“A Broken Family’s Battle:” A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of MHPNHS

Students Dealing with Family Fragmentation

Category: Phenomenology

Proponents:
Marc Vryant De Guzman
Vincent Paul Eballo
Czarina Mae Mamaril
Rhone Christian Salcedo
Louis Andrei Santiago

John Lester Zamora

Research Teacher

Marcelo H. Del Pilar National High School

March 2020

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 Table of Contents

Title Pagei

Table of Contents................................................................................................................ii

Introduction......................................................................................................................1

Statement of the Problem.................................................................................................1

Purpose of the Study........................................................................................................2

Significance of the Study.................................................................................................2

Definition of Key Terms..................................................................................................3

Scope and Delimitations..................................................................................................3

Review of Related Literature...........................................................................................4

References..........................................................................................................................11

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 Introduction

Introduction

Every child's dream is to gain a perfect relationship and a perfect family. Here in

the Philippines, divorce is still not legalized because Filipinos believe in the sanctity of

marriage. However, there are still married couples who get separated through annulment.

Before, couples who had differences or fight against each other still try to fix their

marriage because of their children, but modern families have separated from this

prospect.

The broken family is a family that contains a separated parent. Their children tend

to live with one of their parents. The broken family often leads to negative results on the

student's lives. Family's involvement is recognized as a primary factor into children's

whole being [ CITATION Les17 \l 13321 ]. A broken family, in a broader sense, is a family

that has missing members (i.e. lost sibling/s, dead parent/s, etc.).

Statement of the Problem

The focus of the study is to discover the effects of a broken family among the

teenagers. Specifically, it seeks to answer the problems including the attitude of the

teenager (having a broken family) in his/her community, the causes of having a broken

family, the effect of having a broken family to their lives, and lastly, the solutions that

can help a teenager prevent a broken family.

General Research Question:

1. What are the characteristics of family fragmentation, its causes, and its effects

on students?

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Specific Research Question:

1. What are the experiences of students belonging in a broken family?

2. How well do students dealing with family fragmentation fare in school?

3. Can the severity of effects in students be different in:

a. Separated parents?

b. Lost sibling/s?

c. Lost parent/s?

d. Separated sibling/s?

Purpose of the Study

Family fragmentation has different effects on the members of the family

especially the children, may it be academically, emotionally, socially, or physically. This

study aims to identify the characteristics of family fragmentation, what causes said

societal issue and the experiences of students belonging to a broken family and the effects

on their lives. This would be done through the use of questionnaires, interviews, and

observations.

Significance of the Study

The researchers believed that this study will be beneficial to the students, parents,

teachers, and to future researchers. This may provide them with the information that they

need in order to be aware and to further extend the knowledge of the students. For

students, this will provide information about the various effects of being or having a

fragmented family and how they deal with it. Next, for parents, this will raise their

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awareness to the possible impact of having a fragmented family towards students’

academic performance, and to help them enhance their relationship with their child.

Then, for teachers, this will also be beneficial to the educational institutions for them to

assist or help students who are in a fragmented family. And lastly, for the future

researchers, this would help them in their future studies that can be used as their related

topics and this may serve as knowledge and guidance for their study.

Definition of Key Terms

Broken family is the state of the incompleteness of a family, whether it may be

the death of a loved one, broken marriage, or the loss of a member due to certain

circumstances. This is one of the most common factors that affect the mentality of

modern families especially the youth.

Family fragmentation is the breakage of the family through the loss of siblings,

parents or the separation of the member from the family. This is possible due to certain

misunderstandings, divorce, or the change of heart of one parent and can no longer

provide a strong connection to the family.

Estrangement is the state of no longer being in good terms in a family. This can

be caused by a lot of factors, example of this are differing beliefs, physical or mental

abuse, overbearing grandparents, the refusal to apologize, and finally, the crossing of

boundaries may it be privacy, personal space, or decision making.

Youth delinquency is the immoral or illegal acts that the youth is committing.

This can lead to punishments like probation or juvenile detention.

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Scope and Delimitations

The study is limited only on studying the experiences of students that deals with

family fragmentation, it will not include the likes of which can be considered “broken”

such as families with abusive parents, rebellious children, etc. This study will only focus

on students of Marcelo H. Del Pilar National High School and will not include students

from other schools. Extraneous variables that will come up during experimentation will

not be studied further.

