BROKEN HOMES AND ITS EFFECTS ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOME SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Abstract
The study looks into the effects of broken homes on secondary school students’ academic performance. The study’s findings revealed that broken marriages contribute significantly to students’ poor academic performance, psychological problems with academic performance, and delinquent behavior.
Members of the community were aware that broken marriages have an impact on children’s academic performance and that broken marriages contribute significantly to negative perception. The study’s total population is 200 secondary school teachers from Akwa Ibom State.
Questionnaires were used as the data collection instrument by the researcher. For this study, a descriptive survey research design was used. For the study, a total of 133 respondents were used, including principals, vice principals, administration, senior staff, and junior staff. The collected data was organized into tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The study’s context
The home is the primary institution for children, defined by Abdulganiyu (1997) and Christe (2009) as a place where an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Because we haven’t defined the concept of home, it’s time to do so.
As a result, the family can be viewed as a social group characterized by common resident, economic, cooperation, and production. The family is the first primary group with which a child comes into contact when they are born. The transmission of social values of right and wrong, what is morally and religiously accepted or condemned by the family, implies that by the time a child reaches the age of five to seven, he must have learned what his rights, obligations, and roles within society are.
A student’s background, on the other hand, goes a long way toward determining his or her individuality. As the child enters school, he or she will begin to exhibit different attitudes and expectations. Furthermore, they may be of the same age group, but have developed at different rates, and thus may be able to cope with the intellectual and social tasks of school to varying degrees. A house, on the other hand, can be either stable or broken.
A stable home is one in which both parents (mother and father) live with their children, whereas a broken home is one in which one or both parents do not live with their children. The level at which the home operates determines a student’s academic achievement in school.
Broken homes, especially if they are unstable, can have an impact on a student’s academic performance. Furthermore, children who have experienced neglect or a lack of love (in broken homes) are known to be psychologically unprepared to face the realities of life.
When there is discord in the family or a schism between a mother and a father, the child is caught in the middle and suffers as a result. According to Blackby (2000), adequate research in this area is required to ensure a smooth transition of children from childhood to adulthood. Many authors have fully defined the home and deal and given it various definitions.
According to Homeby (2004), a broken home is one in which the parents are separated, divorced, or no longer live together due to death. According to Udry (2004), a broken home is one in which the parents no longer live together. Other researcher studies on broken homes appear to agree that broken homes are associated with an increase in aggressive and juvenile delinquency in children.
Children from such homes (broken homes) lack proper care and security. When evaluating a definition, such as a situation (broken home can result to poor academic achievement in student as once the child misses such opportunity of guide, securities affection and assistant where necessary).
Since the child serves as a teacher, the home and the child’s family provide the best and first education. The parent laid the groundwork for the child’s desired social, moral, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual well-being. The education a child receives at home is critical to his or her overall personality development and academic performance as a secondary school student.
It can also be seen that the pattern of life in the home (whether stable or broken), the economic and social status of the family in the community, and many other factors influence student performance in school.
According to Abdulganiyu (2002), research has shown that children differ in a variety of ways as a result of variables in their home environment such as socioeconomic status, parental attitude toward school, and child rearing practices.
These home background variables are also found to be related to children’s academic performance in a positive way. Giwa (1997) has also investigated the various factors within a student’s home background or family that affect their academic performance in school, such as socioeconomic status, family size, birth order, parental attitude, and child rearing practices.
The social and intellectual learning experiences of children in school have been found to be influenced by parental absence or presence. This is because children are born with certain psychological, emotional, and intellectual needs, such as the desire for love and security, the desire for new experiences, the desire for praise and recognition, and the desire for responsibility.
Many of these needs are not met for children from broken homes, which has an impact on their academic performance. The extent to which these needs are met during children’s formative years, between birth and the age of six or seven, determines whether or not they enter school well equipped or ready to deal with the social and emotional aspects of schooling.
Based on the observation above and the assumption that cultural practices that promote widespread divorce among couples and cause unnecessary hardship to growing children are undermining the economic and social future of many children in most communities.
