How Do They Cope: Traumatic Impact of Broken Homes on the Academics of the Children Living in Ga East Municipality, Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the living conditions of school children from broken homes in the Ga East Municipality and to assess its impact on their academic performance. This study was intended to examine the coping strategies of the children in handling their traumas of divorce. The descriptive survey design was adopted in this study. The purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select 60 children from schools and in various communities in the municipality to take part in the study. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from these respondents. The study found that the living conditions of majority of the respondents were not good after the divorce of their parents. It also came to light that the academic performance of most of the respondents was either very good or good before the divorce but after the divorce, most of the respondents had poor or very poor academic performance. It was observed that most of the respondents coped with the challenges of the divorce by spending more time with friends at school or with their relatives. From the present study, it could be concluded that when children are not given a conducive environment at home to have enough time to study due to parental divorce, it can impact negatively on their academic performance.