IMPACT OF FAMILY FUNCTIONING ON STUDENTS' PERSONAL ADJUSTMENT ATTITUDES, PERSONALITIES, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

Ma.Betty Parame-Decin
Jose Rizal Memorial State University-Katipunan Campus, Katipunan, Zamboanga Del Norte

DOI:10.55559/sjahss.v2i06.117 | Received: 24.05.2023 | Accepted: 05.06.2023 | Published: 07.06.2023

ABSTRACT

Family functioning is characterized by the regularity of ordinary family activities, the efficiency of family communication and problem-solving, the closeness of the family, and how well-adjusted the family members are to one another. The family is a critical context in which adolescents work on the major task of identity formation. This study aimed to find out the impact of family functioning on the personal adjustment, attitudes, personalities, and academic achievement of third- and fourth-year college students. The descriptive survey type of research was used in this study to gather the necessary data. There is a significant relationship between family functioning and personal adjustment attitudes towards self, school, and others. Family functioning has a great impact on the personality in terms of dominance-submission, emotional stability, emotional maturity, and academic achievement. Therefore, the school will have to initiate a program for the promotion of intellectual, emotional, and social maturity through varied activities. Parents should also keep close track of their student’s progress in school.

 Keywords: family functioning, students' personal adjustment attitudes, personalities, dominance, submission, emotional, stability and social maturity, extraversion-introversion

1. Introduction

Family functioning is characterized by the regularity of ordinary family activities, the efficiency of family communication and problem-solving, the closeness of the family, and how well-adjusted the family members are to one another. The family is a critical context in which adolescents work on the major task of identity formation. The home is the first and most significant agency that affects the life of a child. The unique power of the home stems from the fact that it gets the new human being first before any other institution has had a chance to make an improvement upon him (Gaerlan et al., 2000). It has long been established that a satisfactory family life is indispensable to the adequate development of a child, aside from physical care. It is in the emotional atmosphere of the home that the child encounters the initial experience, which determines whether he will have feelings of personal security, safety, and acceptance or of anxiety, hatred, and defiance of authority. Understanding what makes a student tick makes the teacher’s job easier. With understanding comes wisdom and the preparedness to deal with problems encountered in dealing with students in the learning environment, be it inside the classroom or outside. Knowing the importance of family functioning, the teacher can even initiate activities that can strengthen family ties.

The research of Akinsola, E. (2011) discovered that parent-child connections are consistently linked to children's development, adjustment, well-being, and educational performance. They are regarded as the foundation of family life because parents provide their children with social capital for achieving long-term goals and outcomes, global orientations toward interpersonal and social relationships, and social support and understanding during difficult stages such as adolescence. According to Gorman-Smith et al., (2000), family refers to familial influences and processes. It would include the family's socioeconomic position, family history or background, health or medical background, parental conflicts and causes, and family relationships. Family processes, on the other hand, pertain to family patterns, religious affiliation, family beliefs and customs.

Hildegard (2003) stressed that before the teacher can enhance the maximum development of a pupil, he needs to know his personality profile. The profile of his personality traits will provide the teacher with an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the students. If the teacher is equipped with knowledge about a student’s family functioning, attitudes, and personality, he can understand the student’s limitations and capabilities. He can assist in the student’s academic achievement, identify students with problems, and therefore see to it that preventive measures are undertaken. With this knowledge, the teacher can understand the otherwise hard-to-understand behavior of adolescence and will, therefore, initiate activities helpful for students in dealing with problems successfully. Atwater (2002) recommended that, given the diversity of students, what is needed is a balanced curriculum that will address the personal and social as well as the intellectual needs of all adolescents.

With this, the teacher can contribute to making the student an effective member of society—one who gives credence to Dr. Jose Rizal’s vision of the youth as the hope of the land. This study aimed to find out the impact of family functioning on the personal adjustment attitudes, personalities, and academic achievement of third- and fourth-year college students at Jose Rizal Memorial State University for the school year 2021–2022. The results of this study are beneficial to schools, administrators, faculties, guidance counselors, and parents.

2. RESEARCH METHOD

The descriptive survey type of research was used in this study to gather the necessary data. A standardized tool was used as well as a non-standardized one. The chi-square test was used to determine the impact of family functioning on personal adjustment attitudes, personalities, and achievement. To find out the student’s profile in terms of family functioning, the Family Functioning Questionnaire was used. The researcher, based on literature about the family by various authorities on the subject, developed the questionnaire.

To identify the students’ attitudes, a scale was made based on reading the students' attitudes toward related subjects. Some items were patterned after an attitude inventory from the Manpower Guidance Division of the National Manpower and Youth Council Institute of Vocational Training and Development and the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale. To measure the student’s personality, the Philippine Personality Inventory (PPI) was used. It is the standardized personality inventory constructed by the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports.To identify the student’s academic achievement, the student's grade point average from the academic subjects, namely: English, Filipino, Math, Science, and Social Science.

