EXPLORING PARENTAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON ADOLESCENT SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN AKUNGBA-AKOKO, NIGERIA

Substance abuse causes social problems to the individual, the family and the larger society if unresolved. Studies have investigated several predictors of substance abuse such as personality traits, selfesteem, parenting styles with varied results. However, studies linking psychopathologies and parental factors to substance abuse are scarce. Therefore, this study investigated psychopathologies of depression, anxiety and stress and parental factors of family system and family system as predictors of substance abuse among in-school adolescents in Akungba-Akoko in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design while simple random sampling technique was used to select six secondary schools in Akungba-Akoko metropolis. Data were collected from 234 participants using Drug Use Scale (DAST-20) and Depression Anxiety and Stress (DASS-21) scale and analyzed using multiple regression statistics. One hypothesis was tested and accepted at p =.001 level of significance. The result revealed that psychopathologies of depression, anxiety, stress, and parental factors of family types and family systems jointly predicted substance abuse among in-school adolescents [R2= .27, F(5, 217) =10.54, p = .001]. However, depression (β =0.31, p >.05), stress (β = 0.26, p >.05), anxiety (β = -0.09, p >.05), family types (β = 0.33, p >.05), and family systems (β = 0.07, p >.05) did not independently predict substance abuse among in-school adolescents. The study concluded that psychopathologies and parental factors jointly predicted substance abuse while these factors did not independently predict substance abuse among in-school adolescents. It is recommended that parents, school authority and government agencies should work in synergy to educate and implement programmes that would reduce the tendency of in-school adolescents going into substance abuse.