Marital Conflict, Divorce and Single Parenthood as Predictors of Adolescents’ Antisocial Behaviour in Ibadan

Abstract

Manifestation of antisocial behaviour among adolescents in secondary schools in Nigeria is escalating day by day, threatening the peace and security of the society. It has been speculated in many quarters that the menace of unstable families is likely to be the cause. Hence, this study investigated the predictive effects of marital conflict, divorce and single parenthood on antisocial behaviours among secondary school adolescents in Ibadan. Three hundred adolescents were randomly selected from Ibadan metropolis. Three research questions were raised, and the Crime Behaviour Factor Battery was used to collect data. The result revealed that marital conflict, divorce and single parenthood correlated positively and significantly, and they jointly contributed a total of 74.8% in the total variance of adolescents’ antisocial behaviours. Also, single parenthood had the highest relative contribution as revealed by the Beta weight (.887), followed by divorce (.280) and lastly, marital conflict (.272). It was recommended that intervention programmes should be put in place that will facilitate family adjustment, family stability and family cohesion that can forestall the incidence of marital breakdown and separation, especially for the sake of the young ones so as to reduce the rate of incidence of antisocial behaviours among the adolescents.