Effects that Divorce Has on Adolescent

Introduction

The numbers of divorces have been on the rise in the world. Many families are under the care of one parent after the both the mother and mother went their spate ways. The increase in divorces can be attributed to a number of factors some of which are social, cultural as well as economical. Divorces always have a negative impact in the lives of the children especially those in high school. The social and psychological well being of a child is affected by the fact of his/her parent going separate ways. In most cases the children who come from divorced background tend to be less social and perform poorly in their academic work.

According to researches that have been carried out by various scholars the impact of divorce in the adolescents who are in high schools is great and undesirable. Adolescents who are exposed to cases of divorce have a high tendency of repeating a class/ grade as well as five times likely to be suspended or expelled from a school [Amato &Keith,98]. During the early months following divorce, an adolescent tends to be less creative, more repetitive and they tend to be passive watchers. Adolescents from divorced families are more likely to be dependent, disobedient, demanding and unaffectionate in comparison to those adolescents who come from unbroken families. They tends to be afraid of being abandoned, losing love and getting bodily harm and these kinds of fear and problems they end up carrying them to school.

Adolescents who are in high school and come from divorced families tends to be more prone to misuse of drugs, involved in violent acts, they are also more likely to take commit suicide as well as bearing children out of marriage. The mental health is also affected by divorce whereby, they tend to be more withdrawn in school, less attentive, unhappy and they are less likely to put more efforts in their studies. These kinds of behaviors usually have a great negative impact on the education of the adolescent in question. Research has indicated that teachers are always in great problems with students from divorced families as they have to deal with some social as well as psychological issues that do arise from divorce in their classes.

Divorce effects on adolescent analysis

This study will investigate the impact of divorce on adolescent students on their education. It is important to understand how students from divorced background behave in order to come up with measures aimed at helping them to deal with social and psychological issues that arise from divorce. The future of these adolescents do depends of the education therefore there is urgent need to come up with measures aimed at helping them overcome the stress resulting from separation of their parents thereby having a negative impact in their education.

In order to develop those measures it is important first to understand the type of impact that divorce has on an adolescent life. This study will focus on the impact of divorce on adolescents in high school in relation to their education. It will focus mainly into individual factors such as academic performance, behavior, social experience with fellow students and standardized test performance. In order to successfully carry out this study data will be collected from the field in order to understand the impact of divorce on adolescents.

The data collected from both primary and secondary sources will be analyzed and the findings from the study will be used in coming up with the conclusion. The issue of divorces in our societies which are on the rise is an important aspect of the study for educational psychologists. It is important to understand this emerging aspect of social-cultural lives and come up with measures that are aimed to help student who are affected by these new trend cope up with the issue

Literature Review

A review of various related to divorce and its impact on adolescent education have revealed that divorce has a negative impact on the education of an adolescent who is in high school. Research has shown for instance that divorce in American society has become something that is acceptable. Studies have shown that American society is one of the societies that have the highest cases of divorce especially in comparison with other developed societies. According to the statistics that are available they do indicate that each and every year at least one million adolescents are victims of divorce. Studies have also shown that at least two of every three marriages tend to end up in divorce [Belli and Krantzler, 35].

At least sixty percent of couples who do seek for divorce have at least one child at home. The issue of divorce can now be seen even in school whereby studies have shown that one-third of students in high school in American schools do come from divorced families or remarriage families. While a lot of debate do exist on the probable long-term impacts of divorce on adolescents education, the literature that is in existence on the issue do agrees on the initial impacts of divorce on an adolescent life as well as his/her education. A renowned author Melvin says that the impact of a divorce in an adolescents mind the same magnitude as the earthquake it would have on buildings. Adolescents of divorce can be in one way or another be consumed by the existence of fear of what the future hold s for them after their parents goes in separate ways. Many sources do describe divorce as that period of incomparable stress as well as psychological pains for adolescents.

