EFFECTS OF MARRIAGE DIVORCE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF ISLAMIC STUDY STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS (A CASE STUDY OF EDE AND NORTH LGA OSUN STATE)


EFFECTS OF MARRIAGE DIVORCE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF ISLAMIC STUDY STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS (A CASE STUDY OF EDE AND NORTH LGA OSUN STATE)  

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Divorce is legal dissolution of marriage bond. Once the couple decide to divorce, they are free to remarry. In Nigeria, there has been the increase in the rate of divorce. There are two factors influencing the rising divorce rates in the Nigeria. The first factor is both men and women are relying less on one another for economic survival. As women gain status in their workplace or on their businesses, they often want to stand on their own and prefer to control their lives’ affair which enable them to be less dependent on their husbands, the heads of household. Women who are gainfully employed and self-sufficient may be more willing to dissolve a marriage because they are not perceived as a financially dependent spouse. Financial stability allows for the female head of household to have more flexibility to exit a broken marriage. Secondly, when both male and female parents gain political status in the society, one seems to be superior over the other due to political gain. They seem not to have chance to look after the family, especially the female ones who are more likely to be the victims of divorce (Akanbi, 2014).

Divorce, therefore, can be defined to be a personal misfortune for either of the spouse in any society, but is a universal escape for the inevitable tension of marriage, divorce as a matter of fact is a strong bound that breach two united individuals or family. This bond dissolution is as a result of extra-marital practice by the partners in early marriage, a situation where either the spouse is not ripe enough for marriage before getting married. Divorce may not only mean the end of living together between a man and a woman but also breeds instability in the society such as problem of delinquent children and some other complete cities, one increases in the rate of suicide, drunkenness, promiscuity and so on.  These problems affect the socio-economic and political life of any society coupled with the child’s academic achievement.

Divorce is an unplanned event in a family's life. It is something that affects each member of a family at different times and in different ways. About half of all marriages will end in divorce, leaving one million children each year to deal with the process of divorce (Martin, 2013).

Divorce rates in the United States rose since the Civil war, decreased during the Great Depression while peaking in 1980, and have remained around fifty percent since then. Most importantly and publicized aspects of divorce is the effects on children of such parents since the divorce rate itself has risen dramatically.  The actual number of children affected has correspondingly reached a staggering proportion.  Some of them turn out to become robbers, thieves and notorious when they experience hardship.  All these constitute unhealthy social atmosphere in the society, hence the retard progress of the nation in all realms since they serve as log in the wheel of progress (Lazar et al. 2015).

The home forms the basis of personality development which accompanies the individual throughout his/her life. As a result of broken home or divorce children fail to develop ties to one or few important persons in the family and when these ties are disrupted, the children are taught impaired relationship in adulthood; they feel better and caring as a happy person and at the same cannot concentrate on anything taught at school. When a mother is out of a home, leaving the children under charity and mercy of step mothers, these children are prone to many problems such as poor feeding, negligence not inspired to study or learn, diseases, sickness and emotional disturbances (Adewole, 2012).

Students under emotional heartache and stress at home often have emotions that interfere with their concentration during the school day. Poor school performance often agitates the parent and the dominos continue to fall as the student loses self confidence and experiences decreased performance in school. Students may have a difficult time concentrating on school work from divorce-related stress occurring at home. Students may face unique challenges of completing homeworks, assignments when organizing their homework, backpack, and paperwork between multiple homes. Students may lose confidence, blame themselves for the break-up, and see their parent's separation or divorce in a complicated way. The range of feelings that a student may encounter include: disbelief and denial, sadness, loss, loneliness, depression, anger, anxiety, fear, relief, and hope. Response to these feelings often results in different levels of intensity. While some students may experience mild anxiety and sadness, others may feel more intense emotions (Smith, 2012).

According to Hertherington in Hargreaves, (2013), students display problems during a variety of stages of family deterioration including times during this alteration period, either before parental separation, or directly subsequent to a parental separation. Students will sometimes experience delayed stress responses occurring years after a divorce in a form of post-traumatic stress (Hargreaves, 1991).One-third of school age-students in the selected schools in Ede North Local Government Area experience changes in family dynamics that show up in the school setting. Indicators such as depression, decline in academic achievement, poor attendance, loss of confidence, and disorganization may signal adjustment issues pertaining to divorce in a student's home.

