Divorces have left children in the hands of single parents, grandparents, other extended family members, even distant family friends to take care of them. This life condition has to a greater extent, caused enormous damage to the psychosocial development of children in general and early adolescents in particular. This study examined the effects of parental divorce on the psychosocial adjustment of early adolescents (12 -14years) in the Bamenda city council area of the North West Region of Cameroon. Four research objectives and four research questions were drawn from the general research objective and the general research question. A mixed method research design was adopted for this study. A total of 600 children (age range 12-14 years) served as participants in the study while 30 children and 10 parents took part in focus group discussions and interviews respectively. Data were collected with the use of questionnaires, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and interviews. Inferential and Descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyze data. From the findings, it was realized that the majority of the early adolescents 72.8% with parental absence due to divorce are affected by it, while 27.2% are not. This represents a significantly strong, and negative effect on all four areas of psychosocial adjustment of the early adolescents (p-value=0.000, < 0.05) with an overall high correlation value of -0.700**. The findings also showed that the majority of the early adolescents 68.5% with parental death suffered from psychosocial adjustment issues, with a significantly strong, and negative effect on all four areas of the psychosocial adjustment; (p-value=0.000, < 0.05), with an overall high correlation value of -0.598**. The findings also showed that 67.5% of the early adolescents suffered from psychosocial adjustment issues due the migration of their parents, with a significantly strong, and negative effect on all four areas of the psychosocial adjustment (p-value=0.000, < 0.05). Finally, as projected by the findings, 65.9% of the early adolescents suffer from psychosocial adjustment issues due to parental forceful displacements, with a significant, moderate, and negative effect on all four areas of psychosocial adjustment (p-value=0.000, < 0.05). The significant and strong effect is also supported with a relatively high explanatory power of 58.9% (Cox and Snell statistics). Overall, findings showed that parental divorce significantly correlate with all the four dimensions of the psychosocial adjustment of early adolescents.
Parental Absence, Psychosocial adjustment, Early Adolescents, Divorce, Self-esteem, Social bahaviour, academic resilience
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