Effect Of Broken Family On The Perfomance Of A Child

The family is the child’s first place of contact with the world. The child as a result, acquires initial education and socialization from parents and other significant persons in the family. Agulana (2009) pointed out that the family lays the psychological, moral, and spiritual foundation in the overall development of the child. Structurally, family/homes is either broken or intact. A broken home in this context, is one that is not structurally intact, as a result of divorce, separation, death of one parent and illegitimacy. According to Frazer (2001), psychological home conditions arise mainly from illegitimacy of children, the label of adopted child, broken home, divorce and parental deprivation. Such abnormal conditions of the home, are likely to have a detrimental effect on school performance of the child he asserts. Life, in a single parent family or broken home can be stressful for both the child and the parent. Such families are faced with challenges of inadequate financial resources (children defense fund, 2004). Schultz (2006) noted that if adolescents from unstable homes are to be compared with those from stable homes, it would be seen that the former have more social, academic and emotional problems.

Scales and Roehlkepartain (2003), are of the opinion that the family and its structure play a great role in children’s academic performance. Levin (2009), also states that parents are probably the actors with the clearest undimentional interest in a high level of their children’s academic performance. To some extent, there is simple evidence to show that marital instability brings about stress, tension, lack of motivation and frustration. Obviously, these manifestations act negatively on a child’s academic performance. Johnson (2005) asserts that children of unmarried parents/separated families often fail and are at risk emotionally. However, this may not be completely applicable in all instances of broken homes. Some children irrespective of home background or structure may work hard and become successful in life. Moreover, Ayodele (2006) stated that the environment where a child finds himself/herself goes a long way in determining his learning ability and ultimately his academic performance in school.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There is a global awareness of the importance of the home environment on students’ academic achievement. In Nigeria, most homes are not intact as a result of issues of incompactibility of the couples, death of a parent and the quest for oversea trips to make more money, and at times marital infidelity. This has resulted in the separation of couples and children. In some states in the federation, this is quite prevalent, in that most young ladies abandon their homes, and embark on oversea trips with a view to making money. Some men who travel abroad, abandon their homes and would not communicate with families back home, so children from such homes are in a dilemma, especially in terms of adjustment. Ichado (1998) notes that the environment in which the students come from can greatly influence his performance in school. Ajila and Olutola (2007), Nzewuawah (1995) are of a similar opinion that the home environment has been recognized as having a relationship with the academic achievement of students. The effects of broken homes may impact greatly on the internal organization of the family and by extension, affect a child’s emotion, personality and academic achievement.

Bearing in mind the role of the family in a child’s education, the failure of the family to perform its duties could hinder the child’s academic achievement. Any nation that is desirous of advancing technologically will no doubt ensure that the future of her future leaders (the adolescents) is well guided, protected and guaranteed. Efforts would be made by such a nation to ensure that children from broken homes are identified, counselled and encouraged so as to develop their innate potentials, and contribute towards national development. Therefore, there is the need for this study in Nigeria, as the issue of broken homes are with us in the society, moreso, as economic hardship has been seen as a contributory factor to this phenomenon (Ordedi 2001 & UNICEF, 2004). It becomes imperative that a study on the relationship between broken home and student academic achievement should be investigated, in view of the fact that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow. Their academic and emotional well-being, if given the appropriate attention, will go a long way in ensuring that their potentials are harnessed, and put into use for national development Consequently, the major problem of this study is to determine the relationship between broken homes and students’ academic achievement.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of this study is to determine the effect of broken homes on the performance of a child. Other objectives of the studies are: i. To find out the relationship between broken homes and academic achievement of males and females. ii. To determine the relationship between socio-economic status of parents on academic achievement of child from broken homes.

Research Hypotheses
To guide the study, the following research hypotheses were formulated: 1. There is no significant relationship between broken homes and academic performance of a child. 2. There is no significant difference between single- parenting and academic performance of a child.

3. There is a significant difference between parental socio- economic status and academic performance.

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES
In this chapter, relevant literature will be reviewed base on the different themes and sub-themes such as:
2.1 Broken Homes
2.2 Broken homes and Academic Performance of a child
2.3 Single Parenting in Nigeria
2.4 Theoretical Framework  etc

CHAPTER THREE
3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter will give detail of the research design to be employed, and examine the procedure for the selection of the subject through sampling approaches, the instruments of data collection will be extensively discussed and end with a brief highlight of techniques available for data processing and analysis. 3.2 POPULATION OF STUDY

The population of the study is entire people living in Lagos State. 3.3 STUDY SAMPLE
The sample size that will be used from the population of the study is 50 respondents; this will represent the total population of the study. 3.4 STATISTICAL TOOL APPLIED IN DATA ANALYSIS
The research study will utilize the descriptive research survey to generate primary and secondary data for the research topic. The data collected will be analyzed through the use of simple percentage, tables, descriptive analysis and Chi-square. In analyzing the data, the analytical tools to be used are percentage descriptive analysis and Chi-square. The Chi-square formula is as follows: Formula: x2 = ∑ (0i – ei)ei
Where x2 = Chi-square
0i = Observed data
ei = Expected data

The operational assumption of 5% level of significance will be utilized. The method will be use in chapter four (4), which follows suit to the hypothesis formulated in chapter one. Decision rule to be employed is reject the null hypothesis if the calculated value is greater than the table value and affect the alternative hypothesis generally.

CHAPTER FOUR
4.0PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter deals with the presentation and analysis of data collected during the research work conducted. The effort here is to present the data collected from the different respondents in a more meaningful ways to the readers. Hence, each response will be presented in percentage in relation to the general or overall responses received in each particular case. This will be done to raise comparison among the variables involved and the guard the heart of the researcher into proper findings.

CHAPTER FIVE
5.0SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter deals with the summary of finding of the whole discussion and conclusion will be made from the same premises together with recommendations and some suggestions for further studies on the research topic. Thereafter, Bibliography and questionnaire that will be used for the research work will be included.

REFERENCES

Agulana, G.G. (2009). Family structure and prevalence of behavioural problems among Nigerian adolescents,. The Counsellor, 17(1), 154-161.

Ajila, C. & Olutola, A. (2007). Impact of Parents’ socio-economic status on University student’s academic performance: Ife Journal of Educational studies. 7(1), 31-39.

Ayodele S.O. (2006). Educational opportunities for Nigerian learner; How do we fare thus far? A paper presented at the workshop organized by Network for Gender Sensitive Educational Management in Africa and the British Counsul in Nigeria.

Bielinski, T., & Davidson, M.I. (2001). A sex difference by item difficulty interaction in multiple choice item administered to national probability samples. Journal of Educational Measurement, 38, 51-77.

Bliss, I. (2004). Social class differences in conception of the use of Toys.
London: Macquibben Kee, 45-47.

Frazer, W.J. (2001). Family structure, Parental Practices and High School Completion. American Sociology Review, (56), 309-320.

Friedman, I. (2005). The space factor in Mathematics Gender Difference? Review of Educational Research 6(1), 22-50.

Nzewuawah, P.N. (2005). The effects of single-parenthood on the Academic Performance of students. Unpublished M.Ed. Project. University of Lagos.

Schultz, G. (2006). Broken family structure leads to Educational Difficulties for children. Journal of Educational Psychology. 27, 70-80.