EFFECTIVE MENTORSHIP APPROACHES ON PRE-ADOLESCENT CHILDREN (8-12 YEARS) PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN UASIN GISHU COUNTY, KENYA
- Department of Public Administration, Kampala International University, Uganda.
Background: Pre-adolescence considered a significant phase in children growth and development. It is a time of maturity, growth and change that enables pre-adolescent boys and girls start to explore and develop self-esteem-and-efficacy of own gendered identities before any other external influence and societal expectations. The problem is having effective mentorship approaches to adequately support this process. Failure to which these girls and boys between the ages of 8 and 12 may end up transiting to full adolescence phase having negative social, health and emotional characteristics. Purpose: Children of pre-adolescent period are often vulnerable to experiences linked to their physical and mental health, body image and self-esteem and systemic barriers with negative impacts on their personal growth and development. Methods: A descriptive-cross-sectional study design was adopted in the study, carried out in Uasin Gishu County. The survey targeted 246 participants consisting of pre-adolescent boys and girls (8 to 12 years) and the mentor officers in Uasin Gishu County. A sample size of 152 respondents was selected using Yamena (1967) and Cochran (1963; 1977) formula. Pre-adolescent boys and girls and mentors were units of analysis. Primary data was collected via questionnaire and key informant interview schedule. The data was analysed with the help of quantitative and qualitative data scientific modes of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) tool. Findings: The highest ranked approach was identified as the effective mentorship approach dimension being “site-based program approaches” having (M = 4.22, SD = .603), followed by “peer-to-peer program approaches” having scored (M = 4.01, SD = .759) and the least ranked program approach was “Pre-Adolescent Boys and Girls Programs approaches” having scored (M = 3.45, SD = .723). The results indicate that the respondents agreed with all the 12 program approach dimensions and were certain that these dimensions agreeably described their perceptions about effective mentorship approaches on personal growth and development given the composite mean score (M=3.89, SD=.695). The relationships between the peer-to-peer, site-based and pre-adolescent boys and girls programs approaches and personal growth and development scores are highly significant (p< 0.001). Conclusions: effective mentorship approaches are significant in peer-to-peer, pre-adolescent children, and site-based and determine a number of ways for the growth and development of pre-adolescent boys and girls. These ways include appropriately building of knowledge, skills and attitudes to deal with bad behaviours such as cultism act, homosexuality, total disobedient to teachers, parents and any senior citizen, to arson, bullying, killings, gun shooting sprees in learning institutions, murder of peer partners (subdividing the body into parts), violence and addiction to alcohol and hard drugs, the concoction of indiscipline is proving to be a very hard nut for teachers and parents to crack. This steers the pre-adolescent children towards bold futures.
Department of Public Administration, Kampala International University, Uganda.
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