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EFFECT OF SINGLE PARENTHOOD ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Single parenthood, characterized by the absence of one parent due to various reasons such as divorce, separation, death, or choice, is a prevalent family structure worldwide. In recent decades, the rise in single-parent households has garnered significant attention from researchers, policymakers, and educators due to its potential implications for children's academic achievement and socio-emotional development. Among the many facets of a child's education, mathematics achievement stands out as a critical area of concern, given its foundational role in shaping future academic and career success. Understanding the effect of single parenthood on students' achievement in mathematics is therefore essential for developing targeted interventions and support systems to mitigate any negative impacts and promote equitable educational outcomes for all children.

Single parenthood refers to a family structure in which one parent assumes primary responsibility for raising and nurturing one or more children without the presence or involvement of the other parent. This family dynamic can pose unique challenges for both parents and children, ranging from financial strain and time constraints to emotional stress and social isolation. Moreover, the absence of a second parental figure may impact the quality and consistency of parental involvement in a child's education, potentially influencing their academic motivation, engagement, and performance in mathematics.

Against this backdrop, this study seeks to investigate the effect of single parenthood on students' achievement in mathematics. By examining the socio-economic, familial, and educational factors associated with single-parent households and their influence on students' mathematical performance, this research aims to provide insights into the complex interplay between family structure and academic outcomes. Ultimately, the findings of this study can inform educators, policymakers, and practitioners in developing targeted interventions and support mechanisms to address the unique needs of students from single-parent households and promote their academic success in mathematics.

Single-parenthood can be defined as when one out of two people who is responsible for the nurturing and child rearing is not available, and the work meant for two people, is now carried out by only one person. According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, single-parenting is defined as a mother or father who looks after children on their own, without the other partner. Single-parenting can be defined as a situation in which one of the two individuals involved in the conception of the child is being responsible for the upbringing of the child [Whitting and Child, (1993); Eshleman, (1981) & Henslim (1985)]. Single-parenthood may arise when either the male or the female decides to produce and rear a child or children outside wedlock (Ortesse, 1998).

In Nigeria, the existence of single-parenthood was unknown and where they existed they are ignored as exceptional cases. However, nowadays, they are fast growing family patterns both inside and outside Nigeria. In Nigeria, among Yorubas, the parental roles are culturally determined and distributed. The maternal roles are that of child-rearing, home training and playing of complementary roles, while the paternal roles are that of economic responsibilities and disciplines of children. The child is morally, mentally upright and emotionally balance when the caring responsibilities are carried out by both parents.

Sociology of education makes us know that the family is the first primary social group that the child first belongs to, comes in contact with, and this group has a greater influence on the child’s physical, mental and moral development. The family lays the foundation of education

before the child goes to school and the personality that the child takes to school is determined by the home(family), (Maduewesi and Emenogu, 1997). What makes up a family is the father, mother and kids, not father and mother alone.

Fadeiye(1985) pointed out that both parents have their own roles to play in a child's education. The father is to provide every necessary tool for the educational advancement while the mother is expected to supplement the efforts of the father. But in the case where the father is absent and the mother is not privileged enough to cater for all the necessary and basic needs as well as supervising the academic performance of the child, by checking the academic records of the child or by going through their class and lesson notes or books every day. Also giving counseling support when needed, will affect the educational state or level of the child. So also, if a child is not well nurtured and mentally assisted, it will also affect his/her educational outcome. If it were to be a male child, it’s likely for the child to be antisocial in nature by joining gangs, also, if it were to be a female child, there is likelihood for her to become wayward.

According to Nwachukwu (1998), children from single parent homes are more hostile, hyperactive and aggressive in nature. Many of the problems that single parents have, are similar as those for two parents family, but these problems seem more difficult to bear or manage when the home is being tutored by only one person. For example, all children feel hostile towards their parents as they grow-up and try to be independent. But in a situation, where the anger and rebellion are all directed towards one person, it may seem worse, if there is only one to bear it, not for the two to share.

There are some problems that are exceptional, which are only faced by the single-parents, which makes it somewhat difficult to raise children. These problems include: bitterness towards the absent spouse, loneliness, poverty and insecurity about raising children alone without any help. For these and some other reasons, single parents sometimes cling to their children or over-indulge them.

