SURVEY OF OPINION ON MARITAL CONFLICT AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES STUDENTS IN ISEYIN DISTRICT GRAMMAR SCHOOL, ISEYIN, OYO STATE
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the theoretical and empirical literature related to effect of marital conflicts on Christian religious studies students academic performance.It covers empirical studies from a global and marginal context before establishing the knowledge gap that has been filled with this work. The chapter is structured in four sections; the first section introduces the chapter, the second section reviews theoretical literature and the third section reviews empirical literature. The chapter ends with literature syntheses and the research gap which has been filled up.
2.2 Theoretical Literature Review
2.2.1 Attachment Theory by Ainsworth and Bowlby (1991)
This study adopted attachment theory which is the joint work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991). The theory emphasizes the importance of affective relations between parents and children as a source of security and support for the child. Attachment is conceptualized as the bond that develops between the child and his/her primary care-givers (Bowlby, 1969). These emotional bonds have been described in terms of the child perceiving the parent as a secure base from which to explore and understand their wider social world (Ainsworth, 1978). Perceiving the parent as a secure base means that the child has confidence in the parent‟s availability and responsiveness. As such, attachment quality informs the child‟s sense of autonomy and mastery. It also serves as a foundation for more generalized expectations about other relationships and interactions.
2.2.2 Application of the Theory
Attachment security is derived from previous and current experiences within the parent-child relationship. Furthermore, contextual factors can temper the nature and quality of attachment. The family context has been emphasized as a particularly influential factor in understanding child distress and security. Consistent with this, some researchers have highlighted the importance of the family itself as a secure base (Bying-Hall, 1995). Beyond experiences in the parent-child relationship, a number of studies have documented the effects of the inter-parental relationship on children‟s attachment security (Belsky, 1999; Owen & Cox, 1997).
Findings suggest that while supportive inter-parental relations serve to augment attachments, negative or hostile interactions between parents can be detrimental to attachment security. It is proposed that inter-parental conflict impacts on attachment security because, under these conditions, parents are a source of distress for the child and this may undermine the child‟s perception of the parent as a source of security and support (Owen & Cox, 1997; Waters & Cummings, 2000).
The theory guided this study as it showed relationship with this work, because a positive marital relationship leads to effective relations between parents and children, which also results to a source of security and support for their children. Parents with no conflict are available, supportive and responsible for their children in academic performance rather than families with marital conflict. Marital conflict becomes the factor of distress for the children that also undermine the child perception of the parent as a source of security and support.
2.3 Empirical Literature Review
2.3.1 Problems Facing Marital Conflicts Children
Marital conflicts exist when there are major differences of opinion between people which persist and remain unsolved (Kelly, 2000). Israel (1999) found that family conflicts range in frequency; some could be rare while others occur very frequently. Conflict serves the functions of testing and changing the structure of family relationships. Family conflicts are difficult to escape. They carry great consequences for individuals, relationships and children.
Habiba (1999) stated that family conflict creates a home environment where children live in constant fear. In addition Mulholland, Watt, Philpott and Sarlin (1999) indicated that children who witness family conflicts are affected in ways similar to children who are physically abused. They are often unable to establish nurturing bonds with either parent. They are at a greater risk for abuse and neglect if they live in a violent home. Actually families under stress produce children under stress.
Mulholland et al (199) added that children exposed to family conflicts are more likely to develop social, emotional, psychological and/or behavioral problems than those who are not. Wolchik (2002) indicates that children who witness domestic violence show more anxiety, low self esteem, depression, anger and temperament problems than children who do not witness violence in the home. Wolchik (2002) revealed that the trauma they experience can show up in emotional and behavioral. Wolchik (2002) concluded that parental conflict caused younger children to suffer permanent, irreversible cognitive and emotional damage, which later expresses itself in adolescence. Suggested by Habiba (1999) the intense and poorly resolved marital
conflicts threatened the emotional security of the young children and individuals who perceived as less secure social and physical disturbances that affect their development and can continue into adolescents and later into adulthood.
According to Udansky and Wolf (2008) violence between partners is often viewed as a couple‟s private affair because it often involves „only‟ the husband and wife. The truth is that this violence often has a bigger impact on the children. This could be attributed to the fact that children born to a couple grow up regarding the mother and father as one unit. They become attached to both parents and learn to depend on them for their survival. As a result, children become extremely overwhelmed after witnessing violent scenes between their parents and the parent-child relationship they have been relying on for nurture, safety and help is threatened by this violence. Udansky and Wolf (2008) also asserts that usually, it is men who are perpetrators of domestic violence and because children form a special relationship with their mothers‟ right from birth, any form of suffering experienced by the mother greatly affects them. Their reactions may include acute fear for their own and their mother‟s safety.
