The Relationship between Parenting Style and The Risk of Drug Abuse Among Youth

Abstract

Drug abuse is one of the most serious social issues in Malaysia. Therefore, this  quantitative study was conducted to identify the relationship between parenting styles and the risk of drug abuse among youths. A set of questionnaires were distributed to respondents at IKTBN Chembong. A total of 123 students of IKTBN Chembong were involved in this study. Two instruments were used in this study, Baumrind's Parenting Styles Questionnaire (1967) and the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-20). The results showed that authoritative parenting style was the highest style used by parents (37.86%) followed by authoritarian parenting style (35.32%) while permissive parenting style was (30.01%). Testing for hypotheses was carried out using the Pearson Correlation test. The findings show that there is a significant correlation between permissive parenting style and drug abuse risk (r = .61). Authoritarian parenting lifestyle with drug abuse risks showed a weak and positive relationship (r =.119) while for authoritative parenting style with drug abuse risks showed a weak and negative relationship (r = .005). The implication of this study is the importance of parenting styles in dealing with the risks of drug abuse against youth in the future.