Broken Homes and Intact Homes Students’ Academic Attainment in Mathematics in the Kasena-Nankana Municipality, Ghana
Alexander Feikaab Yennu
Department of Mathematics and ICT, St. John Bosco’s College of Education, Post Office Box-11, Ghana.
Ambrose Kombat
*
Department of Mathematics and ICT Education, C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Post Office Box 24, Navrongo, Ghana.
Abdulai Mumuni Abugri
Memorial University of Newfoundland, 230 Elizabeth Ave St. John’s, NL, A1C 5S7 Canada.
Vincent Ninmaal Asigri
Department of Mathematics and ICT, St. John Bosco’s College of Education, Post Office Box-11, Ghana.
Michael Banawono Apara
Department of Mathematics, St. Bernadette’s Technical Institute, Post Office Box-4, Ghana.
Norbert Ayuah
Department of Mathematics, Awe Senior High School, Post Office Box-105, Ghana.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Students’ academic attainment in mathematics can be influenced by several factors including the structure of student’s home. This study was therefore conducted to compare the academic achievement of students from intact homes and their colleagues from broken homes in mathematics in the Kasena-Nankana Municipality, Ghana. The study embraced a survey design using 26 students from broken homes who were purposely and conveniently selected and 26 students from intact homes selected using simple random sampling technique. The study relied on secondary data (mathematics scores from students report cards) and the data was analysed using independent sample t-test. The test results revealed a significant difference in mean scores between the two groups of students and this difference was in favour of the students from intact homes suggesting that students from broken homes performed poorly compared to those from intact homes. The finding implied that, family structure (broken or intact) is a factor that should not be undermined when looking at students’ performances in mathematics. The study concluded that broken home has a negative impact on basic school students’ academic achievement in mathematics.
Keywords: Broken home, intact home, academic attainment, single parenting and single parent household