E-ISSN 2281-4612 ISSN 2281-3993 Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 4 No 3 November 2015 115 Influence of Marital Status on Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Secondary Schools of Kisumu County, Kenya Sylvester J. O. Odanga PhD Student, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology *Dr Peter J.O. Aloka Department of Psychology, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology P.O. BOX 210, Bondo, 40601, Kenya; jairopeteraloka@yahoo.com Dr. Pamela Raburu Head of Department of Psychology, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology Doi:10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3p115 Abstract The study investigated the influence of marital status on teachers’ self-efficacy in public secondary schools of Kisumu County, Kenya. Concurrent Triangulation Design was adopted to collect quantitative and qualitative data from samples of 327 students and 12 teachers. The interview schedule and questionnaire were piloted with 2 and 33 teachers respectively, who did not participate in the survey. Piloting helped to clarify the test items, determine construct validity (r = 0.564 for items expected to have similar responses and r = -0.325 for items expected to have different responses) and two experts in Educational Psychology established face validity of the research instruments. Internal reliability was established at Cronbach’s Į = 0.9976. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze data from questionnaire. The quantitative findings revealed that marital status had no statistically significant influence on teachers’ self-efficacy while the qualitative findings revealed that marital status had an influence on teachers’ self-efficacy. The study recommends the employment of counsellors in schools to help teachers to deal with psychosocial and domestic issues. Keywords: self-efficacy; teachers; marital status; secondary school. 1. Introduction Teachers’ self-efficacy determines levels of effectiveness, innovativeness and persistence among teachers (Protheroe, 2008; Klassen & Chiu, 2010). Teachers with a stronger sense of efficacy are better in planning, innovation, resilience, acceptance of students and achievement of good students’ performance in examinations (Adu, Tadu & Eze, 2012; Protheroe, 2008). According to Bandura (1989), there is a triadic relationship among personal factors such as marital status, environmental factors such as the teaching profession and behavioral characteristics such as self-efficacy. Islahi and Nasreen (2013) study found that the influence of marital status on teachers’ effectiveness was significantly different between the married and unmarried teachers. On the other hand, Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2001) identified the domains of teachers’ self-efficacy as self-efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management through the Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES). Eslami and Fatahi (2008) study found that teachers’ self- efficacy had significant influence on the instructional strategies they used in class. However, Yﾕlmaz and Çavaú (2008) study reported a change in teachers’ self-efficacy in classroom management with time without considering whether the teacher had changed marital status over that period. Studies in Africa on the same have been descriptive in nature and have scanty information on the influence of marital status on teachers’ self-efficacy (Alao, 2014; DeJaeghere, Williams & Kyeyune, 2009; Savolainen, Engelbrecht, Nel & Malinen, 2012; Zinn, 2013). Alao (2014) study was on female teachers in primary and secondary schools in southwestern Nigeria, but DeJaeghere et al. (2009) study found that head teachers had low self-efficacies in specific aspects of their work. Savolainen et al. (2012) and Zinn (2013) focused on teachers’ self-efficacy on inclusive education and teachers’ information literacy self-efficacy among teachers in South Africa. All these studies, however, noted the importance of teachers’ marital status but they did not consider the influence of marital status on teachers’ self-efficacy.