The Impact of Gender on Orphans’ Self-Esteem and Academic Performance among Secondary School Students in Kirinyaga and Nyeri Counties of Kenya

Abstract

Gender as constructed by culture in our African context, has the potential of influencing the level of self- esteem of a child, and particularly a girl-child or a school girl for that matter. In turn, this will (negatively) affect the way she performs in school work. In view of this, the study sets out to assess the relationship between the gender of orphans and self-esteem among secondary school students in Kirinyaga and Nyeri Counties, Kenya, as a build-up to the above hypothesis. In this research, the total number of students was 58,492.Out of this 426 were sampled. This study was theoretically guided by Rogers’ self theory. In turn, Rogers (1902-1987), in his contribution to psychology, contended that every person can achieve his or her goals, wishes and desires in life if self actualization took place. The study adopted a survey, which utilized casual comparative research design. The data was collected using questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The major finding in this study was that Self-esteem was found to be influenced by gender of orphans and the self-esteem in turn influenced the aspiration of education level as well as jobs. The study recommends that the socialization by the society should not be gender discriminative that is all children should be treated the same way.