Lansky do further explain that during death, mourning is something that is acceptable and is encouraged, whereby relatives and friends are always there to comfort the children. However, in the cases of divorce, the support from parents and family in many instances is not available to the offspring. Hargreaves is also in agreement with the fact that bereavement is final and has an end; however divorce is by no means over for any given adolescent. While divorce is viewed as being more stressful to parents, to adolescents it tends to be even more hectic. Separation can be the most overwhelming experience of any adolescent life as it does disrupt his/her development of senses of security, trust as well as self. It further affects how one fits into a given family as well as other groups [Barr, 35].

Dr Mavis, who is a profound advocate of generally optimistic long-standing outcomes of adolescents who are victims of divorce, do argues that for any young person, separation is in away equal to bracing of a hundredweight hammer in one’s head. Processing of all the unprecedented and radical changes tend to bring about immature emotional and cognitive capabilities to the unconditional limits and in other cases to circumstances beyond ones limit. This tends to affects the well being of an adolescent in one way or another making his/her future hopeless [Barber, 36].

Adolescents are individuals who will tend to exhibit a number of behaviors in situations of divorce

High levels of sadness are one of the behaviors that are exhibited by adolescents from divorced families. The most excellent way to assist these adolescents deal with sadness that is brought about by their parent separation is to give them room to express their sadness. In order to make this process more effective they should be allowed to express their sadness at their own passe and terms.

Anger is another type of behavior that is common among adolescents who come from divorced families. This is commonly present in these students as they deal with changes that occur as a result of divorce. Scholars do argue that in order to help the adolescent with the problem of anger it’s always important to give them a room to express their anger in ways which are acceptable. It is the role of educators to ensure that they advise these adolescent on ways to handle their anger in acceptable means to avoid some of the problems that arises from anger. Benedek a renown author of psychological issues relating to education do suggest that physical activities are the best ways of an adolescent dealing with his/her anger that arises from separation of parents.

Another problem that is brought about by divorce on adolescents is that they tend to feel guilty of the eventualities that lead to the divorce of their parent. They go to an extent of assuming the responsibility of the separation of their parent. This form of guilty is exhibited in the way these students behave toward other students. It is important for educators to help them overcome this feeling of guilty as it does contribute to poor academic performance of these students. It is important to tell them from time to time that they are not the reason behind the separation of their parents [Benedek, 23]. They also be helped to deal with these guilt by showing them that there is nothing that they can do to bring their parent back together. This type of help will go a long way in helping the adolescent in their education whereby they are protected from negative impacts of divorce on their education and the way they behave toward their teachers as well as their fellow students.

Adolescents from divorced families tend to be lonely and withdrawn. Studies have shown that as a result of separation of their parent adolescents tends to be anti-social. It is important for educators to play a crucial role in ensuring that adolescents who are victims of divorces overcome their lonely. Unless measures are employed to help these students their performance may be negatively affected. Loneliness usually has a negative impact in the way an adolescent interact with other people. In order to succeed in ones education it’s important for one to interact freely with his/her teachers as well as fellow students.

Method of study

In order to successfully investigate the impact of divorce on adolescent education, the study will involve collection of data from the field. The data was collected from ten schools which had high cases of students who come from divorced families. The data was collected from one hundred and twenty respondents. For one to qualify as a respondent in these study he had to be a student with a background of divorce. Teachers who qualified to as respondents of this study were those who had a history of teaching students who come from divorced families.

The method of data collection that was used in this study included interviews and questionnaires. Questionnaires were the ones that were mainly used in collection of the primary data for this study, even though in a few instances interviews as instrument of data collection was used to collect information from some participants. The questionnaire had thirty questions that were subdivided into five parts. Each part contained six questions. The first part of the questionnaire contained a section where one was supposed to give his/her personal information with an aim of ensuring that the right respondents do participant in this study. All the other sections contained questions relating to the subject of the study.

