Influence of Broken Home on Academic Achievement of Senior Secondary School Students in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja-Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the Influence of broken home on academic achievement of senior secondary school student in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population of this study consists of 1,208 senior secondary school (SSS1) students in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja (FCT Secondary Education Board, 2024). The sample for the study consists of a total of 400 male and female senior secondary school (SSS 1) students drowns from each secondary school across the six area councils in Abuja. Simple random probability sampling was used for the study. A self-structured instrument by the researcher entitled: Broken Home on Academic Achievement Questionnaire (BHAA-Q) with a 4-point Likert summative scale of SA-Strongly Agreed, A-Agreed, SD-Strongly Disagreed and D-Disagreed. The instrument was faced and content validated by experts in measurement and evaluation department of Educational Foundations, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akunbga, Ondo State. To test the reliability of the instrument, a pilot test was conducted on 30 students who were not part of the sample size but the population. The Cronbach Alpha method was used to obtain a reliability coefficient of 0.82. The study used descriptive statistics to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed among others that there is a significant difference between the academic achievement of children living with their own married parents and their counterpart living with their foster parents. The study concludes that broken homes exert a lot of influence on the academic achievement of secondary school students, ranging from poor motivation and parental attention, un-favourable home environment and emotional instability. The study recommended that government and school proprietors should engage school counsellors in all secondary schools to provide the necessary assistance to children from broken homes.