CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Family is a single word with many different meanings. People have many ways of
defining a family and what being a part of a family means to them. What every family
has in common is that the people who call it a family are making clear that those people
are important in some way to the person calling them his family. Some students can
define a family as their best friend, teacher, classmate and people who will always be
there for them. But some other students defined it as their enemy, problem, heartache
and most hated people in their life because of being into a broken family.

A broken family is defined as a family that has split or separated due to a variety
of reasons that we will know in the next part of this research. Broken homes can cause
children to question their self- worth, to experience unnecessary grief, guilt and
confusion. It can affect their whole life, especially in their studies and in their emotions.
Being into a broken family gives a lot of effects in a students.

The one who should support and be there for them are the one who hurts their
feeling. This leads to children being raised by single parents, step parents or others not
related to the biological parents. The study is primarily focused on the impact of broken
family among the students. In this study, we will focus on the behavior of the students in
school and how it affected their lives. We will be stating facts and other information
about the students being into a broken family.

Background of the study

The incidences of broken family are on the increase, as well as the failure of
children in Gr.11 curiculum. Broken family is a situation whereby one’s family is
submerged with misunderstanding of family structure. Broken family are in various
aspects and these include: divorce, separation and death of either of the parents.

Broken family is generally associated with increased stress and emotional

difficulties among children, several aspects have a mediating effect. The amount of
family conflict experienced by the children, their religious background, age, and place in
the sibling order were reported to have a vital impact on their efforts to adapt to this
transition.

As the family become insecure, children respond by developing tension, prostration and
aggression and anger and hatred toward one or both parents because of their
behaviour , that lead to separation. Broken family could cause the children to feel
isolation and humpies, hence, they are frustrated and psychologically disturbed even
when they are in classroom. As a result, they cannot do well in the school activities.

Parental relationship plays a very important role in determining the

academic performance of their children in school. Children that grow up in
a broken family are unlikely to develop their academic potentials to the fullest while
children brought up in a stabilized and organized home are more likely to develop to a
full fledge of human beings, being able to discover their academic and other attributes
leading to success in life endeavour.

The influence of broken family on the academic achievements of students is

beyond measure, when a family is broken, children are affected in many ways for
example the girls amongs to them may run into men in order to pay their school fees
some of them may get pregnant in the process which might warrant them to quit,
education entirely.

Statement of the problem

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 but from home. In an ideal
atmosphere, children should happily be with their parents, feel and appreciated and the
love of their parent towards them. In most cases, adequate parental affection may not
be given to the children from a broken family. Children who find themselves in such a
manner feel neglected by the peer groups and society instead of being loved and cared
for.

Childrenfrom broken family feel very sad when they lack the affection, security and conc
ern for their lovely family. Such children tend to develop a kind of inferiority complex,
and aggression, hostility, reserved and isolated among their pear groups. They said when
children are not secured and not enjoying the love and parental up bringing, it will affect
the cognitive of the children, there by affecting their academic achievement.

Purpose of the study

this study will help the students who have a broken family to be aware in their
situation and how it affects their behavior. The benefit this study offers to the students is
that they will be aware of their current situation and realize how strong they are
because they have survived.
 Significance of the Study

The rate of marriage failure is on the increase in our modern society. It is

therefore it important that a timely study be carried out in order to give useful
suggestions and recommendations to teachers on how to help such unfortunate children
to learn properly in school so that they can come out with a good academic
performance in school for themselves and be useful to the society as well. This study
would help policy makers to help make policies that will cover students in this situation
so that future dreams could be achieved. Finally, the study would also serve as a
reference material for other studies related to the topic.

Delimitations of the Study

This study was carried out on students of Gr. 11 HUMSS-FORTITUDE.

Limitations

This study encountered some challenges which included difficulty in gathering

information for the project since only few researches have been carried out in this
respect. Also there was difficulty in getting the necessary information because of the
sensitive nature of the problem under investigation. Also, some students felt reluctant to
respond to questionnaire due to its emotional inclination. Lastly, there was language
barrier due to their level of education.

Definition of Terms

Broken family is a situation that arises when (a) a man or woman losses his/her
spouse by death; (b) a man or a woman divorces his/her spouse; (c) family separation;
(d) single parenting and (e) never married but with a child/children.

Organization of Study

The study was organised into three chapters. Chapter one dealt with the
introduction which talked about the background to the study, statement of the problem,
purpose of the study, research questions, objectives of the study, significance of the
study, its limitations and delimitations which were framed to guide the researcher.

Chapter two of the research looked at what has already been written in terms of
theories or concepts and empirical evidence, then reviews these theories and empirical
evidence.
 Chapter three of the research is methodology. It explained the research design and
the procedure employed in obtaining data for the study, study area, the sampling
procedure and data collection used for the study.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter will look at other articles and journals already been written in terms
of theories or concepts and empirical evidence.

