CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS

The issue of parental conflict has been increasingly recognized as a persistent social and public problem. Particularly this conflict has tremendous negative effects on students’ academic achievement and wellbeing. The family is the child’s first place of contact with the world and as a result, children acquire initial education and socialization from parents and other significant person’s in the family. Inter-parental conflict is involved with the disagreement between parents, which can be as a result of differences in opinions, values and judgment. In families conflict between spouses is a normal and necessary part of family life but this notwithstanding, when it is handled in a destructive rather than constructive manner, it can create negative consequences both on the part of the parents as well as on their children’s’ wellbeing. One major factor that plays a relevant role in a child’s development is witnessing an inter-parental conflict (Cumming and Davies), as exposure to this conflict has been proven to have a direct influence on children. Witnessing parents express anger is psychologically and emotionally is stressful for the children and so Inter-parental conflict is said to be more destructive to children than divorce or loss of a father ( Grych and fincham ,1990 Patterson and 1956). Amato (1990) highlights the view that children play a central role in shaping their development through their own influence.

This study therefore investigated the influence of parental conflict on students’ academic achievement in some selected schools in Mezam taking in to consideration the case of Bamenda III sub-division, Northwest region of Cameroon. In this light this chapter is designed to present the background of the study, statement of problem, purpose of the study, research questions, hypothesis, and significance of the study, scope of the study and operational definitions of terms.

Background to the Study

Education is the bedrock of every nation and this explains why different measures are put in place to enhance its standard. In recent times, education appears to be falling in standard in some parts of the world. Some educationist seem to put the blame on families as the family is considered the first social group the child comes in contact with, which has a major impact on the life of the child. The term inter-parental conflicts refers to parents extraction, it happens when their physical and psychological availability are reduced (Camming and Davies,2002). Moreover Camming and Davies (2002) mention that parental conflict is a negative mechanism that can damage parents child relationship (kelly.2000; Amato 2003, Kelly and Emery, 2003, Guttman and Rosenberg 2003.

Historical Background

 Conflict is the moment of truth in a relationship, a test of its health, a crisis that can weaken or strengthen it, a critical event that may bring lasting resentment, smoldering hostility or psychological scars. Conflict can push people away from each other or pull them in to a closer and more intimate union as they contain the seed of destruction and seeds of greater unity. Parental conflict in relationships can occur in all types of families, between biological parents, step parents, foster and adoptive parents. We often hear husband and wives boast that they have never had serious disagreement as if that means theirs has been a good relationship. Most people have known families’ especially large families where conflict crop up constantly and yet this families are wonderfully happy and healthy. Conflict especially inter-parental conflict is inevitable in every household and it is near to impossible not to experience it within a marital relationship. This notwithstanding, what is important for parents to remember is that they need to be able to work through their differences. Inter-parental conflict therefore occurs in every family relationship and can sometimes lead to feelings of anger or even extreme anger between partners with one common feature being each person blaming the other for what’s going wrong.

With the family being a very important agent of socialization, it is very interesting and essential to observe how children adopt to the family systems in which they are born after parental conflict. In recent years the effect of family relation has been an important role in determining the self-esteem of children. Parents have different ideas, opinions, values and priorities which causes dispute among them and has an effect on their children. The manner in which parents handle every marital conflict has a significant effect on how secured their children feel, and in turn significantly affect their future adjustment (Stith et Al 2000, Cummings, Mt1995). When parents conflict, children are greatly affected as such conflict has profound effect on their children causing many problems such as behavior and academic problems that relates to positive identity structure, which encompass self-esteem, self- efficacy and motivation (Budura 1997) . On the other hand Zimmerman ( 2001), reveals that academic achievement can be defined as self-regulated learning , including excellence in sports ,Art’s , culture, behavior, confidence and communication skills and it shows how learner’s control their emotion, feelings in order to academically achieve.

The Cameroon education arrangements is dominated by examinations and oriented training where passing exams is the only standard for performance since there is no internal structure of monitoring learning achievement

According to Husain (2006) secondary schools students often come from different socio- economic background which also affect their achievement in school. In relation to this, most students from poor and average income families have poor academic achievement due to various problems these families face causing emotional disturbance among their children and in turned affect school

Contextual Framework

 In the Cameroon context, the family is the heart of the educational enterprise with parents having different attitudes and ways of raising their children. A student who witnesses his parents arguing and fighting in the morning is affected emotionally and intellectually and hence cannot learn his lesson materials properly at school (Hushemi and Noroozi, 2004). When we acknowledge that our children learn about relationship primarily within the family unit, then it makes sense to also acknowledge that they learn about conflict from the home. Inter-parental conflict inevitably exist in some form, however it is the degree of intensity and nature of the conflict weather it is convert ( hidden) or Overt ( obvious)  that determines its impact on the individual involved. An extensive amount of research has proven that frequent, intense and poorly resolve conflict between parents can place children at a higher risk of mental health issues along with several other problems.

When parents frequently engage in arguments, unpleasant exchange of speech, hostile behaviors and a show of disrespect to each other, they are in effect providing a model for their children. They begin to lose confidence and it inhibits them from approaching and socializing with other children in school, makes them internalize this negative emotions deeply as they might begin to worry too much about the conflict which stresses them up and they may become mentally drained and struggle at school or college with poor grades. Owing to their distracted mind and inability to concentrate, children may not be able to engage proactively in classroom discussion and benefit from peer learning and are more likely to suffer from lower self-worth and confidence, making them unable to build social support network to build competence.

