Filling in the Gaps: The Role of Peers to Adolescents from Broken

Families

CABURIAN, Charles Samuel

CASUGA, Denydone
FLORES, Thyrone
HIPONA, Aaron Josh
SORIANO, Christian Joshua
BUGTONG, Kristine Belle
FLORES, Rikhamei
GUTIERREZ, Andrea Gail

Saint Louis College (High School)

Mr. Jeric Asuncion

Practical Research
11 – St. Philip of Jesus
May 10, 2018
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Family, though the most basic and smallest unit of the society, is one of the most

important foundation of one’s overall development. The shaping of one’s characteristic

and personality happens in the family. In a family, where every member is bonded by

love and blood, the initial starting point of the child is set. The environment that children

grow up in certainly has some impact on what type of personality characteristics they

develop [ CITATION Har17 \l 1033 ].

Home, as the first school, is where learning takes place, facilitated by the parents.

The distinction of right and wrong, the good and bad, and the moral and immoral is first

parted to the children at home. Proper manners and conducts are first thought to the

children at home. In addition to that, the family is the first unit of the society which the

child can socialize with, thus planting the seedling of the social aspect of the children.

Home serves as the microcosm of the larger society that the child will soon inhabit

[CITATION Row12 \l 1033 ].

Since it is the first societal unit that an individual encounter, it is one of the most

influential agent of socialization. Proper ways of socializing and decision making are

learned at home in the parents’ supervision. This is the reason why the children are said

to be the reflections of their respective family. The more we interact with someone, the

greater chance we have to shape his or her life in a positive or negative way and vice
versa. Therefore, the people who tend to become the greatest influencers in our lives tend

to be those closest to us—our friends and family (Guo, 2014).

However, not all families are able to function in respect to their social roles in the

society. Life seems to be so harsh to other’s will of fate. Some families get broken due to

problems, misunderstanding, and even death of parent, the foundation of the family.

These result to broken families that make up broken homes. Broken homes do inflict

brokenness to the child and affect their physical, social, psychological, and emotional

well-being [ CITATION Nor15 \l 1033 ]

Parental separation, either by divorce or death of one, triggers adjustments to the

side of the child. The child must adapt to the changes in the family status. When parents

separate, lack of proper parental guidance might take place. Lack of such guidance would

affect behavioral practices of an adolescent.

Homeby (1970) defined broken home as a home in which the parents are

separated or divorced or are no more together due to death. Such separation of parents

would result to lack of care and guidance to the offspring (Homeby, 1970).

Various studies have shown that separation and divorce lead to disruptions in

parenting practices. Simons et al. (1999) found that the quality of the mother’s parenting

mediated much of the association between divorce and child adjustment. In addition, the

level of the father’s involvement in parenting explained part of the association between

divorce and the externalizing problems of boys. Compared with fathers in intact families,

non-custodial fathers were less likely to provide their children with help in solving

problems, to discuss standards of conduct or to enforce discipline.

 In the Philippines, though divorce is not legally implemented, broken homes are

still evident. Separations were made possible by filing of annulment. Also, broken

families are brought about by separation of premarital partners, not covered by the law or

the so called “live-in partners,” which is common in the modern and liberated context of

society

Having broken family causes the lack of parental guidance and care to their

children. It might inflict negative and positive effects to an individual’s social aspect.

Individuals that belong to broken families, lacking role models and guidance, get

influenced by their environment, especially peers, the most influential agent of

socialization in the adolescent stage. It affects the way an adolescent socialize and

respond to influences of their environment.

The scientific study of the influences of groups has started in the early 1930s,

primarily with the works of social psychologist Sherif (1936). In 1940s study on peer

influences by sociologist Lazarsfeld (1944) and his associates were conducted to

investigate its importance in vote decision making.

When individuals cannot consider their respective family as their ‘home’, they

tend to seek attention to their peers, one of the major socialization agent. Thus, peers are

considered one of the most important features of adolescence.