It is important to note at this point that, despite all of the needs expressed as being met by students, particularly secondary school students, the purpose of this research is to determine how much a secondary school student’s academic achievement is affected by his home being stable or broken.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Children in our society are sometimes exposed at a young age to various dangers such as malnutrition, diseases, and various temptations to survive due to the absence of one or both of their parents. Students’ lives in broken homes are associated with emotional stress, which can impair intellectual development, allowing such children to grow up without being properly trained.
However, the absence of one or both parents deprives young children of the stable love, care, security, and total support to which they have grown accustomed, and tends to distinguish children in the eyes of their peers. Children become embarrassed and ashamed when asked where the missing parent is or why they have a new parent to replace the missing parents.
They may also feel guilty and unwelcome in society, and such a stressful situation causes psychological, emotional, and intellectual imbalance in growing children. As a result, students may drop out of school or perform poorly in secondary school.
To perform well in school, students need to be able to think critically, relax their minds, and have adequate family support. As a result, it becomes necessary to investigate the factors that cause broken homes in order to find solutions to the problems for the psychological well-being of growing children in our society, which leads us to investigate the effect of broken homes on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria.
THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVE
The following are the primary goals of this research project. To assess the influence of broken homes on secondary school students in Nigeria.
1. To investigate the causes of broken homes in Nigeria and to devise a solution.
2. To look for a solution to the widespread divorce of couples.
3. To discover how the absence of one or both parents affects the academic performance of secondary school students.
4. To suggest methods for women and men to avoid unnecessary divorce
HYPOTHESES FOR RESEARCH
The researcher developed the following research hypotheses in order to successfully complete the study:
H0: There are no causes of broken homes in Nigeria, nor is there a solution.
H1: In Nigeria, there are causes of broken homes and solutions.
H02: The absence of one or both parents has no effect on the academic performance of secondary school students.
H2: The absence of one or both parents has an impact on secondary school students’ academic performance.
THE STUDY’S IMPORTANCE
The goal of this research is to determine the effects of a broken home on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. This is done in order to suggest solutions for minimizing and overcoming the problem.
Home plays an important role in the development of a child’s personality and socialization; broken homes have been identified as one of the factors that undermine the socialization process at home, affecting student performance.
If the concern of education, particularly secondary schools, is to look after the child’s socialization process as well as his intellectual development, then this research work would be of great importance to parents and educators, teachers, and society at large that the absence of one or both parents affects children’s educational career.
THE STUDY’S SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
The study’s scopes include the effects of broken homes on secondary school students’ academic performance. The researcher comes across a constraint that limits the scope of the study;
a) RESEARCH MATERIAL AVAILABILITY: The researcher’s research material is insufficient, limiting the scope of the study.
b) TIME: The study’s time frame does not allow for broader coverage because the researcher must balance other academic activities and examinations with the study.
c) Organizational privacy: Limited access to the selected auditing firm makes obtaining all necessary and required information about the activities difficult.
TERMS DEFINITION
BROKEN FAMILY: A family in which one parent is absent, usually as a result of divorce or desertion: children from broken homes The cause of a broken home.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Academic achievement or (academic) performance refers to the degree to which a student, teacher, or institution has met their short or long-term educational objectives. Academic achievement is represented by cumulative GPA and completion of educational degrees such as high school and bachelor’s degrees.
SECONDARY SCHOOL: Secondary school is the next level of education after primary school. In the United States, secondary schools are frequently referred to as high schools. Secondary schools in the United Kingdom can be public, grammar, or comprehensive.
THE STUDY’S ORGANIZATION
For ease of comprehension, this research work is divided into five chapters, which are as follows:
The first chapter is concerned with the introduction, which includes the (overview of the study), historical background, problem statement, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms, and historical background of the study.
The second chapter emphasizes the theoretical framework on which the study is based, as well as a review of related literature. The third chapter discusses the study’s research design and methodology. The fourth chapter focuses on data collection, analysis, and presentation of findings. The study’s summary, conclusion, and recommendations are presented in Chapter 5.
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