Review of Related Literature

Rising rates of divorce and consequent family fragmentation have always

troubled child and family welfare. Though divorce seems to be an obvious cause for

concern, there are yet many other factors that amplify disintegration of families but are

hardly even considered to be domestic issues. The rising rate of family fragmentation

does not only happen in the Philippines, but all around the world. Family is the basic unit

of society, if someone had a family problem it could lead to a bigger aftermath. The

effects of family fragmentation to families but specifically, students are essential in order

to provide answers, because in providing answers and solutions to problems, it may not

solve the problems quickly, but it could lead to a certain theory on how to avoid said

problems. The researchers wanted to study the effects of family fragmentation to students

because family fragmentation seems to be a very difficult problem in our society, this can

lead to very bad effects on families and especially the children, and they want to help

formulate a solution on how they can help the said victims. As our society progress,

many studies involving fragmented families showed many effects regarding the problem,

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some showed how it affected families legally, some showed the effects emotionally, and

some showed physical damage.

When the separation of spouses by divorce happens, it leads to a fragmented

family which then affects their children (Batool, 2017). Globally, in the nearly four

decades between 1970 and 2008, the divorce rate has more than doubled from 2.6

divorces for every 1,000 married people to 5.5 (DePaulo, 2019). Next, according to

Churchill & Fagan, students who experienced their parents’ divorce or separation are less

likely to complete high school. An Australian study led by Evancs, Kelly, and Wanner

(2001) discovered that students of divorced families are more likely to drop out of

secondary school than students raised in intact families, and found that remarriage did not

alleviate the effects of divorce on student’s educational attainment (Fagan & Churchilll,

2012). Following to the Australian study, they found that students who experience

separation of their parents early in life are likely to have lower educational outcomes,

finding that the effect of divorce on education is strongest when the child is young. Then,

an American study led by Lansford (2006), found that those who had experienced a late

divorce or between grades six and ten, were more likely to get low grades than students

who experienced an early divorce or between kindergarten and grade five (Fargan &

Churchill, 2012). However, these statements were focused only on the effects on the

student's educational outcomes, and not on the broader effects such as the effects of

fragmented family on the socialization of students in school. As the research progresses,

it will add its discussion of the effects on the student’s family as the basic unit of society

has different characteristics and each children belonging to various family types has

varying experiences.

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 Everyone aims for a healthy and happy family, but many could not achieve it.

Due to different problems, healthy families have been broken up as well. When unwanted

things come up, many families have been broken, and the members are separated. This is

a tragedy happening out of unrestricted reasons as well as unfortunate reasons (Saikia,

2017). In connection with this, children are deprived of proper emotional and physical

support from their parents. In such families, the basic needs of children are not fulfilled

properly and effective socialization of values are not totally possible. Igbinosa (2014)

declared in his paper that the environment of home put a great impact on the performance

of a student. Children experience problems in school with teachers, acting out against

peers, and generally, they do not want to cooperate with assignments, instructions of

teachers, and have concentration difficulties. In support with Igbinosa’s statement,

adolescents of separated parents have lower scores on measures of well-being (i.e.,

academic functioning, locus of control, and self-esteem) compared to adolescents of

intact families (Shirina, 2013). However, not all children react the same way as those that

were mentioned, some of them cope with their situation positively that made them accept

their family’s status eventually. As time goes by, many researchers took time to know

more about the other aspects that family fragmentation affects.

Certain researchers have thought if there are consequences to a student’s

academic performance when faced with the issue of family fragmentation. Many have

ventured in observing the relationship between family connections and academic

performance and have been innovating on data-gathering techniques to observe the

correlations of the two variables (Park & Halloway, 2013; Robinson & Harris, 2014;

Miller, 2015), it is natural that alongside these are researches investigating family

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fragmentation’s correlation on academic excellence. According to Jeynes (2002), the

study of the relationship between family and academic performance can be traced back

90 years ago when Sutherland (1930) found significant difference in IQ between children

with only one parent and children with a complete set of parents. However, Sutherland

was unable to explore further on the several different types of single-parent households.

This shortcoming was fixed by Nye in 1952 when he took into account the several factors

of single-parent households such as gender, number of siblings, work, etc. He found a

significant difference between mother-only households and stepfather-only households,

but it is in terms of adjustment and Nye noted that the difference was not as big as once

thought. This has led researchers to look at the topic in several different perspectives

which led to more studies on family fragmentation and its effects on the academic

performance of students. (Düşek, 2014; Omoyuri, 2014; Batool, 2015) However, the

articles, although they are qualitative, are limited to using quantitative data and methods

to represent the academic excellence of students. The articles were not able to observe the

overall academic performance of the respondents and their experiences in school

objectively. This approach will also affect the data gathered for a significant number of

types of family fragmentation.

