Family Structure and Academic Achievement: Single Parent-Families Versus Two Parent-Families - Research Paper Example

Family Structure and Academic Achievement Outline The purpose of this study is to discuss and analyze the impact of family structure on the academic achievement of a student; here we are comparing the single parent and two parent families to find out its impact on the educational attainment. In first chapter there is an introduction about the topic in the report then the literature review part reviewed different researches conducted by the researchers about this topic. The strength and weaknesses define the impact of single parent and two parent families along with it parents’ role on the achievement of a child. In the next section we are proposing a research to be conduct in order to find the impact of family structure on student achievements. The conclusion and discussion section give us the concluded remarks, along with the suggestion for the betterment and the requirement of future researches on this topic. Family Structure and Academic Achievement: Single parent-families Versus Two parent-families Introduction Children need two parents, playing into the daily dramas of discipline, self-sacrifice, sincerity, and complementarily. Historically, fathers have given and enforced rules of behavior and provided role models of proper male behavior for both girls and boys. Traditionally, fathers have been very concerned with the sexual virtue of their daughters. Fathers know the attitudes and intentions of teenage boys, having once been teens themselves, and therefore are uniquely able both to guide their daughters and to check out and enforce rules on boyfriends. This does not mean that mothers do not or cannot perform these tasks and roles, but they are handicapped doing it alone. Fathers are vital, and their place cannot be taken by a single mother, however able, resolute, and resourceful she may be. Having fathers as guardians, disciplinarians, and role models is necessary to help teenagers navigate those most difficult experiences and years. Emery, Hetherington, and Dilalla (2004) and many others have described the dramatic increase in divorce in the United States, noting that “there was a time when couples stayed together for the children's sake, but this is not true of today's couples” (p. 189; also see Cherlin, 1997). Conventional wisdom suggests that changes in family structure such as the dissolution of a two-parent family will have short-term and long-term effects on children and a wide range of academic outcomes (e.g., academic achievement, discipline problems, self-concept, educational aspirations). This conventional wisdom is consistent with what has been called the “deficit family model,” which hypothesizes “that variations in the nuclear family will produce undesirable deviations in children's personality, social behavior, and school success” (Marotz-Baden, Adams, Bueche, Munro, & Munro, 1999, p. 15; also see Ganong & Coleman, 2004). In contrast to this deficit family model, there is a growing recognition that all families have strengths and weaknesses, and that these may have more to do with outcomes experienced by children in these families than does family configuration. Svanum et al. (2002) examined the effects of father absence on cognitive performance for a large representative sample of 6- to 11-year-old children. Father absence was weakly associated (less than 1% of variance explained) with lower cognitive performance. After correcting for SES, however, there were no decrements and in some instances small but statistically significant increments associated with fatherless families. Duration and onset of father absences had little systematic effect on the findings. Cause, however, had a weak effect on some measures in that children from divorced families performed somewhat better than those from families in which father absence was due to separation or death. Research Question In this research study we are going to discuss and analyze the following research question: What is the impact of family structure on the academia achievement of children? Definition of Terms Single parenthood: refers to a student who resides with their mother and not their father, or their father and not their mother. Two parent family: refers to students who reside with both their mother and father. Performance: Students who show normal academic achievement and low academic achievement. Grades: This information will be getting from the Bursar’s office of student’s academic record. Grades will base on the students’ overall GPA on a scale of 4.0. Literature Review Researchers in the mid-1970s projected that one out of every two first marriages would end in divorce (Weed, 1996), and present trends support this projection. Visher (1996) predicted that by the time today's children reach age 18, 45% will live in a divorced family. However, the effect of divorce on the development of children has been an area of contention. Support for the negative impact of divorce is found in a literature review by Stober (2000) wherein he concludes that growing up without a father, in most cases, has detrimental effects. The scope and range of these effects may vary from ephemeral mood motility to chronic disturbances of social, intellectual, emotional, and sexual development. Some sex role development research has shown that fathers play a particularly important role in the adoption of cultural mores and sex-typed behavior by their sons (Lamb & Lamb, 1996). Opposing this view, Lynn (1996) states that the generalization, "like father, like son," should be rejected. His research showed that sons were no more likely to imitate their fathers than they