CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY

The oldest social institution ordained by God as a social contract between two individuals to become husband and wife is Marriage. According to Sarker (2007), Marriage as ordained by God gives legitimacy to sexual relationship and reproduction for legitimate children. Marriage is the state of being united with a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife for the purpose companionship, procreation maintaining a family (Gove, 2006). However, marital instability has become a thing of concern in this contemporary society and this is associated with separation, divorce, and widowhood. Separation and divorce are social phenomena created by either husband or the wife or both, but widowhood is beyond the control of human being, it is related to death and thus universal (Amina 2008). Meanwhile, separation may be in two categories: physical Separation i.e. when the husband and the wife reside separately without resolving their marital tie; mental separation i.e. when the couple decides to live together in the same household but without having biological and psychological relations. It is imperative to note that when marriage is dissolved in the court of law, it is called divorce, but when it is dissolved by death is called widowhood (Amina, 2008).

Meanwhile, the term marital instability is used to refer to the process whereby marriages breakdown through separation, desertion or divorce (Lesmin & Sarah, 2008). The significance of the family devoid of instability is recognized by researches locally and worldwide (Becker, 2002; Sarker, 2007; Uka et al., 2013; Omoniyi-Oyafunke et al., 2014). This is because the family without instability grows and is one where positive relationship is promoted and sustained. As a consequence, Sarker (2007) refers to marital instability as the interpersonal association and interaction within the marital relationship. Moreover, Lesmin and Sarker (2008) defined marital instability as the process whereby marriages breakdown through separation, desertion or divorce. Hence, the increasing incidence of marital disharmony such as the occurrence of divorce shows that there is marital instability in a number of families in the Nigerian context (Ezennay, 2006).

Marital instability occurs as an attempt of one individual or partner to checkmate the behaviour and anticipations of the other (Uka et al., 2013). This threatens the household stability as well as the well-being of the children, as it oen impacts on their academic adjustment and achievement. A number of people in the contemporary society believe that the educational system has failed, but evidently, the schooling system has not failed but rather it is the partnership that has failed, with schools taking on the responsibility that families, communities once assumed (CastroMartin & Bumpass, 2009). The family stability often has a marked influence on the student‟s motivation for learning and on her to cope with academics. The home environment is a strong pointer to the academic adjustment and achievement of children. This is because a number of children‟s academic potentials are now confronted with increasing difficulties as a result of parental marital instability (Sarker, 2007). The contact between the parent, teachers and students makes a lot of impact on the academic performance of the students. So those who do not regularly attend lectures because of lack of proper monitoring by the parents could experience challenges adjusting academically (Bumpass, 2009). Parents are thereby faced with the problem of enriching their home environment so as to establish a positive effect on the student‟s academic performance in schools (Castro-Martin & Bumpass, 2009).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Study has shown that marital instability have a major consequence on the academic performance of students. Marital instability have a psychological influence on children who are victims of this hostile home environment, the effects of this environment causes depression on students and this aects the level of their concentration in school. If students’ concentration in school is poor, then their academic performance would be at the receiving end. Marital instability results in a total neglects of students. Children who are victims of marital instability and not proper taken care of by their parents and majority of the children’s need are not been met. It has been observed children who are victims of marital instability are not privileged to have a quality education, due to the conflict between the parents the need to provide quality education for their wards is not addressed. Marital instability makes parents aggressive and frustrated, most time these parents passes their aggression on their children. This act causes sadness in the heart of the children and which in turn affects their academic performance. For these reasons, it is however glaring that there is a need to carry out a study on the effect of marital instability on the academic performance of students.