3. Results and Discussion

Table 1 Age and Sex Profile of the Respondents

Table 1 reflects the total number of respondents of 200, with an equal distribution of males and females and ages averaging 18.02 or 18 years. Most of the students met the age requirement. Barnes and Farrel (2002) asserted that parental support and monitoring were important predictors of adolescent outcomes, even after taking into account critical demographic or family factors, including socio-economic indicators, age, gender, race, family history of alcohol abuse.

Table 2 Profile of the Students’ Personal Adjustment Attitude (Self)

Table 2 presents that among the third-year college students, 0 or nobody got an excellent attitude toward themselves; 43 students, or 21.5%, had a good attitude; 18 or 9% were male; and 25 or 12.5% were female.57 third-year students, or 23.5% of the research population; 32, or 16%, were male, and 25, or 12.5%, were female. Among the fourth-year college students, nobody had an excellent attitude toward themselves; 20 males, or 10%, and 27 females, or 13.55 percent of the respondents, did well, while 30 males, or 15%, and 23 females, or 11.5%, manifested a poor attitude toward themselves. All in all 90 students had good attitude and 110 had poor attitude toward self. These students had not yet established who they were, and they were still insecure. This may be due to their age—they are in the adolescence stage, no longer children but not yet adults. They would still have to experience things in order to know what they were capable of.

Table 3 Profile of the Students’ Personal Adjustment Attitude (School)

Table 3 reveals the students’ profile in terms of personal adjustment and attitude toward the school. As shown among the third and fourth-year college students, nobody had an excellent attitude toward the school. 55, or 27.5%, had a good attitude, 30 or 15% were male, and 25 or 12.5 were female. Among the fourth-year college students, 46, or 23%, showed a good attitude, with 18 (9%) male and 28 female (14%) and 54 (27%), 32 (16%) of whom were male and 22 (11%) females, having a poor attitude. Fourth-year students had poorer attitudes toward school than those in their third year. This was because senior students had the mentality that they believed teachers would give them more chances to make up since they were graduating students.

Table 4 Profile of the Students’ Personal Adjustment Attitude (Other)

Table 4 reveals that no one of the respondents had an excellent attitude towards others. the third-year students, 61 students, or 30.5%, had a good attitude. 30 or 15% of them were male and 31 or 15.5% were female; 39 third-year students, or 19.5% of the research population, 20 or 10% of whom were male and 19 or 9.5% were female, had a poor attitude toward others.Among the fourth-year college students, 23 males, or 11.5%, and 28 females, or 14% of the respondents, did well, while 27 males, or 13.5%, and 22 females, or 11%, manifested a poor attitude toward others.Altogether, none showed an excellent attitude. 112 respondents, or 56% of the students, showed an excellent attitude, and 88 respondents, or 44%, had a poor rating in terms of attitude toward others. More or less, most of the students had good relationships with others—their parents, elders, peers, and other people they encountered every day. They liked to have a pleasant relationship with others because they cared about what other people thought of them.

Table 5 Personality Profiles of the Third- and Fourth-Year Students

As shown in Table 5, 13 fourth-year male students, or 6.5%, and 8 female students, or 4%, showed a tendency toward dominance, while 37 males, or 18.5%, and 42 females, or 21%, were inclined to be submissive. These students preferred to be followers rather than leaders; they were more comfortable being told what to do than relying on their own initiative. As for social maturity, 34 third-year male students, or 17%, and 41 female students, or 20.5%, had high social maturity, whereas 16 males, or 8%, and 9 females, or 4.5%, had low social maturity. These students had the ability to mingle effectively with each other. They had social interests and enjoyed a good relationship with their peers.

Table 6 Profile of the Academic Achievement of the Third- and Fourth-Year College Students

As seen in Table 6, 9(9.5%) third-year male students and 5 (2.5%) fourth-year male students had above-average achievement, 27 (13.5%) third-year students and 22 (11%) fourth-year male students were average, and 14 (7%) and 23 (11.5%) had below-average achievement. Third-year students achieved better than fourth-year students. In the contention of Magiba, (2001), on the achievement side, children with mental health difficulties tend to be mentally and emotionally disturbed in their school work.

Table 7 Relationships Between Family Functioning and Personal Adjustment Attitude

There was a correlation between family functioning and personal adjustment attitudes toward self, school, and others. These mean that the family's functioning affected a student’s attitude toward himself. This finding affirms the contention of Powers (2003) that identity achievement takes place within a warm and supportive family context.

