Relationship Between Parenting Style and Adolescents’ Alcohol Consumption in Enugu State, Nigeria: Implications For Counselling

Abstract

The crime rate in Nigeria, especially in states within the South-East zone, is very high and most of these crimes and anti-social behaviours were carried out by adolescents or youths. Many Nigerian adolescents indulge in such anti-social behaviour and crimes under the influence of alcohol. A person’s behaviour is the resultant effect of a combination of factors and as such the behaviour of Nigerian adolescents that engage in alcohol consumption with reckless abandon calls to question the parental influence on their children’s behaviour. One is then bound to wonder if this problem of alcohol indulgence originates from the kind of parenting in their various homes. The purpose of this paper was therefore to find out if the parenting style adopted in families can be linked with the youths’ drinking habits with a view to directing counselling services to their homes. This was a survey research with a sample of 1200 adolescents, drawn from senior secondary classes and tertiary institutions in Enugu State of Nigeria. The instrument for the study was questionnaire, designed by the researcher. Two research questions were answered while one hypothesis was tested using a chi square. It was found that adolescents from authoritarian and authoritative families had less inclination to alcohol consumption as against those from permissive and indifferent families. It was also found that adolescents in urban cities take to alcohol more than those in rural areas. It was therefore, concluded that the parenting style adopted in families has significant relationship with the children’s alcohol consumption.