Since parents are the strongest predictors of behavior and cognitive problems in their children (Tiet, Bird; Hoven, Wu, Moore and Davies, 2001), this research therefore sets out to demonstrate that family conflict is associated with poor achievement in school. Most of the study have made use of the cumulative measure of measurement such as GPA of students in schools. It is therefore on this basis that the research sets out to investigate the influence of inter-parental conflict on student’s academic achievement.

Theoretical Framework

The Emotional Security theory (Davies and Cumming 1994) is one of the theories that guided this study. According to this theory, children’s response to inter-parental conflict are affected by implications for their own emotional security and children’s confidence in parents abilities to manage difficulties for the purpose of preserving family stability.  The Emotional security theory posit that maintaining felt security is a primary goal for children and threat to this will activate their regulatory patterns to regain security. (Emotional and behavioral reactivity, internal representation). However, prolonged operation of the emotional security system regains considerable expenditure of psychological resources which may increase children’s vulnerability to developing psychological systems over time (Cumming, Gerrey and Davies: 2012)

 The Ecological system theory equally guided this study. Brofrenbrenner ecological system theory is one of the most accepted explanation regarding the influence of social environment on human development. This theory argues that the environment on human development. This theory argues that the environment you grow up in affect every facet of your life. Social factors determine your way of thinking, the emotions you feel and your likes and dislikes.

If you change your environment, you or you move to another country with a different culture your identity will certainly change. The same can happen if your social role within one of the five systems changes. The five system include: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, microsystem and the chronosystem.

  Another theory that guided this work is the learned helplessness theory by Seliman. The failure to escape shock induced by uncontrollable aversive events was discovered half a century ago. Seligman and Maier (1967) theorized that animals learned that outcomes were independent of their responses, that nothing they deed matters and that this learning undermined trying to escape, the mechanism of learned helplessness is now very well charted biologically and the original theory got it backwards. Leaned helplessness has since become a basic principle of behavioral theory, demonstrating that prior learning can result in drastic change in behavior and seeking to explain why individuals may accept and remain passive in negative situations despite their clear abilities to change them. In his book Helplessness (1997), Seligman argued that, as a result of these negative expectations, other consequences may accompany the inability or unwillingness to act including low self-esteem, chronic failure, sadness and physical illness.

Maslow hierarchy of need equally influence this study. Maslow hierarchy of need is one the best known theories of motivation, it states that our actions are motivated by certain physiological and psychological needs that progress from basic to complex. As a humanist Maslow believed that people have an inborn desire to be self-actualized, that is, to be all they can be. To achieve this ultimate goal, however, a number of more basic needs must be met this include need for food safety, love and self- esteem.

Conceptual Background

This work deals with concepts like inter-parental conflict as the independent variable. This refers to the disagreement between parents, which can be as a result of differences in opinions, values and judgment. Also the term inter-parental conflicts according to (Camming and Davies) refers to parents extraction, which happens when their physical and psychological availability are reduced. Moreover Camming and Davies (200) mention that parental conflict is a negative mechanism that can destroy parent child relationships.

Another concept which serve as the dependent variable is student’s academic achievement which according to the dictionary of psychology by Cater (1995) is defined as the knowledge attained or skills developed in the school subject, usually determined by test scores or marks assigned by the teacher or both. Also Bhatnagar R.p (1996) considers academic achievement or performance of student as an aspect of their total behavior. It is a product of interaction of the students as an individual with his environment namely school teacher and peers. 

Statement of problem

Academic achievement is a major influence in a student’s life. A myriad of research findings support the suggestions that the academic achievement of children from conflict homes is low compared to that of children from peaceful homes. Students’ experiences at home can have a direct impact on their performance at school. Recent findings from some family study have suggested that quality relation between parents not only affect children’s long term emotional and behavioral development but also affect their long term academic achievement. Children living in a family environment marked by frequent and poorly resolve conflict between parents are at great risk for deficit academic achievement. Some researchers have observed unique situations where some students or learner’s from some family backgrounds attain significantly high grades than others (Bullock, 2000) while another study conducted by willeto (1999) found out that there is no relationship between inter-parental conflict and students’ academic achievement. Therefore it is based on these suggestions and the above background that this study seek to find out the influence of inter-parental conflict on students’ academic achievement in Bamenda lll sub division since this conflict may cause emotional challenges on children in their homes and out of their homes, leading to more difficulty in school, behavioral problems and trouble getting along with their parents. This present study will therefore focus on the influence of inter-parental conflict (either physical, verbal or emotional) on student’s academic achievement.

Objective of the study

The main objective of the study is to investigate the influence of inter-parental conflict on the academic achievement of students

Specific objective

Specifically the study seek to.

1. Assess how physical conflict between parents influence students’ academic achievement
2. Investigate the influence of verbal conflict between parents on student’s academic achievement.
3. Examine the influence of emotional conflict on student’s academic achievement.

Main Research questions

How does inter-parental conflict influence the academic achievement of students in secondary schools?

Specific research questions

1: How does physical conflict between parents influence student’s academic achievement?

2: To what extent does verbal conflict between parents affects student’s academic achievement

3: What is the influence of emotional conflict between parents on student’s academic achievement?