Parenting styles and socio-demographic dynamics associated with mental health of in-school adolescents in Ibadan, south-west Nigeria

Background: Positive parenting and enabling socio-demography, engenders good conduct in adolescence. Balanced parental demandingness and emotional responsiveness, deployed by authoritative parents, supports adolescents? mental health. Parental emotional responsiveness deters peer-pressured risky behaviours; while parental negligence, permissiveness, or demandingness encourages mental health problems. This is especially in the context of unfavourable socio-demographic setting. Aim: We aimed to evaluate parenting styles and socio-demographic factors associated with adolescents? mental health. Method: A cross-sectional multistage study was conducted with 286 in-school adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria. Data were collected with questionnaires. The questionnaires evaluated socio-demography, mental health, and perceived parenting styles using the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) and Scale of Parenting Styles (SPS) questionnaires. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 21. Results: Some of the adolescents in this study, experienced peer problems (4.9%), conduct problems (9.4%), hyperactivity problems (0.7%), emotional problems (14.3%), and they lacked pro-social behaviours (11.1%). In comparison to adolescents who perceived fathers as authoritative, adolescents who perceived fathers as less demanding experienced emotional (p = 0.01) and peer (p = 0.02) problems. Perceived maternal negligence and authoritarian parenting was associated with more peer problems (1.5?2.3 and 1.3?2.2) in comparison to perceived maternal authoritative style (0.6?1.5). Most adolescents from lower social class experienced conduct (88.8%; p = 0.07) and emotional problems (73.2%; p = 0.20). Conclusion: Competent parenting style and socio-economic resources supports resilience to mental health problems in adolescents.