Interview as a method of data collection was only used in cases where the respondent was not comfortable with the process of answering questions outlined in the questionnaire. The secondary sources of data for the data used in this study were case studies that have been done by other individuals on the issue of divorce and its impact on adolescents’ education. The purpose of collecting data from secondary sources was mainly to compare the findings of this study with findings from the previous studies. The method of data collection did provide reliable and accurate information that was used to analysis and draw conclusions that have been drawn in this study.

Results

Out of one hundred and twenty respondents who participated in this study only one hundred respondents who did meet the criterion that had been specified for one to qualify as respondent in this study. The results that are indicated in this section were from one hundred respondents who completed all the thirty questions that had been outlined in the research questionnaire as well as those respondents who were interviewed.

The data collected mainly focused on the students from divorced family background in terms of his/her academic performance, behavior, social experience and standardized test performance. The result of this study analysis what the respondents did say concerning the subject of the study. The focus was mainly on how divorce affects the education of adolescents in terms of the mentioned above factors.

Majority of the respondents both teachers and the students are in agreement that a student who comes from divorced families tends to perform poorly in their academic work

The data collected indicate that factors that contribute toward adolescent poor performance in their academic work as a result of divorce by their parent are more social and psychological. The data collected from teachers indicate that students who come from families with divorced background tend to be withdrawn in class and they rarely participate in class work. The students’ relation with teachers is also very poor whereby they fail to attend most of the classes due to their poor relationship with a teacher who teaches certain subjects. Failures of these students to attend lessons contribute greatly to poor performance. Another factor that was noted to contribute toward poor academic performance for adolescents’ student is their lack of attention in class. According to the data that was collected most of the students whose parent had divorced within the academic term recorded low marks in examinations. The respondents’ were in agreement that these stress and fear of what the future do holds for them after their parent divorced were the major factors that contributed toward these students lack of concentration in class.

The data collected indicate that adolescents from divorced background tend to be rude toward their teachers and fellow students. This rudeness contributes to them getting injuries from their fellow students who are offended by their rudeness. The study also indicates that students whose parents have divorced tend to be violent in their actions. Teachers who participated in this study noted that majority of cases of violence among student that are recorded in their schools tend to originate from students from divorced families.

The data collected also indicates that adolescents high school student with a history of coming from a divorced family background tends to behave in unacceptable ways while in class. They tend to be withdrawn and their levels of concentration are very low in comparison with students who come from intact families. Majority of the respondents are in agreement that harsh conditions at homes, stress as well as lack of understanding from their fellow students and teachers contributes to them exhibiting poor behavior.

The data collected indicates that the social experience of adolescents who comes from divorced families tends to be poor. Eighty percent of the respondents were of the view that adolescent from divorced background tends to be antisocial in nature. They usually tend to be rude toward their fellow students and teachers. Their rudeness usually keeps away their fellow students who are interested in socializing with them. The students tend to be anti social because they usually fear to be hurt by their fellow students. The kind of psychological trauma that these students go through at home, whereby they experience stress and sense of loss as a result of their parent going separate ways. Adolescents who are in high school and come from divorced families tends to be more prone to misuse of drugs, involved in violent acts, they are also more likely to take commit suicide as well as bearing children out of marriage. Their mental health is also affected by divorce whereby, they tend to be more withdrawn in school, less attentive, unhappy and they are less likely to put more efforts in their studies.

These kinds of behaviors tend to make the social experience of adolescent students to be withdrawn. The mental state of adolescents tends to make them more withdrawn and less attentive in social discussion. The results collected from the study also suggest that adolescents from divorced families usually tend to be more absent from school in comparison with students from intact families. They also have low average grades and they also tend to have low ranking levels when it comes to standardized national tests. A closer analysis of the data collected during the study do reveals that the levels of absence from school of student from divorced families is twice than that of students from intact families. The results indicate that students from divorced background will less concentrate in class in comparison with other students.