It is widely believed that children from broken homes have a higher incidence of academic, emotional and behavioral problems than other children from intact homes. An analysis of data by NAEP(1986)(National Association of Educational Procurement) data indicated that third graders living with one parent score considerably lower than third graders living with both parents (Natriello, McDill and Pallas, 1990). Ekstrom et al (1987) cited in Education Reforms and Students at Risk: A Review of the State of the Art – January 1994, found a significant correlation between single-parent homes and dropout rates for whites and Hispanics (but not for blacks).

In case of divorce, separation or death of a parent, children are at somewhat greater risk for symptoms of poor psychological adjustment, behavioral and social problems, low selfesteem and poor performance in school. Johnson and Medinans (1968) cited in Ortesse (1998) found that most medical students whose fathers had been absent while they were at ages one

Five of life were more psychiatric, psychopathic and criminalistic in nature than those whose parents were present during this period. According to Ortesse (1998), a child from intact homes will be well taken care of and well socialized as possible. This is due to the fact the process of socialization depends on both parents playing complementary roles in bringing up the child.

Truancy is a term used to describe any international unauthorized absence from compulsory school. The term truancy, typically refers to absence caused by students of their own free will, and usually does not refer to legitimate excused absence, such as ones related to a medicated conditions. Truancy is the term referring to an absence that is associated with the most brazen students irresponsibility and results in the greatest consequences. It also refers to students who attend schools but do not attend classes.

Atkinson, Hasley, Wilkin and Kindler(2000) pointed to differences in the extent of absence, from avoidance of a single lesson to absence of several weeks. The definition is designed to cover the long term absence of a depressed school refuser or a teenage mother, the gesture of a bravado of an occasional truant, the child kept at home by a parent to help care for siblings, and the child taken out of school for an out-of-season family holiday, and many other variations on this theme.

A recent report from OFSTED(Office For Standard in Education) noted that some of the plausible, or at least practically irrefutable explanations which schools received for absence, which they then classify as authorized are questionable (OFSTED 2001). The Audit Commission (1999) noted that at least 40,000 out of the 400,000(10%) pupils absent from schools each day are truanting or being kept off schools by their parents without permission.

Separating these two categories of absence statistically is clearly impossible, both for schools and for researchers, unless detailed study of each case is undertaken.

According to Sheila Bryant in Library Law Blog (2006) said; Truancy occurs when a student between the age 6 and 17, missed a certain number of days from school within a specific period and time, as defined by the statute of the state that the students reside in. Truancy usually apply to those students that are minors, because in most state, the age of an adult is deemed 18, however, these can be exceptions based on the state statute.

Truancy is an issue that affects many people, because truancy has been associated with various criminal behaviors such as vandalism, burglary and drug use. Also, truancy can be the symptoms for other emotional/mental, economic and family situations.

Therefore, the problem of defining truancy lies in the concept at which each researcher believes in, and this affects the definition of each researcher. Truancy depends on the school’s criteria used in categorizing truancy, while some says it differs from school to school’s handbook for defining truancy. Some authors also say it depends on the total number of lessons/classes missed and so on.

Therefore, all these concepts and beliefs, unable people to classify anyhow absence from school or class to be truancy. Since in many, though not all cases, the decision to truant is taken by children themselves, it seems appropriate to begin with their views on the causes of truancy.

Kindler, Wakefield and Wilkin (1996) reported on interviews with 160 children in age 7 and above, for the children, the main causes of truancy and disruptions are classified and described(in rank order) as : The influence of friends and peers who are seen encouraging truancy as a status-seeking activity or as a way of joining in or blending in, and sometimes teasing or goading the child into truancy. The content and delivery of the curriculum, seen as lacking in relevance and stimulus. Family factor, either parental attitudes or family problems.

Bullying in school the classroom context, either because of teachers’ inability to control, or problems arising from the child’s own personality or learning abilities.

Student non-attendance is a problem that extends much further than the school. It affects the student, the family, and the community.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education identifies truancy as the most powerful predictor of delinquency. Police departments across the nation report that many students not in school during regular hours are committing crimes, including vandalism, shoplifting, and graffiti. When Van Nuys, California, officials conducted a three-week sweep for truants on the streets, shoplifting arrests dropped by 60 percent (Garry 1996).