Adolescents have lower resistance to peer influences compared to that of the

adults (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007), thus making them more prone to bad influences.

Furthermore, one of the strongest predictors of delinquent and deviant behaviors of

adolescents are affiliated with delinquent peers (Dishion, Bullock, & Granic, 2002).
 At my innocent age, my father left me and my mom. The only thing that makes

myself remember him is through the old photos we had shared together. Without my

thought that my father just left us, my mom endured everything just to take good care of

me. I didn't ask why my dad hasn't been home yet nor why he doesn't call us. My mom

assured me that even if my father is not around, I am still in his mind. I did not approach

nor ask anyone about my family's relationship status until my grandmother opened it up

with me when I was in my 7th grade. Later then I found out that my parents weren't

already in good terms. My father this time has another woman and is planning to get

married soon. This reality affects me emotionally. I envy those kids who have their

parents: happy and complete. The fact that they have been separated and don't have the

chance to arrange their marriage made me feel that their child is not important in their

decisions. Knowing that my family is broken provokes me to disobey them, I listened to

no one and followed my own instincts instead of my family's pieces of advice. Having a

broken family isn't easy as it seems to be. As a product of it, I needed to be independent

and strong enough in accepting the consequences of being part of a broken home.

This study investigated the effects of broken family, specifically, in terms of

social aspect. This investigation focused on how individuals respond to peer influences

with respect to their broken family background.

Theoretical Framework

The broken home theory has been used throughout history in American society by

numerous sociologists to explain why juveniles are delinquent. According to Wilkinson

(1974) a broken family is generally considered a family structure which deviates from the

ideal family structure of a couple and their children. To fit this criteria one or both
parents are absent in this type of family because of factors such as death, divorce,

separation or desertion. This has harmful effects on the child leading to lack of proper

role models, failure to control the child, and insufficient paternal or maternal love which

causes them into delinquents. This theory will serve in helping the researchers understand

how important an ideal family structure can be in developing the child’s social skills.

Relevant to the negative effects of having a broken family is the socio-

environmental theory. Sutherland (1949) stated that “the family background has greatest

influence on the criminal behavior of offender or Juvenile. The children divert

themselves towards criminal tendencies, if they find their parents or members of the

family behaving in the similar manner. A child who is grown up in a hostile aggressive

parenting atmosphere becomes an easy prey to criminality”. This theory claims that the

delinquent and deviant behavior of an individual is affected by his or her family

background. This theory will help the researchers in the investigation of a certain

individual’s response to peer influences in both negative and positive side.

Related to the social development of an individual is the attachment theory.

According to this theory, children who enjoy a secure attachment relationship to their

parents and caregivers use this relationship to venture out and explore their environment

(Maccoby, 1993). They reach out to other people, return to their caregivers for support,

and venture out again, going further into the society full of social relationships

(Ainsworth et al., 1978). The foundation of an individual’s social aspects relies on how

they were nurtured within the family. This theory explains further that socialization of an

individual is deeply rooted to familial relationship. Thus, broken family would most
probably result to poor socialization skills due to lack of parent-child interaction and

guidance.

Previous studies have been conducted, for decades, to investigate the factors, the

implications, the definitions, and many other angles of broken family. These studies are

the founding and supporting system that lead to the researchers’ investigation.

McLanahan and Bumpass (1994) investigated several hypotheses for the adverse

childbearing and marital outcomes of children of divorced parents and concluded that

parental role models and parental supervision were the major factors in determining the

future family-formation behavior of offspring. As they note, “it seems obvious that single

parents would have more difficulty maintaining authority and control over daughter’s

dating, which, in turn, is directly related to early family-formation behavior”.

