Influence of Parental Support on Early Years Learners’ Literacy Competencies in Nyamira South Sub-County, Nyamira County, Kenya

Martha B. Nyaenda, George N. Areba & Florence Boinet
Kisii University
Email: gareba@kisiiuniversity.ac.ke

Abstract: This study was concerned with the task of involvement of parents on early year’s learners’ literacy competencies in Nyamira South Sub County. The study specific objectives were to determine the influence of parental education, parental access to home literacy resources, and parental social economic level on early years learners’ literacy competencies in Nyamira South Sub County. This study was guided by Coleman and ecological systems theory. A descriptive research design, targeting 7,494 parents of children, in Nyamira South Sub County were. Yamane formular was utilized to compute a sample size of 380 parents through multi-stage sampling. Collection of data was by questionnaires. The quantitative data was processed through descriptive and inferential statistics and a model was developed through multiple regression analysis which was validated using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings indicated that parental education level had a positive but moderately insignificant impact on preschool children’s literacy skills (β=0.167; p=0.0133; r=0.538). The availability of home literacy resources showed a positive and moderately significant effect (β=0.222; p=0.042; r=0.550), and parental economic well-being demonstrated a positive moderate significant influence (β=0.309; p=0.009; r=0.586) on literacy skills of preschoolers in Nyamira South Sub-County. Based on these findings, the study recommends that parents should strive to enhance their literacy skills and equip their homes with appropriate learning materials suited for their preschool children. Significantly, the study will inform policies on involvement of parents of early years of learning.