The Impact of Domestic Violence and Broken Homes on the Psychological Well-being of an Adolescent Child in Etche Local Government Area
Chapter One
Objective of the Study
The objectives of the study were to:
- Identify the causes of domestic violence and broken homes.
- Find out how broken homes affect children’s psychological well-being.
- Ascertain the impacts of domestic violence and broken homes on the academic achievement of adolescents.
- Evaluate measures the government would take to reduce cases of domestic violence and broken homes.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter will look at other articles and journals already been written in terms of theories or concepts and empirical evidence.
Conceptual Framework
A conceptual framework is a collection of concepts or models from literature which inform a research study. It relates a study to existing ideas or principle. As a result of constant family conflicts, Adolescents’ academic performance and interpersonal relationship may be affected. If there is no intervention in form of guidance and counselling, the Adolescents may grow up to become disturbed and unstable. They may use the modelling effect to repeat the same in their families. A disturbed and unstable individual may eventually mean a disturbed and unstable society. In the figure, Guidance and Counselling appears as the intervening variable with an arrow pointing towards independent variable (domestic violence/broken home) and another towards the dependent variables (psychological well-being)
Overview of Broken Homes
A home is where a family lives. It may be alternated to the word “house” but a house is more appropriately referring to the material structure whereas home refers to the intangible things that bind together the family members. It has the immeasurable love and care that keeps together the mother, father and their children. Broken home occurs as a result of separation of marriage either by death or divorce. Broken home, contributed a lot to anti-social behaviour society. Children who come from broken families will most likely have difficult time in life.
Children of divorced parents are roughly two times more likely to drop out from school than their peers who benefit from living with parents who are not divorced (Mclanahan 1994). Some children from broken marriages are more likely to turn to drug abuse or other negative behaviors. The truth is that every child needs and deserves the love and provision of a mother and a father. The loving two –married –parent family is the best environment for children. A strong family and home is a place where children gain the identity, discipline, and moral education that are essential for their full individual development. Children from divorced families are nearly five times more likely to suffer damaging mental troubles than those who live with both parents. This shows that two parents are much better in bringing up healthy children than one.
Concept of Broken Home
According to Ghaerba (2001) broken home is a situation whereby the family is engulfed with misunderstanding of marriage and family structure. This implies ma-adjustment, mal-functioning psychological decadents and the existences of family squabbles. This disorganization grade, Ghaerba (2001) referred to as the breaking of family into.
Akintayo (2002) referred to single parent family as a broken home she describes single family as a condition where either the man, woman takes care of children alone without the help of the second party or parties Akintayo said and explained further that single families have become permanent and noticeable feature in many societies today throughout the world.
Doris (2002) wrote that various terms are used around the world to describe mother who raises children alone. She wrote that in some countries single mother is used to refer to never married mothers, while on the other hand ‘lone mothers’ is a term that compresses a whole range of mothers who are bringing up children without male par terns in their hold. Such mothers may be divorced separated, widowed or they may never have been married.
Many people have different definitions of what a broken home is. Every definition matters. To Colcord (1919), a broken home is a home in which one of or both parents have been removed by death, divorce, desertion, separation of prolonged absence. Polanen (1990) maintains that although a broken home is usually taken to mean a home where one parent has been by certain cause, a home can still be broken with both parents present. She argues that if there is no communication, interaction or investment in each other’s lives by the couple, the home is broken and becomes a house with roommates.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
An observational methodology was used for this investigation. By conducting non-experimental research, the researcher identifies variables and may explore for relationships among them, but does not control any of the variables (Porter, 2004). This means that the researcher did not take any measures to control the independent variables; they were simply recognized. The study used a descriptive survey as its research method. Research with a descriptive focus aims to paint an accurate picture of an event or phenomenon as it actually occurs. It can be used for developing hypotheses, judging the effectiveness of present practices, and justifying established norms (Burns and Bush, 2003). Hence, the study solely included students from broken households and described how their circumstances affected their academic performance.