Absenteeism is detrimental to students' achievement, promotion, graduation, self-esteem, and employment potential. Clearly, students who miss school fall behind their peers in the classroom. This, in turn, leads to low self-esteem and increases the likelihood that at-risk students will drop out of school.

In a longitudinal study of African-American males, Robins and Ratcliff (1978) found that of those students who were often truant in elementary school and truant in high school, 75 percent failed to graduate. Failure to graduate, in turn, is associated with diminished earning potential in adulthood and other poor outcomes.

Tenibiaje (2009) highlighted causes of poor performance in Nigeria higher institutions, he said poor performance have been attributed to a lot of indicators, such as student factors, like students' attitudes to school, approach to learning and academic self-concept. Apart from student factors, school factors and parents’ factors, there are other indicators that affect poor performance. On the part of the parents, there are certain factors which influence children’s success, such as: parents’ social class, parents’ educational status as well as parental inputs and other exogenous variables.

The views of professionals in schools and education welfare services collected and analyzed by Kinder, Harland, Wilkin and Wakefield(1995) also included personal factors; family and community factors and school factors amongst the causes of truancy.

Individual (personal) factors include: Lack of self-esteem/ social skills/ confidence, poor peer relationship, lack of academic ability, special needs and lack of concentration/ self-management skill and self-interest. Family and community factors: These include; parentally condoned absence from school, not valuing education, domestic problems, inadequate or inconsistent parenting, economic deprivation and community lack of self-esteem. Within the school, professionals identified the case with which some pupils could slip away unnoticed if school systems were not in place to defer them, relationship with teachers and peers, and problems relating to the relevance of school and the curriculum to these truants.

There is widespread interest in improving the levels of mathematics achievement in schools. There is the economic benefits that this would bring by better preparing young people for the numeric demands for modern workplaces and raising the overall skills levels of the workforce, there are also social benefits tied to improving access for larger numbers of young people to post-school education and training opportunities and laying stronger foundations so skills for lifelong learning. The interest in raising levels of achievement has led as understanding how these factors operate to limit or enhance the achievement of different groups of students. The impact of different groups of students is important because groups of students. The impact on different groups of students is important because social differences in mathematics performance persist, despite inequalities in some other areas of school having declined. A study of trends in mathematics achievement over the three decades. A study of trends in mathematics achievement over the three decades 1996, in Australia shows that substantial social class differences persist (Afrassa & Keeves, 1999). Similar results have been reported in the US for the same period, with differences related to social groups (measured by parental education) remaining strong (National Center for Education Standards, 2000). The evidence is a reminder that a time when there are weakening social trends on some broad indicators of educational participation, such as school retention rates, social differences in student progress and academic outcomes continue.

The early literature on school effectiveness placed an emphasis on the ability and social backgrounds of students as factors that shape academic performance, and suggested that schools had little direct effect on student achievement. Coleman et al. (2006), for example, in a major study of US schools seemed to cast doubt on the possibility of improving school achievement through reforms to schools. They found differences in school achievement of student peers, and concluded that ‘schools bring little influence to bear on a child’s achievement that is independent of his background and general social context. A later analysis of the same dataset by Jericks and his colleagues reached the same conclusion: our research suggests… that the character of a schools’ output depends largely on a single input, namely the characteristics of the entering children. Everything else. The school budget, its policies, the characteristics of the teachers.. is either secondary or completely irrelevant’ (Jericks et al., 2002).

Criticisms of this early work suggested that the modeling procedures employed did not take account of the hierarchical nature of the data, and was not able to separate out accurately school, student and classroom factors (e.g. Raudenbush & Willms, 1991) More recent school effectiveness research has used multi modeling techniques to account for the clustering effects of different types of data.

Types of single parent families are generally categorized by the sex of the custodial parent (mother-only or father-only families). Mother-only families include widows, divorced and separate women, and never-married mothers. In the case of divorce, mothers are usually given custody in the United States and other developed countries. In Italy, 1997, for example, 90 percent of children whose parents divorced went into the custody of their mothers. Since the vast majority of single parents are mothers, most of the research focuses on female-headed families. However, regardless of sex, single parents share similar problems and challenges (Grief 1985).