Statement of the Problem 

Divorce in our society today has given rise to problems of various dimensions.  They include growth of indiscipline and lawlessness in our society, armed robbery, thieves, drug abuse and addiction, sex abuse, the indiscriminate behaviour such as branchiness in school, pick-pocketing, lying, examination malpractices and disrespect to constituted authority. There are many problems with single parenting or broken homes which at the long run reflect on the performance of students in schools. Some of these problems are:

i. Meeting of a gap on the students’ existence because there is no adult to guide and direct their behaviour and desires as children learn by imitation.

ii. There is increase in domestic work and redistribution of household chores, which leaves the students with little or no time for their studies.

iii. Also, it has been observed that children from broken homes suffer some other problems such as non-provision of some basic material needs like non-provision of some basic materials needs like food, clothing and learning material.

iv. In security, step parent do not show much love and affection to their step children. Thus, these children suffer from mental retardation, personality improvement and are always miserable. They show behavioral responses like lying, stealing, building and playing truant in school.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of marriage divorce on academic performance of Islamic studies students in secondary school, Ede North Local Government Area, Osun State.

Specifically, it investigates: 

1. The effect of marriage divorce on academic performance of Islamic Studies students base on age. 

2. The effect of marriage divorce on academic performance of Islamic Studies students base on gender. 

3. The effect of marriage divorce on academic performance of Islamic Studies students base on family size.

Many researches have been carried out on effect of marriage divorce and academic performance of students in secondary schools. These include Khojastehmehr & Takrimi (1998) who wrote on divorce factors of the divorce-seeking women in Khuzestan, Iran. The sample consisted of 592 divorce-seeking women, selected according to a multi-stage sampling method. A 93-item questionnaire containing reasons for divorce was constructed based on the views of 200 divorce-seeking women and was administered to the sample. Four factors were extracted: neglect of wife's wishes (40 items), husband and his family's lack of social skills (33 items), husband's social abnormalities (10 items) and husband and wife's personal and family incompatibilities (mismatches) (10 items). The findings of the study were immensely important including marital discord, preventive and therapy models of divorce and preparing a valid scale for measuring factors of divorce.

Also, Thornton (1985) carried out research on attitudes regarding separation and the effects of several social, economic, and demographic factors and attitude changes regarding divorce in Detroit area. He studied mothers and their children and their attitudes toward divorce and separation. He controlled factors such as Religion and Church attendance. He gathered his data from an intergenerational panel study of mothers and children drawn from July 1961 birth records in the Detroit area. The main findings of his research was that increasing divorce rates were accompanied by more acceptances of divorce and changes in people’s attitudes.

To the best knowledge of these researchers, no study has been carried out on effects of marriage divorce on academic performance of Islamic studies students in secondary schools Ede/North LGA Osun State. This is the gap that this study intends to fill.

Research Questions 

The study answered the following research questions  

1. Does divorce affect academic performance of Islamic Studies students base on age?

2. Does divorce affect academic performance of Islamic Studies students base on gender?

3. Does divorce affect academic performance of Islamic Studies students base on family size?

Research Hypotheses

Base on the research questions, the following hypotheses were formulated

H01: There is no significant difference between the effect of divorce and academic performance of Islamic studies students base on age.

H02: There is no significant different between the effect of marriage divorce and academic performance of Islamic studies students base on gender

H03: There is no significant different between the effect of marriage divorce and academic performance of Islamic studies students base on family size.

Scope of the Study

This study covered seven out of eleven secondary schools in Ede/North LGA Area of Osun States. The schools are:

1.    Muslim Grammar School Ede

2. Mapo – Arogun High School Ede

3. Agbale Secondary School Ede

4. C.A.C Grammar School Ede

5. Mapo Government Middle High School Ede

6. Muslim Middle High School Ede

7. Al-Fareed College Ede

It also included Islamic Studies teachers and students from the seven selected secondary schools

Significance of the Study   

It was hoped that the findings from this study would enrich programmes of teaching Islamic Studies. The result of this research would aid children from broken home to overcome and understand problems of single-parenting experienced by their parents and give them assurance who have been thought single parenting in the understanding of problem experienced by their parents and give them assurance about their future. 

