Introduction
Academic performance has been viewed by many scholars based on their perceptions of what education is all about. According to Amadi (2007) academic performance is an objective score of attainment after a specified instructional programme. Academic performance can be influenced by many factors, but the impact family relationships play on an adolescent’s scholastic achievement alongside the development of the adolescent cannot be overemphasized. This may be associated with tensions in the home, family discord or family instability.
Agbo, Salami and Alaeode (2011) stated that challenges resulting from broken homes cumulatively produce an emotionally barren atmosphere in the home. The gradual development of these problems till its full manifestation directly affects the emotions of growing children especially young adolescents and can adversely disrupt the level of concentration and learning abilities of these children in school. Thus, the family structure a child emanates from can seriously affect the academic performance of an individual especially an adolescent.
Uwaifo (2008) asserted that children from stable homes do better in their academic pursuits in their various schools due to their emotional stability/balance and family than those from unstable or broken homes. In addition, he stressed that broken home is a situation that arises when a man or woman losses his/her spouse by death, a man or a woman divorces his/her spouse, family separation, single parenting and never married but with a child/children.
Adolescents bred from this kind of families (broken homes) usually face different forms of emotional problems caused by lack of adequate parental care, serious financial insolvency, unstable/lack of family relationship, perceived and unperceived aggression, less involvement in formal social relations and organised group activities. All these evolve from the family structure and in turn have a very strong impact on the educational attainment in the development of the child (Amato, 2011).
Conceptual framework on broken homes
According to Uwaifo (2008), a broken home or family is one in which both parents are separated. It is a process after the final termination of a marital union, cancelling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bound of matrimony between the couples. When a marriage breaks up, both parties of such union no longer bears the fulfilment of the union. In other words, opposite of the union becomes the situation.
Broken marriage exposes children to several physiological, emotional and psychological problems. Amato (2011) stated that broken homes results to several behavioural consequences on children by stating that these consequences are closely linked with the changing family dynamics in the process preceding the breakup of the family and after the actual break up.
Salami and Alawode (2008) stated that children who grow up living with both biological parents present seem to do better, on average a wide range of social indicators than children who grow up in a single parent’s household. For example, they are less likely to drop-out of school, become teen parent, be arrested and be unemployed. They also noted that negative, psychological effects are almost unavoidable for children from broken marriages. In the opinion of Akinlayo (2012), much, if not most of the psychological damages caused by a broken home is directed towards the children that are wedged in the middle of dispute they are relatively powerless to intervene in their parents’ affairs to stop the dissolution of marriage.
Causes of broken homes
The broken homes rate tends to continually increase as a result of some factors which are usually related in nature. Some of these factors as identified by Ichalo (2008) include:
- Lack of communication: Owing to financial state in each family, many people are busy; they have inadequate time to talk the problem with their partner. Some couples are often quiet when they have problem with each other which produces the likelihood of broken homes.
- Lack of maturity: When one is still immature, and does not have any idea about marriage, no matter how understanding the other spouse is, this can still lead to broken homes.
- Addiction: One of the top reasons for broken homes is addition. Whether it is alcoholism, substance abuse or gambling. If any of these are present in a relationship, then it is more likely that the relationship will end.
Kim (2013) stated three (3) reasons for broken homes
- Cheating: Many people said that if their partner cheats on them, they would end the relationship. Although not every couple feels this way, some people indicated a willingness to work through. When infidelity occurs many thought they will not stay a relationship or restore trust in their partner.
- Dishonesty: Many people in happy relationships said if their spouse lied to them, they may not be able to continue the relationship. For many people, the marriage should be built on absolute trust. When the trust is abused or broken, some cannot maintain that relationship.
- Abuse: Some people state that if their spouse hit them physically or sexually abuse their children, the relationship would be over.
- Lack of trust: This is another reason why marriages fail. What causes lack of trust is infidelity, extramarital affairs and constant lying by any of the spouse. Immediately that trust is broken, the marriage now begins to go downhill. When a couple exchange their wedding vows on the altar, they actually trade their exclusivity to one another. They both gave their freedom, time, love, trust to the other spouse, then when one spouse betray the trust, then the other spouse will feel disappointed.