Father-only families formed as a result of widowhood, desertion by the mother or wives refusing custody. The increase in father-only families is due, in part, to the effort of fathers to obtain custody of their children. Factors supporting their transition into primary parenthood include financial security, prior involvement in housework and child care during the marriage, satisfaction with child-care arrangements, and a shared sense of responsibility for the marital breakup (Grief 1985).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The issue under examination is the impact of single parenthood on students' performance in mathematics. Researchers have long debated how growing up in single-parent households influences children, often noting potential challenges across social, psychological, and economic domains. Despite initial findings suggesting that with adequate support, children from single-parent homes can perform well in mathematics during their junior high and high school years, there is a need to thoroughly assess the relationship between single parenthood and mathematical achievement.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to determine effect of single parenthood on students’ achievement in mathematics

Specific objectives include;

1. To investigate the correlation between single parenthood and students' performance in mathematics.

2. To examine the social, psychological, and economic factors that may mediate the relationship between single parenthood and mathematical achievement.

3. To identify the types of support systems (from schools, parents, and government) that contribute to positive mathematical outcomes for students from single-parent households.

4. To assess whether the advantages in mathematics achievement observed among children raised by two parents are replicated in students from single-parent families when appropriate support structures are in place.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How does single parenthood impact students' achievement in mathematics?

2. What are the social, psychological, and economic factors that may influence the mathematical performance of students from single-parent households?

3. What support mechanisms, provided by schools, parents, and government, are effective in fostering mathematical success among students raised by single parents?

4. Do students from single-parent families exhibit similar levels of mathematical achievement to those raised by two parents when comparable support systems are implemented?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Hypotheses i

H0: There is no significant relationship between single parenthood and students' achievement in mathematics.

H1: Single parenthood is associated with differences in students' performance in mathematics.

Hypothesis ii

H0: Social, psychological, and economic factors do not mediate the relationship between single parenthood and mathematical achievement.

H1: Social, psychological, and economic factors play a mediating role in the relationship between single parenthood and students' mathematical performance.

Hypothesis iii

H0: Support systems provided by schools, parents, and government have no effect on the mathematical achievement of students from single-parent households.

H1: Support systems from schools, parents, and government positively influence the mathematical outcomes of students raised by single parents.

Hypotheses iv

H0: There are no significant differences in mathematical achievement between students from single-parent families and those raised by two parents when comparable support structures are in place.

H1: Students from single-parent families demonstrate similar levels of mathematical achievement to those raised by two parents when appropriate support systems are implemented.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The impact of single parenthood on students' achievement in mathematics remains a significant concern. This study aims to investigate the specific challenges faced by students from single-parent households in attaining proficiency in mathematics. Factors such as parental involvement, socio-economic status, and emotional support will be examined to understand their influence on mathematical achievement among students raised by single parents.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The essence of this research is to know the parent and children’s standard of living in single parent families in shiroro local government. This will be of greater benefit to policy makers and stakeholders in the field of sociology. Again, the study will serve as an eye opener to youths looking forward to having their own family. Society will also be exposed to the fact that single parenthood is not a disease and thus they should not be looked down upon.

1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study is delimited to shiroro Local Government Area. The study would have best been carried out using the entire local government in Niger State but for time and financial constraints. However, it was briefly narrowed down to shiroro local government area.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. Single Parenthood: Refers to the condition in which a child is raised by only one parent, typically due to divorce, separation, death, or choice.

2. Students: Individuals enrolled in an educational institution, typically referring to children or adolescents attending school.

3. Achievement: The level of success or accomplishment reached by a student in a particular subject, such as mathematics, often measured through grades, test scores, or other assessments.

4. Mathematics: The academic discipline that deals with numbers, quantities, shapes, and patterns, encompassing areas such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and calculus.

5. Effect: The impact or influence that single parenthood has on students' performance and outcomes in mathematics, including potential advantages or disadvantages.

6. Performance: The demonstration of knowledge, skills, and abilities in mathematics, often assessed through various means such as tests, assignments, and projects.

7. Influence: The power or effect that single parenthood may have on students' attitudes, behaviors, and motivation towards learning and succeeding in mathematics.

8. Achievement in Mathematics: The specific area of academic performance focused on in this study, indicating students' proficiency, understanding, and application of mathematical concepts and skills.

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