PERCEIVED PARENTING STYLES AND SUBSTANCE USE AMONG ADOLESCENT STUDENTS IN SOME SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF HARARI REGIONAL STATE

Abstract

The general objective of this study was to investigate perceived parenting styles and substance use among adolescent students in some selected secondary schools of Harari regional state . To realize this, explanatory sequential research design was employed. The quantitative data were collected through questionnaire and qualitative data were collected through interview. The researcher collected quantitative data from randomly selected three schools of 318 adolescents. The qualitative data were collected from purposively selected three schools principals, six students and three parent committees. Descriptive statistics like frequencydistributions mean and percentages were used and inferential statistics particularly binary logistic regression and Spearman correlation were used to analyze the collected quantitative data using SPSS software version 20. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The result shows that the most predominantly parenting style related with substance abuse among adolescents was neglectful parenting style. Regarding the relationships between the parenting styles and adolescents’ substance use, the authoritative and permissive parenting styles were significant negative predictors of substance abuse. This suggests that when adolescents grow up in authoritative and permissive parenting styles, their chance to substance use decrease. Besides, there is a significant positive relationship between authoritarian and neglectful parenting styles and adolescents’ substance use. This suggests that when adolescents grow up under authoritarian and neglectful parenting styles, their chances of being addicted to substances high. Finally, the more protective parenting style against the substance abuse of adolescents was authoritative parenting style. The researcher recommended that parents should participate in discussion and negotiation to find an agreeable solution to their children's misbehavior rather than imposing strong and punishing discipline. Parents should follow up their adolescents’ day today social relation with their friends. The school should discuss about substance abuse with the family of adolescents. Furthermore, the school should collaborate with the local police commission to control cultivation, trafficking, and consumption of khat, marijuana and alcohol in the school and community