Sociology

SCHOOL BASED
ASSESSMENT -UNIT 1

SCHOOL: North Gate College

CANDIDATE NAME: Hanysa Diaz

TITLE: Divorce

CENTER NUMBER:

CANDIDATE NUMBER:

DATA OF SUBMISSION:
 Table of Contents
PROBLEM STATEMENT......................................................................................................................3
BACKGROUND AND DEFINITION OF RESEARCH PROBLEM................................................................3
AIMS..................................................................................................................................................3
OBJECTIVES........................................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................................5
RESEARCH DESIGN.............................................................................................................................7
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE.............................................................................................................8
SAMPLE SELECTION...........................................................................................................................9
DATA COLLECTION SOURCE.............................................................................................................10
DATA COLLECTION SOURCE.........................................................................................................10
PRESENTATION OF DATA.....................................................................................................................15
ANALYSIS OF DATA..............................................................................................................................20
DICUSSION ON FINDINGS....................................................................................................................21
SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION

PROBLEM STATEMENT
To investigate the extent to which divorce and family breakdown have a
negative effect on students’ future relationships and academic performance as it
relates to students in NorthGate College.

 BACKGROUND AND DEFINITION OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

Divorce refers to the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other
competent body. Divorce introduces a massive change into the life of a boy or
girl no matter what the age. Children having to go from having both parents to
only one may be quite difficult for them to process and adjust to, and it would
affect them in some way or the other. Divorce has had a rapid increase all over
the Caribbean especially in Trinidad and Tobago. According to Chief Justice
Ivor Archie, 2,814 new divorces were filed during the 2014/2015 law term and
for the past ten years there were 27,950 divorces. This report would look at the
negative effects divorce has on children and solutions to this problem from a
functionalist perspective.  

AIMS
By the end of this research the reader should be able understand the major
negative effects that divorce has on children and some solutions to this problem.

OBJECTIVES
 To identify whether or not additional responsibilities hinders academic
performance.
 To investigate whether or not divorce changes a child’s perspective on
future relationships with the opposite sex.

 To determine whether or not divorce changes the relationship children

have with their parents.
LITERATURE REVIEW
George Peter Murdock states that family has been described as the cornerstone
of society and it is the basic unit of primary socialization. Murdock sees the
nuclear family (parents and children) as the ideal family type and anything other
than this may lead to a dysfunctional family.

According to Patrick F. Fagan and Aaron Churchill (2012) when parents

divorce each other, another sort of divorce occurs between the parents and their
children. The primary effect of is a decline in the relationship between parent
and child. Divorce leads to a decline in the frequency and quality of parent-child
contact and relationships, and it becomes difficult for non-residential parents, 90
percent of whom are fathers, to maintain close ties with their children.

Franklin, Janoff-Bulman & Roberts (1990), children of divorce parents have

questionable trust on their spouse and they display negative perception on their
own marriage. In support of this study Wilson (2009) said that another effect of
divorce on children is ‘sleeper effect’, which the child is carrying the thoughts
of what the parents’ had experienced in their marriage and later this affects the
child’s own marriage in the future. In the research paper these studies would be
used to see whether or not divorce does affect a child’s future relationships.

A study done by Edith Clarke called ‘My Mother Who Fathered Me’ shows a
situation where a child (Ester) had to take on the role of her mother. Since the
mother is the only one providing financial support she has to work long hours in
order to make extra money. Ester now has additional responsibilities of
cooking, cleaning and minding siblings. This would be used to examine the
extent to which having additional responsibilities affects a child’s academic
performance.
In conclusion all the information gathered would be used to determine whether
or not divorce stunts a child’s development by causes them have extra
responsibilities, destroying trust in parents and affecting their academic success
and future relationships.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research is defined as the systematic study of materials and sources in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions. The use of primary and secondary
data was incorporated in this study; this entailed the use of questionnaires,
books, sociology websites, articles and interviews. In order to collect
information, a data collection instrument and strategies had to be employed; a
qualitative and quantitative approach was utilized to acquire both reliable and
valid data. The research into how divorce impacts students between the ages of
twelve (12) to eighteen (18) was conducted at the NorthGate College St.
Augustine, Trinidad.

Quantitative data are anything that can be expressed as a number, or quantified.

Qualitative data cannot be expressed as numbers. Primary data was collected
using questionnaires and an interview.

The questionnaire contained two types of questions, open-ended questions (7),

and close ended questions (15). One advantage of questionnaire is; it is
effortlessly administered and allows the analytical process to be easier.
Information obtained from the research will be presented in the form of graphs,
in addition to an in depth analysis of data collected.  A total of 25 questionnaires
were distributed to persons who have divorced parents in NorthGate College.
Also the researcher did an interview with a person whose parents are still
married. They were asked some questions on their family life and data was
recorded. The advantage of using an interview to get data is that more valid data
is collected as there would be a greater in debt conversation.

