Abstract

The study examined the effects of parental conflicts on adolescent’s mental health in Odeda Local Government Area,Ogun State, Nigeria. The variables of the study were socio emotional health of parental conflicts. Three research questions guided the study. The study employed survey of ex-post facto research design. The sample consisted of two hundred adolescents (95 male and 105 female)randomly selected from ten public secondary schools in Odeda, Ogun State. The instrument used for data collection wasself-designed questionnaire titled “Parental Conflict Questionnaire” with a Cronbach alpha reliability of 0.78 was used for data collection. Correlation and stepwise multiple regressionswere employed for the analysis. Results indicated that the three independent variables jointly accounted for 12.3% variance on perceived socio emotional health variables by parental conflict.R2=.123and separately predicted perceived socio emotional health effect of Parental conflict (ß = 0.132, t( 198) = 1.587, P < 0.05)significantly contributed to the mode. The value of the standardized regression weight associated with the predictor variable shows that parental conflicts significantly influence students’ mental health in the study area. It was recommended among others that concerted effort should be made to educate intended couples on the sanctity of marriage and about living a fulfilling marital life to reduce the menace of conflicts in marriage.