THE INFLUENCE OF BROKEN HOMES ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NSUKKA EDUCATION ZONE IN ENUGU STATE
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the influence of broken homes on academic achievement of secondary school students in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. The study was guided by five research questions and two null hypotheses. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The sample size for the study comprised of 450 secondary school students from broken homes in the study area. Two different instruments were used for this study. The first instrument was in broken Home Questionnaire (BHQ) designed to collect data on students’ family structure (broken or intact) and their academic challenges while the second was students academic performance checklist. The instrument was face validated by experts in the faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The data were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using t-test. The major findings of the study revealed that secondary school students from broken homes within Nsukka Education Zone face education challenges like lack of sufficient text books, inability to meet education related financial obligations, poor academic performance and lack of concentration while in school. Also, result showed that secondary school students from broken homes within Nsukka Education Zone face emotional challenges like emotional stress, despair, inferiority complex, feeling insecure and unhappiness. It was also found that secondary school students from broken homes within Nsukka Education Zone face social challenges like neglect, prone to sickness due to malnutrition, among others. Result also showed no significant statistical difference in the mean academic achievement scores of secondary school students from broken homes based on gender and no significant statistical difference in the mean academic achievement scores of secondary school students from broken homes based on location. The researcher recommends, among others, that State ministry of education should make arrangement for the provision of special packages for secondary school students from broken homes with a view to improving their attendance in school.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Approval Page ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgements v
Table Of Contents vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem. 8
Purpose of the Study 9
Significance of the Study 9
Scope of the Study 10
Research Questions 10
Research Hypotheses. 11
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual Framework12
Concept of Home. 12 Concept of Broken Home. 13
Concept of Family 13
Concept of Academic achievement. 21
Theoretical Framework 23
Theory of Moral Absolutism. 23
Attachment Theory. 23
Review of Related Empirical Studies. 24
Studies on Students attendance to School and Academic performance
Studies on Broken Homes and Academic Achievement
Studies on Family and Academic Performance
Summary of Literature Review 33
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD
Research design 35
Area of Study 35
Population of the Study 36
Sample and Sampling Technique 36
Instrument for Data Collection 36
Validation of the Instrument. 37
Reliability of the Instrument. 37
Method of Data Collection. 38
Method of Data Analysis. 38
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
Summary of major findings 45
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Discussion of Findings47
Conclusion 49
Educational Implications of the Study 50
Recommendations 51
Limitations of the Study 51
Suggestions for further Studies51
Summary of the Study 52
REFERENCES 54
Appendixes 59
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The family is the child's first place of contact with the world. The child as a result, acquires initial education and socialization from parents and other significant persons in the family. Agulana (1999) defined a family as the smallest unit of the society made up of people leaving in the same house. Agulana pointed out that the family lays the psychological, moral, and spiritual foundation in the overall development of the child. Alesina and Giuliano (2007) added that the family is one of the most important socio economic institution in the society, but the nature of the links between family members varies dramatically across nationalities.
Family is broadly defined as any two people who are related to each other through a genetic connection, adoption, marriage, or by mutual agreement (Yara & Tunde-Yara, 2010). According to Bonnie (2001), family members share emotional and economic bonds. Operationally, a family is the smallest unit of the society that is made up of people who are related by blood.
Structurally, a family is either broken or intact. The child is morally upright and emotionally stable when the caring responsibilities are carried out by both parents. The family is the first socializing agent the child comes in contact with. It has great influence on the child’s physical, mental, and moral development. The family lays the foundation of education before the child goes to school and the personality that the child takes to school is determined by the home. Salami (1998) pointed out that both parents have roles to play in child education. The father is to provide the necessary tools for the educational advancement while the mother is supposed to supplement the father’s efforts in this regard. When the father is absent and the mother is not privileged enough to cater for all the basic needs as well as supervise the academic performance of the child, he or she (the child) will be backward or withdrawn. The same thing occurs when the mother is absent and the father is not privileged enough (Ortese, 1998). A child receives better attention when both parents are constitute a home.
