ABSTRACT
This study reviewed literatures on the coping strategies of children from divorced homes. It also proffers solutions and recommendations. Parents going through divorce may have children who experience increased likelihood for problems relating to social skills, behaviour issues and academic achievement. Parents who share similar values and practices for role expectations, discipline and time spent with children may diminish the negative impact divorce has on children. Divorced parents who live separately but focus on ways to create stability in the homes helps smooth transition between homes. Their cooperation also offers good communication and it helps in the social and emotional development of their children. Divorce may have huge impact on the academic success of some children, it is important for school counselors to have an awareness of the warning signs that a student is struggling with home life issues that he/she may carry over into the classroom. Strategies that school counselors may use to minimize the impact of a troubled child includes: support groups, individual counseling, and referral to community agencies and effectively including the communication with both sets of parents.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
From the time of creation, the family has been the basic unit of social organization. It has a great circle where all moral upbringings are transmitted. Family is the life wire of any society because children spend their formative years in the family. It’s in the family that children receive their early education which served as a foundation for subsequent education owing to this important of the family; Gibson (1979) asserted that family is the guide of a child in his infancy, his insurance in youth and his social stability/security in old age. The role of the family in molding the child is so enormous that for it to be able to carry out these roles, the family should be stable and organized. However, before the formation of a family, there has to be an initial and formal agreement by two persons to come together and create a family. This decision in most cases is sealed by a union called marriage.
Marriage by mutual consent is without doubt one of the most important and happy event in the life of an individual. Family that emerges from a marriage has some basic functions which make it unique. Bilton, et al (1981), observed that in all society, the family must perform some basic functions involving conception and birth, regular intercourse, socialization and maintenance functions of providing economic and emotional support and also companionship for the other.
In Nigeria today, the influences of industrialization and urbanization has affected the social system of the country. A part of which is he marriage system. As new cultural patterns, new aspiration and behavioral norms emerges, the traditional social ties undergo changes. As a result of this, social control becomes weaker. The family as a sensitive institution monitors all these changes and reacts to them experiencing disorganization. And since the traditional family structure has been seriously littered due to the influences of industrialization and urbanization, the functions it perform has been equally affected and many of the important roles has been known to be associated with instability.
Marriage instability according to Filani(1984) is a breakdown in communication among couples, resulting to constant argument, verbal and physical aggression, psychological ill-health, emotional and physical separation, and sometimes divorce. Filani further noted that marital instability can result from death of spouse, dissertation of spouses, mutual and legal separation, of all these instability, divorce seems to be the most popular.
Divorce according to Bohanna (1973) is a complex phenomenon in human relationship. He also noted that it takes place in six (6) stages. These stages are:
- Emotional divorce stage
- Economic divorce stage
- Legal divorce stage
- Co-parental divorce stage
- Community divorce stage
- Psychological divorce stage
Emotional Divorce Stage: this stage of divorce focuses on deterioration of sharing of thoughts and feelings.
Legal Divorce Stage: this is the legal area of divorce. e.g. the use of court law to dissolve a marriage.
The Economic Divorce Stage: this stage has to do with the sharing and allocation of money and properties.
The Co-Parental Divorce Stage: this stage deals with who takes care and responsibility of the custody of the children and also visitation rights.
Community Divorce Stage: this stage involves a change in societal groups, friendship, and community relationships.
The Psychological Divorce Stage: this stage deals with the divorced partners trying to work towards being single again, accepting themselves like that and gaining individual autonomy.
Thus, Land (1970) explained that divorce comes as a climax of a long story of unhappiness and it provides a legal way out of a situation which one or both partners have considered intolerable.
Divorce in our community today has become so common that fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce and each year, 1 million children are newly introduced to their parent’s separation (monthly statistics report). Divorce and its effects on children and the copping strategies adopted by certain children from divorced homes are issues that are of great concern to people in the world today. Divorce affects more than just the married couples; children often bear the brunt of divorce. Divorce has been found to have social, psychological and educational effects on the children from divorced homes. In view of this, Kan (1998), stressed that most social mis-fit found in Nigerian urban areas are products of broken homes because most of the children in single parenting lacks adequate parental care and support.
Divorce is an epidemic that draws no boundaries between any particular race, ethnicity or class. In other words, divorce and its effect is the same everywhere in the world. In Ikpoba Okha Local government area, in Benin, the story is not different. On the basis of this, this research will focus on the coping strategies of children from divorced homes. It will also put into consideration the effects of divorce on the children.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
The study of the changing family structure can be said to be the study of social process and dynamics. We live in an era characterized by change which is the essence of life. Our family today is not the same as the form we used to have in the earlier period of our century. Cathelon & Robbert (1979) observed that the traditionalists held the opinion of the wife giving-up her career goals and returning to the house “where she belongs”. Some wives find the hassle of job, house and family overwhelming and they react by opting out of the superman syndrome. As a result of this, there are lots of problems confronting the modern family. Some of these problems are economic, social, political and religious.
The divorce statistics in Nigeria is getting bleaker and bleaker by the minute and the unofficial number of failed marriages is probably even worse. Why is this so? There used to be a time in Nigeria when divorce was a foreign word. Divorce has been found to have social, psychological and educational effects on the children of divorced parents. If this is true, how do the children survive it? How does the y react and adjust to this new development in the family?
In view of these, this research envisages to find solution to the following questions:
- What are the actual causes of divorce?
- What are the effects of divorce on children?
- What are the possible ways of divorce prevention?
- RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the study is to evaluate divorce, the effects of divorce and coping strategies of children from divorced homes in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area Edo state, Nigeria.
The specific objectives of the study are to:
- Ascertain the causes of divorce in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area Edo state, Nigeria.
- To determine the effects of divorce on children that is to know if it is positive or negative.
- To find out possible ways of preventing divorce.
- SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study covers divorce and its attendant effects on the children from divorced homes and more importantly the coping strategies adopted by them. The study is however limited to Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area Edo state.
- SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research work will serve as a research material for social workers and children welfare practitioners of Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area to teach the children of divorced homes the best coping strategies available for them. Also, the research will determine the actual causes of divorce in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area and also serve as an institutional manual for would be divorcees on the best way to help their children cope with the divorce. This research will also help government to make laws that will help the plight of children of divorcees. Furthermore, this research would serve as an institutional manual for students of sociology and anthropology and also for students of social works on areas of child development.
1.6 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
The null hypotheses for the study are:
- There are no cases of divorce in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area.
- There are no ways of preventing divorce.
- There are no effects of divorce on the children.
1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS
- MARRIAGE: this is the union of man and woman as husband and wife. It is also the basis for the establishment of a family. It is found among every society both civilized and uncivilized, though in diverse forms.
- DIVORCE: This refers to the act by which marriage is dissolved in a way other than through the death of one of the spouse so that the parties may be free to remarry immediately or after.
- FAMILY: refers to a kinship group by blood and marriage and occupying a common household. There are various forms of family types which are: extended and nuclear.
