Correlates of Parental Dysfunctionality and Depressive Disorder among Adolescents in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

Physical and psychological well-being of family members is significantly determined by
family functioning and its impairment affects the family. Since there is a bidirectional process
between parents and their offspring, parental dysfunctionality has a negative impact on
adolescents’ mental health. This study therefore sought to examine the correlates of parental
dysfunctionality and depressive disorder among adolescents in Bungoma County, Kenya.
From the total sample size of 368 respondents, 338 subjects constituting 91.7% response rate
participated in the study. The composition of the 338 participants included 169 parents and
169 adolescents where 121, 71.6% were female and 48, 28.4% male adolescents with the
mean age 16.8 ± (SD: 1.704). Frequency of female parents/guardians was also higher 101,
(59.8%) as opposed to their male counterparts (68, 40.2%). The parents/guardians’ mean
age was 44.0 ± (SD: 11.74) accordingly. Parental dysfunctionality was assessed in terms of
parental Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), parental alcohol use and parental depressive
disorder (DD). Results from this study indicated that 63.3% of the parents and guardians
reported experiencing some form of IPV with the most prevalent form of IPV being
psychological abuse at 56.8%, followed by emotional abuse at 34.9%, physical abuse at
32.5% and sexual violence at 21.3%. Whereas the prevalence of alcohol use disorder was at
4.8% and alcohol dependency was at 3.6%. The prevalence of depressive disorder among
parents was at 49.1%, and among the adolescents at 67.5%. Pearson correlation test was
used to test the correlation between the two variables. The result showed a positive and
significant relationship between parental DD scores and presence of IPV (r =
.499, p < .001). However, there was no significant correlation between the parental
dysfunctionality markers and adolescent DD (p > 0.05). This shows parental dysfunctionality
does not relate to adolescent DD. This present study concluded that parents/guardians’ DD
was associated with higher chances of IPV.