Senior Capstone ℅ 2018

4/28/2018

Do Unstable Homes Affect Student In Their Education?

Leah Katelynn Pacheco

Los Angeles Leadership Academy HS, Los Angeles, US, lpacheco100361@laleadership.org
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Senior Capstone ℅ 2018

DO UNSTABLE HOMES AFFECT STUDENTS IN THEIR EDUCATION?

Abstract
Overall, within this Autoethnography research paper you will see the affects of how an unstable
home affect a student in their education. An unstable home effects the teenage mental health,
social interactions, and have impoverished homes. Unstable home do not just mean they are
literally unstable, they mean that their homes have a lot to do with their parents and everything
within this home. One of the most common reasons why they do have unstable homes is because
of their parents.They can be going through a divorce which will affect them drastically. This
research paper will go into more detail about how exactly they struggle in their education.
Keywords:​Autoethnography,
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DO UNSTABLE HOMES AFFECT STUDENTS IN

THEIR EDUCATION?

Leah Katelynn Pacheco

Los Angeles Leadership Academy HS, Los Angeles, USA

Overall, within this Autoethnography research paper you will see the affects of how an unstable
home affect a student in their education. An unstable home effects the teenage mental health,
social interactions, and have impoverished homes. Unstable home do not just mean they are
literally unstable, they mean that their homes have a lot to do with their parents and everything
within this home. One of the most common reasons why they do have unstable homes is because
of their parents.They can be going through a divorce which will affect them drastically. This
research paper will go into more detail about how exactly they struggle in their education.

The Incident

One sunny morning, I woke up to loud screaming. It was so loud that I had to cover my

ears to ease the pain. I was confused as to why there was so much yelling. As I slowly got out of

bed, I put my feet on the soft carpet, it felt as if my feet were on a white puffy clouds. All of a

sudden that feeling went away, with a blink of an eye, the screaming continued. I quickly rushed

into my kitchen to figure out what was going on. As I entered the kitchen I saw my brother and

sister having breakfast while my mother was arguing with my stepdad. I had never seen them
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argue with such intensity, it made me feel as if they were strangers. I did not want my brother

and sister to listen, so I quickly escorted them to my room and created a distraction. I went back

to make sure everything was okay, I quickly came to the realization that I should have never

gone back. When I went back to the kitchen, my mother yelled,“Get out! I no longer want you

living with us. This relationship is too toxic and I don’t want my children to be around so much

negativity. Especially one that comes from a person they call their father.” With no hesitation my

step dad replied, “ If that’s what you want, so be it. There is nothing here for me anyways.” At

the moment my body felt weak. It felt as if I had been continuously walking for months. I felt

this sharp pain in my chest as if someone had a pillow on the top of my face trying to prevent me

breathing. My emotions were all over the place, I didn’t know how to react to this, I never met

my biological father, I considered my step dad as my father figure. Hearing what he said felt as if

half of my body was melting, everything went numb. I was speechless, my instant thought was

what we had done for him to hate us so much. At the same time, the other half of my body felt

hot raging anger. I was disappointed in the type of man he had become. Throughout the day, all

I saw was my father going back and forth putting his clothes in his car. It was difficult to see

what was happening; everything felt as if it was in slow motion. I scanned the living room and

saw my brother and sister crying, telling our father to stay. My mother had a disappointed look,

but she knew it was for the best. My father had finished packing and said his goodbye. As we

watched him walk into his car and drive away, my mom fell to her knees. I had never seen her in

so much pain, it killed me to see her cry. She had pulled me aside and said, “Katelynn we all

need to be strong and united. I don’t ever want us to separate or leave each other the way he did.”

Almost one year later, my parents divorced, making it one of the toughest challenges I had to
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face. Slowly I saw it affect my brother and my sister as they saw our parents separate. At this

moment I realized that my family had fallen apart. The moment I found out that as time passed

from this day forward everything just was never the same. My relationship with my family

wasn’t as strong as it was before, and most importantly I lost not only one father but two, my

biological father and my step father.