Holdnack (1993) notes that parental divorce interrupts the emotional closeness

between parents and children, leading to negative impacts on children’s self-esteem. An

unresolved issue is whether poor-quality family relationships arise as an effect of the

divorce or whether these may have pre-dated (and perhaps given rise to) the divorce. This

raises the possibility that the results reflect selection into divorce rather than

demonstrating the effects of divorce. Sun (2001) found that, indeed, families on the verge

of breakup are characterized by less intimate parent–parent and parent–child

relationships, as well as less parental commitment to children’s education and fewer

economic resources. Prior to the marital disruption, families that broke down showed

consistent signs of dysfunction on every indicator of family environment examined. Sun

(2001) concludes that this suggests that “a dysfunctional family environment serves as an

important mechanism by which marital disruption process affects children”.

 Past studies have shown that children and adolescents who are exposed to high

level of parental conflict had more problems in academic compared with children and

adolescents who had not experienced parental conflict. These children and adolescents

have two to three times more tendencies to drop out from school (Kelly, 2000; Amato,

2001; Rodgers & Rose, 2001).

Rodgers and Rose (2001) examined the relationship between family factors and

academic performance among a sample with mean age 15 years old from intact, divorced

and blended families. This shows that the families that are intact has a higher cognitive

ability than families that are not intact. However, the research that was also conducted

showed the same children having lower cognitive ability before their parents got divorce.

The study concludes that in the short run, adolescents with divorced families may have a

lower cognitive ability, even if they have a lower cognitive ability before their parents are

divorced. In the long run, this is the same. This study is consistent with was Cherlin et al.

(1995) said, as far as the timing of a parental divorce, the age that divorce occurs “(ages 7

to 11 versus ages 11 to 16) in a child’s life does not make a difference for young adult

outcomes” (Sanz-de-Galdeano and Vuri, 2004). So, whether a child is younger versus

older when their parents’ divorce, that does not necessarily mean it will affect them as an

adult. The child will have the same cognitive ability before divorce.

In relation to this topic, some conducted studies show that children from broken-

home family have complex problems. Divorce or separation of parents could result in

child’s suffering from health problems that are more obvious. Children may be less

physically healthy. Fewer children in nuclear families were considered to be poor in

health than children in non-nuclear families. (CDC/NCHS National Health Interview

Survey, 2012). Children may suffer malnutrition because of lack of balanced diet because

they are involved in physical labor and environment in which they work is not suitable

for good health (Bangladesh e-journal of sociology, 2013). Much of the health problems

that affect kids from broken homes are related to mental health. Anxiety and depression

seem to worsen after the divorce event (Strohschein, 2005). Children may become

anxious over every little thing – social anxiety disorder can be a very serious mental

health condition that can have a debilitating effect on a person’s life. It’s often an

irrational fear of everyday things or situations, situations that people without this disorder

won’t worry at all about. It can take over every aspect of a child’s life; leaving the house

to go to school could become unbearable or even talking to someone on the phone could

be too much to handle.

The behavior of the child can be affected by several things, but a big factor

influencing it may be the parents. Depending on the severity of a broken home, the

parent’s relationship with each other, as well as their children, can affect how their

children behave and may even develop. According to HealthyChildren.org, a website run

by the American Academy of Pediatrics, most children do not want their parents to

divorce and view the end of their parents' marriage as a loss. Dr. William Sears, a

pediatrician and author at Askdrsears.com, says that a younger child's behaviors

commonly regress after a divorce because of his uncertainties and worries that the other

parent will no longer be around as much. Sometimes a young child will react angrily and

become aggressive toward his or her parent or with his peers. While an older child might

begin engaging himself in some forms of rebellious behavior such as hanging out with

the wrong crowd or acting up during class. If a child’s parents are always fighting, this
will add more stress to the family and also may emotionally damage a child. A child will

also see how their parents interact and their imitate behavior, as well as negative energy

(Moges and Weber, 2014). Broken homes may not harm a child developmentally or

cognitively but instead may have an important role within their education, behavior,

social skills, and emotional skills depending on their age.