This study also uses secondary data collection. Some sources of secondary data
used in this research project were textbooks and articles online. The purpose for
using secondary data was to gain professional and accurate information and
insight into the topics being studied.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Positivism is defined as “the philosophy underlying science where reality is
understood to lie outside of individuals and can be studied by the collection of
empirical data” (Jeniffer Mohammad, 2014). The quantitative method of
research is preferred by positivist and is aligned with functionalist and scientific
methods therefore this is the sociological perspective this study would be geared
towards. Both Comte and Durkheim spoke about the scientific methods which
are the approach that the researcher is taking.  These methods talk about being
objective and value free. It is relevant to this research because this type of data
is less biased as there is little involvement from the researcher, hence, there will
be an accurate presentation of data.

Parsons also used scientific methods in his study when he spoke about the terms
escape, where he looked at the different roles of the mother and father has and
how it would best be examine in a scientific way.

For Parsons quantitative research methods are advantageous because it is

believed to be measurable, objective and easy to analyse; hypotheses can be
tested and comparisons can be made. It was also stated that the data can be. One
sociologist that used the positivist method of research in his study is Emile
Durkheim in his study of ‘Suicide’
SAMPLE SELECTION
The stratified random sampling technique was ideal for this research. Nasser
Mustapha (2013) agreed that stratified random sampling divides the sample
frame into strata based on shared qualities or characteristics, and then randomly
selects the final subjects equivalently from the different strata. In this sampling
of the population, the sample frame would be the class lists of North Gate
College students.

This technique reduces selection bias. Stratified random sampling is also

advantageous when it is used accurately because it ensures each subgroup
within the population receives proper representation within the sample and only
persons who are able to speak about divorce are involved. Disadvantage of this
technique it is time consuming having to accurately sorting each member of the
population into a single stratum. The method was chosen on the basis that the
respondents had to answer questions on the questionnaire, allowing them to be
applicable to the topic being investigated. Based on the relevance of the
questions, a precise conclusion can be drawn by the statistics gathered.
PESENTATION OF DATA

Fg.1
Who do you live with now? this

3; 12%

7; 28%
15; 60%

MOTHER FATHER
AUNTY UNCLY
GRANDPARENT/GRANDPARENTS OTHER

graph shows how persons who students live with after divorce. The majority being 15/25 (60%) of
them live with their mother. None of the students live with their aunt or uncle.
 How often do you visit or talk to the parent you no longer live with?
Fg.2

4; 16%
6; 24%

7; 28%

8; 32%

NEVER SOMETIMES RARELY ALWAYS

Fg.2 shows how often students visit or talk to the parent you no longer live with.

How did the divorce affect your life? Fg.3

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Positively Negatively No impact

How did the divorce affect your life?

Fg.3 depicts how persons think divorce affected their life. Two persons (8%) said it affected their life
in a positive way, twenty persons (80%) said in Negative way and three persons (12%) said divorce
had no Impact on them.
 After the divorce how was your relationship with the parent you are no
longer living with?

GOOD
NORMAL 24% GOOD
32% BAD
TERIBBLE
NORMAL

TERIBBLE BAD
12% 32%

Fg.4 Depicts what type of relationship persons maintain with their parent. 6 persons (24%) said they
have a good relationship with parent, 8 persons (32%) said they have a bad relationship, 3 persons
(12%) said they have a terrible relationship with parent and 8 (32%) persons said their relationship
with parent remained normal.

When your parents got divorced did you take on any additional responsibilities? Fg.5

RESPONSE NUMBER PERCENT

YES 18 72%

NO 7 28%

Fg.5 shows if additional responsibilities are undertaken by children after their parents have been
divorced. 72% of them said yes and 28% of them said no

From the responses gathered the top three responsibilities that children engage in are

 Additional chores
 Assisting siblings with homework
 Traveling to school with siblings and giving them money from their allowance.
           Do you think that extra responsibilities would
hinder your academic performance?  Fg.6             

11; 44%

14; 56%

YES NO

Fg.6 illustrates the results obtained from questioning whether or not individuals believe extra
responsibilities hinder academic performance. 14 (56%) of them said YES and 11 (44%) of them
said NO.

What type of effect would you say divorce had on your

grades Fg.7
12

10

0
They increased They decreased They remained the same

What type of effect would you say divorce had on your grades Fg.7

Fg.7 reflects the effects that divorce had on students’ grades. 11 (44%) said their grades
decreased, 9 (36%) said that their grades remained the same and 5(20%) said that their grades
increased.
 Do you believe that children of divorcees will have bad
marriages?
Fg.8
DISAGREE

STRONGLY DIASGREE

NEUTRAL

AGREE

STRONGLY AGREE

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Column1

Fg. 8 shows whether or not students believe children of divorcees will have bad marriages. The
majority being 14/25 (56%) said that they agreed what children of divorced parents will have bad
marriages.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (student whose parents are married)

QUESTIONS ANSWERS
What is you view on divorce? It is a terrible thing that should never happen

Do you believe that children of divorced parents
would have bad marriages?
Do you want to get married in the future? Why?
Not necessarily, they could learn from their
parents mistakes and try not to make the same
ones
Yes of course. My parents seem to be happy
together and they have a healthy relationship
even though they disagree sometimes they still
love each other.
ANALYSIS OF DATA