According to Hornby (2000), a home as the house, flat/apartment that an individual lives in especially with his or her family. The home is essential in the upbringing of a child as the first environment of a family, whether it is a happy one or not. The home, which is the traditional nuclear family–mother, father and children, is the smallest unit and microcosm of the larger society. Operationally, a home is an apartment whose occupants are made of husband and wife as well as their children. When either of the parents is permanently absent on account of irreconcilable disagreement, the home is said to be broken
A broken home is one that is not structurally intact, as a result of divorce, separation, death of one parent and illegitimacy (Akomolafe and Olorunfemi-Olabisi, 2011). Operationally, a broken home is that in which the husband and the wife are no longer living together as a result of irreconcilable disagreement.
Life in broken homes can be stressful for both the students and their parents. Most people from broken homes suffer from emotional problems such as depression, negative self-concept and aggression. Students from broken homes suffer from lack of concentration resulting to poor academic achievement and maladaptive behaviour such as truancy, lateness to school, examination malpractice and drug abuse (Ikechukwu-Ilomuanya 2010). When families break, it is the children that suffer. Children are important assets to the society. Every child is unique. Children are at the centre of whole process of education and the all round development of the personality of the child is the ultimate goal of education. Therefore, the learning experiences provided to him right from birth by the family contribute towards the achievement of this goal.
The child’s development is influenced by many other factors among which is his genetic endowment and environmental forces operative around him (Mishra & Bamba, 2012). The authors further stated that two agencies that influence most directly the nature and quality of children's educational experiences and development are the family and the school. Families vary greatly in structure and functioning. Variations exist also in school and in children themselves. Given this diversity in families, there is a need to understand how children's experiences within the family contribute to their educational outcomes (Mishra & Bamba, 2012).
When families disintegrate, it is the children that are greatly affected as they often end up with intellectual, physical and emotional scars that persist for life (Anderson, 2002). Most one-parent families, however, eventually become two-parent families through remarriage. Thus, a step-family is created by a new marriage of a single parent. (Ottawa, 2004). According to Bonnie (2001), in the family formed by the second marriage, the children from each spouse’s first marriage become step-siblings. Children born or adopted by the couple of the second marriage are half-siblings to the children from the first marriage, since they share one parent in common.
In a step family, problems in relations between non-biological parents and children may generate tension; the difficulties can be especially great in the marriage of single parents when the children of both parents live with them as siblings (Keith & Amato, 2001). When a female or a male decides to produce and rear children outside wedlock, it is referred to as single parenthood, hence a broken family (Ortese, 1999). According to Child Trends (2004), single parent families refer primarily to families in which only one parent is present, but may include some families where both parents are present but unmarried. No-parent families refer to families where neither parent of the child lives in the household.
In some cases, a step-parent will legally adopt his or her spouse’s children from a previous marriage. The biological father or mother must either be absent with no legal claim to custody, or must grant permission for the step-parent to adopt (Yara & Tunde-Yara, 2010). In situations where a single parent lives with someone outside of marriage, that person may be referred to as a co-parent. All these family structures have been found to influence children’s academic achievement.
Influence of broken home on academic performance of secondary school students could be viewed from the point of gender. According to woolfolk (2001), gender refers to traits and behavior that a particular culture judges to be appropriate for males and females. Operationally, gender refers to socially roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a particular society considers for men and women. It is possible that influence of broken home on academic performance of students may be more on boys than girls or vise vasa. Jacobs, Lanaz, Osgood, Eccles, and Wigfield (2002) found that self-concept of ability and task value in math decline for both genders between first and twelfth grades with no real difference between girls and boys trajectories over time. In fact, by the twelfth grade, girls valued math more than boys when controlling for self-concept of ability in math. Although Lanaz, Osgood, Eccles, and Wigfield did not directly examined academic performance along gender line with regards to broken homes, the important thing to note here is that, they considered gender as a determinant in academic performance. It is therefore, necessary to examine the influence of gender on academic performance of students from broken homes. .
Closely related to gender is location. Owoeye and Yara (2011) added that apart from gender, location also influences the academic performance of school children. To prove their point, Owoeye and Yara argued that children from urban areas are more likely to better in school than those from rural areas. Alokan and Arijesuyo (2013,p.213) comment on the influence of location thus:
Many schools in the area of education in recent past seemed to have shifted studies from the measures of individual to the measure of the environment. The reason that could be adduced for this trend ranges from the accurate prediction which measures of environment could bring to learning in order to possibly manipulate the environment so as to bring about optimal conditions for learning. For quite some time, a general perception of the comparative inferiority of rural schools has prevailed. This view implies the existence of rural-urban differences in students’ academic performance. The general perception of rural-urban differences also extends to many other socially desirable outcomes, such as aptitude, intelligence and aspiration.