These literatures provide an overview of studies revolving the study on broken

families. The related literatures looked at the social relationships among the broken

family, effects of the broken family in terms of physical and psychological aspect, and

behavioral observations among the broken families. The presented preliminary study

findings served as the guide of the researchers upon the conduction of the study. Some

recommendations, methods, and information were adapted for the success of the research

conducted.

Statement of the Problem

Specifically, the research is sought to answer the following questions:

1. How does an adolescent from a broken family see and choose their friends or

peers?

2. How does the feeling of being with friends differ to that of being with the broken

family?

Importance of the Study

The result of this research study is a proposed information, education and communication

material about broken families. The output of this research study will be beneficial to the

following:
Children from broken families. This will serve as a guide for children from broken

families to cope up and overcome their problems.

Community. This research will help to increases awareness on the limited discussion of

broken families.

School administrators. This serves as a basis to develop and/or expand academic structure

and support to provide psychosocial counseling and mentoring for vulnerable broken

students.

Future researchers. This research study will serve as a basis for future studies that will be

conducted in relation to this research’s topic.

Operational Definition of Terms

Peer is defined as a person belonging to a societal group that shares common interest,

usually belonging to the same age bracket and grade, having equal standing to one

another.

Family is the basic and smallest unit of the society. It is composed of the father, mother,

and their offspring.

Broken family is an incomplete family caused by separation of parents by death, divorce,

annulment, or desertion.

Divorce is an action that legally dissolves a marriage of two married couple under the

supervision of the law.

Annulment is a judicial action that declares invalidity of a marriage of two married

couple by law.
Desertion is the act of, one or both married couple or the parents, abandoning the family.

Death pertains to death of either one or both of the parents in a family.

Juvenile Delinquency pertains to the immature rebellious behavior of an individual,

usually pertaining to deviance to the norms of the society.

Adolescent pertains to the individuals within the age range of 10 to 19.

 CHAPTER II

Study Site and Selection of Participants

This study was conducted in Saint Louis College, Carlatan, City of San Fernando,

La Union during the school year 2017-2018. Saint Louis College has 32 sections in the

junior high school and 34 sections in the senior high school with the range of 45 to 49

students in every section. This study involved 6 students of the senior high school

belonging to STEM Strand as respondents. The student respondents were representative

samples taken by non-probability sampling.

The respondents were chosen using snowball sampling in which the researchers

asked students in the STEM-11 Strand for individuals within the population that belong

to a broken family. Individuals that belong to broken families that agreed to share

information were chosen as the participants.

Data Measure

The data of this study were gathered using interview and questionnaire. The

contents of the questionnaire are formulated based from noticeable problems with a

student having a broken family and based from source material which is articles in the

internet. The instrument was answered by the students. It emphasizes the children from

broken families’ attitude towards peer pressure.

The instrument underwent the validation of Mr. Asuncion, a Grade-11 STEM

Research Teacher. The suggestion from him regarding the improvement of the instrument

were highly considered. The questionnaire was studied, evaluated and approved by him.

All comments and suggestions were highly acceptable to improve the questionnaire.
 An interview with the respondents was done to support the data gathered from the

questionnaire. The use of voice recording was performed to record the direct

conversation and to ensure non-alteration of the content.

Data Collection Procedure

The researchers used a qualitative method in gathering the data needed. The

participants are carefully chosen, and interviewing is considered as the primary approach

for it involve personal and direct contact between interviewers and interviewees.

In depth interviews were utilized in the research. Kahn and Cannell (1957)

describe interviewing as “a conversation with a purpose." It aims to identify the

respondent's emotions, feelings, and opinions regarding a particular research subject.

Researchers involved the use of semi-structured questionnaire as their guide in the

interview towards the satisfaction of research objectives.

Mode of Analysis

The qualitative study used phenomenological approach to obtain the lived

experiences and to understand the subjective aspects of broken family. "Researchers in

phenomenological mode attempt to understand the meaning of events and interactions to

ordinary people in particular situations" (Boydan& Biklen, 2003). Researchers are

interested in the nature or meaning of events and tries to enter other person's perspective

and experience as they described the nature of their family experience.

