The Psychological Effects Of Broken Homes On The Education Of Primary School Pupils

The Psychological Effects Of Broken Homes On The Education Of Primary School Pupils

The concept of home cannot be fully comprehended without first casting a glance at the issue of marriage. Marriage means the relationship between one man and one or more women that is recognized by custom, church or other laws. It is also a life time institution.

Uzor B.I. (1988) says “kinds of marriage include monogamy, polygamy or polyandry. There is also existence of marriage by widow inheritance, ghost exogamy and endogamy. It is very important to take note that marriage is the solid formation of the family group and the smallest existing social institution.

The family being the first primary group with which child comes into contact, transmits to the child its value of right and wrong (Noa, 1984).

Even after the child has entered school, this due education in the family does not stop rather, the family works hand in hand with the larger society. It is pertinent to know that while the influence of other groups and agencies with which the child comes into contact can be transient, that of the family remains more persistent throughout the life span of individual. The family constitutes the bed rock for the foundation of the society and  if the foundation is weak, the society will collapse.

According to Chareuba (1988), broken home as a concept means a state with misunderstanding of the marriage and the family structure. This implies maladjustment and malfunctioning psychological decay and the existence of family squabbles. This disorganization, Goode Charles (1988, 41) refers to it as the breaking up of the family unit. Furthermore, Goode listed five types of family disorganization as: illegitimacy, divorce, annulment, separation and desertion.

All family problems are embedded in broken homes. They are usually viewed as part of broken homes since the term broken home has been dissected; it therefore means that it is of different categories. It may be that quarrel within the home may not result into final dissolution. This also has its own causes and the results of the problems confronting the marriage institutions.

In a similar study, Chareuba (1983, 43), identified the reasons for broken homes as categorized below:

1. Divorce; caused by:
2. Maltreatment from man
3. Lack of proper care for the family

• Charge of adultery

1. Maladaptive behaviour e.g stealing by either party
2. Charge of witchcraft against wife
3. Separation; caused by:
4. The quest for job (social mobility)
5. Problem of urbanization

• Breakdown of social status

1. Economic inequalities (education)
2. Economic activities (trading)
3. Marriage without mutual consent
4. Wife dislikes husband
5. Husband dislikes wife

• Parental disagreement

1. Lack of true love – no reciprocal love
2. Broken Home due to Death of Bread Winner
3. wife
4. In-law of both party

• Untimely death of either party

1. Inter-Family Misunderstanding
2. Lack of respect for each other
3. Interference from the neigbours

• Childlessness

1. Feeling of individuality
2. Disrespect and disloyalty for husband’s relations

Furthermore, broken homes have also been known to be caused by poverty, misunderstanding between couples, external influences of in-laws, adultery, childlessness or sterility, love for material wealth instead of love for the husband, difference in educational attainment between husband and wife and disability such as blindness, paralysis, deafness etc.

Research has shown that there is a tendency for products of broken homes to likely experience problems in their marriages. A girl married from broken home has a high tendency to end-up in the same way. This is because they have been trained not to belong to a single man throughout their life time (Chareuba, 1988: 55).

At times, house maids may be the cause of broken homes. For instance, if the wife is a trader or a highly placed woman who travels for her trade or attends meeting in other cities, the man or husband may be tempted to have fun with the maid which could lead to divorce.

Daramota (ACE 1988) emphasizes that on no account should marital problems be allowed to generate to broken homes. According to him, when disagreement in the family results in disintegration of couples, the children are frequently anxious and have feelings which they cannot always cope with. It therefore implies that the children are always at the receiving end psychologically.

Henry Clay (1987) has this to say about the first educational experience of a child. According to him, the family provides the first educational experience of the child and not the school. The experience begins in infancy with the first attempt to guide and direct the child.

Nwa-Chil (1984: 11) views Harry Passo (1983) from his own perspective and states that: “A child from any circumstances who has been deprived of a substantial option of the variety of stimuli which he is maturationally capable of responding to is likely to be deficient in the equipment required for learning”. Learning is by no means simple, but accumulation process. A considerable body of evidences exists which indicates that interference with the learning process and specific tie during a course may result in disturbance in function that are both profound and of long term significance.