Conceptual Framework

A conceptual framework is a collection of concepts or models from literature

which inform a research study. It relates a study to existing ideas or principle. As a result
of constant family conflicts, pupils’ academic performance and interpersonal relationship
may be affected. If there is no intervention in form of guidance and counselling,
the pupils may grow up to become disturbed and unstable. They may use the modelling
effect to repeat the same in their families. A disturbed and unstable individual may
eventually mean a disturbed and unstable society. In the figure, Guidance
and Counselling appears as the intervening variable with an arrow pointing towards
independent variable (family conflicts) and another towards the dependent variables
(academic performance and interpersonal relationships.)

Overview of broken family in Gr.11 HUMSS-FORTITUDE

A home is where a family lives. It may be alternated to the word “house” but a
house is more appropriately referring to the material structure whereas home refers to
the intangible things that bind together the family members. It has the immeasurable
love and care that keeps together the mother, father and their children. Broken family
occurs as a result of separation of marriage either by death or divorce. Broken family,
contributed a lot to anti-social behaviour society. Children who come from
broken families will most likely have difficult time in life.

Children of divorced parents are roughly two times more likely to drop out from school
than their peers who benefit from living with parents who are not divorced. Some
children from broken marriages are more likely to turn to drug abuse or other
negative behaviors.The truth is that every child needs and deserves the love and provisio
n of a motherand a father. The loving two married
parent family is the best environment for children. A strong family and home is a place
where children gain the identity, discipline, and moral education that are essential for
their full individual development. Children from divorced families are nearly five times
more likely to suffer damaging mental troubles than those who live with both parents.
This shows that two parents are much better in bringing up healthy children than one.

Causes of Broken Family

A. Divorced cause

 Lack of proper care for the family

 Maladaptive behaviour by either party
 Charge of adultery
 Charge of witchcraft against wife

B. Broken home due to death of bread winner

 Husband
 Wife

C. Marriage without mutual consent

 Husband dislike wife

 Lack of true love non reciprocal love
 Wife dislike their husband
 Parental disagreement

D. Separation case caused by

 Economic activities
 Problem of urbanization
 Quest for job
 Economic inequality
 Breakdown of social status.

E. Inter-family misunderstanding

 Childlessness
 Disrespect and disloyalty for husband relations
 Lack of respect for each other
 Interference from both parties family members

Theoretical Frame Work

 The theory on hierarchy of needs was adopted for this study. focuses on self-
actualization of a person. Some characteristics of a self-actualized person include
tolerance, welcoming uncertainty, acceptance of self and other, creativity, need for
privacy, autonomy, genuine caring for others, sense of humour and directedness. He
divided human needs into five categories.The most basic category is the physiological
needs. These include food, shelter, clothing and education. When pupils lack these basic
needs, they cannot grow and their concentration is on their discomfort. If pupils are hurt
by conflicts in the family, they may not acquire all the needs that they need. After the
basic needs, a person yearns for safety needs. This is the need to feel secure. Pupils who
witness their parents fighting all the time do not feel safe in that home. There is the fear
that the parents might separate or even hurt them. This refers to the need to be
accepted and to affiliate with others. If pupils are communicating well with parents, they
will feel accepted. In most cases parents who are fighting do not have time to make the
pupils feel needed. Pupils are bound to think that they are the cause of their parents’
fights and this makes them feel that they are not loved. Esteem needs come fourth
on the hierarchy. This need makes one gain approval from others. When a couple is
fighting, they cannot gain approval from the pupils. Therefore, this need is not
fulfilled. The highest need on the hierarchy is self-actualization. This need makes one
feel self-fulfilled and realize one’s potential. If all other needs are not fulfilled, one
cannot reach the stage of self-actualization. It all starts at the physiological needs. These
physiological needs can only be fully and satisfactorily met in a loving family without any
conflicts.

Empirical Framework of the Study

The Influence of a Family on an Individual’s Behaviour

A family is far more than a collection of individuals sharing a specific physical

and psychological space. A family may be considered a natural social system, with
properties all on its own, one that has evolved a set of rules, is replete with assigned and
ascribed roles for its members, has an organized power structure, has developed
intricate overt and covert forms of communication and has elaborated ways of
negotiating and problem solving that permit various tasks to be performed effectively. In
the process of growing up, family members develop individual
identities but nevertheless remain attached to the family group. These family members d
o not live inisolation, but rather are interdependent on one another not merely for
money, food and shelter but also for love, affection, companionship, socialization and
other non-tangible needs. A well-functioning family encourages the realization of the
individual potential of its members, allowing them freedom for exploration and self
discovery along with protection and the instillation of a sense of security. This may not
be the case in a family that experiences conflicts.

