Separation of parents affecting students' academic performance

Claude Mills, Staff Reporter

SEPARATION of parents and the resulting emotional instability in the home have been linked to behavioural problems and low academic achievement of children in the pre-teen years.

This came out of a recent study, conducted by Dr. Maureen Samms-Vaughan, lecturer in child health, child development and behaviour at the University of the West Indies. She found that 51 per cent of the children were separated from their biological fathers by age 11 and 17.5 per cent separated from their biological mothers by that age. And this happens mostly because the relationship between the parents had broken down or because of migration.

Dr. Samms-Vaughan released her findings in a working paper entitled "Cognition, Educational Attainment and Behaviour in a Cohort of Jamaican Children". Some 1,720 children under 12 years old, living in Kingston and St. Andrew and attending school in these areas, were used in the study.

It found that 57 per cent of parents had no relationship with their children by the time those children had reached age 12. A third of children had both parents living in their homes but in close to half of the homes, only the mother was present. Neither parent was present in 12 per cent of the cases.

Fathers are separating from their children earlier and for longer periods than mothers, mostly because of a breakdown of relationship with the mothers. But separation is also due to migration, death and abandonment, the study also found.

However, migration has been the main reason why mothers are leaving their children. They are also separated from their children for financial reasons and sometimes in these circumstances, the child is either given to someone with better resources or is left in the care of someone while they seek work elsewhere. The mothers too, leave the home because of breakdown in relationship with fathers.

The study shows that the average separation time for mothers is six years and for fathers, eight years.

"It would be the ideal situation to have both parents in the home, but often, this is not the case but there is nothing that can be done about it, as there are factors such as migration, death, and breakdown of relationships to consider," Winston Bowen, director of the Children Services Division, said.

Meanwhile, the problems are showing up in the nation's classrooms.

In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week, Dr. Pauline Milbourn of the Child Guidance Clinic at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, painted a portrait of frustrated, isolated children who exhibit temper tantrums in classrooms all over the country.

"The kids are angry, sad and frustrated. That's why they behave the way they do, and after an outburst, after they've thrown a desk or chair, they want to play, but no one wants to play with them," Dr. Milbourn said.

But Mr. Bowen, while acknowledging the negative impact of the absence of either parent in the home, dismissed this as the main factor in a child's development.

"A lot will be dependent on the input of the mother. It is important to have male role models, but the outcome of a child's development hinges greatly on what the mother is able to do, we have to accept that circumstances change, and a father could die or be absent. But this should not be used as a excuse for teens to fail," Mr. Bowen.

"A lot of outstanding members of society have come from single parent homes and even from foster homes where no parents were present," he added.

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