This in turn may lead to the breakdown between the parent-child relationships
due to a lack of trust. The relationship with parent is also seen to have been
broken as 32% said that the relationship with the leaving parent (predominantly
the father) was bad and 32% also said the relationship remained ‘normal’

The data illustrates that students had to take on greater responsibilities around
the house that the parent that left would have assisted in. 72% of the sample said
that they had greater responsibilities after divorce some of which include;
additional chores, helping sibling with homework, learning how to travel and
giving siblings part of their allowance. This extra responsibilities may cause
them to spend less time doing homework or revision as they would have to
dedicate that time in doing chores and taking care of siblings. The research
shows that 44% (being the highest %) of the students said that their grades
decreased. This may also be as a result of the one parent not having time to help
child/children with their work as they may have to work longer hour because
the now have additional strain in providing for their family.

Lastly children of divorced parents tend to have a negative view on

relationship. 56% of them agree that children of divorced parents would have
bad marriage. In contrast, the interview done with the student whose parents are
married is said to admire their parent’s relationship and had a positive view on
future relationships/marriages. This may be because they see marriage as a form
of love and they have role models in their lives that have not given them any
reason to doubt that.
DICUSSION ON FINDINGS

RELATIONSHIP WITH PARENTS

According to Patrick F. Fagan and Aaron Churchill (2012) divorce leads to a

decline in the frequency and quality of parent-child contact and relationships,
and it becomes difficult for non-residential parents. This is supported by this
study which shows that 8 persons (32%) said they have a bad relationship with
parents. 60% of students remained living with their parents and only 7% lived
with their fathers. The relationship with the leaving parent did change as only
16% of them said that they always visit and talk to their parents.

The majority being 14/25 (56%) said that they agreed what children of divorced
parents will have bad marriages but they do not have a negative view of the
opposite sex. The interview with someone* who has divorced parents is seen to
be happily married for 20 years. This contradicts the study by Franklin, Janoff-
Bulman & Roberts (1990) and Wilson (2009) which states that children of
divorce parents may have questionable trust on their future spouse and they
display negative perception on their own marriage.

A study done by Edith Clarke called ‘My Mother Who Fathered Me’ shows a
situation where a child (Ester) had to take on the role of her mother. Ester now
has additional responsibilities of cooking, cleaning and minding siblings.
Bibliography
Churchill, P. F. (January 11, 2012). The Effects of Divorce on Children . 48.

Paul R. Amato, “The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children,” Journal of Marriage and
Family 62 (2000): 1269.

Paul R. Amato and Juliana M. Sobolewski, “The Effects of Divorce and Marital Discord on Adult
Children’s Psychological Well-Being,” American Sociological Review 66 (2001): 917.

Paul R. Amato, “The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children,” Journal of Marriage and
Family 62 (2000): 1282.
APPENDIX

DATA COLLECTION SOURCE

DATA COLLECTION SOURCE

Sociology SBA Survey on divorce

My name is Hanysa Diaz and I attend NorthGate College, St. Augustine. I am conducting this
survey to gather information for my sociology IA. This survey is for the sole purpose of
collecting data for a school based assessment.  It contains 22 questions on divorce and is
strictly confidential. Please answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability.
Thank you for your time and effort.

Age:    12-14                              18-20

            15-17                              20 AND OVER

Gender:

MALE

FEMALE

1. How old were you when you learned that your parents would divorce?                               

                                                                           Can’t remember

2. How did you feel when you learned that your parents would divorce?

Sad                                                       Angry

                                                             Depessed
Happy
 Confused Other

Hurt

3. Did you speak to your parents about your feelings?

YES

NO

4. If you spoke to your parents about your feelings, what did you express?

5. If you did not express your feelings to your parents, why not?

6. . Do you think your parents considered the impact on you when they got divorced?

Yes

No

7. From your previous response, State why you think this?

8. How did the divorce affect your life?

Negatively
 Positively

For your response state how

9. What happened after the divorce? (tick all that may apply)
Changed schools No change occurred

Changed homes                                          

Moved to a different country                     other

 
10. Who do you live with now?
Mother

Father

Aunty

Uncle

Grandparents

11. After the divorce how was your relationship with the parent you are no longer living with?
Good

Bad
 
Terrible
Other

12. How often do you visit or talk to the parent you no longer live with?

Never

Sometimes

Rarely
Always

13. When your parents got divorced did you take on any additional responsibilities?
YES
NO

14. If yes, list at  least three

15. Do you think that extra responsibilities would hinder your academic performance?               

YES                                                                NO
      

16. Give a reason for your response

17. What type of effect would you say divorce had on your grades?

They increased

They decreased

They remained the same

18. Do you believe that children of divorcees will have bad marriages?
Strongly Agree

Agree
Neutral

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

19. Do you believe that children of divorcees will be less committed in a relationship?
Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

20. Has the divorce changed how you view your relationships with the opposite sex?

Yes No
       
21. Is it more of a negative view?
    

    Yes

     No

22. Describe one way in which you dealt with your parents being divorced.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
 What is you view on divorce?
 Do you believe that children of divorced parents would have bad marriages?
 Do you want to get married in the future? Why?