POLYGAMY AND FAMILY SIZE AS A DETERMINANTS OF STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
The study investigates the impact of polygamy and large family size on students’ academic performance in selected secondary schools in Lagos State’s Ikorodu Local Government Area. With the help of a questionnaire, the descriptive research survey was used to assess the respondents’ opinions. To represent the entire population of the study, 350 (three hundred and fifty) respondents (175 males and 175 females) were chosen.
In this study, four (4) hypotheses were tested using the independent t-test statistical tool for hypotheses one, three, and four, and the Pearson Product Moment Correlational Coefficient statistical tool for hypothesis two. At the 0.05 level of significance, all hypotheses were tested.
At the conclusion of the data analyses, the following conclusions were reached: polygamy has a significant impact on students’ social adjustment, there is a significant relationship between polygamous/large family size and students’ academic performance, there is no significant difference in performance between students who live in polygamous/large family size and those who live in monogamous/small family size, and there is a significant impact of lack of fatherly attention.
INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER ONE
The Study’s Background
Many problems have long plagued the human family. The problems in question coexisted with humans without threatening their extinction. The effects of child abuse and neglect, abject poverty, wife battery, absentee husbands, child trafficking, adolescent problems, economic austerity, famine, insecurity, violence, divorce, and separation are all discussed in history. The recent problem confronting the family structure in contemporary society, according to Annie (2000), is the problem of polygamy and large family size.
According to anthropological literature, African cultures are highly polygamous, which is defined as a man having more than one wife. Traditionally, the woman chooses a co-wife – someone she can get along with, such as a younger sister or cousin – and in cases where the husband requires a subsequent wife, the preceding wives get to choose their co-wife or wives (Whyte, 1990).
The polygamous family, according to Ekiran (2003), is any type of plural marriage. This could be polygamy, which occurs when a man marries two or more women at the same time. One of the most important characteristics of a polygamous family is the large family size. In a polygamous family, for example, a man has many wives and children. In most cases, the husband of the house may not be wealthy enough to support the entire family. In this case, the children’s educational careers are severely hampered (Uzomah, 2006).
According to Nkemdirim (2005), most children who come from polygamous homes do not perform well in school. He believes that children from monogamous homes outperform their counterparts from polygamous families.
According to Adeogun (2000), children perform well in school when their parents support them, but they do not perform well if their parents do not support their educational career. In a polygamous family, where the family size is quite large, the man who is the breadwinner may be unable to pay the children’s school fees, purchase their
educational materials such as books, school uniforms, pocket money, and other items necessary for the children’s success in school. When a student does not have the opportunity to be provided for and supported in order to succeed in his or her education, the child may not achieve high levels of academic achievement (Ayo, 2002).
Parents who have multiple children as a result of polygamy frequently fail to provide equal and unbiased treatment to all of their children. Polygamist parents are known to treat their children/wards unequally, according to Uzodike (2000). Parents in many polygamous homes are picky about how their children/wards are educated.
For example, they do not allow all children to attend school because they (parents) cannot afford to pay for all of their children’s education. Rather, they send some of their children to school, while others are forced to learn a trade because the family’s meager resources cannot support all of the children through school.
Adekoya (1990) stated that in most cases, parents from polygamous homes are uneducated and thus do not understand the value of education for their children. Because of their lack of education, combined with their low socioeconomic status, they find it difficult to educate their children. Some of them learned one trade or another and prefer their children to follow in their footsteps in their trades or businesses rather than wasting time going through the rigors of education and learning.
According to Onyeji (2001), most polygamous households do not support their children’s education because there are too many children to educate. In another development, children from monogamous homes tend to be better educated than their polygamous counterparts.
The reason for this is that children are scarce in monogamous households, which allows parents to sponsor their children through school because they can afford to pay their school fees and other school-related expenses. As a result of this situation, children from monogamous homes outperform those from polygamous homes, who are more numerous.
The impact of a large family on a child’s academic achievement cannot be overstated. According to Munonye (1999), the size of a family can have an impact on a child’s academic performance, either directly or indirectly. Musgrave (1996) asserted in a study that intelligent parents demonstrate their intelligence by limiting the size of their families.
He believes that in a small family, the child is in close contact with his or her parents and uses more mature language and ideas than he or she would in a swarm of siblings, particularly in a polygamous home.
According to Oloko (1999), some students from large families have little or no time to read or even do their homework. They work until late at night and then sleep in the classroom while the lessons are being taught the next day. This frequently has a negative impact on academic performance. Ola (1990) discovered that hawking has the same effect on some Lagos State primary school children who hawk during traffic jams.
She concluded that the large family size, as a result of the polygamous structure, has forced them to look elsewhere for money to feed the family. They don’t have time for a siesta or to study in the evening. As a result, they perform poorly academically.
According to Gallapher (1999), in a relatively large family, especially a polygamous one, no one child is focused up, and thus the parents, particularly the father, cannot afford to offer them all, adequate and equal amounts of assistance both in their studies and parental cares needed by the child.
Muntreal (1991) agreed that children from small families outperform those from large families. Fraser (1993) also supported the argument that children from large families have fewer opportunities to acquire verbal symbols, putting them at a disadvantage not only in terms of verbal fluency and vocabulary, but also in the processes that rely so heavily on the acquisition of these verbal symbols.
Nimkoff (2000) stated in a related study that large families or polygamous marriages tend to lower the educational achievement of “more capital members of the family,” lowering their economic incentive compared to children from small families or, in some cases, monogamous marriages. According to Adamson (2004), large families limit opportunity because decisions are supposed to be made on the basis of what is best for the family rather than what is best for the individual.
This study, an examination of polygamy and family size as determinants of students’ academic performance, was conducted against this backdrop.
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POLYGAMY AND FAMILY SIZE AS A DETERMINANTS OF STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS
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