Abiodun Musbau Lawal

Age, home and school involvements, and home–school communication in alcohol use among secondary school students

By Abiodun Musbau Lawal

Abuse of alcohol is one of the risk-taking behaviours that is prominent among adolescents in secondary schools despite global awareness on misuse and adverse effects of psychoactive substances in human body. The study investigates age, home-based involvement, school-based involvement and home–school communication as predictors of alcohol use among secondary school students. In a school-based cross-sectional approach, a convenience sample of 323 (50.8% males & 49.2% females) secondary school students currently taking alcohol aged 10 to 22 years (M = 14.19, SD = 2.29) completed self-report questionnaires. Bivariate correlations analysis was done as a preliminary statistics, while multiple regression was computed to analyse the data and provides answers to the research question. Results of four-model hierarchical multiple regression showed that all predictor variables jointly contributed to alcohol use with home–school communication recording highest score. Independently, age, home-based involvement, school-based involvement and home–school communication predicted alcohol use. It is concluded that intervention through either home-based involvement or school-based involvement alone may not have much impact in reducing levels of alcohol use in secondary school student population. Combined efforts of both parents/guardians and school teachers are passionately recommended for effective alcohol-use/risk reduction intervention. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.