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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL STUDIES Effect of family Wars and Divorce on the Attitude and Academic Performance of Muslim Students in Ekiti State Secondary Schools, Nigeria

: In Nigeria today, family war and divorce have become prominent family problems of the contemporary Muslims which are affecting the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti state. This paper x-rays the effect of family wars and divorce on the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti State secondary schools. Descriptive survey design was adopted by employing simple random sampling technique to select 200 respondents consisting of 100 Muslim students and 100 Muslim parents from stable and unstable families to collect relevant data. The ‘Effect of Family Wars and Divorce on the Attitude and Academic Performance of Muslim Students Questionnaire (EFWDAAPMSQ) was administered to respondents. The chi-square (X 2 ) test statistics was used to test two variables. The null hypotheses were tested at the P=0.05 level of significance. Findings indicated that, the lackadaisical attitude of most Muslims in the state by neglecting the religious rules and laws as regards marriage and family maintenance created neglect, family wars and parental divorce which has had negative effect on their attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in the state. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for change of negative attitudes of Muslims and to abide by the dictates of Islam.


Introduction
Family in this write-up refers to that small unit of the society which consists of the father (husband), mother (wife) and in most cases the children. This type of family is described as nuclear family. From Islamic perspective, the concept of family is also extended because polygamy is highly appreciated among Muslims as Islam described the family as group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood or adoption and characterised by common residence and economic cooperation (Abd al 'Ati, 1982). The family is the first social unit of any individual. Every person belongs to one family or the other. As the first social unit of a child, it has great influence on the life of a society. It is the nucleus from which a society developed. Once an individual has a firm family foundation, it becomes very difficult for the wider society to derail.
The family unit is divinely instituted by God himself when He created Adam and Awwaw (his wife) and put them in-charge of the Paradise. Today, families are far from God's model as many homes turn battle fields. Rather than enjoy a blissful marital relationship, many couples are engaged in fierce inter family wars from which children are not exempted. This evil of family wars and divorce from parents mostly cause psychological imbalance to children who happened to be product of the family as a result of unpalatable attitudes such as neglect, malice, hatred, rancour and war. Resultantly, divorce and separation are fast becoming acceptable norms in the society. The divorce of one's parents can be devastating, catastrophic and can generate negative attitudes and emotions that may last till death as it often triggers an onslaught of feelings of shame, anger, anxiety, fear, abandonment, guilt, depression, loneliness and even desire to revenge. Divorce tears the family apart and creates more problems than it tends to solve.
Divorce is only permitted in Islam in exceptional cases, as Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said: "Of all things which have been permitted, divorce is the most hated by Allah. He also said: Marry and do not divorce; undoubtedly the throne of the Beneficent Lord shakes due to divorce (Doi, 1984). That is why Islam insist that the foundations of the family should rest on solid grounds capable of providing assurances of continuity, security and intimacy, and of being, as much as possible (Abd al-'Ati,1982).

Statement of the Problem
Today in Muslim homes, family wars and divorce are parts of social problems that is affecting the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti State. These problems mostly cause psychological imbalance to children who happened to be the product of the family as a result of unpalatable attitudes such as neglect, infidelity, poor parenting, malice, hatred, rancour and war. This work, therefore, finds out the effect of family wars and divorce on the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti state public secondary schools.

. Purpose of the Research Work
The work is intended to:  Identify the causative factors contributing to family wars and divorce among Muslims in Ekiti state.  Analyse the effect of family wars and divorce on the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti state public secondary schools.  Find a solution to the negative attitude and effect of family wars and divorce on the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti state public secondary schools.

Research Questions
The following research questions were raised:  What are the causative factors contributing to family wars and divorce among Muslims in Ekiti state?  What are the effects of family wars and divorce on the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti state public secondary schools?

Research Hypotheses
In an attempt to find solution to the stated problem of the study, the following hypotheses will be tested statistically.  There is no significant difference in the perception of Muslim parents and students on the causative factors contributing to family wars and divorce among Muslims in Ekiti state?  There is no significant difference in the perception of Muslim students on the effect of family wars and divorce on the attitude and academic performance of Muslim students in Ekiti state public secondary schools?

