THE INFLUENCE OF A BROKEN HOME ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT’S ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The primary institution for children is the family. According to Christe (2009) and Abdulganiyu (1997), a home is a place where a person or a family can rest and store personal belongings. Since the concept of home has not been defined, it is crucial to define family. Therefore, the family can be viewed as a social unit that is shared by residents and is characterized by economic cooperation and production.
The family is the first significant group that a newborn comes into contact with. It follows that by the time a child reaches the age of five to seven, he or she must have learned what are his or her rights, obligations, and roles within society. This is because social values of right and wrong, as well as what is morally and religiously accepted or condemned by the family, are transmitted through the family.
However, a student’s background greatly influences how unique they are. As the child begins attending school, new attitudes and expectations will start to emerge. Additionally, even though they belong to the same age group, they may have developed at different rates. As a result, they may be able to handle the academic and social demands of school to varying degrees. A house, however, can be either sound or damaged.
A stable family is one in which the mother and father share a residence with their kids, whereas a broken family is one in which one or both parents do not share a residence with the kids. The degree to which a family functions determines a student’s academic success in school. Broken or unstable homes can have an impact on a student’s academic success.
Additionally, it is well known that children from broken homes who experienced neglect or a lack of love are psychologically unbalanced and unable to cope with life’s challenges. The child is caught in the middle and will suffer when there is family strife or a disagreement between a mother and a father. According to Blackby (2000), sufficient research must be done in this area to ensure a child’s smooth transition from childhood to adulthood.
History of the Study
The home has been thoroughly discussed and defined by numerous authors. Homeby (2004) defines a broken home as one where the parents have separated, divorced, or are no longer married as a result of a death. According to Udry (2004), a broken home is one where the parents are no longer cohabitating. In accordance with other research studies on broken homes, children from broken homes are more likely to be aggressive and engage in juvenile delinquency.
Children from such a home (a broken home) lack proper care and security. When evaluating the definition, consider a situation (broken home can result to poor academic achievement in student as once the child misses such opportunity of guide, securities affection and assistant where necessary).
The best and initial education is provided by the child’s home and family because they act as their teachers. The parent set the stage for the child’s desired development on the social, moral, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual levels.
The education a child received at home plays a critical role in the development of his or her overall personality as well as in how well they perform academically as secondary school students. Additionally, it can be seen that a number of factors, including the family’s economic and social standing in the neighborhood, among many others, affect a student’s performance in school.
According to Abdulganiyu (2002), studies have shown that children differ in a variety of ways depending on factors related to their home environment, such as socioeconomic status, parental attitudes toward education, and parenting techniques. These factors from the child’s home environment are also discovered to be positively related to their academic success.
Giwa (1997) has also looked into the various aspects of a student’s home life or family that may influence how well they perform academically. Variables like socioeconomic status, family size, birth order, parental attitudes, and child-rearing techniques have been found to have an impact on children’s social and intellectual learning experiences in school.
This is true because children have certain psychological, emotional, and intellectual needs at birth, including the need for security and love, the need for novelty, the need for praise and recognition, and the need for accountability. Children from broken homes often lack many of these necessities, which affects how well they perform in school.
The degree to which these needs are met in a child’s early years, from birth until the age of six or seven, determines the degree to which the child enters school prepared to handle the social and emotional aspects of schooling. Based on the aforementioned observation, it is reasonable to assume that cultural practices that encourage widespread divorce among couples and cause unnecessary hardship for the developing children are undermining the economic and social future of many children in the majority of localities.
It is important to note at this point that despite the needs that students, especially secondary school students, have expressed, this research also aims to determine how much a secondary school student’s academic performance is impacted by whether or not his home is stable.
Statement Of The Problem
Children in our society are occasionally exposed at a young age to various risks related to diseases, malnutrition, and various temptations to survive in the absence of one or both of their parents. Students who live in dysfunctional families have been shown to experience emotional stress, which can hinder intellectual growth and leave these kids unprepared for adulthood.
However, young children are deprived of the consistent love, care, security, and total support they have grown accustomed to when one or both parents are absent, and this can cause them to stand out among their peers. Children become embarrassed and ashamed if they are asked where the missing parent is or why they have a new parent to take their place.
Such a stressful situation causes psychological, emotional, and intellectual imbalance in developing children, and they may also feel guilty and unwanted by society. These subsequently lead to secondary school dropout rates or poor academic performance. For students to perform up to expectations in the classroom, they need to be able to think critically, relax, and have the support of their families.
In order to find a solution to the issues affecting the psychological well-being of growing children in our society, it is therefore necessary to investigate the factors that lead to broken homes. This leads us to examine the impact of broken homes on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria.
Research Issues
To direct this study, the following research questions have been developed.
1. In Nigeria, do secondary school students experience any significant effects from their homes?
2. Does the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria affected in any way by broken homes?
3. Does the socialization of the home have any appreciable influence on secondary school students’ academic performances in Nigeria?
4 Is there a noticeable difference between secondary school students from broken homes and those from intact homes in terms of their academic performance?
Study Hypothesis
1. There is no discernible impact of broken homes on secondary school students.
2. There is no discernible difference between secondary school students from intact families and those from broken homes in terms of their academic performance.
3. The socialization of the home has no discernible impact on the academic performance of secondary school students.
Goals of the Study
The following is the main goal of this research project.
to evaluate the influence of broken homes on Nigerian secondary school students.
to learn the reasons for broken homes in Nigeria and how to fix them.
to look for a remedy for the frequent divorce of couples.
to determine how the absence of one or both parents affects the academic performance of secondary school students.
to offer advice on how to avoid needless divorce between men and women
Objectivity of the Study
The goal of this study is to determine the effects of broken homes on secondary school students’ academic performance in Nigeria. This is done in an effort to make recommendations for minimizing and solving the issue. Broken homes are one of the factors that undermine the socialization process at home, which negatively impacts student performance.
The home plays a very important role in a child’s personality development and socialization. If secondary schools in particular are concerned with a child’s socialization process as well as his intellectual development, then this research would be very important to parents, teachers, and society at large because it shows how a child’s academic career can be affected by the absence of one or both parents.
Finally, it will help future researchers because the discovery can be used to review the literature.
Study’s Purpose and Limitations
Even though the issues that motivated this study were discovered to exist in various regions of the nation, particularly in the north, it is not feasible for this research to cover all of these areas. Due to a lack of time and resources, the research and researchers were unable to collect data from all relevant sources (both human and material resources).
The research will only be conducted in the Esan West Local Government Area of the Edo State, as indicated in the research’s title. It should be noted, however, that some local government areas may not be adequately represented in the work, and not all participants may cooperate during the research exercise, so there will inevitably be limitations.
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THE INFLUENCE OF A BROKEN HOME ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE