CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF 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. Broken homes are defined as one in which one of the partners looses his/her spouse by death separation, divorce, desertion or single parenting. Deborah 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 , 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.  Single parent families are result of divorce. Unfortunately, the growth in the number of children born into broken homes is increasing by the day especially in Nigeria. 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 . This is because of the public outcries concerning the low standard of education in the country and unbaked graduates being produced from our universities. 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. 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. Fatherlessness constrains students to poverty; students whose homes are headed by father are six times better than students whose homes are without parental care. 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. The family is supposed to be the fundamental segment of a lasting society and civilization. Families that fall apart decline into social, cultural and education problems. Thus, if any country is to advance educationally, culturally and socially, effort should be made to keep families intact so as to create room for healthy growth of children educationally,