services, 2019), and is reflective in the statements by participants in the current study.

Factors Impacting Parenting in Kenya

Research extensively documents the factors that impact effective parenting (Taraban & Shaw, 2018), and many of these factors were identified by the current study participants to impact parenting in Kenya. Issues reported to affect parenting included both macro-level (e.g., poverty and lack of parenting programs) and micro-level factors (e.g., substance abuse, marital conflict, parenting time and parental stress).

Poverty was frequently described as a limiting factor with respect to effective parenting, particularly when considering that many reported that time available to spend with children was limited due to parents needing to spend most of their time working or securing resources for the family. The influence of poverty on parenting is well documented (Chaudry & Wimer, 2016; Vernon-Feagans et al., 2013), and impoverished communities are less able to provide a range of resources to families (e.g., parenting programs). Indeed, participants discussed the lack of parenting skills as a factor leading to poor parenting practices. Since individuals are not well informed about effective parenting skills, they resort to modeling the parenting strategies observed from their parents, which may lead to the perpetuation of harmful parenting practices. For instance, individuals who experienced corporal punishment as children may continue with the same practice as parents, perceiving it as an acceptable form of discipline (Gershoff, 2002).

At the micro-level, substance use was frequently mentioned to hinder parents’ abilities to care for their children. A systematic review of 185 studies examining substance use in Kenya concluded that substance use among Kenyans is “a significant burden” (p. 37; Jaguga et al., 2022). Kenyan mothers with a history of childhood adversities, especially child maltreatment, are at higher risk of frequent alcohol consumption (Goodman et al., 2017). Parental substance abuse increases the risk of engaging in harsh and abusive parenting behaviors (Solis et al., 2012) and is associated with many negative child outcomes (Huq et al., 2021; Meinck et al., 2015). Substance use by parents is an important consideration for prevention and intervention programs, which may need to incorporate substance abuse treatment to optimize outcomes.

Conflict between spouses and marital affairs were also reported by participants, and marital conflict is known to impact child functioning (van Eldik et al., 2020). Of the one-third of Kenyans who report ever experiencing physical violence since age 15, over half of women (53.9%) report experiencing violence by their current male partner and a smaller percentage of men (19.8%) report experiencing violence by their current female partner, which have declined since the 2014 survey (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics & ICF, 2023). Goodman and colleagues (2021) found that among Kenyan males who have higher rates of adverse childhood experiences (including observing intimate partner violence), they are more likely to engage in intimate partner violence. This intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment is well established in the literature (Assink et al., 2018) and highlights the need to implement parent support programs to circumvent transmission of these adversities to the next generation.

Being a single mother, particularly in the context of poverty, also brings challenges, and children of never-married mothers have a greater risk of dying before age 5 in Sub-Saharan African (Clark & Hamplová, 2013). Participants in this study expressed concern about the ability of young and single mothers to adequately parent children. These factors (e.g., poverty, single parent, and young parent) impact parenting and are known to diminish the likelihood parents remain in support programs (Hackworth et al., 2018). Therefore, they must be considered when enrolling, engaging, and retaining families in parenting programs.

Study Implications

This study provides insight into the behaviors Kenyan parents use to engage in warmth and control, while also noting the harsh and abusive strategies Kenyan parents may utilize. Many of the warmth strategies reported (i.e., verbal praise), align with those promoted by parenting programs (Blizzard et al., 2018). As such, these finding inform the development and adaptation of parent support programs for Kenya. Furthermore, parent support programs are designed to mitigate or reduce the occurrence of the types of harsh and abusive parenting behaviors noted by participants, including use of physical discipline. While most evidence-based parenting programs are in high income countries (Chen & Chan, 2016), dissemination of these programs to low- and middle-income countries is hindered by the process of culturally adapting the program (Hardcastle et al., 2015; Lee et al., 2023).

Given the potential harm to children due to physical control strategies and that nearly half of Kenyans continue to report experiencing physical abuse as children (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Kenya & Department of Children’s Services, 2019), it is critical to address gaps in parenting skills through adapting and implementing culturally-relevant parenting programs in order to reduce the short and long-term impacts of these harmful strategies on the child. There are several parenting interventions shown to be effective at reducing the occurrence of child maltreatment (Hardcastle et al., 2015; Knerr et al., 2013) and improving the child’s outcomes (Jeong et al., 2021). Yet, these programs are rare in low- and middle-income countries (Knerr et al., 2013), where cultural parenting practices may be different from the cultures in which these programs were developed and tested. Few evidence-based and culturally specific programs are available in Kenya (Shanley et al., 2021), but significant need is evidenced by high rates of child maltreatment (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Kenya & Department of Children’s Services, 2019). This study is a key early step to supporting the development and adaptation of parenting programs for Kenya.

Limitations and Future Directions

While this study provides valuable insight into the parental warmth and control practices in Kenya, there are limitations that should be considered when interpreting and utilizing the results. First, parents were recruited from Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Kenya, where many residents experience significant social struggles including poverty, violence, unemployment and unsafe housing (Kibera Facts & Information, n.d.; Winnie, 2011). These stressors likely impact perspectives on parenting, which may be dissimilar from perspectives in other areas of Kenya. However, it is also important to note that Kibera’s population is a microcosm of the diversity of cultural/ethnic backgrounds from across Kenya (African Population Health Research Center, 2014). This study was also conducted in an urban setting and therefore may not represent the experiences of parents in more rural areas of Kenya. Limited demographic information was collected from those participating based on their professional role, limiting our understanding of factors that may inform their response to the study interview questions.

Due to the dearth of literature on parenting in Kenya, future research should expand our understanding of the cultural and contextual nuances to parenting in Kenya, and how these practices are supported in parenting programs either designed for Kenya or adapted from programs in other countries. Research is needed to understand the implications of Kenya’s parenting practices on children’s short-term and long-term outcomes. Also, examining what differences exist among Kenyans’ residing in rural versus urban settings is needed. The evolving impact of the global environment on parenting in Kenya should also be examined, including how traditions are being passed down among this global and technologically advancing world.

Conclusion

The combination of the study’s five themes offers valuable insight into the Developmental Niche of young Kenyan. Parents and other participants described various ways Kenyan parents express warmth and control child behavior, many of which are strategies promoted by parenting programs. Also, participants offered insight into traditional practices with children that are important for professionals to be aware of when working with Kenyan families. The present study gives insight into what is considered appropriate versus harmful parenting practices, in particular parental control strategies. The identified factors impacting Kenyan parents provide suggestions on how to optimize informal and formal supports for families and what services need to be available to Kenyan families. These findings offer important considerations for local and federal Kenyan leaders in how to advance Kenya’s policies and efforts to reduce childhood violence and promote healthy child development. Furthermore, it is important for policy makers and program officials to understand that Kenyans’ parenting roles are evolving and may not align with traditional roles.