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The Impact of Divorce on Student’s Academic Performance in Secondary School Students of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia

Received: 14 January 2021     Accepted: 10 March 2021     Published: 3 June 2021
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Abstract

Divorce has psychological, economical and social impact on the divorcees and their children. Children who experience their parents going through divorce often left susceptible to depression, acting out, and suffering in stress problem. When parents decide to divorce, their action can affect their children’s psychological well-being. Hence, the main objective of the present study was to assess the impact of divorce on student’s academic performance in Arba Minch town secondary schools. Moreover, it explores conditions that promote the academic performance of students. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to achieve the research objectives. The study participants were 204 students from divorced parents, 4 school counselors and 10 divorced parents (student’s parents). The students from divorced parents were taken using available sampling technique while divorced parents were conveniently taken and school counselor were taken purposively as samples. The students given questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were held with the divorced parents and the school counselors. Data from the quantitative survey were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test. The qualitative data were analyzed using direct quotation. The paired t-test group comparison showed statistically significant mean difference on academic performance of students before and after their parental divorce. Students had higher academic performance before their parental divorce. However, there was no statistically significant mean difference across gender. It was recommended that appropriate care and support to enhance the psychological wellbeing of the children, prioritization children during and after divorce, and co-parenting after divorce were forwarded to enhance academic performance of these students.

Published in Education Journal (Volume 10, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12
Page(s) 78-82
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Academic Performance, Divorce, Impact, Secondary School Students

References
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[3] Amato, P. R. & Anthony, C. J. (2014). Estimating the Effects of Parental Divorce and Death with Fixed Effects Models. Journal Of Marriage & Family, 76 (2), 370-386. doi:10.111/jomf.12100
[4] Amato. P. R and Keith, B. (1991a). Separation from parent during childhood and adult socio-economic attainment. Social forces, 70 187-206.
[5] Bartholomew, A., and Kwadwo, O. A, (2015). Effects of divorce on the academic performance of some selected public senior high school students, International journal of multidisciplinary and research and development Vol: 2, no: 10, 375-38.
[6] Berlin, G. (2004). The effects of marriage and divorce on families and children. MD.
[7] Bettinger E; Slonim R (2007). Patience among children, Journal of Public Economics, 91 (1-2): 343-363.
[8] Biblarz T. J and Gottainer, G. (2000). Family structure and children success: A composition of widowed and divorced single-mother families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 533-548.
[9] Fagan P. F. and Churchill A. (2012). The Effects of Divorce on Children, Marriage and religion. Research institute, January 11, 2012.
[10] Federal Negarit Gazetta of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, (2000). Revised Family Code (RFC) Proclamation of 2000, Addis Ababa.
[11] Forla, J., Valcke, M., and Cai, Y. (2013). Academic self-efficacy and academic self-concept; reconsidering structural relationships. Faculty of psychology and educational science. Ghent University, Belgium.
[12] Frum, David (1996, Feb.). The social cost of single parenthood. Reader’s Digest, Canadian Edition, 148 (886), 29-30.
[13] Magpilay, M., and Mercado, J. (2015). Non-cognitive factors affecting the academic performance of fourth year college students of a private college in manila. Athens journal of education, 2 (3), manila, Philippines.
[14] Mugenda, O. M. & Mugenda, A. G. (1999). Research Methods: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. Nairobi: Acts Press.
[15] Mushtaq, I., and Khan, S. N. (2012). Factors Affecting students academic performance Global journal of management and business Research, 12 (9), 1.
[16] Otu-Danquah, M. (2000). Gender differences in academic achievements in English, Science and Mathematics of senior secondary school students in the Cape Coast Municipality, Ghana. University of Cape Coast. Unpublished dissertation.
[17] Roghers K. B. and Rose, H. A. (2001). Personal, Family and school factor of related to adolescents’ academic performance: A comparison by family structure. Marriage and family Review, 33 (4) 47-61.
[18] Serkalem B. (2006), Divorce: its causes and impacts on the lives of divorced women and their children, A comparative study between divorced and intact families, Addis Ababa
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  • APA Style

    Abate Ashenafi, Eyob Ayenew. (2021). The Impact of Divorce on Student’s Academic Performance in Secondary School Students of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia. Education Journal, 10(3), 78-82. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12

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    ACS Style

    Abate Ashenafi; Eyob Ayenew. The Impact of Divorce on Student’s Academic Performance in Secondary School Students of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia. Educ. J. 2021, 10(3), 78-82. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12

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    AMA Style

    Abate Ashenafi, Eyob Ayenew. The Impact of Divorce on Student’s Academic Performance in Secondary School Students of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia. Educ J. 2021;10(3):78-82. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12,
      author = {Abate Ashenafi and Eyob Ayenew},
      title = {The Impact of Divorce on Student’s Academic Performance in Secondary School Students of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia},
      journal = {Education Journal},
      volume = {10},
      number = {3},
      pages = {78-82},
      doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20211003.12},
      abstract = {Divorce has psychological, economical and social impact on the divorcees and their children. Children who experience their parents going through divorce often left susceptible to depression, acting out, and suffering in stress problem. When parents decide to divorce, their action can affect their children’s psychological well-being. Hence, the main objective of the present study was to assess the impact of divorce on student’s academic performance in Arba Minch town secondary schools. Moreover, it explores conditions that promote the academic performance of students. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to achieve the research objectives. The study participants were 204 students from divorced parents, 4 school counselors and 10 divorced parents (student’s parents). The students from divorced parents were taken using available sampling technique while divorced parents were conveniently taken and school counselor were taken purposively as samples. The students given questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were held with the divorced parents and the school counselors. Data from the quantitative survey were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test. The qualitative data were analyzed using direct quotation. The paired t-test group comparison showed statistically significant mean difference on academic performance of students before and after their parental divorce. Students had higher academic performance before their parental divorce. However, there was no statistically significant mean difference across gender. It was recommended that appropriate care and support to enhance the psychological wellbeing of the children, prioritization children during and after divorce, and co-parenting after divorce were forwarded to enhance academic performance of these students.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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    AU  - Abate Ashenafi
    AU  - Eyob Ayenew
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12
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    JO  - Education Journal
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211003.12
    AB  - Divorce has psychological, economical and social impact on the divorcees and their children. Children who experience their parents going through divorce often left susceptible to depression, acting out, and suffering in stress problem. When parents decide to divorce, their action can affect their children’s psychological well-being. Hence, the main objective of the present study was to assess the impact of divorce on student’s academic performance in Arba Minch town secondary schools. Moreover, it explores conditions that promote the academic performance of students. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to achieve the research objectives. The study participants were 204 students from divorced parents, 4 school counselors and 10 divorced parents (student’s parents). The students from divorced parents were taken using available sampling technique while divorced parents were conveniently taken and school counselor were taken purposively as samples. The students given questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were held with the divorced parents and the school counselors. Data from the quantitative survey were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test. The qualitative data were analyzed using direct quotation. The paired t-test group comparison showed statistically significant mean difference on academic performance of students before and after their parental divorce. Students had higher academic performance before their parental divorce. However, there was no statistically significant mean difference across gender. It was recommended that appropriate care and support to enhance the psychological wellbeing of the children, prioritization children during and after divorce, and co-parenting after divorce were forwarded to enhance academic performance of these students.
    VL  - 10
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Dire Dawa University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

  • Department of Psychology, School of Pedagogical and Behavioral Sciences, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia

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