In most cases children are not aware of the cause of the violence and they are subjected to living in a constant state of fear that it might happen again (Udansky & Wolf, 2008). Rodgers and Rose (2001) established that most children from homes where parental abuse is prevalent suffer irreversible damage in some or all aspects of their development, which can be difficult to reverse. The long term effects of domestic violence on children vary with the child‟s age. Infants are fragile and can easily be injured in violent homes. Generally, infants require relaxed and responsive care- takers. According to Bronfenbrenner (1979), mothers who are battered may be so preoccupied with stress that they cannot respond to their infant‟s needs. These children are likely to be under-weight, have problems sleeping and eating, complain constantly and be generally unresponsive adults.
As a result, many infants from violent homes show signs of health problems, stunted growth and neglect. Children between three to five years still rely on their care takers for the control of emotions and behavior. They turn to their parents for psychological support and emotional refuge. In the event of domestic violence, they feel helpless and become increasingly aware of the unrest. The hostility overwhelms them because they have not yet acquired the ability to deal with such frightening events. Consequently, they tend to show signs of behavioral and emotional problems. At this age, children are likely to blame themselves for the violence and suffer unthinkable guilt. These children have feeding and sleeping difficulties and they often get nightmares. All this affects their ability to concentrate in school. They also lag behind in language and communication development. In addition to chronic fear and anxiety, they also experience frequent illness. They become clingy and display unusual separation anxiety. They withdraw from peers and enjoy causing pain by hitting and biting.
Hetherington (1999) asserts that problems among children who have witnessed assaults of one parent by another in the home include psychological and emotional ones such as aggression, hostility, anxiety, social withdrawal and depression. There are also cognitive functioning problems such as lower verbal and quantitative skills and the development of attitudes supporting the use of violence. Other long term
development problems according to Hetherington (1999) include depression, trauma related systems and low self-esteem among women and trauma related symptoms alone among men. These problems appear to be magnified or decreased by a number of moderating factors including whether or not the child has been a victim of physical abuse, a child‟s age and gender, the amount of time that has passed since witnessing violence, where the child is living, how a child perceives his/her relationship to adults in the home and the degree of perceived family support for the child. Hetherington (ibid) also says that problems associated with children‟s witnessing of domestic violence can be divided into three main categories:
Marital conflict affected children tend to exhibit more aggressive and antisocial as well as fearful and inhibited behavior and show lower social competence than other children. They were also found to show more anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, anger, and temperament problems than children who did not witness violence at home. Children from homes where their mothers were being abused have shown fewer skills in understanding how others feel and examining situations from other‟s perspectives when compared to children from non-violent households.
Peer relationships, autonomy, self-control and overall competence were also reported significantly lower among boys who had experienced serious physical violence and been exposed to the use of weapons between adults living in their homes. Another aspect of the effects on children is their own use of violence. Social learning theory would suggest that children who witness violence may also learn to use it (Hetherington, 1999).
In terms of cognitive functioning and attitudes, Hetherington (1999) asserted that increased violence exposure is associated with lower cognitive functioning. One of the most direct consequences of witnessing violence may be the attitude a child develops concerning the use of violence and conflict resolution. Emery (1998) suggests that children‟s exposure to adult domestic violence may generate attitudes justifying their own use of violence. Cherlin (2009) findings support this association by showing that adolescent boys incarcerated for violent crimes who had been exposed to family violence believed more than others that acting aggressively enhances one‟s reputation or self-image. Boys and girls appear to differ in what they learn from these experiences.
In addition a number of studies have mentioned much longer term problems reported retrospectively by adults or indicated in archival records. For example, witnessing violence as a child was associated with adult reports of depression, trauma related symptoms and low self-esteem among women. There was also trauma related symptoms among men. Witnessing violence appeared to be independent of the various cases accounted for by the existence of parental alcohol abuse and divorce (Bryan & Devault, 1999).
According to Berns (2007) a link between children‟s perceptions of their parents‟ marital conflicts and the quality of sleep the children experienced. The more discord the children sense between their parents, the more the amount and quality of their sleep declines, but even mild levels of stress were found to be harmful. He adds that loud family quarrels can be harmful to children. According to Bauserman (2002) some studies go beyond the obvious to include impact of mild discord – the cold stares, cold comments and mutual avoidance that never rise to the surface, at least in front of the children. Bauserman (2002) also found out that parents may not be as successful in hiding marital problems as they think, and may be harming their children in the process. These studies also found out that children perceived marital problems to a greater extent than the parents realized. Marital conflict and divorce can create serious instability in the family and insecurity in a child.