were a stranger or their mother. These results suggested that masculinity in male children appeared to be related to a combination of nurturance, dominance, and participation by the father. In studying the long-term effects of divorce on the sex role development of college-age students, Vess, Schwebel, and Moreland (1993) found that although shorter term studies have indicated disruptions in sex role development in children of divorced parents, long-term effects were not significant. They concluded that factors such as the age of the child at the time of divorce, presence and age of siblings, and any postdivorce conflict do have effects on sex role development. Sack (1995) found disturbances in sex role development when children are under the age of four; the boys he treated were very angry that the divorce had occurred and that their fathers were gone. They were afraid that expressing this anger to their mothers might result in being sent away, and that they would also lose their mothers. He suggested that the boys' masculine strivings were perceived as too risky, and their solution was to renounce their masculine identities and adopt feminine behavior patterns. Robin (1999) suggested that fathers who are absent are unable to serve as either personal or positional role models. If the male role is degraded, a male cognitive style is not developed. The other available model choice, mother, becomes more rewarding. This, in his opinion, may have detrimental effects on the son's sex role development. Abbott's (1994) findings differed from those of Robin (1999) and Sack (1995). He found that in spite of the mothers' professed desire to have their children act in nontraditional ways, the children preferred traditional male sex-stereotyped behaviors. Certainly, research on the effect of family marital status on the subsequent development of children appears to reflect mixed findings. The following literature review separates studies into those indicating either no effect or a negative effect. Studies Supporting No Effect Some researchers believe that being raised by one parent does not put a child at risk for psychological maladjustment, since four decades of research have not provided conclusive findings (Blechman, 2002). Bernard and Nesbitt (2001) suggest that there is no evidence to support the view that children of divorce are more hampered emotionally than are children from two parents families. They conclude that divorce is an unreliable predictor of mental illness, achievement, delinquency, and emotional predisposition. Lowery and Settle (1995) label as "popular mythology" the idea that divorce alone results in effeminate traits, juvenile delinquency, substandard academic achievement, or mental illness. The disruption of a family by divorce appears to cause serious trouble not as a result of one factor, but rather a combination of many factors which overload most children's capacity to deal with the stress that is generated. Stober (2000) noted that children's responses to divorce are not always unfavorable, and may depend greatly on the behavior of the mother and the availability of the father or father-substitute figures. He further stated that serious psychological disorders arise more frequently in troubled two parents families than in broken homes. Research on divorce and its impact on self-esteem seems to contradict the "at-risk theory." Children from reconstituted and single-parent families who were evaluated on the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale showed self-esteem levels that were no lower than those of children from two parents families (Berthold & Kelly, 1999). This finding was also supported in an earlier study by Lowenstein and Koopman (1998). Research with families reported that, for the most part, divorce was not a major stress factor; the critical impact on family members occurred primarily during the marital conflict between parents (Luepnitz, 1999). Atkinson and Ogston (1994) compared male children from homes without fathers to children from two parents homes on their behavior in school and at home. Their findings suggested differences in moral values, but teachers reported no differences in academic and extracurricular participation and performance. Their conclusions suggest that behavior of children from father-absent and father-present homes was not significantly different. Studies Supporting Negative Effects Lamb (1997) indicates that children of divorced parents are more vulnerable to psychological damage. Other studies have concluded that being a male child in a divorced family is correlated with a higher rate of maladjustment (Hodges, Buchsbaum, & Tierney, 2003; LeCorgne & Laosa, 1996). Delaney, Richards, and Strath (1994) found that children of divorced parents considered their own behavior to be more negative and somewhat less appropriate than the behavior of classmates from intact two-parent families. These children differed most in the area of interpersonal skills when rated by their homeroom teacher. Hoffman (2003) compared female and male father-absent children with a control group from two-parent families. His findings suggested differences in moral behavior and overt aggression; teacher ratings of aggressiveness were significantly higher for father-absent boys than for father-present boys. No significant differences for girls were found in the father-present or father-absent groups. Another study showed that father-absent boys were evaluated by their teachers as less advanced in moral development than were boys from two-parent families. Further, the boys from divorced families were said to exhibit more socially deviant behaviors than the control group (Santrock 1995). Fry (2003) attempted to control the many confounding variables involved in determining the impact of intact, single-parent, and reconstituted families on children. He contrasted the social-cognitive development of children from mother-headed single-parent families with those from father-headed single-parent families, reporting clear-cut deficiencies in father-absent children in the areas of locus of control, social sensitivity, and general social skills. An earlier study by Fry and Grover (1992) utilized the Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist and other measures of social problem solving with third-grade father-present and father-absent children. They found that social problem-solving scores for the father-absent children were lower than those for the father-present children. Shinn (1998) reviewed the literature on father-absent children and their cognitive development. The evidence she gathered suggested that financial hardship, high levels of anxiety and, in particular, low levels of parent interaction are causes of poor performance. A recent study by Entwisle (1996) found that in families with single parents, children consistenty did poorly in reading. A possible cause was lower expectations. It was also found that the presence of an adult in the home, even if the person was not a parent, improved reading scores. Hypotheses In this research study we are going to analyze following research hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: There is a significant effect of family structure on the development of a student. Hypothesis 2: There is a significant impact of single parent family on the academic achievement of student. Hypothesis 3: There is a significant effect of good performance of friend on the academic performance of a student. Methodology Research Design Underlying the purpose and research question of the study conducted, the research design that is selected for the study is an exploratory correlational research design. As explained by Zechmeister, Zechmeister, & Shaughnessy, (1997), survey research represents a general approach to be used when the correlational research design is implemented. Survey research is the method of gathering data from respondents thought to be representative of some population using an instrument composed of close structure or open-ended items/ questions. Participants The sample size will consist of 200 students from Towson University in Towson, Maryland. The participants include in this study will be freshmen, recruited from undergraduate classes. For the purpose of study a form of non-probability sampling will be used. As explained by Torchim (2001), in purposive sampling, the researcher samples with a purpose in mind from one or more specific and predefined groups, believed to be representative of the larger population of interest. Trochim (2001) noted that one of the benefits of purposive sampling is that it can be very useful for situations in which the researcher wants to reach a targeted group that otherwise might not be readily available. Data Collection The survey method is used as the means by which data is collected within the study. Prior to initiating the data collection phase of the study, permission to conduct the survey, will be obtained from the appropriate officials. Data collection will commence once approval granted. Questionnaires and the cover letter explaining the purpose of the survey and anonymity associated with participation in the survey will be distributed to participants and will be collected from them upon completion of the questionnaire. Along with it the schedule for the interview will also be decided. The study will be conducted in a class setting for approximately 15 minutes. The participants will receive a one credit incentive for their participations in the study. Independent Variable In this study, the independent variables include family structure, single parent- families and two parent-families and peers. Measurement of these variables will be assessed by using questionnaire questions that ask respondents to identify their family structure. Dependent Variable The dependent variable is performance, a key to educational achievement and the differences in performance between children in single parent-families and two parent-families because good performance in school will provide ideas of whom will attend college or not. The performance will be measure performance by whether respondents have a C or better in their courses and their overall grade point average based on a 4.0 scale. Questionnaire Two types of questionnaires will be generated for the study. One 5-items in which respondents will have to circle the response that best applies to him or her. The second one, also a 5-items questions which will be taken from a scale of 1-5. Procedure The study runs for 10 days and 20 participants will allow in the classroom at one time. The participants will be given a questionnaire and ask to respond to each question. The structured, two page questionnaire will be divided into three sections. Section 1 contains questions on family structure and parental educational attainment. Section 2 requests information on peers. Section 3 contains questions on performance and grades. The questionnaire includes two types of questions. One 5-items in which the respondents will have to circle the response that best applies to him or her from A-D letter choice. The second 5-item questions base on a scale 1-5, where 1 indicates “always” and 5 indicates “never.” Data Analysis In order to process and organize the data, a database will be created by using a computer data base software program, (i.e., SPSS). The questionnaire selected will have scale response format, which