PARENTING STYLE AND SELF ESTEEM AS PREDICTORS OF SUICIDAL IDEATION AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN ISI ALA NGWA, ABIA STATE

Abstract

Adolescent suicide remains a major public health problem, while suicidal ideation is a thought process that may lead to suicide, the parenting style and self-esteem of individuals are necessary phenomena. Hence; this study investigated the influence of parenting style and self-esteem on suicidal ideation among adolescents. 137 students were randomly selected from four secondary schools (Christian intellectual academy, Rising Stars academy, Mbutu Ngwa secondary school, St. Ephraim high school) in Isi Ala Ngwa south local Government Area of Abia State. The participants comprised sixty-one (66) males and seventy-one (71) females. The ages of the participants ranged from 13 - 19 years, with a mean deviation (M) of 16.0 and standard deviation (SD) of 2.01. The selection of participants was carried out through simple random sampling technique whereby everyone was given equal chance of being selected. Three instruments were used for data collection; Positive and negative suicide ideation inventory (PANSI), Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and Perceived parenting styles scales (PPSS). Two hypotheses were
formulated and tested. Cross-sectionalsurvey design was employed for collectingdata.Hierarchical multiple regression was thestatistics used to analyze the data. The resultsobtained showed that among the dimensionsof parenting styles, only authoritarianparenting style (β = -.17, t = -1.97, p< .05)significantly influenced suicidal ideationamong adolescents, while Authoritative (β =.02, t = .22, p> .05) and permissive (β = -.09,t = -1.05, p> .05) parenting styles did notsignificantly predict suicidal ideation among
adolescents. Self-esteem (β = .08, t = .96, p>05) did not significantly predict suicidal
ideation. This implies that adolescents whoare lacking in authoritarian parenting style
are more likely to engage in suicidal ideation.Therefore, training young people with
authoritarian parenting style (a combinationof authoritative and permissive parenting)
dissuades them not to engage in suicidal ideation