According to him, it has been recognized as a logical consequence that the education of the child depends grossly on the qualities of his parents. Also, anybody brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship, peace, love, concern etc will be fully awared that his talents should be devoted to the services of his fellow men. Besides, the obligation or responsibility of parenthood is the duty of parents to control and attempt to influence positively the destiny of their children.

Rev. Bernard Sonny Obiukwu (1985) in the study he carried out about the behaviour of children and adults of different races, ethnic groups and culture found out that children with permissive parents showed a terrible mark of indiscipline of which children from broken home fall in the group. He declares without doubts that most children who constantly exibit acts of in discipline in our school and public places are products of troubled or broken homes. It is obvious that truancy, disrespectfulness, dishonesty and cheating stem from poor family background.

What happens to children in female headed families gives three solid arguments on how family structure might influence delinquency.

1. Female heads may be working class types and will thus have less time for supervision of children in their care.
2. Fatherless boys are deprived of their opportunity to observe their father’s connection with the economic system and thus find it difficult to develop the long term horizon needed to appreciate legitimate activities.

• Attitude of broken home are oriented less towards legitimate behaviour and more towards delinquent behaviour (Fleisher, 1988:9)

Children from broken homes suffer a state of emotional shock. They are exposed to many life styles with many step-fathers and mothers. In one of the Lagos weekend News Paper I read, a girl lamented over the issues of being introduced into prostitution by her step mother. What a mess? For children, a broken home may lead to feeling of insecurity that continues through out childhood and adolescence.

His home training may make him uncertain about how he is supposed to feel about others. Education does not mean acquiring formal education in the classroom, it teaches on character moulding which is the core of home training, but home training is a joint responsibility for both the man and his wife. It has been agreed that just as orphans suffer some mental deficiency, so also do children without either father or mother around.

Duklein (1963) in his own contribution on socialization says that we must realize that man is what he is today based on what the society wishes him to be, and not the nature. It therefore means that society has influences on man which can either be positive or negative.

Nigeria Policy on Education (1981) agreed that Nigeria should be free, just and democratic society, a land full of opportunities for all its citizens, and a great dynamic and self-reliant nation.

An unstable family will only reduce the child to psychological servitude instead of freedom to develop his potentials in our dynamic economy.

Nimkoffis (1970) states that “nursery of human nature, lacks of genuine affection and security in childhood is one of the major causes of mental illness; emotional rejection of children by their parents can lead to juvenile delinquency.

Relationships with homes help to develop character and social responsibility in the child. The mind of the child is like clay ready to be molded into the fully retinal adult, but with the important provision that the mind of the child  already has  potentials to grow like a plant, into adult if given nourishment.

Benezerki et al (1978) emphasis that a happy marriage is one where  the balance is maintained between the physical and spiritual. To maintain that balance one must attend to the saying that “we must not let sexual love or gratification come between a person and his or her partner”. In other words, genital love making in marriage must not be pursued to the detriment of Christian conjugal love.

Ogbara Felix (1984-87) says, the child must often face the transaction from a broken home to a step child status. The child may have to shift between two homes and adjust to two home climates. The child may compare his home life with that of children from unbroken homes and the child may develop new and disturbed points of view towards both parents.

Louse Bares (1980) in his own contribution states that “if a child has the misfortune to be from unstable home, he has too many strikes against himself”.

Similarly, Omadamori in his write up in the Nigerian Herald of January 28^th 1989 has this to say, “The behavior on the educational progress of children is maladjustment. They are found not to be emotionally settled in the classroom and therefore constitute a disciplinary problem to the teacher and fellow pupils in particular who they feels disorganized as a result of their anti-social behavior. Apart from the above, they are prone to truancy and therefore do not contribute to the healthy growth of the school.

The following relevant points are not got from the Review of Related Literature.

1. When a disagreement results to the disintegration of a couple, the children are frequently anxious and have feelings which they cannot cope with.
2. Children who constantly cause disciplinary problems in our schools and public places are mostly product of broken homes.

• Truancy stems from broken homes.

1. Pupils from broken homes are not well catered for educationally, morally, physically and emotionally as well as socially.
2. A child who has been deprived of substantial portion of family is likely to be deficient in the equipment required for learning.
3. Children from broken homes lack financial support from their parents for their educational career.