The data analysis occurred through an interview and audio recording. Interviews

were conducted with an unstructured approach, which involve asking open-ended

question of research participants to discover their perceptions on the topic. In addition,

Interview were also audio recorded for transcription and analysis.

Thematic analysis method was used to infer to the data that were collected. The

method’s main purpose is to identify underlying patterns among the data to answer the

specific research questions. The data with common themes were grouped then interpreted

by the researchers.
 CHAPTER III

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the data from the participants are analyzed using thematic analysis

and presented. The results are rigorously analyzed then given interpretations by the

researchers.

Selection and Perception of Adolescents from Broken Families of Friends

This problem focused on understanding how adolescents from broken families see

and choose their friends. This section attempts to see peers of adolescents from a broken

family’s perspective.

Adolescents from broken families attend to peers whom they are comfortable

with. They choose to be with people who are open and understanding. The ones that one

can relate to, most likely, is the ones that they have commonalities with. Adolescents are

able to socialize with full comfort when the person they interact with is holding the same

status and close to age of them. One participant has stated that “someone who would you

able to do things freely.” They tend to choose friends that they can allow them in doing

activities of their interest. They hold commonalities, which serves as the bond that holds

their relationship intact. Another participant said that “some of my friends belong to a

broken family, just like me.” They are contained in a similar situation, which makes their

communication more relatable.

The participants that share interest, situation, or experience develop a strong bond

of relatability. They are able to share the same feelings, thoughts, or experiences. These

common situation and status pave way to creation of comfort zone, which both of them
share on. Adolescents from broken families choose friends whom they share some

commonalities. The responses seem not to show any difference on friend choosing of

adolescent from a broken family to that of the ones not belonging to broken families.

Adolescents naturally group themselves into people within their age bracket, area of

interest, and commonalities.

Related to this idea, Yu and Xie (2012) concluded that choice of friends is

affected not only by personal preferences but also by the commonalities that they wield.

In their study, they tried to separate the friendship through preferences and friendships

under the same experience, interest, and other common ideas that they share. These

commonalities serve as a cohesive agent between a relationship. They concluded that if

only personal preferences dictate the choice of friendships, there would be less

socialization and more social separations. These are avoided by the help of social union

under commonalities that make path to interactions among people, even to strangers. By

these, socialization is widened among social beings, breaking the walls of potential social

borders or divisions that may possibly cause social separations.

Difference of Being With Friends and Being With the Broken Family

This section explores the differences of being with friends and being in the broken

home in the adolescent from broken home’s perspective.

The responses of the participants show that they find it better being with friends

due to the openness within their relationships. They go along with their friends because

they are the ones whom they are able to open up their problems with to at least lessen the

weight of the problems that they carry. One participant stated that “I was now able to tell
my opinions better , I was able to have fun.” They find relief on having their words heard

out by someone who has their ears ready to hear. Another participant, in relation to the

said response, said that “ Friends, they are the ones I am able to open up my decisions

to.” Adolescent from broken families find it hard to open up their opinions or consult

them upon making a decision due to some reasons. “They might just get angry,” the

participant added. One participant, when asked why they choose to be open with their

friends than their family, said “because they are the ones that understand me.” Their

friends serve as the ones that they can accurately connect with when everyone finds it

hard to understand them.

A study, leaded by Uink (2016), concluded an idea on how adolescent comfort

their peers. “Being among peers during times of stress may offer adolescents an open,

supportive and rewarding space which may help dampen the emotional turbulence that

adolescence can bring,” the researchers have stated.  Peers offer an embracing feeling to

their adolescent peers. Due to the open relationship between and among adolescent peer

group, they are able to freely express themselves and bring out the problems that burden

them.

