Keywords Role performance; parents; development; rural school youth

Abstract The study investigated the role performance of parents in school youth development among rural communities of Oyo State, Nigeria. Data were collected from one hundred and eighty six parents and their school youths aged between 11 and 18 years. Two-stage sampling technique was employed to select four zones in the state. Based on the population of household in the four zones, one hundred and eighty six parents were randomly selected for interview. Data collected include personal and socio-economics characteristics of parents, the level of role performance by parents, and parent’s performance in school youth development. Descriptive statistics using frequency counts and percentages were used to analyse the data. Pearson’s correlation and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis were used to determine the relationship between the socio-economic characteristic of parents and the level of development of school youth, and the congruence between role perception and role performance of parents. The study revealed among others, that variables such as parent’s marital status (r= 0.167), educational level (r =0.188), religion (r = 0.096), income level (r = 0.172), cosmopoliteness (r = 0.088) and membership of child’s school Parents’ Teacher Association (P.T.A) (r = 0.162) had positive and significant relationship with their level of role performance. Also, highly significant relationship was established between the level of development of rural school youth and level of role performance by the parents (r = 0.118).