Family fragmentation have always troubled child and family welfare. According

to Amato (2010) in recent decades, family changes in different ways, including the

increasing rate of divorce and separation. Children who does not live with their biological

parents tend to have difficulties in schooling, mental health and other things than children

who lived with their parents. In this case, Harkonen and many others (2010) managed to

create a study observing the outcomes of a child with a fragmented family. In their

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context, the children affected by parental separation experience great trouble in their

behavior, studies, and relationships. Following this, according to Liu, Li, and Ge (2009)

separation of parents in childhood significantly increased the probability of children to

have depression and anxiety. Even though separation of parents could result depression,

there would be less chance of this kind of mental issues to children who was adopted

earlier after the separation of the parents (Pesonen, Raikkonen, Heinonen, et al., 2006;

Liu, Li, & Ge, 2009). However, the stated effects of separation were not the only effects

that could come up during this kind of problems. They only concentrated on the main

aspect of mental health of the affected person. Recent work had begun to challenge the

effect of loss parents into the children to understand clearly the relationship of family.

Another cause of family fragmentation is the loss of siblings. According to Jason

Fletcher (2018), although childhood mortality rates have plummeted over the past

century in developed countries, it is still experienced in 5 to 10 percent of the US’

population. It has strong and durable negative long-term effects on the surviving relatives

in the long run and little is known on the development of children who experienced the

death of a sibling in the medium run. This is because of a children’s vulnerability, lack of

skills, and their ability to impact the future they are heading to. In accordance to the

article, it is known to us that we can extend the understanding of the effects on the

children who lost a sibling by estimating the surviving sibling’s cognitive and

socioemotional outcomes, as well as emotional and cognitive support by parents. Firstly,

when the cognitive outcomes were tested, it was found out that there is a decrease in the

surviving child’s ability to solve mathematical equations, reading comprehension, and

even the child’s vocabulary, and eventually, the child improves 11 years after the passing

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of a sibling. Next, in terms of socioemotional outcomes, it is found out that certain

behavioral problems worsen and there are significant reductions in the child’s own self-

perception. They also tested the effects on a home environment and it was found out that

emotional resources in the household are significantly lowered. In other words, the

parents and surviving children feel sadness and depression, and these effects do not

diminish over time. But in the contrary, it was found out that the loss of a sibling made

the surviving children more competent and allowed them to be more goal-oriented and

competent. These effects can be greatly affected by the age of the surviving and deceased

children, if the surviving children are older, it may decrease the effects due to their

emotional stability, and if otherwise, the death of a sibling will have a much greater effect

on the younger ones due to their vulnerability and lack of emotional stability.

Another cause of the fragmentation of a family is when a parent or both parents

die. "The death of a parent is a highly stressful life event for bereaved

children."(Bergman, Axberg, & Hanson, 2017) It is proven that there is a severe increase

in the risk of mental health and psychosocial problems. The article used a population of

parentally bereaved children around 0 to 18 years of age. The results showed that both

the remaining parent and children showed a major change in the intervention to groups,

peers, and other parents, but the article mainly focused on the bereaved children and the

effects of the loss of their parents. It showed that the children were more likely to adapt

some sort of mental disorder like depression, present grief and anxiety. It also showed

that the remaining parent may become sad for a while but eventually becomes a much

better parent that supports their children in most of the things they do. As a result, they

tend to become more careful and protective of their children. This parental treatment

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from the remaining surviving parent makes it easier for the children to cope with the loss

and eventually move on with their lives. But it will never be the same given that on most

cases, the children may have moved on but still showed cases of sadness and surges of

depression.

The sibling relationship is simply powerful, and critically important in an

individual’s life. According to Silverstein and Smith (2009), the longest relationship in

the life of a person is it relationship to it brothers and sisters. Sibling separation occur

thousands of cases each year. Therefore, Ruksana Saika, a researcher in India, conducted

a study in the effects of being separated into your family. The study showed a numerous

number of effects that separation could bring into the children life. In response to this

observation of the effects, a study by Mchale Uperdegraf, and Whiteman in 2012

investigated and focused about the effects of sibling experiences and relationships. The

study also showed that siblings had a great influence, and effects of other significant

relationships. Following this, according to Child Welfare Information (2019),

maintaining sibling bonds is a key component of child welfare. Sibling relationships help

children achieve developmental milestones as well as provide emotional support,

companionship, and comfort in times of change. When children are separated from their

siblings, the research indicates that a number of children feel “they have lost a part of

themselves,” which compounds the anxiety and pain they feel over separation from their

parents and transition to a new home. (Kernan, 2017, Child Welfare Information, 2019)

However, this studies mainly focuses on the great effects of having a better relationship

of the siblings. Overall, being separated to a member of the family causes a lot of major

effects in the well-being of the children.

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 Being in a fragmented family greatly affects the students’ behavior most

specifically their attitude towards academic excellence. It has a huge impact that most of

the student subjected to this often feel lonely, depress, anxious or etc. Since family

should be the one to mold and guide the children during their adolescence, those who are

involve in a fragmented family often seek this support and attention from others that

made them feel more about the void that they have. Based on the information that were

collected, students in a fragmented family have low academic performance and the

causes for it varies. They are often engaged in physical fights too. But some of these

children have already made a coping mechanism and continue to strive every day and

eventually accept their situation.

