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Role of Parents’ Socio-Economic Status, Parenting Styles and Alcohol Locus of Control on Alcohol Attitudes

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Abstract

We assessed the roles of gender, parents’ socio-economic status (SES), parenting styles and alcohol-related locus of control (ALoC) on attitudes towards alcohol use among first-year students in a Nigerian university. In a school-based cross-sectional study, 300 first-year university students within the ages of 16 and 31 years with mean age of 21.28 and standard deviation of 2.85 completed copies of a questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that being male, high perception of parents’ SES, low levels of responsiveness, high autonomy-granting, high demanding parenting styles and external ALoC were highly predictive of positive alcohol use attitudes and accounted for 41% of the variance. Positive alcohol attitudes were mostly predicted by high level of autonomy-granting and less responsive parenting styles, with alcohol-related locus of control recording the lowest contribution. Effective alcohol-related attitudinal change among students should be encouraged while less autonomy-granting and more responsive parenting styles should be adopted by parents. We recommend especially for the male students, the need to see themselves as capable of controlling alcohol-related attitude and behaviour.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the first-year students of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti state, Nigeria who participated in the research exercise and also thank the management of the institution for making the environment suitable for research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria

    Abiodun Musbau Lawal

  2. Research Unit, Faculty of Humanities, North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, Mmabatho, South Africa

    Erhabor Sunday Idemudia

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  1. Abiodun Musbau Lawal
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  2. Erhabor Sunday Idemudia
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AML designed and conceptualized the study, wrote the method and results sections and significantly contributed to the introduction and discussion sections. ESI contributed to the introduction and discussion sections. Authors approved the final version of the paper to be published.

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Correspondence to Abiodun Musbau Lawal.

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Lawal, A.M., Idemudia, E.S. Role of Parents’ Socio-Economic Status, Parenting Styles and Alcohol Locus of Control on Alcohol Attitudes. Psychol Stud 64, 390–400 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00513-2

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