Abstract

The study examined substance use, authoritarian parenting style and exposure to media violence as predictors of violent behaviour among secondary school students in Ibadan. It adopted a descriptive survey research design. A total of 200 secondary school students, selected using stratified sampling technique, participated in the study. They responded to “Violent Behaviour Predictors Assessment Scale”, a battery of adopted scales. The battery comprised of Section A, which centres on respondents’ socio-demographic information, and four other scales; The Aggression Scale (11 items, r= 0.88), Substance Abuse Scale (21 items, r= 0.91), Parenting Style Scale (16 items, r= 0. 81) and Social Media Affinity Scale (13 items, r= 0.96). Three research questions were raised and answered in the study, and data was analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression. Results revealed that, all the independent variables (substance use, authoritarian parenting style and exposure to media violence) were significant at 0.05 level of significance (286**, 642** and .507**) to the prediction of violent behaviour among secondary school students. It also revealed that the joint contribution of independent variables (substance use, authoritarian parenting style and exposure to media violence) on dependent variable (violent behaviour) was significant (f (11.090) ­= 8.597; R2= .509, R2=236, p<.05). About 23.6% variation was accounted for by the independent variables. Results also revealed that all of substance use, authoritarian parenting style and exposure to media violence were potent predictors of violent behaviour. The most potent factor was substance use, followed by exposure to media violence and authoritarian parenting style respectively. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that the government at all level should develop a curriculum that will inculcate discipline and moral into students in the various secondary schools. Also, parents should adequately monitor their children on the duration they spend on the media. Also, teachers in all schools should ensure that they serve as parents in the school, most especially the class teachers, by ensuring proper monitoring of students’ behaviour so as to regulate the ones that can affect them in the near future.