Correlates of Alcohol Consumption among Adolescents in Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is a behavioural problem defined relative to age and is considered problematic below a certain
age or stage in life. Young people by virtue of their stage in development are likely to engage in drinking alcohol. The aim of the
paper is to examine the correlate of alcohol consumption among adolescents in Ibadan North Local Government area of Oyo
State, Nigeria. The paper was based on the social action theory and it adopted the survey design and multi-stage sampling
procedure to elicit information from 313 adolesce
nts. Some of the findings revealed that males were more predisposed to alcohol consumption.71.9% of males had drunk alcohol
compared to 32.5% females’ counterparts. Males who still drink alcohol prior to the study were higher than females (47.2%
compared to 15.8%). The hypothesis revealed that there was no significant relationship between peer pressure and alcohol
consumption. Another hypothesis revealed that marital status, high level of education mother’s occupation, father’s highest
education and father’s occupation had positive correlation with alcohol consumption. Ethnicity, religious affiliation, occupation,
persons living with and type of house showed a negative correlation toward alcohol consumption with only religion having a
significant relationship. This shows that socioeconomic status will jointly and independently affect alcohol consumption. The
paper concludes that males should be warned about the implications of alcohol consumption since they are likely to be more
predisposed to alcohol than females, career counselors must encourage students to abstain from high levels of alcohol
consumption so that they may be focused in life.