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THE EFFECTS OF BROKEN HOME ON PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

ABSTRACT

This research work investigated the effects of broken home on psychological adjustment of secondary school students in Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State. This research work employed the use of questionnaire in gathering data for analysis and it consist of the following item, school of the respondents, age, sex, class, religion. Data is presented in tables and frequencies while percentage was used to analyse. From the analysis children from broken home do lack affection, involved in delinquent behaviours and always hostile and aggressive, and do not perform well academically. And more so, single mother and father affect the children educational outcome. With the result obtained and fact finding highlight families and the causes of with whom children live have more impacts on children’s educational achievement. In conclusion, it was recommended that children from single parent family or broken homes, should be encouraged on three basic dimension of self esteem namely sense of belonging, sense of worth and sense of competence. They need positive change for the overall adjustment. Also parents should tolerate, accommodate, appreciate and understand each other in marriage so as to curb the effects on children’s future. Both parent should try to stay together for the sake of good upbringing of their children, when ever there is problem in the home, the couple should seek God’s direction and a good counsellor for help or otherwise, settle the problem within themselves amicably.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The academic performance of students in schools is a product of many factors which are:

(i)        Home

(ii)       The quality of teachers

(iii)     The availability of learning materials

(iv)     The willingness of the learner.

            But the most important of them all is the “HOME”. All over the world, Nigeria in particular education has been accorded a place of pride because it is the means through which the cultures of different societies are transmitted from one generation to another.

            Imogie (2002) says that one of the factors affecting standard of education in the country is single parenthood and broken homes which has had serious effect on many students nationwide.

            In Nigeria today, broken home is a great problem and it occurs in a situation whereby couples are not able to cope with each other. It may be as a result of financial constraint or incompatibility of their behaviours. Hence the child live with either of the parents. In order to make ends meet, the parent will not be at home most of the time. The child is deprived of love and affection and parents’ enlightenment and motivation on how to go about things.

            The family in this situation becomes less important as an educating agent, where the parent who has the custody of the child will have to remarry, the child may not be acceptable by the step-parent, such a child becomes a liability instead of an asset. The child maybe maltreated in various forms i.e. inadequate food and money to schools and will therefore be exposed to social ills. Broken home are being experiences by all categories of students either high, middle and low socio-economic.

            It is worthy to note that majority of high school students in the country who got poor grades in their academic subjects came from broken home. Some of them were not just having poor academic performance but instead they let themselves be retained at their year level after dropping out their respective subject.

            There are so many factors that causes broken home which are:

(i)                Financial factors

(ii)             Socio-economic background

(iii)           Wrong choice of partners

(iv)           External interference

(v)             Lack of love

(vi)           Promiscuity

(vii)        Infertility

(viii)      Polygamy

·                    Wrong choice of partner: This is when both partners always regret marrying each other the only language they understand is disagreement.

·                    External interference: This is very common, those days many broken homes today are caused by interference of external body.

·                    Lack of love: This is one of the major reasons why many couple have fallen apart today love they say does not fade. The truth is that when one of the spouses had found a new love elsewhere him/her become desperate and start looking for means to breakup.

            In the same way, we have so many effects of broken home on psychological adjustment of secondary school students which are:

1)                 Broken home can make a child insecure in the sense that he can no longer have a complete family. In a child’s mind, a family is composed of father, mother and children. And living without either his/her father or mother will create fear and insecurity in him/her. This insecurity will even be much if he is around his friends who are living a normal and complete life. This is especially true in school activities that involve the parents and seeing things like this will even make him feel ashamed of his family situation.

2)                 The insecurity, self-doubt and lack of confidence in a child can eventually make him disinterested in school more often those who are out of school are products of broken home.

3)                 Although, lets say one parent is still guiding his child, sometime the traumatic effect of a broken home is just too much for a child to handle that he may even loose interest in life itself.

4)                 Sometimes a child reaction on his parents’ announcement of divorce is not visible. He bears the pain, shock and anger. This in turn makes him vulnerable (exposed to the possibility of being attacked) to anger depression, revenge, crimes, drugs and so on too much depression, alcohol addiction and drug dependency, if left untreated can lead to more serious psychological problem i.e. mental illness. He may even attempt to kill himself if he can no longer handle all the misfortune which he thinks is killing him gradually.      

1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

            This research study aimed at exploring the academic performance of secondary school students that are from broken homes, likewise it will find out the effect of broken home on psychological adjustment of secondary school students in Abeokuta South Local Government Area. It will also provide solution to the problems raised in the work.

1.3     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1)                 Does the number of children in a family affect the psychology adjustment of some students in secondary schools?

2)                 What is the difference in the academic performance between children from intact, separated and divorced families?

3)                 To what extent does broken home affect psychological adjustment of students?

4)                 Does widowhood affect the student’s psychological adjustment?  

1.4     PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purposes of this study are as follows:

(i)        To identify and discuss the types of broken home.

(ii)       To highlight the effect of broken home on psychological    adjustment.

(iii)     To highlight the academic performance of secondary school students broken homes.

(iv)     To highlight the challenges of students from broken homes in their academic achievements.

1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is expected that the result obtained from this study apart from identifying the effect of broken home on psychological adjustment of students will also be of great value to the curriculum planner and teachers since this study tends to look at the effect of broken home on psychological adjustment of secondary school students and the way out in bringing about positive changes in the student academic performance. This study is also expected to draw the attention of educator, parent and government to the need of broken home reduction.

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research work is limited to investigate the effect of broken home on psychological adjustment of secondary school students in Abeokuta South Local Government Area.  

1.7     DEFINITION OF TERMS

Broken Home: A family that no longer live together because the parents are divorced or separated in which children lack proper security.

Psychological: Is an academic and applied discipline that involve the scientific study of human behaviours and mental processes.

Adjustment: Regulating adapting or setting in a variety of contexts on the act of adjusting something to match and standard.

Single Parenthood: Is a situation whereby one of those parent is no longer in union that produce the child or children.

Widowhood: Is the disruption of marriage due to the death of the spouse, in a source of great emotional pain and stress.

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