Methodology

Introduction

The research process and its details will be explained in this part of the paper. The

methodology will provide information about the process used to conduct this study, as

well as the appropriateness of the several aspects of the research process. The reliability

of the chosen design, sampling method, and target sample size is evaluated. The data

gathering methods, the chronology in which the methods will be done, and how the data

gathered would be analyzed is evaluated. The researcher's role is defined and evaluated

and the validity and reliability of the study will be discussed.

Design

The research will apply the phenomenology design for this qualitative research

which examines thoughts, emotions, behavior, and several other aspects in the mind of

people experiencing different phenomena. In this case, the study investigates the

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phenomenon “family fragmentation” and its effects on students. This design is

appropriate since the research will show if family fragmentation serves any purpose or

meaning to the lives of students. Since phenomenology is qualitative, the proponents will

employ qualitative research methods as this study will contribute to social science.

Sampling

This research will use non-probability sampling methods since the research is

qualitative. Firstly, the availability sampling procedure will be used for selecting the

respondents. The proponents will collect data from the population who are available to

participate when in demand. Availability sampling is appropriate to use as it is

convenient and data collection can be facilitated in short duration of time. After

collecting the result in this procedure, the next step is to use judgmental sampling for

those who are fitted to represent the population for the study.

Judgmental sampling will be used to develop the sample of the research under

discussion. In this sampling procedure, sample members are selected on the basis of their

knowledge, relationships, and expertise regarding the phenomenon, namely family

fragmentation. This sampling procedure is appropriate for the study since the proponents

will be able to judge and evaluate the respondents if they have sufficient and relevant

experience with family fragmentation and if those experiences would be substantial to the

study. The participants chosen for this procedure needs to consent to the study first.

Sample

For some studies, the population may be small enough to attain the participants

needed in the study. But a study may entail a large population which cannot all be

studied. That portion of the population that is studied is called a sample of the population.

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A sample in this study is, therefore, a smaller group of elements drawn through a definite

procedure from an accessible population. The elements making up this sample are those

that agreed to be included in the study. This study aims to gather 8-10 students from

Marcelo H. del Pilar National High School as long as they are willing to participate and

have experiences the proponent think will be relevant to the study.

Data Gathering Methods

In the first part of data gathering, the proponents will use the questionnaire

method in which the chosen samples will be given a questionnaire and their answers will

determine who will participate in the next part of the data gathering process. This method

will be used in order to filter the samples and bring together a group of participants

considered to be part of a fragmented family that is suitable and willing to participate.

Using this method will also save time and resources because looking for suitable

participants is less time-consuming compared to waiting for willing participants.

The next part of the data gathering process will involve the usage of the focus

group discussion method which this means that the filtered participants from the previous

method will be put together in a group interview that will give way to the understanding

of the experiences of students belonging to a fragmented family. This method will be

used because it is much more convenient than conducting an interview because the

participants will be congregated into a group, thus, allowing the proponents to ask a

question to the entirety of the group and not just one individual. This method will also

make the participants much more comfortable in sharing their experiences because they

will be able to relate to one another rather than the confined atmosphere when it comes to

a one-on-one interview.

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 When given consent, the proponents will use observational evaluation in selected

and willing participants. The participants will be observed in their natural settings like at

home, school, gatherings, etc. This method will be the most crucial and helpful out of all

the methods to be used in this study because it will show the proponents the reality of

what family fragmentation entails in its truest, physical form. From there, the proponents

will not only have the statements and perspective from the participants, but also the

physical evidences of the participants’ experiences in which the proponents can use to

evaluate the effects of family fragmentation from their perspective. The use of this

method will add more accuracy and substance to the observation of the phenomenon’s

effects on students.

Data Analysis Procedure

Interpretation of results would be based on the participants’ responses to the

questionnaires provided by the proponents. The proponents will interpret the data

gathered through questionnaire and interview and will use it to develop a conclusion. The

proponents will use coding as the data analysis procedure for the interpretation of data.

Coding is the most commonly used data analysis procedure for qualitative research,

making it SDhhsd for the study. The data gathered should be able to show the collective

effects of family fragmentation on MHPNHS students from the participants since using

coding requires the analyzation of behavioral patterns based on their responses.

Conclusion

The methodology serves as an outline for the research process and a guide to

several parts of the study systematically. The aim of this study is to evaluate the

experiences of students experiencing family fragmentation subjectively yet remaining as

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unbiased as possible. The sampling, data gathering, and data analysis methods used are

purely qualitative to make the study more holistic and relatable. The next part will

discuss the analysis procedure in detail and interpret the results gathered in doing the

study.

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