Academic Performance of Children from Broken Family

Academic performance is an objective score of attainment after a specified

instructional programme. Academic performance can be influenced by many factors,
but the impact family relationships play on a child’s scholastic achievement along side
the development of the child cannot be over emphasized. This may be associated with
tensions in the home, family discord or family instability. All these cumulatively produce
an emotionally barren atmosphere in the home. The relationship between the husband
and wife, parents and children, relationship among siblings if not cordial, resulting into
conflicts especially between husband and wife and also leading to continuum of
frequent quarrels and antagonism of both parties from time to time can completely end
in broken family.

The gradual development of these problems till its full manifestation directly
affects thee motions 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 emanates from can seriously affect the academic
performance of an individual especially an adolescent.

It has been proven that children from stable homes do better in their
academic pursuits in their various schools due to their emotional stability/balance and fa
mily than thosefrom unstable or broken family.

In a stable home, where both parents live and stay together there is little or no
emotional illness because the child lives with and receives cares and attention needed
from the parents. Thee motional stability goes a long way in him to school and in every
place he found himself performing excellently well in his academics.

The family has the potential of exercising a strong influence over the life of the
child in school and long after he left school. He wants on to say that the child’s mental
and emotional developments which are factors for school education could be greatly
influenced by nature of the family into which the child is born. A child who is brought
upin a stable home is well fed and provided all he needed will definitely perform well in
his academics in school. The status of the family determines the type of influences and
the level of educational attainment of children that are brought up in various family.

Relationship between Parents and their Children’s

 Each child is an individual with its own behaviour and temperamental styles. The
mother and father’s personalities are important in designing a child’s behaviour. A
parent-child relationship is interpersonal.

The ‘accepting parent’ is a loving one, accepts his/her child and knows his/her
rights. For the child, consequences of being accepted include the following: child can
count on protection from the parents; child acquires an attitude of confidence and trust
in those taking care of him/her; when older, the child will extend his capacity for
affection to others; child has freedom to grow, venture and try new things; child has
better communication skills; child has better chances to learn to accept himself. On the o
therhand, consequences of rejection include the following: child cannot count on
protection and help of parents; child does not have the strength to defend himself; other
members of community, for example, peers may assault the child/do not accept him;
child is seen as constantly failing; child has difficulty in learning good behaviour; child
learns not to accept affection/to expect nothing but the worst thus his guard is always
up against everyone he encounters; there is no free flow of emotions thus everyone cuts
him off and lastly, s/he may not have confidence in him/herself.

Effects of Broken Family on School Going Children

Reaction of children to parental divorce may be influenced by remarriage of

custodial parent. Remarriage of parents can add to, rather than subtract from, the stress
of a child. Divorce makes children unsafe, uncertain of the future or makes children feel
that the future is bleak and they become helpless because they fear that
something bad could happen to them. Some children perform better in school as an
attempt to shut out problems at home.

In contrast, other children may intentionally allow grades to slip in an attempt to

gain attention from both parents. Children living with newly divorced mothers are more
likely to be late for school and are less likely to have a help in their homework.

We conducted a quantitative data-analysis in an effort to bring order to find the

relationship between divorce and academic achievement in DCNHS. The results relating
to academic achievement showed statistical significance in lower academic achievement
in children of divorce when compared to children from continuously married parents.

Recently updated the data-analysis to include studies performed in the past

days. The findings show that when compared with children from
continuously married parents, 25 children with divorced parents continue to score signifi
cantly lower on measures of academic achievement as well as in the areas of conduct,
psychological adjustment and social relations.
 Although divorce is a major loss to children, however, not all children react the
same way to their parents’ divorce. Each child’s reaction depends on how she/he
perceives it or the different personal or familial circumstances before or after the
divorce.

While some children react with anger, fear or tremendous grief, others are happy
or indifferent. Some children feel shame and hide the news of their parents’ divorce
from their friends or pretend that it is not happening; other children react by feeling
relieved especially if there has been intense fighting in their family .

There have been numerous studies that have documented the impact of divorce
to children. Sun cited in found children of divorced parents may have a lower sense of
psychological well-being than children who grew up with intact families. Research also
confirms that children of divorced parents may experience emotional problems such as
loneliness and depression.

Studies comparing the school records of children from single parent and two
parent families have found that children raised in single
parent home have an increased risk of poor academic achievement. The effects of
broken family on students depend on many factors, the most important of which are the
causes of the broken homes when it occurs, and it is either temporary or permanent.
When there is a break in the home as result of death and children realize that, the
parent will never return, mourn the loss and transfer their affection to the remaining
parent, hoping in this way to regain the security they formally had.

By so doing one will find the students forgetting that they had other things to
attend to like their academics and as a science student there is need for determination
and commitment to the classroom activities and laboratory practices, but a child who
happen to have a parent preoccupied with grief and practical problems of a broken
homes give rise to children that feel rebuffed and unwanted. This will, however, result to
resentment that can seriously cause damage or affect the child’s intellectual
potentialities required from him/her as science student and that could deter his/her
academic achievement in classroom and elsewhere. However, one of those participants
observed that the loss of the mother in early life is more damaging to a child than loss of
father.

