Family environment and adolescents' psychological wellbeing in Nyondo sub-county, Mbale

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study sought to establish the influence of family environment on adolescent’s psychological well-being in Nyondo Sub-county in Mbale district. This study employed a cross sectional survey design targeting 201 adolescents, 80 parents, and 16 community leaders. Simple random sampling method was used to select the 201 adolescents, convenience sampling method was used to select 80 parents while purposive sampling method was used to select 16 community leaders hence giving a total of 297 respondents. The instruments that were used for this study were structured questionnaire for adolescents and interview schedules for parents and community leaders. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics that were frequencies, percentages and means, and inferential analyses that included correlation and regression. The critical value level was set at 0.05 0dds rations report. The findings indicated that adolescents’ psychological wellbeing (mean = 4.19) was high, interpersonal relationship (mean = 3.40) was moderate, personal growth (mean = 3.88) and system maintenance (mean = 3.98) were high. Regression analysis revealed that interpersonal relationship (β = 0.386, p = 0.000 < 0.05) had positive and significant influence on adolescents’ psychological wellbeing, personal growth (β = 0.617, p = 0.000< 0.05) and system maintenance (β = 0.580, p = 0.000< 0.05) had a positive and significant effect on adolescents’ psychological wellbeing. Therefore, it was concluded that interpersonal relationship in the family is important for adolescents’ psychological wellbeing, personal growth in the family is a pre-requisite for adolescents’ psychological wellbeing, and system maintenance in the family is important for enhancing adolescents’ psychological wellbeing. Thus, it was recommended that parents and different stakeholder should maintain the family environment for psychological wellbeing of the adolescents.