Aggressive Behaviour Among Adolescents with Mild Intellectual Disability: Do Parental Conflicts, Peer Influence, and Socio-Environmental Deprivation Play a Role?

Aggressive behaviour is a major characteristics among adolescents with mild intellectual disability due to their inability to effectively use verbal communication to express their needs. This study, therefore, investigated the role of parental conflicts, peer influence, and socio-environmental deprivation in predicting aggressive behaviour among the study participants. The theory of planned behaviour, which states that individual behaviour is determined by corresponding expectations, was the theoretical framework used in this study. A descriptive correlational research design was adopted. The sample consisted of 50 participants (43% males, 57% females) aged between 13 and 18 (median of 15.5; the standard deviation of 1.20). The participants were adolescents with mild intellectual disability who lived in the Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria and were conveniently selected for the study. The Children’s Perception of Inter-parental Conflict Scale, Resistance to Peer Influence Questionnaire, socio-environment deprivation scale and Aggressive Behaviour Scale were used for data collection. Analysis of variance was used for data analysis. The results revealed that there was no significant relationship between the independent variables (parental conflicts, peer influence and socio-environmental deprivation) and aggressive behaviour among adolescents with mild intellectual disability. The joint contribution of parental conflict, peer influence and environmental deprivation to the aggressive behaviour was 5.5%. This was not significant. The study has shown that parental conflicts, peer influence and socio-environmental deprivation do not play a role in increasing aggressive behaviour among adolescents with mild intellectual disability.