EFFECTS OF BROKEN HOME ON CHILDREN

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The unity of the home is a very vital factor in the upbringing as well as the performance of the children in school. This is because every member of the home has a role to play for the children to learn well. Collins Advanced Dictionary of English defines home as a family unit. It’s composed of the father, mother, children and sometimes any other members of the extended family, it is a place where one lives with one’s family. It is an institution where each member needs care, love, comfort and sense of security. However, some children are missing the warm embrace of a home. 

A home   means more than the walls of the house. It radiates good things and a place of comfort.  Therefore people in a home otherwise known as family may have impact on the children academic performance. In Africa, many homes are not united and a lot of bad effects may show on the academic performance of the children. The family is an essential factor for human’s whole being, everything about a man, his background, attitude, all of his achievements, his honor and dignity, relies on the structure of the family a man lives in with. A family is composed of a father, a mother and their offspring, bonded by their love for each other. The child’s home and his parents serve as teachers. The parents lay the foundation for the desired social, moral, emotional, spiritual and intellectual well-being of the child. The training a child receives from home is of great importance to his/her total personality formation and his/her academic achievement.

Academic performance refers to how well students are doing in schools.  Academic performance in school is evaluated in a number of ways. For regular grading, students demonstrate their knowledge by taking written and oral tests, performing presentations, turning in home work and participating in class activities and discussions. Evaluation from classroom teachers, though they give the most detailed information, may still retain bias if individual differentiation and learning styles have not been taken into account.

Family background has a role to play in educational attainment. In most studies, family background has been measured by socio-economic indicators, parents’ education, family income, to the exclusion of other family characteristics that create a home environment conducive to higher attainment in education.

Family background has both direct and indirect effects on schooling. Family educational culture provides children with intellectual, social and emotional capacities which greatly improve their chances of mastering the school curriculum. Families live in society and could live together for proper upbringing of the child. The culture of the society is therefore very important. Also, the wider communities in which the children live also contribute to the capacities needed for school success. Some homes may be broken or intact.

Broken home is a term used to describe a household, usually in reference to parenting, in which the family unit does not properly function according to accepted societal norms. Hemm (2010), defines Broken home as a situation in which the parents are separated or divorced or are no more by either as a result of death. Children from such home lack proper care and security. The concept of broken homes could be among factors contributing to the falling standard of education in the country. The phrase ‘Broken Home’ is more commonly used when either the mother or father is not part of the family due to bad circumstances as mentioned above, which makes a child’s upbringing suffer. Death or divorce may be the cause and they may have disastrous effects on a child’s development. A divorce is often followed by a long period of deep dissension, which certainly means emotional strain and discords. As a rule, the child cannot be protected by or kept in ignorance of it.

Broken home situation has injurious effect. Even so, the way that these children struggle to live a normal life and being used to so many problems somehow bring positive effect to them. They may have developed a character stronger than the others who were given the opportunity to live a normal life. In an ideal atmosphere, children appreciate the love of their parents towards them. One of the tasks that should be fulfilled by parents is to educate their children because the education of children does not start from school. This is because schooling of students starts from the home. The home is where informal education starts. 

In most cases, adequate family care and affection may not be given to the children properly in a broken home especially by the adopted parents. Unfortunately, children who find themselves in this situation are neglected by their peer groups and society instead of being loved and cared for in the society. All these may affect academic performance of children.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

A good number of students are victim of separated parent trying to cope with the struggle of academic performance. These set of students are confronted with many problems such as lack of parental care, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy etc. In our society, children are sometimes exposed at an early age to all sorts of dangers arising from malnutrition, disease and various temptation of survival due to absence of one or both of their parents.

Absence of one or both parents may deprive young children of the stable love, care, security and total support they have been accustomed to and tend to make children different in the eyes of their peer. If children are asked where the missing parent is or why they have a new parent to replace the missing parents, they turn out to be timid in their response. Such stressful situation leads to psychological, emotional and intellectual imbalance in growing children. These could consequently result to quitting from school or poor learning skills, critical thinking and resulting to poor performance in school. Every child needs a relaxed mind and proper family support to be able to perform to well. The problem of the study is to identifying effects of broken homes on performance of pupils.

1.3 Research Questions

The following research questions are raised for the study.

a. What are the causes of divorce or broken homes on the academic performance of students?

b. Does broken home has any effect on the academic performance of students?

c. Does psychological and emotional disturbance lead to academic and social backwardness of students in schools?

d. Has the family background of a student in terms of having parental discipline and provision of literacy materials have any relationship with the child’s performance in school?

Order for the complete material, call +2347034538881.