allow for a number to be assigned for which response given for each item. For each respondent, the numerical response provided for each item as well as descriptive data will be obtained during survey, then it will be entered into the database during the data-coding phase of the study. Within the study following the recommendations of Torchim (2001) statistical analysis are conducted through a progression or series of analysis using the SPSS programme. During the initial phase descriptive statistics will be used to describe and summarize the data obtain within the study. To test the overall experimental study, a multiple regression analysis will be performed with performance as the dependent variable and family structures and peers as independent variables. The percentage of children living in each of the family structure s will be presented in a table. The odds for two parent-families are expected to be dominant in the United States of America. Based on previous research, it is hypothesized that children from two parent-families are more likely to perform in school at a greater level and achieve more than their counterparts. A significant main effect is expected to be found. Furthermore, it is predicted that children who are surrounded by good peers who also perform well in school will have greater academic achievement than those without such positive influence. Therefore, a significant of main effect of peers should be seen. Finally, it is believed that children living in two parent-families and have positive peer influence should outperformed the children in the other family structure. Conclusion and Discussion Kinard and Reinherz (1996) found that after controlling for selected background variables children from recently disrupted single-mother families achieved less in some academic areas than did those from two-parent families and single-mother families that had not been recently disrupted. The authors suggested that “parental separation or divorce may not have long-term effects” (p. 291). The results also suggest that the disruption of a stable configuration may be responsible for lower academic achievement rather than the family configuration. Guidubaldi, Parry, and Nastasi's (1996) findings demonstrated that during middle childhood (ages 6 to 11), youth are negatively affected by divorce. Their results revealed higher social competence and academic performance for children from father-present families. In fact, when father-absent boys were compared to boys from two parents families, increasing evidence of maladaptive outcomes were seen even in the higher grade levels. It was also noted that the number of referrals to school psychologists was higher among children from divorced families. Interesting results were also obtained from a follow-up study by Guidubaldi et al. (1996) which showed that even after more than six years in a single-parent home, the children exhibited behavioral and adjustment difficulties. References Abbott, M. R. (1994). Sex-role attitudes of mothers and children in divorced single-parent families. Journal of Divorce, 8(4), 61-79. Atkinson, B. R., & Ogston, D. G. (1974). The effect of father absence on male children in the home and school. Journal of School Psychology, 12, 213-221. Bernard, J. M., & Nesbitt, S. (2001). Divorce: An unreliable predictor of children's emotional predispositions. Journal of Divorce, 4(4), 37-41. Berthold, B., & Kelly, R. (1999). The measured self-esteem of children from broken, rejected, and accepted families. Journal of Divorce, 2(4), 363-369. Blechman, E. A. (2002). Are children with one parent at psychological risk? A methodological review. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 44, 179-191. Cherlin, A. J. (1997). The effect of children on marital dissolution. Demography, 14, 265–272. Delaney, E., Richards, J. E. & Strath, S. (1994). Children of divorce perceive own behavior as more negative than peers. Marriage and Divorce Today Newsletter, 10(20), 2-3. Emery, R. E., Hetherington, E. M., & Dilalla, L. F. (2004). Divorce, children, and social policy. In H. W.Stevenson & A. E.Siegel (Eds.), Child development research and social policy (Vol. 1, pp. 189–266). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Entwisle, D. R. (1996). Children in single-parent homes poor readers. Marriage and Divorce Today Newsletter, 11(36), 2. Fry, P. S. (2003). Father absence and deficits in children's social-cognitive development: Implications for intervention and training. Journal of Psychiatric Treatment and Evaluation, 5, 113-120. Fry, P. S., & Grover, S. C. (1992). The relationship between father absence and children's social problem solving competencies. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 3, 105-120. Ganong, L. H., & Coleman, M. (2004). The effects of remarriage on children. Family Relations, 33, 389–406. Guidubaldi, J., Parry, J., & Nastasi, B. (1996). Long term impact of divorce on children: A report of a two- and three-year follow-up. Marriage and Divorce Today Newsletter, 11(41), 1-2. Hodges, W. F., Buchsbaum, H. K., & Tierney, C. W. (2003). Parent-child relationships and adjustment in preschool children in divorced and intact families. Journal of Divorce, 7(2), 43-57. Hoffman, M. L. (2003). Father absence and conscience development. In F. Rebelsky & L. Norman (Eds.), Child development and behavior (2nd ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Kinard, E. M., & Reinherz, H. (1996). The effects of marital disruption on children's school aptitude and achievement. