Social Correlates of adolescent alcohol use: A case of Kasama District, Northern Province, Zambia

This paper focuses on social correlates of adolescent alcohol use. It aimed at investigating the relationship between perceived parental alcohol use, perceived permissive parenting style, perceived peer alcohol use, perceived alcohol accessibility (independent variables) and adolescent alcohol use (dependent variable).The sample size in this study was 119 adolescents from Kasama district of the Northern Province of Zambia. A questionnaire adopted from a self-completion questionnaire (Brenmer et. al. 2011) and a Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991) was used to collect data from the purposively sampled. Bivariate correlation analyses were performed to determine the relationship between the four independent variables and the dependent variable. Out of the correlations between the perceived parental alcohol use and adolescent alcohol use, the caregiver’s weekly alcohol use’s and ‘the frequency parents were seen drunk were positive. Generally, the findings in this study supported the researcher’s expectations, except for the two negative but significant correlations regarding perceived permissive parenting style. This research seems to be a suitable measure of social correlates of adolescent alcohol use. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were established: the need for stakeholders to put concerted efforts in fighting drunkenness so that children do not perceive their caregivers in the state of drunkenness; more research is needed with a bigger sample to see whether permissive parenting style would still correlate negatively and significantly with adolescent alcohol use; the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education should incorporate Alcohol Related Topics in Secondary Schools Curriculum especially in Grades Eight and Nine to sensitize pupils on the effects of alcohol use in adolescence; the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, the Ministry of Home Affairs and other stakeholders should collaborate in implementing policies that regulate alcohol accessibility to adolescents country wide and: more research with a bigger national sample is required to add more comprehensive knowledge.