Study Area
This study was carried out in Etche local government area. Etche is one of the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State and amongst the 13 federal constituencies representing River State in Nigeria’s National Assembly and part of the Rivers East Senatorial District. Okehi is the Council Headquarters and political capital of Etche, while Eberi is the political capital of Omuma. There are 19 political wards in Etche local government and 10 are in Omuma.
Population
Babie (2001) defined population referred to population as an aggregate or totality of all the objects, subjects or members that conform to a set of specification. According to Kaplan and Saccuzzo (2009) target population refers to the set of people, subjects, products that contains the information that is of interest to the researcher, thus, the target population of the study was Adolescents. The target population for the study was adolescents and parents. Sample size is the number of respondents or observations used for calculating estimates of a given population (Julious, 2009). The sample size was made up of forty (40) respondents.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Introduction
Forty Adolescents (respondents) were carefully selected. This was done to seek for their opinion concerning the impact of broken homes and domestic violence on psychological well-being. All the questionnaires administered were fully answered and returned, thus used for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of domestic violence and broken homes on the psychological well-being of an adolescent child in etche local government area. The objectives of the study were to: identify the causes of domestic violence and broken homes, find out how broken home affect children psychological well-being, ascertain the impacts of domestic violence and broken homes on the academic achievement of adolescents, and evaluate measures would the government take in reducing cases of domestic violence and broken homes. This study followed a non-experimental research approach and convenience and purposive sampling techniques to select respondents. Data was collected with the help of questionnaire.
Conclusions
The study concluded that, most of the Adolescents are staying with their parents. It was also found that though most of the Adolescents were staying with their families but they perform below expectation due to the, lack of security care from their step parents, domestic violence and the absence of either of the parents. It can also be concluded that even though parents of the children pay the fees on time but do not check on them at school to find out their performance in terms of academic. However, it was revealed that the parents beat the Adolescents for poor performance.
The study also concluded that if government pay the fees of children from broken homes, help educate and advice children from broken homes, educate teachers on how to deal with children from broken homes and provide free books for children from broken home whose parent cannot afford to buy the books it will help boost Adolescents’ academic performance.
Recommendations
From the findings of the study, the following are recommendation for this study;
- The government should create academic and counselling units in schools with adequate funds, while Adolescentsfrom broken homes should be given proper guidance and counselling concerning their psychological needs and social problems towards their studies for appropriate discipline.
- Government should create sufficient orphanage homes and finance them so that they will take care of broken homes.
- More learning materials should be provided to the Adolescentsfrom broken homes by their parents and guardians for effective learning.
- Proper monitoring, security and discipline should be given to the Adolescentsby their guardians and single parents.
- Principal and teachers should monitor the affairs of students from broken homes and counsel them from time to time in their schools.
- Other researcher should conduct comparative analysis of broken homes students and normal students and their academic performance.
- More studies should be taken on the influence of broken homesand domestic violence on adolescent’s learning ability.
REFERENCES
- Agu S. O. (2014). Development of emotional stability. A psychological approach. Barloz publisher Inc.
- Alida van Polanen (1990) A Treatise on the Family, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
- Amato, P. (1996) Explaining the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 58.
- Bosanquet, H. (1906) The Family, Macmillan & Co. Press, Ltd., London
- Bubelwa, D. C. (2014). Effects of Broken Marriage on Primary School Adolescents’ Academic Performance in Ilala Municipality.
- Bumpass et al (1991) The Impact of Family Background and Early Marital Factors on Marital Disruption, Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 12, No. 1.
- Bumpass et al (1995) The Role of Cohabitation in the Declining Rate of Marriage,
Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 93.
- Colcord, J.C. (1919) Family Desertion and its Social Treatment, W.M.F. Fell & Co. Printers, Philadelphia.
- Egbo, A. C. (2013). Development of Guidance and counseling, Enugu: Agada press.
- Farber, S., Primevera, J. and Felner, R.D. (1993). “Older Adolescents and Parental Divorce: Adjustment Problems andMediators of Coping”, Journal of Divorce, 7(2), 59-75
