The Influence of Broken Homes on Students’ Academic Performance in Schools

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of broken homes on the academic performance of Students in the school. The study aimed at determining the extent to which broken homes influenced the performance of students in selected schools of Islamabad. In this study quantitative method was used and data was collected through instruments (questionnaires).  The target population for the study comprises teachers, head teachers, students (broken home) and parents (divorcee) from selected FG Schools of Islamabad. Kombo and Tromp (2006) Questionnaires  were used  and data from total of 121 respondents  has been collected which consists of 49 teachers, 14 head teachers, 16 parents (divorcees) and 42 students (broken homes). The questionnaires had both closed and open ended (free response) questions. The closed ended questions provided quantitative data while open ended questions provided qualitative data. The questionnaire mainly uses a Likert scale in order to get the levels of agreement or disagreement on a series of statements. The data collected through the quantitative survey questionnaires, was first screened and then entered into the statistical software namely SPSS. A descriptive analysis is presented on the participants’ demographic data. Descriptive analysis was further used to perform frequency analysis on the data of the respondents and represented in percentages and frequencies. The study found that broken homes contributed to poor performance of students in most cases. Differences were found in performance with students from unbroken families out performing students from broken families in the subjects they were tested. The study noted that students from broken families’ experienced a lot of emotional difficulties as they tried to cope with changes brought about by their parents divorce or separation. However, it was noted that not all children from broken families performed poorly in class. The study found that the home environment was critical in the academic performance of students, as learning whether at home or school occurred through the environment. The study recommended that schools should devise ways of helping children from emotionally and culturally deprived homes through increased collaboration with parents and other  members of the community.