In addition, Crissoner (2007) commented that parental conflicts cause young children to suffer permanent irreversible cognitive and emotional damage. Cognitive and emotional damage suffered by children in early life expresses itself later in adolescence when these embarrassed and neglected children are expelled from their natal families and are treated by schools, teachers and administration; they join young gangs and delinquent youth groups, commit street crimes and engage in alcoholism, drug abuse and teen pregnancies.
The studies by Allison (2009); Amato and Keith (2000); Baker and Dryden (1999); and Kelly (2000) demonstrated that persistent conflicts among parents are perceived by the children as threat to their harmony and stability of being separated from attachment figures and it is a very distressing experience to children. The study by Amato and Keith (2000) revealed that when children witnessed parents‟ conflicts at their home they feel anxious, confused and helpless. When they internalize such conflicts they lead to withdrawal depression or somatic problems over time. These conflicts, as observation showed, disrupt the parent-child intimacy and affect the children‟s view of the world, of themselves, their idea about the meaning and purpose of life, their expectations for future happiness and their moral development.
2.3.2 Marital Conflicts and Christian religious studies students Academic Performance
Family factors associated with academic competence include parenting styles and parental involvement. According to Amato and Keith (2000) parental involvement in education is related to a child‟s academic achievement and evidence suggests that increasing parental involvement leads to academic improvements. Amato and Keith (2000) also assert that parents influence the development of academic achievement through direct involvement with schools, for example, when they contact school about their child or attend parent – school functions.
They also affect achievement through their attitudes and behavior, for example, by communicating strong educational values, conveying the value of effort, expecting and encouraging their children to succeed academically and monitoring or helping with their child‟s schoolwork at home. For marital conflict children, dealing with fears about abuse and searching for security in relationships with adults can take precedence over performing competently at academic tasks. Being physically abused has been linked with children‟s anxiety, personality problems, depression, conduct disorder and delinquency.
Allison (2009) in the study to establish link between children perceptions of their parents „marital conflict and academic achievement found that family stress can have a devastating effect on children education and academic achievement. The more marital conflict among the parents, the more the amount and quality of their school performance declines, but even mild levels of stress were found to be harmful to children learning. Allison added that loud family quarrels can affect children ability in completing school take home assignments.
Consequences of marital conflicts split families, poor parent – child relationships and in some cases economic deprivation. This immense disruption in the home life can create a situation that serves as a dysfunctional learning experience in all aspects of a child‟s life, but especially in the area of interpersonal functioning. Poor parent – child relationships due to conflicts can cause these children to have less school attendance and hence poor academic performance (Baker & Dryden 1999; Amato & Keith, 2000; Allison, 2009).Dona and Mary, 1999) also found that marital conflict has been associated with economic deprivation, which causes a disrupted home life which, in turn, is associated with subsequent diminished academic achievement of children.
Children who have experienced marital conflicts frequently have lower academic achievement than children from non-marital conflict families (Cumming & Davies, 2002). In a review done on family and school factors related to adolescents‟ academic performance, it noted that it is two times more likely for a child from marital conflict family to drop out of high school than a child from non-marital conflict family. These children from marital conflict families may also be less likely to attend school, resulting in the discontinuation of their academic career (Rodgers & Rose, 2001).
Buchler and Gerad, 2002) found that marital conflict decrease children school performance. Baydar, 1999) argued that marital conflict family caused lack of parental involvement in their children‟s education affairs and hence poor performance. Amato and Keith (1991) said that marital conflict affect parents economic ability hence it affect their children education.
2.3.3 Coping Strategies Adopted by Marital Conflicts Children for their Academic Performance
To this point, little has been said about how children cope with exposure to marital conflict. A number of authors have pointed to the mechanisms that children use to cope with marital conflict. For example, Amato and Keith (1999) report that children‟s behavior during conflict included crying, shouting at their mother or pleading in her favor, remaining silent, leaving the room, playing a part in the violent event, seeking attention through noisy behavior and restlessness, or choosing one parent as a target. After the violent event, children sought security and comfort from their mother or adopted a parent role to comfort her. Lawuo, Machumu & Kimaro (2015) in their study entitled uncovered coping strategies adopted by children living in homes with marital conflicts for their own survival, found out that strategies adopted by children were to engage in sex relations, seeking socio-emotion supports. Other strategies included running away from homes, joining gang groups, seeking physical supports, doing petty business and some opted to disregard parental- conflicts.
Cumming and Davies (2002) suggest that child witnesses of domestic violence use what Amato and Kierman (1998) call both “emotion focused” and “problem- focused” coping strategies. Emotion-focused strategies are those that a child uses to control his or her own emotional response to witnessing violent events. Amato (2000) found that the children mostly applied this type of strategy including “wishing the violence away at the time of a fight, reframing and minimizing the violence, forgiving father, and refusing to talk about the violence” (Amato, 2000, p.123).