The reason for this to be that the care of young children must under the
circumstances, be turned over to relatives or paid housekeepers whose child training
techniques may differ from those used by mothers and who rarely can give children the
attention and affection they formally received from their mothers. Therefore, a science
students brought up under this condition may likely fall victim of missing the love and
care of the mother which thereafter affect him/her in the later life of the science
students achievement when it comes to classroom or practical aspect of science.

Impact of Broken Family on Academic Performance of Students

The influence of broken family on the academic achievements of the primary

school students is beyond measure. Broken home, could either be single-parenthood
home, divorce or separated couple. In order words, broken home can be defined in
which the parents are divorced or separated. While single-parenthood can be defined as
when one out of two people who are responsible for bearing and as such nurturing the
child is not available and the work meant for two parents, is now been carried out by
only one parent, according to the Longman dictionary of contemporary English, single-
parenting, is defined as a mother or father who looks after children on their own,
without the other partner. Single parent can be defined as a situation in which of one of
the two individuals involved in the conception of the child is being responsible for the
upbringing of the child.

Single parenthood may arise when either the male or the female decides to
produce and rear a child or children outside wedlock. In some students, the existence of
single parenthood was unknown and where they existed they are ignored as exceptional
cases. However, nowadays, they are fast growing family patterns.
The parental roles are culturally determined and distributed. The maternal roles are that
of child’s rearing, home training and playing of complementary roles, while the paternal
roles are that of economic responsibilities and disciplining of children. The child reared
up with these complementary maternal and paternal responsibilities is morally, mentally
upright and emotionally balanced, that is when the caring responsibilities are carried out
by both parents.

Summary of the Literature

Attempts were made in this chapter to define the concept of broken family.
Various definitions provided by earlier researchers with more emphasis on divorce as the
control issue. Most of the researchers however arrived at a definition with the control
issue being that the parents are no more living together as husband and wife.

In an attempt to portray the nature of broken homes, divorce, death of parent

and separation has been identified, as being the course of broken family. Divorce being a
major constraint of broken family has its causes identified further, economic booms,
post war period, in the relationship between home and academic achievement. The
student of broken family are said to be likely to find themselves in situations
like insecurity, inferiority complex and
lack of parental love that is being normally found with single parents. Each of those varia
bles bringssome hardship to the students.

The literature reviewed in this section agued in support and against, the view that
it is the net conditions prevailing in the broken family that is responsible for students low
performance. A number of studies show that children of broken homes are unhappy in
fact unlike children staying with both parents. Irrespective of its possible implication to
teachers in school setting, the literature review revealed that the problem mostly
reencountered by subjects of broken family are those of frustration, insecurity, anxieties
and emotional feedings. Such problems made the children unable to concentrate in class
and subsequently fail to achieve good results. In general teachers are advised to
understand the problems of children from broken family to be able to treat them
alongside with other children.

Some researchers have carried out a study on this topic. They covered several of
the effect of broken family on student academic achievement. Inferiority complex is a
result of lack of care, love, security, social state and affection inferiority complex is a
psychological deficiency that can affect the academic achievement of the individual
students.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This study followed a experimental research approach. experimental research is a

type of research where the researcher identifies variables and may look for relationship
among them, but control any of the variables. Therefore, the researcher only identified
the independent variables. The research design for the study was a descriptive survey.
Therefore, the study focused on only students from broken family and described how
their situation had an impact on their performance.

Study Area

This study was carried out in Dagupan city national high school.

Sampling Procedure

The sample size was made up of twenty five(25) respondents. The categories of
respondents comprised students from Gr. 11 HUMSS-FORTITUDE.
 The sampling techniques used for the study were convenience and purposive
sampling techniques. Both techniques were used to select the respondents. Purposive
sampling is one that is selected based on the knowledge of a population of grade 11
HUMSS-FORTITUDE and the purpose of the study. Purposive sampling was used to select
the students since they have the relevant information that was beneficial to the study
thus, the required information related to the topic of study was obtained. Convenience
sampling is simply one in which the researcher uses any subjects that are available to
participate in the research study. However, convenience sampling was also used to select
the students since all of them cannot be reached data time therefore, any students who
fall in the category of student the researchers were looking for were selected to
represent a sample until the required sample size is obtained.

Data Collection Procedure

Questionnaires were administered personally by the researchers to the

respondents while on school premises and was collected within a limited time frame.
Nonetheless, the researchers conducted short interviews with the students since not all
the information needed would be put on paper. This helped the researchers to the get
the detailed information from the respondents and the data obtained was recorded with
pen and paper.