Table 8 Relationships Between Family Functioning and their Personality

Table 8 shows that there is no significant relationship between the students’ family function and personality in terms of extraversion-introversion and social maturity. Gaerlan et al. (2000) contended that factors such as the school and the community affect one’s personality. Atwater (2002) further noted the importance of peers in the behavior of adolescents. There is a significant relationship between family functioning and personality in terms of dominance-submission, emotional stability, and emotional maturity. These would mean that emotional control is, to some extent, influenced by family functioning. This is in agreement with the contention that adolescents growing up in healthy family relationships tend to develop a high degree of personal and emotional control (Atwater 20002).

Table 9 Relationships Between Family Functioning and Academic Achievement

The x²-computed value of 36.67 exceeded the x²-critical value of 15.51 at the 0.05 level of significance, which led to the rejection of the null hypothesis of no significant relationship between family functioning and academic achievement. The results emphasized the importance of family functioning in a student's achievement. Atwater (2002) said in his book that parents contribute toward or detract from their child’s success at school. There is a strong positive association between the family and the students’ achievement in school. Most teachers and counselors know of students who are highly motivated to achieve in school despite negative parental models and a lack of support at home.

4. Conclusions

From the findings cited, the researcher has arrived at the following conclusion:

1. In the personal adjustment attitude toward oneself, the school, and others, no one student manifested a perfect attitude. There are some of them who have a poor attitude. They have poor self-concept and need assistance in accepting themselves and establishing their self-identity in order to adjust better to changes, be they within themselves or from outside factors.In terms of adjustment attitude toward school, a little more than half of the research population showed that they have the right attitude and have adjusted well to schooling and all it entails. However, there are also those whose relationships seem to be unpleasant, possibly due to their attitude, which needs to be improved.

1. As for personality, the findings revealed that more students appear to be submissive rather than dominant. The students’ submissiveness may be due to their lack of emotional stability and maturity. The respondents population is mostly comprised of those who are enjoying a good relationship with others since they are socially mature and can cope with the intricacies of human relations.However, many students need improvement in terms of their ability to control their moods and emotions.

1. Most of the students are average in achievement, but there are also many who belong to the below-average category. Many students need improvement in their academic performance.
2. In terms of family functioning, the largest portion of students belong to the food and poor family functioning levels. Their familial influences and processes are not very healthy. These students have families that, although doing all right, have to work on constantly improving their functioning since it is dynamic. They are the families that may be difficult to manage, but their ties have the tendency to weaken when problems arise. The members of the family need to improve family relationships, cohesion, and communication in order to strengthen their functioning.
3. Family functioning is a predictor of attitudes. It affects the students’ attitudes toward themselves, the school, and others. On the other hand, family functioning has little or no effect on whether or not a student has a submissive or dominant type of personality; it is also not a predictor of the introvertedness, the extrovertedness, or the social maturity of a person. But the family functioning of a person contributes to a person’s emotional stability and maturity.

5. Recommendations

The finding revealed that family functioning plays an important role in students’ personal adjustment attitudes, personalities, and academic achievement. With these significant results obtained from the study, the researcher would like to propose the following:

1. The school, which serves as the second home, is an institution expected to supply certain needs of the students in order for them to develop their potential. The school will have to initiate programs for the promotion of intellectual, emotional, and social maturity through varied activities.
2. The campus administrator, as the immediate head of the school with deans of the college department, has the power to initiate activities and ensure that these activities have a constancy of purpose that focuses on students.
3. The faculty, as the surrogate parent of the students, has the important duty of being an influential component in the molding of the student as an individual in the community. It is then important that the teacher understand the students' needs, abilities, and limitations.
4. The counselor is expected to be knowledgeable about the clientele of the students he has in school. He is expected to be sensitive to the needs and problems of the students. The findings of the study will give the guidance counselor insights in deciding which activities to incorporate into the guidance program.
5. For the parents to have a close follow-up on their students’ progress in school. All families can contribute to their children’s success. Family involvement improves student success, class, or parents’ level of education.

6. References

Akinsola, E. (2011). Relationship Between Parenting Style, Family Type, Personality Disposition and AcademicAchievement of Young People in Nigeria. IFE Psychologia, 12(2), 246-267.

Atwater, Eastwood. 2002. Adolescence. (Third Edition). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.,

Barnes, G.M. and M.P. Farrell. “Parental Support and Control as Predictors of Adolescent Drinking. Delinquent and Drug-Related Problem Behaviors,” Journal of Marriage and the Family. 2002.

Gaerlan, J. et. Al. 2000. Principles of mental Hygiene (Third Edi.) Quezon City:Ken Press.

Hildegard

Gorman-Smith. Deborah. Patrick H. Tolan and Armando Zelli. “The Relationship of Family Functioning to Violence Among Inner City Minority Youth,” Journal of Family Psychology. Volume 10 Number 2, 2006.

Hildegard, E. 2003. Introducing to Psychology, New York: Harcourt Bruce and World Inc.

Powers, S. et al 2003. Adolescent Development in the Family. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.