RESEARCH PROPOSAL
ON
THE EFFECT OF
BROKEN HOME ON PUPILS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL, ONDO WEST AS A
CASE STUDY
Background to the
Study
A home
is defined as the house, flat or apartment that an individual lives in with
his/her family. Family is defined as any two people who are related to each
other. This includes genetic connection, adoption, marriage or by mutual
agreement. The nuclear family comprised of married couple with their biological
or adopted child/children living together in one household. This type of
nuclear family is referred to by social scientists as an “intact family
(home)”, signifying that the family has been through a divorce or separation by
death of a member (Conkline, 2006). Broken homes are defined as one in which
one of the partners looses his/her spouse by death separation, divorce,
desertion or single parenting (Conkline, 2006). Deborah (2002) sees broken
homes as a situation where two spouses separate leaving the children to the
hazard of the society.
Broken
home is a home torn apart Broken homes occur when husband and wife separate
from each other through either natural causes (death) or by human cause
(divorce), leaving the care and responsibility of the children to one parent.
Divorce could be temporal or permanent. It is temporal when there is still hope
of coming together after the relevant laws must have been put in place. This is
to ensure that issues that created the temporal separation are settled. But if
the divorce is permanent, it means there is no hope of coming together. Divorce
has to do with either one of the partners quitting or saying “bye bye” to
his/her spouse as a result of infidelity, pride, superstition, religion,
disagreement, in-laws interferences, alcoholism, and disrespect for one another
or bulling (violence). According to Johnson (2006), twenty-nine percent (29%)
of women who had ever been married or had lived with a man in common law
relationship, had experienced at least one episode of violence/bulling by a
husband; such relationship are more likely to end in disaster, rather than
peaceful atmosphere.
Death
is natural cause of why homes tear
apart. It is unpredicted phenomenon that has gone beyond any body’s control. It
can occur as a result of war, illness, accident, and through natural disaster
such as flooding, earthquake, and plane crash or bomb blast. Single parent
families are result of divorce (Wadworth, 2002). Unfortunately, the growth in
the number of children born into broken homes is increasing by the day especially
in Nigeria (Nwachukwu, 2008).
Over
the years, the investigation of the factor that influence academic performance
of student have attracted the interest and concern of teachers, counselors,
psychologists, researcher and school administration in Nigeria (Wiseman 2003).
This is because of the public outcries concerning the low standard of education
in the country and unbaked graduates being produced from our universities
(Imogie, 2002). Poor family structure (broken home) due to either natural cause
or divorce is one of the factors responsible for the poor academic performance
of student in secondary schools (Wiseman, 2003).
Broken
home has more impact on the academic performance of student in schools in urban
area than in remote villages. This is because those students from broken homes
in the cities are affected by change of school due to inadequate financial
resources or poverty, poor study habit and low self concept. Parents from
broken homes are usually found in low status jobs because they enter work place
early with few skills and little or no experience. They begin parenting in poverty
and likely to remain in poverty which has an impact on academic performance of
their children (Dowd, 2007). Fatherlessness constrains students to poverty;
students whose homes are headed by father are six times better than students
whose homes are without parental care (Murphy, 2002). Students from broken
homes in remote villages have nothing to challenge them. The existence of extended
family will not allow them to feel the impact of poverty as those in the cities.
They have much to occupy them like farming and petty trading and so on.
The environment
(location) in which the students come from can greatly influence his/her
performance at school (Ichado, 1998). However, the findings on gender difference
in children’s responds to marriage separation (broken homes) have been
contradictory. Some researches point to more adjustment problem for boys in
broken homes or families than for girls (Guidubaldi and Perry, 2005). While Farber
(2003); Kinard and Reiherz (2004) observe negative effect on girls than boys.
In terms of crime, boys are affected by divorce very deeply than girls.
Children belonging to
lower socio-economic group after divorce experience greater hardship. These hardships
translate into adjustment problem.
