Effect of family structure on academic performance of secondary school children: a case study of Goma division, Mukono district

Abstract

Educational upbringing is connected with the family influence on a child as individual members of the family serve as a model to the child as they copy from each of them. Family structure has continued to evolve in different ways in different parts of the world as new family forms are emerging. This study sought to explore the effect of family structure on academic performance of secondary school children with three objectives: (a) to identify the different types of family structure, (b) to identify how parents from the different family structure involve in their children's education and (c) to find out the family structure challenges that hinder children from performing well academically. A descriptive design with both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used. A total of 110 children were recruited for the study. The study found that there are various types of family structure, however, the dominant type of structure was nuclear family, followed by single parent family and step family and lastly the extended families. However parents from these family structures participate differently in their children’s education with parents in intact families having high parental participation in their children’s education compared to their counterparts of non-intact families. The parental conflicts, economic problems/poverty, low education level of parents, domestic violence such as child neglect, family size and negative parental attitude towards education were some of the family structure challenges that hinder children from performing well. The study therefore recommends various stakeholders within Mukono municipality and Uganda at large to come up with social and economic activities that enable children from parents of low economic status to have equal opportunity of advancing the education of their children.