Relationship Between Parental Communication Styles and Adolescent Substance Use Among Senior Secondary School Students in Kaduna State, Nigeria

This research work investigated the relationship between parental communication styles and substance use of adolescents among senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study employed the descriptive survey method involving the use of a questionnaire. The total population for the study was all substance-use adolescents in secondary schools in Kaduna State obtained from school records. For the study, three hundred and sixty-three (363) respondents were purposively selected from 12 randomly selected senior secondary schools in the three senatorial zones of the state, as 351 responded and returned the completed questionnaires representing 98.3 % The instruments used in the study were the 18-item parental communication measures adopted from life Skills Training questionnaire designed and standardized by Botvin (2007) and Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Involvement Scale adopted from Moberg’s (2011) Students’ Behaviour of Substance Use. Three objectives, three research questions and three null hypotheses were used and tested using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between aggressive parental communication style and substance use of adolescents (r= 0.945. p= 0.000). There is no significant relationship between assertive parental communication style and substance use of adolescents among secondary school students with (r= -0.574, p = 0.000). The findings also showed a significant relationship between passive parental communication style and substance use of adolescents with (r=0.482, p = 0,001). It was recommended that parents, counsellors, psychotherapists, and stakeholders in education should be exposed to the adequate counselling strategies on the relationship between parental communication style and substance abuse of adolescents.