Family
separation has more impact on younger children’s academic performance than the
older children (Hetherington, 1999). The reviewed literature indicated that
there is an awareness of the importance of the home environment (family) on the
students’ academic performance. The home has a great influence on the students’
psychological, emotional, social and economic state.
Statement of the
Problem
In our
society generally student academic performance is very poor. If there further
investigation we will notice most of these students are from broken homes
when the caring rate for them is very
poor. Such pupils do not have bearing. At times their fees would not be part,
you always see these pupils everywhere. They are not expected such
students always play beyond control in
school and so many factor are responsible for their academic performance. This
kind of students find it necessary to cope academically due to one reason or
the other some of them are exceptional children(genius) but for the simple fact
that they have little or no care, many are not well fed.
The
statement of the problem is therefore stated thus, to what limit do broken
homes causes by separation divorce or death of parents affect children or
student academic achievement. The children social life could also be affected
because they became a problem to their society juvenile delinquency, introvert,
behavioural disorder etc. that is a sociological deficiency.
Objectives of the
Study
The major objective of this research work will be
to determine the effect of broken on pupils academic performance in Ondo West
local government area.
The specific objective will be to;
1.
To examine the effect of broken home on pupils
academic performance
2.
To find out how absence of one or both parent
influence pupils academic performances in school.
3.
To find out whether there is significant
differences in academic performances of pupils from broken home and those from
stable home.
4.
To Explore the perception of children in broken
marriages and the effects of their status on their academic performance
Research Questions
1.
To what extent does broken home affect pupils
academic performance
2.
Does absence of one or both parent influence
pupils academic performances in school.
3.
Is there any significant differences in academic
performances of pupils from broken home and those from stable home.
4.
What are children’s perceptions on the effects of
broken marriage to their academic performance?
Significance Of The Study
The
research will be useful to parent young couple and school age children and
pupils in Ondo west in particular and
other part of the country as a whole. The study will expose the society to the
problem encountered by couple in the marital life. In addition, it will provide
solution to the problem of psychologically depressed and frustrated children or
pupils from broken homes.
Scope Of The Study
The
study will covers Ondo West Local Government
Area as a case study on the effect of broken homes on pupils academic
achievement. The study will be limited
to five selected primary School in Ondo
West Local Government Area
Research design
The researcher
will used survey design of the
descriptive type of research for this study. The researcher will considered
that this type of design will be suitable for the study because it will allows
a wide coverage within a limited time. In a survey study, the researcher will selected
the sample from the segment of population, for an exploratory study to enable
her to have a representative opinion of the characteristics of the subjects.
Population of the study
the population of this study will comprises of all the pupils in
five selected secondary schools in Ondo West Local Government Area
Sample and sampling techniques
The sample for this
study will comprised of one hundred
twenty respondents. The sampling techniques that will be used for this study will be simple random
sampling techniques.. The sample will cuts
across twenty teachers and one hundred pupils
in five selected primary schools in Ondo local government area of ekiti state
Instrument for data collection
The instrument
that will be used for this research work is a questionnaire named effect of broken home on pupils
performance (EBHPP). It will be designed
by the researcher along with the variables under study and the question it
contains will be drawn from the research questions.
Validation of the instrument
The face and
content validity of the instrument will be done by the researcher’s supervisor
and two other experts in the field of ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT. The corrections pointed out will be effected in the final draft
of the questionnaire.
Reliability of the instrument
The reliability
of the instrument will be carried out on 20 respondents who did not form part
of the final subjects that will be used for this study at two-week interval.
The test-retest method of reliability will be used to test for the reliabiltity
Administration of the instrument
A letter of introduction will be collected
from the school through the Head of Department (HOD) which will be taken to the
selected schools. The administration of the questionnaire will be done by the
researcher. The researcher will distributed the questionnaires to the
respondents. Adequate time will be given
to the respondents to respond to the questionnaire. Completed questionnaire
will be collected on the spot.
Data analysis techniques
The data gotten from the
study will be subjected to statistical analysis of frequency counts and simple
percentage 