“Friendships are intimate relationships between partners who help each other,

enjoy being together, share details about their private lives and their views about the

world, and value each other. Friends are typically identified using reciprocal nominations,

in which two children separately indicate they are friends with each other. The large

majority of social network approaches follows friendship perspective, during childhood

as well as adulthood” (e.g., Borgatti, Mehra, Brass, & Labianca, 2009) . Being with
friends is a significant relationship for people, which promotes happiness and life

satisfaction through instrumental rewards, emotional support and companionship.

Belonging to a broken home feels way different to that of being with the peers

whom one is comfortable to spend time with. Based on the responses of the participants,

it has been found out that adolescents seek the love that they cannot feel from their

broken family. They tend to seek the attention that the family is not able to give. One

respondent said “I don’t have my father with me, I'm longing for that, I'm yearning for a

father's love and I find it in being with my friends.” The love that the offspring crave for

is found in being with friends.  

According to one study, girls expressed the effects they experienced from father absence.

The study says that, “Findings revealed that growing up without their father present in the

family home disrupted the relationship these daughters held with their fathers. Due to the

perceived lack of interest felt from his fathers, they expressed feeling of hurt and

diminished respect for their fathers. Furthermore, participants felt that their fathers were

unable to provide them with father-daughter relationship that they sought” (East, Leah;

Jack, Debra; O’Brien, Louise, n.d).

 CHAPTER IV

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

1. Adolescents from broken families see and choose their friends similarly to how

other adolescents do. They perceive their friends as comforting agents where they

can share common interests which they can, most likely, both enjoy. They group

themselves according to where they think they belong. Adolescents from broken

families hold the same major considerations of peer choosing to that of

adolescents from non-broken families.

2. Based on the research findings, the adolescents from broken families find

openness not in their family but to their friends. To them, they are most

comfortable to express their thoughts and opinions. They get accommodated by

their open friends in helping them get over and cope up with problems. In

addition to that, findings show that some adolescents seek the treatment and love

they crave for, that their family cannot give to them. Absence of a family member

in a family causes failure of care and attention sustainability to other members of

the family, especially the offspring, in most cases.  

Conclusions

1. There is no significant difference between the friend choosing of adolescents from

broken families to that of adolescents not belonging to broken families. They

befriend and group themselves to other people who belong to the same age

bracket as them, have the same interests, have common or related experiences,
 and hold the same social status. However, adolescent from broken families has a

greater dependence to their peers than to that of adolescent not belonging to

broken families. This is caused by parent-child conflict, and other family-related

personal issues.

2. Adolescents from broken families feel more comfortable to be open and truthful

with their personal expressions. They feel most understood by their peers than by

their parents. Their friends are the ones that, mostly, guide them in coping up with

their problems because they find it hard to open up to their respective parents,

thus friends are their only crying shoulder. Moreover, adolescents from broken

families feel fulfilled by the care and attention they get from their peers. Their

peers fill the gaps that their families are unable to fill. They serve as the

alternative parents that help them overcome obstacles that they encounter along

their way. Peers, in these cases, stand as alternative foundations for the parental

absence of the support system for an adolescent.

Recommendations

1. The researchers recommend adolescents from broken families who face problems,

especially regarding family, to have a conversation or seek advice from a

guidance counselor. Guidance counselors take great part on helping develop the

emotional and mental aspects of an adolescent which could improve the wellbeing

of the adolescent. Aside from attending counselors, attending to seminars,

orientations, or any social and spiritual enrichment programs is highly

encouraged. Attending to such programs will help an adolescent. By these ways,

 an adolescent from broken from a broken family can be properly guided on their

problems regarding their families.

2. Openness is strongly encouraged by the researchers. It allows a person to express

their true feelings through conversations with others. Keeping problem to oneself

might cause depression. Being open to others will help in lessening the weight of

problems that one is enduring. By being open, one will be able to absorb advices

that might cheer them up and inflict positive attitude. Being open to friends or

peers, if not to parents, significantly ease the problems.

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