Problem-focused strategies that children commonly used were characterized by actions aimed at changing events and were used less often by children in Amato‟s, (2000, p.123) study. These included children physically distancing themselves from or inserting themselves into the violent event.
Marital conflicts disrupt relationship of parents and children as the nature of environment at home is and intensity of conflict, they may accept the situation in order to live over there. However, children accept environment[ of marital conflict as a normal part of interpersonal relations, so that wellbeing should not be affected by whether conflict occurs, the acceptance of emotional expression for the marital conflict problems help children to build sense of self, open discussion of feelings that are hopeful on the personal life (Amato, 2000). According to Buchler and Gerad, (2002) marital conflict children use avoidance strategy refers to children's attempts to distance themselves from the conflict. They avoid parent differences that inducing anger to each other, also keep away from dealing with grief about parental conflict and uncomfortable relationship with parents that have the negative impacts of living with parental conflict.
2.3.4 The Role of School Management in Assisting students with Marital Conflicts Since 1976 when Wallerstein and Kelly (1976) published their first research article on children of marital conflict, it has been established and accepted that school age children of marital conflict are considered at risk. Marital conflict impedes learning by disrupting productive study patterns as children are faced with increased anxiety and depression because of problems in the home (Fagan & Rector, 2000). Fagan and Rector added, “In the 'Impact of Marital Conflict Project,' a survey of 699 elementary
students nationwide conducted by Kent State University in Ohio, children from marital conflict homes performed more poorly in reading, spelling, and math and repeated a grade more frequently than did children from non-marital conflict families”
The responsibility for helping these children who have experienced their parents‟ conflicts lies in part with the schools. Schools teach the whole child and are charged with meeting not only children‟s cognitive needs but also their emotional, physical, social, and peer needs (Bredekamp, 1987). Weissbourd, (1994) admits that the damage done by marital conflict is sometimes ignored as a problem at schools because teachers do not know how to talk to children about it. According to Weissbourd (1994), many children will provoke or try to test their teacher for attention during marital conflicts or after a divorce. These children want to know if their teacher will abandon them also. In addition, they may secretly hope that causing trouble will get their parents' attention. Teachers may find this hard to deal with because of their lack of training. Adults who have an awareness of the changes children of marital conflicts are going through can provide a level of support for the children and also prepare themselves to deal with some of the disruptions that could impede the normal flow of group or classroom activity (Frieman, 1993).
The school is an excellent resource for children at risk. Because of the number of hours of contact, school personnel have an important effect upon the child. At school, children have exposure to professionals who are trained and are sensitive to the needs of a child. Support systems are of particular significance at a time when the family is in conflicts or disorganization, and these systems may be found within the
school (Drake, 1979). The primary school teachers are in a unique position to help students to work toward overcoming marital conflict problems that affect students‟ academic achievement (Frenza, 1984). Whitemarsh (2008) found that educators are often the first to notice a change in behavior when a family is in transition to being broken up. Teachers observed that some children from divorced families may show decreased functioning in academic performance and display oppositional behavior, or signs of anxiety and depression.
Frieman (1993) reported many children of marital conflict family want their teachers to know about their home situations and are anxious not to be criticized by their teacher when they have problems. Frieman‟s study showed children want their teachers to listen and talk with them about their feelings. A teacher is able to help children who need a listening ear by using such basic skills as active or reflective listening, open-ended versus yes-or-no questions, I versus you statements, and clarification.
2.4 Literature Syntheses and Research Gap
In this literature review an array of studies relating to this study have been reviewed, for example studies on problems facing children of marital conflicts by (Habiba, 1999; Watt, Philpott & Sarlin, 1999), studies on marital conflicts and academic performance (Baker & Dryden 1999; Amato & Keith, 2000; Allison, 2009).Many studies attest that marital conflict creates a home environment where children live in constant fear, they are often unable to establish nurturing bonds with either parent and they are more likely to develop social, emotional, psychological and/or behavioral problems than those who are not. Bornstein (2016) literature reviews has also revealed that students of marital conflicts adopted an array of coping strategies such as wishing the violence away at the time of a fight, reframing and minimizing the violence, forgiving father, and refusing to talk about the violence (Caban, 2004). However, most of the studies attempted to examine the effects of marital conflict on children education were conducted outside of Nigeria. To generalize them into the Nigeria context may not be a desirable exercise, because such studies may miss some key aspects that are inherent in the Nigeria families and educational context. The few studies conducted in Nigeria focus on impact of marital conflicts on children development and not on academic performance, hence the need for the present study.