- Allowing past relationships into their marriage: Sometimes people bring in the excess baggage of their past relationships into their marriage. They may have previously been hurt or coming from a previous bad relation. They tend to allow it to affect their marriage by pre-judging their spouse; they found themselves thinking about their past relationships and compare it to their marriage and they put their marriage under pressure and risk of failure because their partner cannot meet up with the former relationships.
Broken homes on adolescents’ academic performance
The psychological development of the adolescent is greatly influenced by the structure of the family in which adolescent is raised (Alec & Babara, 2014). Broken home is generally associated with increased stress and emotional difficulties among adolescents due to the amount of family conflict experienced by the adolescents in the process preceding and after the occurrence of separation and divorce. Okemiri (2010) stated that being unable to understand the reason why the divorce is occurring create a repressed anger on adolescents which may be channelled into destructive patterns. These patterns may include, poor academic performance, compensatory lying, self-doubt, self-estrangement, compulsive rituals, malevolent dreams, and other delinquent behaviours (Alec & Babara, 2014).
Over the years, the investigations of the factors that influence academic performance of students have attracted the interest and concern of teachers, counsellors, psychologists, researchers and school administrators in Nigeria. For example, Asabor (2009) have attributed the cause of poor academic performance to a combination of personal and institutional factors. Personal factors relate to the individual’s intelligence, knowledge and ability. While institutional factors are family or parental influences, societal influences, institutional influences and school related factors.
Nwachi (2013) revealed that an adolescent can stand helpless in a divorce situation and may become so frustrated that they might strive toward unreal and unattainable psychological compensation. In child development, an important factor is that a child’s anger at loss can be channelled incorrectly or poorly and that separation anxiety may become overpowering with its associated negative consequences on their academic performance.
Factors influencing academic performance of adolescents from broken home
The home environment or family has been recognized as having a lot of influence on the academic performance of students (Nzewuanah, 2013). Ichado (2008) stated that parent’s constant disagreement affects children emotionally and this could lead to poor academic performance in school. Parents living in the same household as the child would be a better environment for children’s development than a single-parent family. According to this view, the absence of one parent from the household may be problematic for children’s socialization and academic performance.
Carl (2011) says that broken homes introduce a massive change into the life of an adolescent witnessing loss of love between parents, having parents break up their marriage commitment will create a challenging new family circumstance in which to live. Basically, broken homes tend to intensify the child dependence and it often tends to accelerate the adolescent’s independence. It often elicits a more regressive response in the child and more aggressive response in the adolescent.
For the adolescent, a broken home shakes trust and independency on parents who now behave in an extremely undependable way. Research has established that children from broken homes are at a higher for adjustment problems than children from intact families. For broken homes children experience less financial security, low academic achievement, more alcohol and cigarette abuse because of depression and lower rates of employment as young adults.
Solutions to broken homes and its Influence on academic performance
To find a solution to the problem of broken homes is not easy by any means. One possibility is to extend research into marriage counselling, increasing levels of training for marriage counsellors will give parents someone with education and insight into family relationships to assist them in times of disagreement. Constructing the field of marriage into a more prestigious role will more than likely increase the number of marriage counsellors throughout the world. An increase in the number of therapists will improve the availability of help for troubled families (Agulanna, 2009)
Ajila and Olutola (2007) suggested that discussing their problems in a comfortable productive setting will do wonders for a family on the verge of separation. Education is also necessary to deal with this problem. People must learn how to communicate with their spouses and compromise when it is needed. Men and women need to be careful when mate selection is considered to ensure that they will have full compatibility with each other. When a couple marries, they must learn to be tolerant of each other’s behaviour and learn how to express themselves productively to see the stress causing by raising a family.
Another possible solution would be to have the government set up more marriage or family oriented classes in high schools and colleges around the country. The research regarding broken homes must be shown to young adults in order for them to understand what the bond of marriage is supposed to mean. People should be more educated about the lasting effects that broken homes can have on them and their children (Amato & Rogers, 2007).
References
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