M. IGBINEWEKA

This study assesses parenting styles, adolescent personality characteristics andsocial media usage as correlate of deviant behaviour among adolescents in Edo South Senatorial District. To guide the study, eight (8) research questions were raised and were furtherformulated to their corresponding hypotheses. A correlational research design was adopted. The population of this study consistsoftwelve thousand, eight hundred and seventeen (12,817) Senior Secondary School two (SSS2)students in the 2023/2024 school year in Edo South Senatorial District.The sample for this studywas four hundred and five (405) senior secondary school two students who were selectedusingstratified and proportionate random sampling techniques. The instruments used for thestudywere “Parenting Styles, Personality Characteristics and Social Media Usage Questionnaire(PSPCSMUQ)” and an adapted Deviant Behaviour Variety Scale (DBVS; Sanches et..al, 2016). The instruments were validated by three experts in the Department of Educational Evaluation and counseling Psychology. The reliability of the instruments was obtainedusing Cronbach Alpha method. Alpha value of .82, .79, .87 and .84 for ParentingStyle, Personality Characteristics and Social media usage Questionnaire and Deviant Behaviour VarietyScale respectively were obtained. Data were collected and analyzed using PearsonProduct Moment Correlation for hypotheses 1 to 7 while regression was used to test hypotheses 8. The findings revealed that: Authoritarian parenting and Permissive parentingstylesignificantly correlates deviant behaviour among adolescent in Edo South Senatorial District while Authoritative parenting style does not. Agreeableness personality and Opening personalitycharacteristics significantly correlate deviant behaviour in adolescent in Edo South Senatorial xi District while Extraversion personality does not. Also, Social media usage by adolescentssignificantly relate to deviant behaviour among adolescent in Edo South Senatorial District. Finally, social media usage by adolescent predicted deviant behaviours among adolescent thanpersonality characteristics and parenting styles while parenting style is the least predictor amongthe three variables (parenting style, personality characteristics and social media usage). Basedon the findings, it was recommended among others that Parents should be positivelyoriented in their styles of child’s parenting which will make their adolescents socially competent and goal – directed. Dialogue, communication, explanations and establishment of goodandcordial relationships between parents and adolescents that could enhance positive and effectiveparenting should be employed by parents. Government should establish psychological servicecentres in schools and engage the services of psychologists to counsel and modify the negativetraits of deviant students and school administrators should take the personality traits ofprospective candidates seriously during school admission to minimise deviant behaviour inschools