Methodology
The research design adopted for this study is descriptive survey. The method is selected simply because it allows researcher to obtain the representative sample of the target population in order to determine the opinion, attitude and behaviour of Muslims. Fawole et al (2006) identifies descriptive survey in research as one in which a group of people or items are studied by collecting and analysing data from only a few people or items considered to be representatives of the centre group. In view of this assertion, this design was considered appropriate for this study since the researcher is interested in collecting information from a representative sample Muslims (parents and students). 100 Muslim students were approached in the schools, 100 Muslim parents from stable and unstable families. The researcher used the Effect of Family Wars and Divorce on the Attitude and Academic Performance of Muslim Students Questionnaire (EFWDAAPMSQ) to collect data for the study. The face validity of the research instrument was done by first subjecting it to the critique of experts in Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University (EKSU) before being used for the study. Data analysis was guided by the research questions and the null-hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The results are presented below:

Findings
Data gathered from responses were presented in tables and discussions. The postulated hypotheses were tested using Chi-square test. The following shows the results.

Hypothesis One (HO1)
There is no significant difference in the perception of Muslim parents and students on the causative factors contributing to family wars and divorce among Muslims in Ekiti state? Chi-square analysis on table 1 indicated that the critical value of 3.84 is greater than the calculated value of 1.52at 0.05 level of significant. Therefore the significant of no difference in responses of the respondents on the perception of Muslim parents and students on the causative factors contributing to family wars and divorce among Muslims in Ekiti state. Indicating that infidelity and religious conflict are part of the causes of family wars since it was more pronounced in an unstable family which is characterised by wars and divorce. It also shown that, Ba parenting and lack of financial obligation lead to family war and divorce since the calculated value of 2.00 is less than the critical value of 3.84. The expected values also indicated that most of the family wars and divorce emanated from unstable family.
To this end, finding revealed that, the problem of infidelity is often given birth to by other family conflicts such as infertility, denial of sexual rights between couples, economic pressures, untidiness and lack of personal care, misunderstanding and physical violence. Marriages vows may be broken as a result of religious intolerance between couples. Such cases may arise when one of the couple moves out of the religion where they were united in marriage causing conflict and divorce. Poor child upbringing also arise when parents are bad models to their children in such a case, they become bad examples for their children to follow.
Poor parenting could also arise when parents are lax to their parental obligations. Either they are just plain lukewarm and lazy or they are afraid to confront their children when they misbehave (Steve 2002). It could also arise when parents are sold out to their profession leaving their children at the mercy of house helps and school teachers. This according to (Israel 2003) will mean bringing up strange children who are taught by the house helps, the television and video sets in the house. Children who are brought up like sheep without shepherd.
Poor parenting leads to the raising up of irresponsible children who will later become thorns in the flesh of their parents and society at large. Also, many family problems are caused by economic pressures or poverty. When the husband fails in his financial obligation to the family, this could amount to hunger in the house, school fees and house rent not paid, in the face of such pressure, the family members may look down on him and in such a situation the marriage may become sour. There are some other cases where problems arise from the struggle over family resources. Such problems could arise between a husband and his wife in a monogamous setting, between a husband and his wives (polygamy), between children and parents and between a nuclear family and extended relatives. Thus, money, lack of it or struggle over its control is instrumental to family breakages.
  1996-2019 WAEC RESULTS-Good performance were determined by having more than five credit passes in the relevant subjects while Bad performance were determined by having less than five credit passes in the relevant subjects

Discussion 2
From the findings as presented in table 3 above, 25 (71.4%) students from unstable family that is characterised with wars and divorce performed poorly unlike 43 (66.2) students that performed very well. The result indicated from the percentage of students from unstable family (71.4) that perform poorly that poor academic performance are part of the negative effects of family wars and divorce on Muslim students in Ekiti,

Conclusion and Recommendation
The fabric of society stands erect upon the foundation of family. This is why God attached great importance to the matters relating to family. In Islam, family is all about love, togetherness, compassion, humility, respect, obedience, peace, sincerity, harmony and maintenance. Maintaining peaceful family lives is the fundamental requirement for the attainment of community, state, national and global peace, to achieve and maintain peace in the home requires divine principles such as total submissiveness to the law of God. When relationships between members of a family and God are established, family wars and divorce will not flourish. It is therefore recommended that, each member of the family should play his or her vital role to see that the structure of the family is maintained. Obligations to family are not only social and moral responsibilities, but one stands accountable before God for not fulfilling them as commanded thus; "Be careful of (your duty to) Allah, by whom you demand one of another (your rights), and (to) the ties of relationship; Surely Allah ever watches over you"(Qur'an 4:1).

Reference
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