Attitudes of Selected Education Stakeholders Towards Teenage Mothers as a Determinant of the Support Provided for Teenage Mothers in Public Secondary Schools in Kathiani Sub-County, Machakos, Kenya

The attitudes that people have towards teenage mothers play a crucial role in promoting their education. This study intended to investigate attitudes of selected education stakeholders towards teenage mothers as a determinant of support provided for teenage mothers in public secondary schools in Kathiani Sub-County. This study was based on Carl Rogers’ unconditional positive regard (UPR) theory (1956). Convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used phenomenology design was used for qualitative data, while cross-sectional survey design as employed for quantitative data. The population was 430, including principals, heads of guidance and counseling department, and teachers from 33 public secondary schools. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were utilized to select 16 public secondary schools and a sample of 144 participants. Questionnaire and interview guides were used for data collection. A pilot study was conducted to pretest and validate the research instruments. These instruments were assessed for face and content validity with the help of supervisors. There was a 98% instrument response rate. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze quantitative data, using SPSS (version 22), while qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Findings showed that majority of principals, heads of guidance and counseling and teachers with attitudes such as empathy, understanding, encouragement, and motivation towards teenage mothers supported the re-entry policy implementation, while a few of them with attitudes such as stigma, discrimination, trauma, exclusion towards teenage mothers opposed it. The study recommends that there should be collaboration between the ministry of education, the church, school, and parents to ensure that no teenage mother fails to return to school or drops out of school after re-admission. Keywords: Attitudes, Guidance and Counseling, Selected education stakeholders, Re-entry policy, School Drop-out, Teenage mother