• Most children from broken homes are school drop outs.
• Children from broken homes have no respect for elders in the society.

The behaviors of the pupils from broken homes are as follows:-

1. Experimenting in habits like smoking and drinking alcohol.
2. keeping late night

• engaging in boyfriend-girlfriend relationship

1. unwanted pregnancy and its consequencies
2. Engaging in immoral practices such as promiscuity, indecent dressing, etc.
3. A feeling of independence and underrating other people’s ideas.

• Disobedience at home and school.

He interprets meaningful advice from parents and teachers as acts of interference with his personal affairs and freedom of conscience. Interestingly, both western and African writers are against broken homes or marriages. Most of the works reviewed, vehemently contended against single parents because two parents in unity can produce a complete man. It is therefore necessary for every family to make sure that marriage succeeds.

No matter how ideal a family is in terms of their relationship, there is still hardship and misunderstanding which of course is just part of any relationship but the sad part of it is when one of the family members gives up and the other has no choice but to accept and let go. Thus, the family starts to break.

Broken homes are not a strange phenomenon but a common problem in our society. It mostly emanates from crisis or conflict which if not resolved ends in permanent separation.

However, a mere separation due to education, job, etc is not broken family or home, even though the family members are staying away from each other, for any home to be tagged broken, there must be some crises rooted from misconception, maltreatment, misunderstanding, promiscuity or unfaithfulness, etc. the occurring crises lead to the divorce of parents and abandonment of children. It is very controversial to say that every splitting is broken home. This is because in some splittings the parties still run the family well. There are many families without father, mother and systematically run the family. Such families may not be labeled broken home of course, rather there is a split because some members parted.

2.1 Parents Divorce

          Parents divorce can cause broken homes anytime, anywhere and anyhow. Divorce is not healthy for the family life but is happens. Divorce is claimed to be main reason behind broken homes. The common causes of dispute between a husband and a wife are:- financial issues, sexual misunderstanding, education, health problem, etc.

When the parents get divorced, usually either of them or sometimes both of them leave home. Then the absence of either or both the parents will affect the family administration.

2.2 Death Causes Divorce

          It is obvious that death reduces the family strength. More adversely, death sometimes leads to broken home. Like other reasons not all death in the family results into broken homes but the death of mother or father makes the children to become motherless or fatherless. This therefore creates a vacuum that is needed to be filled, consequently the home may break.

 2.3 Misconceptions between Family Members

           Apart from divorce and death, there may be a family problem caused by misconception between the members in the home. The reasons are numerous, common amongst are: drug abuse, alcoholism, marital unfaithfulness, disrespect, disobedience, intolerance just to mention but a few.

2.4 Unconditional Administrations

Failure of administration in the home is one cause of broken home. For example, if  the mother fails to play her roles of administration in the family; there will be problems among the members of the family. Members of the family, most especially the children, will be at liberty to do what they like.

The so-called freedom will result into disrespect and disobedience because everyone does what he or she likes. The family members become apart and their relationship becomes threatened thus a breaking of the home.

2.5 Parental or Friends Influence

           Another reason for breaking up of a family is a third party involvement in family matter. Everyone has friends, we share our problems with them but there can be negative impact. The friend we think will help us at a time of crisis may compound our problem by giving us negative advice. Many at times, broken home particularly, splitting up of parents takes due to the negative influences of our friends.

2.6 Conclusion

Human beings are generally limited and fallible, as such, we have shortcomings which constitute problem to our fellow human beings sometimes.         Family with mutual love and care is the ideal for all us but because of human incapability, we fail sometimes and this results into conflicts thereby causing breakages in our homes.

There can be many reasons as we have discussed previously. There can also be various consequences in every developmental stages of life, even in the society. However, it is to be noted that for every problem there is a solution. Therefore, the problems underlain broken home can also be solved or prevented. We can not continue with this cankerworm (broken home) because it has adverse effects on the society. The Christian response and counseling response are rooted  this way “my brothers, if someone is caught in any kind of wrong doing, those of you who are spiritual should set him right, but you must do it in a gentle way. Also, keep an eye on yourselves so that you will not be tempted too. Help to carry one another’s burdens and so fulfill law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2).