The submission of Alokan and Arijesuyo above paints a vivid picture on the relationship between location and learning. However, Alokan (2010) submits that location do not affect the negative relationship between student problems and academic performance. In another development, Considine and Zappala (2002) studied students in Australia and found out that geographical location do not significantly predict academic achievement.
Academic achievement is an objective score of attainment after a specified instructional programme. Academic achievement can be influenced by many factors, yet the impact family relationships play on a child’s scholastic achievement alongside the development of the child cannot be overemphasized. The tension in the home, family discord or family instability all cumulatively produce an emotionally unpleasant atmosphere in the home. The relationship between the husband and wife, parents and children, relationship among siblings if not cordial, can result to conflicts especially between husband and wife. If this persists, it can lead to a stretch of frequent quarrels and antagonism of both parties from time to time and thereby resulting to broken homes (Yara & Tunde-Yara, 2010).
The gradual development of these problems till its full manifestation directly affects the emotions of growing children especially young adolescents and can adversely disrupt the level of concentration and learning abilities of these children in school. Thus, the family structure a child comes from can seriously affect the academic performance of an individual especially an adolescence.
Secondary school is the type of school that absorb pupils that have graduated from primary school and prepared students for higher education.The secondary school students are mostly adolescents. Yara and Tunde-Yara (2010) viewed adolescence as a period of transition between childhood and adulthood.
Life in a single parent family can be stressful for both the child and the parent. Such families are faced with the challenges of diminished financial resources, assumptions of new rules and responsibilities, establishment of new patterns in intra-familial interaction and reorganization of routines and schedules (Agulanna, 2000). Brofenbrenner (2006) argued that the mother’s capability in handling her child after separation is greatly influenced by the assistance and support received from friends, relatives, and the child’s father. Whether or not a child’s parents are married and stayed married has a massive effect on his or her future prosperity and that of the next generation. Unfortunately, the number of children born into broken homes is increasing by the day especially in Nigeria (Wegman, 2006). One-parent families were the result of the death of a spouse in the past. Now, most one-parent families are the result of divorce, some are created when unmarried mothers bear children (Munroe & Blum, 1999; Wadsworth, 2002).
In Nigeria, the existence of single parents was formerly unknown and where they existed, they are ignored as exceptional cases. However, they are currently the fast-growing family patterns both inside and outside Nigeria (Nwachukwu, 1999). Marriage involves an emotional and sexual relationship between particular human beings. When children see their parents getting along and supporting each other, they will mirror and will likely get along with each other and their friends. This implies that the energy that two individuals (husband and wife) put into their relationship will come back to them through their children. It has been argued that the entrance of a new and possibly unwelcome adult into the family can be a source of stress and rivalry for the children (Hetherington & Camara, 1999). Simons (2000) asserted that children may become resentful of the time they lose with the custodial parent as a result of the new partner. Furthermore, dating and remarriage may destroy children’s belief that their parents will remarry.
Remarriage is often confusing for children and adolescent because they must learn to adapt and accept yet another new family structure. However, it is interesting to note that students living with stepfathers are much more likely to say that their stepfather is a member of their family than they are to include their non-residential biological father as a family member (Furstenber & Nord, 2005). Stolba and Amato (2003), however, argue that adolescents’ well-being is not solely associated with the loss of the noncustodial parent. Instead, they conclude that alternative family forms can be suitable for raising adolescents, if they provide support, control and supervision. They however, suggested that extended single-parent households may be less beneficial for younger children. Usually, one of the first impact that divorce/broken home has on a child is a dramatic decline in the standard of living in the custodial household (Duncan, 2004; Bean, Berg & VanHook, 2005; Ross, 2005).