The outcome of this study would help the educational planners and ministry of education to device a means of helping these children to improve in their academic achievement by organizing counseling programmes for the victims. It would enable the parents to be aware of the effect of divorce on the children academic performance. On educational research, it would enable researchers identifying more that needs to be addressed relating to fragility of marriages in recent time.

Definition of Operational Terminology 

⦁ Family: A group of persons, two or more related by blood, marriage or adoption residing together; all such persons are considered as members of one family.

⦁ Marriage: Union of man woman as husband and wife.

⦁ Couple: Two persons seen together as husband and wife.

⦁ Divorce: Put an end to a marriage by law.

⦁ Infidelity: Disloyalty or unfaithfulness of husband or wife sexually outside matrimonial homes.

⦁ Youngster: Young person or young boys and girls yet to marry.

⦁ Early marriage: A situation where either of the spouses is not ripe enough for marriage before getting married.

⦁ Emotion: Students under emotional heartache and stress at home often have emotions that interfere with their concentration during the school day.

⦁ Poor school performance: Poor school performance often agitates the parent and the dominos continue to fall as the student loses self confidence and experiences decreased performance in school.

⦁ Difficult Concentration: Students may have a difficult time concentrating on school work from divorce-related stress occurring at home. 

⦁ Challenges: Students may face unique challenges of completing homework assignments when organizing their homework, backpack, and paperwork between multiple homes.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents literature review of concepts and theories relevant to the research topic done under the following sub-headings:

a. Introduction to Literature Review 

b. Causes for the Increasing Rate of Divorce

c. Psychological Situation of the Divorcees

d. Post Divorce Life

e. Intervention for Better Adjustment of Divorced Persons

f. The Short-term Effect of Divorce on Students

g. The Long-Term Effect of Divorce on Students

h. Factors that Determine Students Reaction to Divorce

i. Empirical Review

j. Appraisal of the Literature Review

Introduction

Amato (2001) found that for offspring, adjustment to a divorce gets better with age. In correlation, Grant (1993) also found that age plays a role in how a child adapts to a divorce.  Grant (1993) found that children that had experienced parental divorce during preschool, rather later in adolescence would be better adjusted for life in college; the time of the divorce was the most negative. Kirk (2002) focused on young children experiencing parental divorce and found that since these children had not yet matured, adjustment would improve in the future. 

Amato (2001) also found that when comparing genders, a greater deficit in terms of adapting was more evident for boys than for girls. Thus, the results showed that the adjustment was easier for girls than for boys. In contrast to Amato (2001), Kirk (2002) found that no difference among gender was statistically significant. Rather, age better determines how the child will adapt to the divorce. Aro and  Palosaari (1992) focused more on the mental effects of divorce on children and found that depression rates were higher for girls than for boys. In addition to gender, parenting style may play a large role in how offspring adjust to a divorce.

Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan (1999) examined the negative effect of parental divorce for children in regard to their adjustment and the healthiest living situation for the child. It was found that the type of parenting style and relationship maintained between the parents and the child may determine how the child adjusts to the new divorce. Also, it was found that two-parents from the intact families were the healthiest living environments for a child. Hetherington (1993) found greater conflict between a mother and son in divorced families than in intact families. 

In terms of behaviour, the results of Ruschena, Prior, Samson, and Smart (2005) showed differences in terms of those that experienced divorce and those of intact families on the bases of internalizing, externalizing, and overall behaviour problems for 17 and 18 years old children. 

In terms of academics, a child of divorce may face more difficulty than those in intact families, due to having to cope with a familial, emotional, or residential change. Bulduc, Caron, and Logue (2007) specifically examined students that had experienced parental divorce while attending college. Out of the 17 students interviewed, only one-fourth reported their grades suffering due to the divorce. Similar to the work of Mulholland, Watt, Philpott, & Sarlin (1991), Bulduc, Caron, & Logue (2007), and Aro & Palosaari (1992) found academic performance of both girls and boys from divorced families to be inferior to that of children from non-divorced families. Grant (1993) found that children that had experienced parental divorce during preschool would be better adjusted for life in College.

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