THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL SEPARATION ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
ABSTRACT
This study examined the influence of parental Separation on Academic Achievement of Secondary School Student in Lagos Educational District II. Descriptive research design was used. The population for the study comprised all the secondary school students in Lagos Educational District II. Stratified Random technique was used to collect the sample. The instrument for the study was a self construct questionnaire titled “Influence of parental separation on academic Achievement of secondary school students in Educational District II (IPSAASSED). The instrument has reliability co-efficient of 0.76 when tested during the pilot study. The statistical tool used to test the hypotheses was Pearson product Moment Correlation and t-test . Four hypotheses were tested, three was rejected and one was accepted. The result showed that there was significant relationship between parental socio-economic status and students’ academic performance. Also, there was a significant gender difference on academic performance of male in intact family. Based on the above findings recommendation were made that counsellors should provide the necessary  assistance and psychological support for students from single parent family so as to overcome emotional problems among others.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The need for the presence of parents in a child’s life cannot be over emphasized as it goes a long way in ensuring the academic achievement of the student’s in school. Parents presence tends to influence the performance of their children or wards in school either positively or negatively. Separation of parents and the resulting emotional instability in the home are likely to affect the academic achievement of their children. Recent research has shown that separation of parents occur when relationship between the parents had broken down or because of migration of either parents, from one geographical location to another i.e not staying within the same geographical location.
Bong (2008), showed that parents had little or no relationship with their children especially when they were young. Some children have both parents living together while in some homes, children lived with only their mothers or their fathers or even care takers or care givers or guardians as a result of the separation of their parents. Fathers separate from their children earlier and for longer periods than mothers, mostly because of a breakdown of relationship with the mothers. But separation could also be due to migration, death and abandonment.
wever, migration seems to be one of the main reasons why mothers leave their children. They could also separated from their children for financial reasons and sometimes in these circumstances, the child might either be given to someone with better resources or left in the care of someone while they seek work elsewhere. The mothers too may leave the home because of breakdown in relationship with fathers.
Winston (2009), said “It would be the ideal situation to have both parents in the home, but often, this is not the case but there is nothing that can be done about it, as there are factors such as migration, death, and breakdown of relationships to consider,”. Same problems emanated from parental separation which could lead to frustration, isolation of children and sometimes the students may be forced to exhibit temper tantrums while in the classrooms.