According to Krantz (1999) children belonging to lower socio-economic groups after divorce experience greater hardships. Do these hardships, however translate into adjustment problems? Some researchers argue that this decline in socio-economic status is directly linked to a variety of problems experienced by the child, such as psychological maladjustment and behavioural difficulties in school. However, research has found that across the economic spectrum, children from single parent households or broken homes are more involved in crimes and drugs than students from two-parent homes (Rector, 1999). Fincham (2002) posited that the question of whether boys or girls are more adversely affected is quite complex, and the answer is likely to depend on a host of factors such as the sex of the custodial parent, their parenting style, whether they have remarried, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and the amount of contact with the noncustodial parent. The impact of parental conflict on children’s post-divorce adjustment has received considerable attention in literature. Most theorists agree that parental conflict, at the very least, provides some negative influences for children’s adjustment to the divorce (Grych & Fincham, 2002). This study therefore seeks to determine the influence of broken homes on the academic performance of secondary school students from Nsukka Educational Zone.
Statement of Problem
The rate at which homes are broken today appears to be on the increase.. Despite all the efforts the various governments, religious organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and marriage counsellors are making to promote marital stability among couples in Nigeria and Nsukka in Enugu State in particular, the issue of broken homes still exists in the country. Literature sources reveal that students from such homes suffer emotional trauma, depression, negative self-concept and low self-esteem. In most cases, the adolescents from such homes manifest negative tendencies in school such as truancy, aggression, lack of concentration, examination malpractice, bullying, drug abuse, stealing and other vices. All these may lead to poor academic performance.
Observation of academic records of the students in secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone suggests that most of the students from broken homes perform below average in their exams. This affects their future career in life. It would therefore appear that single parents cannot meek up with the academic demands of the students that will ensure academic achievement. Perhaps students from broken homes lack emotional support that guarantees academic achievement.
The question then arises, could this poor academic achievement of the students be attributed to the family set up of the students? Could it be that most of these academically incompetent students stem from broken homes? These are the questions this study will address.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to ascertain the influence of broken homes on academic achievement of secondary school students in Nsukka Educational Zone in Enugu State. In order to actualize this purpose, the following specific objectives will be explored.
i. To ascertain the educational challenges faced by students from broken homes .
ii. To identify the emotional challenges faced by student from broken homes.
iii. To determine social challenges faced by students from broken homes.
iv. To determine the influences of broken homes on academic achievement of junior secondary school students (JSS III) based on location.
v. To determine the influences of broken homes on academic achievement of junior secondary school students (JSS III) based on location.
Significance of the Study
This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, the study will validate or disprove the tenets of moral absolutism. The study will provide a theoretical framework that can be dependent upon when carrying out studies on broken homes and academic achievement of students (learners).
Practically, the teachers, policy makers, curriculum developers and students will benefit from this research since the information from the findings will enable them in handling vulnerable students from broken homes.
Teachers, will benefit from the result of this study because it will provide information on the influence of broken homes on secondary school students school attendance to the teachers. This could be when this work is presented in the school during workshop. This information will guide the teachers in handing students from broken homes.
Policy makers will benefit from the result of this study because it will help them to determine the impact of broken homes on the academic achievement of secondary school students when they read it on the net. This will help them in formulating appropriate educational policies. This understanding will help policy makers determine the formulation of policies that will take care of the needs of students from broken homes.
Also, curriculum developers will benefit from the result of this study because it will help them in exploring the necessary measures to improve the academic achievement of students from broken homes when they read this work in the library.
Also, this study will serve as a framework for future researchers in a similar field in order to get better understanding of the problem at hand.
Scope of the Study
The study has both geographical and content scope. The geographical scope of the study is secondary schools in Nsukka Educational Zone in Enugu State. The study in its contents covers all the prevalence of broken homes among junior secondary students (JSS III) in Nsukka Educational Zone, the challenges faced by student from broken homes, the influence of broken homes on academic achievement of junior secondary school students (JSS III) based on gender and the influences of broken homes on academic achievement of junior secondary school students (JSS III) based on location.
Research Questions
This study will be guided by the following research questions.
vi. What are educational challenges faced by students from broken homes?
vii. What are the emotional challenges faced by student from broken homes?
viii. What are the social challenges faced by students from broken homes?
ix. What is the influences of broken homes on academic achievement of junior secondary school students (JSS III) based on gender?
x. What is the influences of broken homes on academic achievement of junior secondary school students (JSS III) based on location?
Research Hypothesis
i. HO1 : There is no significant difference in the mean academic achievement scores of secondary school students from broken homes based on gender.
ii. Ho2 : There is no significant difference in the mean academic achievement scores of secondary school students from broken homes based on location.
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