INFLUENCE OF PERSONALITY TRAITS, SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS IN MANAGING MENOPAUSE CRISES AMONG PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN LAIKIPIA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Menopause crisis is not considered a major issue in most organizations and therefore it is disregarded at work place. Among female teachers, it may be worsened by unfavourable working environment, personality traits and lack of psychological interventions but the significance of these factors is not yet known in Laikipia County. This study examined the influence of personality traits, school environment and psychological interventions on menopause crisis for public primary schools‟ female teachers in Laikipia County. Specifically, the study examined the influence of the physical environment, social environment, personality traits and psychological interventions on menopause crises. The study utilized ex post facto research design because it was not possible or acceptable to manipulate the characteristics of human participants. The study was based on the PersonEnvironment-Occupation

Theory of Occupational Performance, Aaron Beck‟s Behavioral Cognitive Theory and the Big Five theory of personality. The target populations were 600 female teachers, 50 teacher counselors, 5 Sub County Directors of Education in the Ministry of Education, giving a total of 655 respondents in Laikipia County. The researcher used stratified sampling, two stage clustered sampling, random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. The sample of the study was 289 respondents. The research instrument of the study was a structured questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion and a key informant interview schedule. To ensure instruments validity, expertise views from the lecturers in the School of Education Kabarak University were incorporated in order to improve the face and construct validity of the instruments. A pilot-test was done in the neighbouring Nyandarua County in order to test the reliability of the research instruments. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data aided by a computer based Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. The statistical analysis entailed the computation of frequencies and percentages. Informed consent was sought from the respondents before the questionnaires were issued and an assurance given to them that the information they provided would be treated with confidentiality. The findings revealed that personality traits have a statistically significant influence on the psychological interventions of menopause crisis with a Linear Regression analysis where (r vii

2 =0.632; p-value of 0.0349) which was significant at 0.05 level of significance as well as physical environment where (r 2 =0.683; p-value of 0.0398) which is significant at 0.05 confidence level and social environment at (r 2 =0.645; p-value of 0.03) which significant, while psychological interventions was found to be significant at (r 2 =0.545; p >0.0390) at 0.05 confidence level. From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that personality traits, school environment and psychological interventions influence in managing menopause crisis. It is recommended that counselors and should aim at helping menopausal female teachers deal with their emotional instability. School administrators should provide working environments that are conducive to the female teachers. Findings from the study provided insight that it is helpful to school managers to identify some of the environment related gaps in their schools that need to be addressed in order to make their working environment more conducive to menopausal women. Policy makers will gain insight into initiatives that could ensure women teachers undergoing menopause are least affected psychologically and physically. It has also added to the body of knowledge on the matter under study that could be beneficial to interested researchers, students and academicians.