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 285–294. Lamb, M. E. (1997). The effects of divorce on children's personality development. Journal of Divorce, 1(2), 163-173. Lamb, M. E., & Lamb, J. E. (1996). The nature and importance of the father-infant relationship. Family Coordinator, 25(4), 379-385. LeCorgne, L. L., & Laosa, L. M. (1996). Father absence in low-income Mexican-American families: Children's social adjustment and conceptual differentiation of sex role attributes. Developmental Psychology, 12, 470-471. Lowenstein, J. S., & Koopman, E. J. (1998). A comparison of self-esteem between boys living with single-parent mothers and single-parent fathers. Journal of Divorce, 2(2), 195-208. Lowery, C., & Settle, S. (1995). Effects of divorce on children. Marriage and Divorce Today Newsletter, 11(18), 1-2. Luepnitz, D. A. (1999). Which aspects of divorce affect children? Family Coordinator, 28, 79-85. Lynn, D. B. (1996). Fathers and sex-role development. Family Coordinator, 25, 403-409. Marotz-Baden, R., Adams, G., Bueche, N., Munro, B., & Munro, G. (1999). Family form or family process? Reconsidering the deficit family model approach. The Family Coordinator, 28, 5–14. Robin, M. W. (1999). Life without father: A review of the literature. International Journal of Group Tensions, 9, 169-174. Sack, W. H. (1995). Divorce can produce gender identity problems in children. Marriage and Divorce Today Newsletter, 11(10), 3. Santrock, J. W. (1995). Father absence, perceived maternal behavior, and moral development in boys. Child Development, 46, 753-757. Shinn, M. (1998). Father absence and children's cognitive development. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 295-324. Stober, B. (2000). Children of divorce. Zeitschridft fur Kinder und Jugend Psychiatrie, 8, 79-92. Svanum, S., Bringle, R. C., & McLaughlin, J. E. (2002). Father absence and cognitive performance in a large sample of six- to eleven-year-old children. Child Development, 53, 136–143. Trochim, W. (2001). The research methods knowledge base, 1st edition. OH: Atomic Dog Publishing, 23-25. Vess, J. D., Schwebel, A. I., & Moreland, J. (1993). The effects of early parental divorce on the sex role development of college students. Journal of Divorce, 7(1), 83-95. Visher, E. (1996). It is predicted that by 1990 less than one third of all families will be traditional households. Marriage and Divorce Today Newsletter, 11(41), 4. Weed, J. (1996). Marriage rate down, divorce rate up for 1985. Marriage and Divorce Today Newsletter, 11(38), 2. Darin R. Featherstone, Jordan School District. Bert P. Cundick, Center for Studies of the Family, Brigham Young University. Zechmeister, E. B., Zechmeister, J. S., & Shaughnessy, J. J. (1997). A practical introduction to research methods in psychology (3rd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill, 18-20. Questionnaire The following are questions that should be in the questionnaire. Please correct, modify and add more questions that you think are relevant to the study. The questionnaire questions should include 15 questions in total; 5 questions for each section. Section 2: Family Structure 1- Please circle the response that best provides your family structure 1- Single parenthood (mother or father) not both parents 2- Two parent-families (mother and father meaning biological parents). 3- Cohabitation family (mother and stepfather, father and stepmother) who are not married 4- Other (grand-parents, another relative or relatives, or a person or people who are not relatives. 2- Please provide the age from which you lived in the family structure in question 1. 1- 0- 5 years old 2- 6- 11 years old 3- 12 - 17 years old 4- Other . 3- Please provide your parents education level 1- Professional 4 years of college and up 2- Semi-professional 2 – 3 years of college or Technical school 3- High school or GED 4- Other 4- Number of hours that you parents/parent spends with you 1- 7-10 hours 2- 3-6 hours 3- 1-3 hours 4- Other 5- Your relationship with your family members 1- Strong 2- Moderate 3- Weak 4- No relation Section 2: Peer Groups The participants will indicate the importance of their friends to them and the parental appraisal of such friends. 6- Please indicate how important were your friends to you in school. 1- extremely important 2- very important 3- important 4- not important 5- not important at all or never 7- My parents had a positive attitude toward my friends (meaning they like your friends) 1- always approved my friends 2- most of the time approved my friends 3- seldom approved my friends 4- rarely approved my friends 5- never approved my friends 8- I am really inspired by the academic achievement of my friend 1- Strongly Agree 2- Agree 3- Neutral 4- Disagree 5- Strongly Disagree 9- I never feel jealousy with the achievements of my friend 1- Strongly Agree 2- Agree 3- Neutral 4- Disagree 5- Strongly Disagree 10- I share my personal and family affairs with my friend 1- Strongly Agree 2- Agree 3- Neutral 4- Disagree 5- Strongly Disagree Section 3: Performance, Grades, and Parental appraisal. 11- My grades in school were 1- Excellent 2- Very good 3- Good 4- Satisfactory 5- No answer 12- Please provide the performance of your friends in school 1- All my friends performed very well in school 2- Most of my friends performed very well in school 3- Some of my friends performed well in school 4- Few of my friends performed well in school 5- None of my friends performed well in school 13- Please rate your interest in school 1- I was always interested in school 2- I was very much interested in school 3- I was some what interested in school 4- I was not very much interested in school 5- I was never interested in school 14- My performance in school was 1- Excellent 2- Very good 3- Good 4- Satisfactory 5- No answer 15- My parents helped with school work 1- Always 2- Sometimes 3- Rarely 4- Seldom 5- Never Read More