According to the data collected from this study do indicates that the impact of divorce in the adolescents who are in high schools is great and undesirable. Adolescents who are exposed to cases of divorce have a high tendency of repeating a class/ grade as well as five times likely to be suspended or expelled from a school [Amato &Keith,98]. During the early months following divorce, an adolescent tends to be less creative, more repetitive and they tend to be passive watchers. Adolescents from divorced families are more likely to be dependent, disobedient, demanding and unaffectionate in comparison to those adolescents who come from unbroken families. They tends to be afraid of being abandoned, losing love and getting bodily harm and these kinds of fear and problems they end up carrying them to school.

The result of this study indicates that adolescent from families which are intact tends to produce good results in school, whereby they record high levels of achievement in their academic work. Adolescents from divorced families usually exhibit problematic behaviors in school. The data collected in this study indicates that students who come from single mother background, single mother who lives with cohabitating husbands as well as those from married families where fathers are step there are high probabilities of them being expelled or suspended from school.

There is high probability of adolescents from the mentioned background to engage themselves in antisocial activities and they tend to have major problems when it comes to them relating with their teachers. Teachers who participated in this study revealed that these students from divorced families do not complete their homework on time and they also have problems paying attention in class. When it comes to performance they record in standardized test, their performance is usually undesirable as they record low grades when it comes to these standardized tests.

Conclusion

The study has shown that divorce tend to have a negative impact on the education of adolescents. From the study, adolescent from divorced families tends to be less social and record low grades when it comes to standardized tests. Adolescents of divorce can be in one way or another be consumed by the existence of fear of what the future hold s for them after their parents goes in separate ways. Many sources do describe divorce as that period of incomparable stress as well as psychological pains for adolescents. The students’ relation with teachers is also very poor whereby they fail to attend most of the classes due to their poor relationship with a teacher who teaches certain subjects. Failures of these students to attend lessons contribute greatly to poor performance.

Adolescents from divorced families tend to be lonely and withdrawn. Studies have shown that as a result of separation of their parent adolescents tends to be anti social. It is important for educators to play a crucial role in ensuring that adolescents who are victims of divorces overcome their lonely. Another problem that is brought about by divorce on adolescents is that they tend to feel guilty of the eventualities that lead to the divorce of their parent. They go to an extent of assuming the responsibility of the separation of their parent. This form of guilty is exhibited in the way these students behave toward other students.

The data collected from this study indicates that adolescents from divorced background tend to be rude toward their teachers and fellow students. This rudeness contributes to them getting injuries from their fellow students who are offended by their rudeness. The study also indicates that students whose parents have divorced tend to be violent in their actions. Teachers who participated in this study noted that majority of cases of violence among student that are recorded in their schools tend to originate from students from divorced families.

In order to address the problem exhibited by adolescent high school students who come from divorced families it is important first to address the root cause of the problem instead of looking into symptoms. Many of the studies have indicated that many adolescent students end up being expelled from school while this could be seen as a disciplinary measure it does not help the adolescent in question to overcome the psychological as well as social issues that arises from divorce. This action makes the future of this expelled more doom and hopeless. She/he is denied opportunity to continue with education the only hope of giving him/her a bright future. Before suspending or expelling a student from school it is advisable first to examine him or psychologically to understand the kinds of problems that he or she is passing through.

It is important for educators to help them overcome this feeling of guilty as it does contribute to poor academic performance of these students. It is important to tell them from time to time that they are not the reason behind the separation of their parents [Benedek, 23]. They also need to be helped to deal with this guilt by showing them that there is nothing that they can do to bring their parent back together. It is the role of educators to ensure that they advise these adolescent on ways to handle their anger in acceptable means to avoid some of the problems that arises from anger. Benedek a renown author of psychological issues relating to education do suggest that physical activities are the best ways of an adolescent dealing with his/her anger that arises from separation of parents.

In conclusion, it is up to the educators as well as students to join hands in order to help in ensuring that an adolescent education is not negatively affected by divorce. Measures such offering counseling at school and giving the affected adolescent to express their disappoints can help them deal with psychological issues that arises from divorce and prevent these issues from having a negative impact in their education.