Parenting styles and personality traits as predictors of delinquent behaviours among juvenile offenders in Ogun State

Abstract

Many factors that put adolescents at risk of delinquency have been identified in studies; however, disproportionately few of the studies on delinquency and its predisposing factors were carried out in Nigeria, and mostly among non-delinquent offenders. This study investigated perceived parental styles and personality traits as predictors of delinquent behaviour among delinquent offenders in Remand Homes in Abeokuta, Ogun-state. The study adopted ex-post facto survey design with simple random sampling to select 227 participants. Data were collected using questionnaire, consisting of standardised and psychometrically robust measures of Parental Authority Questionnaire, Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Self-Reported Delinquency Measure. Results indicated that permissive parenting style (β = 0.16; p< .05) was predictive of delinquent behaviour. Psychoticism (β = .10; p<.05) and extraversion (β = -.26; < .01) were also predictive of delinquency. Male participants were more involved in delinquency than female participants {t (2, 225) = -6.93; p<.01}. However, no significant difference between participants from separated-home and participants from intact-home on delinquent behaviour {t (2, 225) = -.73; p.> .05}.This study concluded that, permissive parenting style and psychoticism-trait and extraversion-trait were strong factors in predicting delinquent behaviours. Also, irrespective of type of homes the adolescents live, delinquent behaviours are the same among this population. The study recommended that rehabilitation should focus more on male gender but not living out female gender irrespective of their type of homes as the case maybe. Parents of the delinquent youths should be targeted for psychological intervention as well, especially with regards to positive parenting.