Family Income and Its Association with Student Discipline in Public Boys’ Boarding Senior Schools in Kakamega County, Kenya

Student discipline remains a critical concern in senior schools because it influences academic achievement, school climate, and overall educational outcomes. This study investigated the relationship between family socioeconomic status and student discipline in public boys’ boarding senior schools in Kakamega County, Kenya. The paper presents and discusses findings on family income and student discipline in public boys’ boarding senior schools. The study targeted 32 public boys’ boarding senior schools with a study population comprising 9664 Form 3 and Form 4 students, 192 class teachers and 32 Deputy Principals. It adopted an ex post facto research design, with data collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the family income and discipline characteristics, while one-way ANOVA was employed to examine differences in discipline scores across categories of family income. Qualitative data was analysed thematically and reported in narrative form. The study found that there was a predominantly middle-to-low socioeconomic status profile, with 93% of households falling into the low-to-middle income brackets and 74.9% of parents possessing a secondary school education or below. Inferential analysis showed that there was a statistically significant difference in student discipline scores among the various family income groups, F (2, 360) = 3.081, p = 0.047 at α = 0.05. The study concluded that family income plays a significant role in shaping student discipline in boarding senior schools. The findings underscore the importance of targeted financial support programs support systems to mitigate the effects of economic disadvantage on student discipline and behaviour. Future researchers should undertake a comparative study across multiple counties to help determine whether the patterns observed in Kakamega County are generalizable to other regions of the country.

Family Income, Student Discipline, Boys’ Boarding Senior Schools

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