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.
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.....
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