Analysis

Introduction

Students do not have the support they need to move forward in their education because

of what happens at home; moreover, many students struggle with how unstable their homes.

Their families can be falling apart caused by multiple things.“Children’s problem behaviors

further increase with multiple changes in family structure” (Sandstrom and Huerta, 2013, page

24). Of course students struggle more and more as they grow and their household gets worse.

This is where the students begin to have trouble with school and their education.

Study of Focus

This research paper focus on how unstable homes affect their education. What causes

them to slack on their school work and how it gets throughout the years. Within the research, it

show how it can affect the students mentally, physically, and emotionally. From examining

unstable household conditions that affect teenage mental health,impoverished homes and social
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interactions; it is clear that unstable household environments affect high school age students

educational performance by increasing depression and anti-socialism.

Affect Teenage Mental Health

When kids are affected by this as such an early age you can see that as this student gets

more older and starts to get educated the worse it will be on him. “Family instability is linked to

problem behaviors and some academic difficulties , even at early ages.” (Sandstrom and Huerta,

2013, page 24). In research is shows how many people have the reactions and they affect them at

such an early age which can really affect their mental health. Multiple people don’t understand

how mental health can be a big part in this due to their situations at home. “Children demonstrate

more negative behaviors when they lack the emotional and material support at home that they

need to smoothly handle a family transition” (Sandstrom and Huerta, 2013, page 24).

In many website it shows that when parents are not involved in their education and at

home they don’t really get the motivation, it shows that behaviors of the teenagers changes in

negative ways. When children act different it could mean that they don’t show much emotion

and support at home. Due to parents arguing, it can show that children often feel like it is their

fault or may feel traumatised. This may lead to them being emotionally unstable and can strongly

affect their psychological health. Children may seem to be okay but something very drastically

can happen that can have them lead to stress. “When the home environment is unstable and

parents fight in the presence of their children, children often think it is their fault and are

traumatised. They worry that their parents will not stay together and suffer emotionally. This

affects their psychological health adversely, takes a toll on their development and shows up as

bad behaviour and poor results in school” (Yeo, 2015, para 3).
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Social Interactions

Online articles have many different reasons as to why kids live in unstable homes, not

only does it affect their education but it also affects the relationship with their family.

“Instability also frequently entails a loss of resources, whether of parental time and attention,

household income, access to health care, or proximity to supportive relatives and friends, all of

which obviously matter for children's successful development” (Sutherland, 2014, para 8).

“Changes in schools and child care arrangements are common, particularly as families move or

change jobs, but school mobility and child care instability are most prevalent among low -

income families”(Sandstrom and Huerta, 2013, page 6-7). Which could also mean that they

should change their ways to make it much healthier for themselves and their family. In other

words, when children change school due to the fact their parents change jobs it creates a negative

effect on the child's learning and education down the line of their life.

“School mobility has the strongest effect during early elementary and high school, with

multiple school transfers leading to worse effects” (Sandstrom and Huerta, 2013, page 7). Many

students in their early age have effects on unstabled homes which can lead them to becoming

anti-social. They don’t like the fact that they feel unwanted in their home or they become

isolated along with isolating themselves at school as well. ​“Negative impacts on child health

came from unstable housing (frequent moves), whether the parents were in receipt of housing

assistance and housing stress (which reduced infant health outcomes by 3.5 percentile points and

preschoolers by 4.5 percentile points)” (AHURl Research and Policy Bulletin, 2014, para 18).

Impoverished Homes
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“Family structures are diverse even within two - parent households, including married

and unmarried parents, biological parents, adopted parents, step parents, and cohabiting partners.

These structures are not static as families often change over time” (Sandstrom and Huerta, 2013,

page 24). Due to parents arguing, it can show that children often feel like it is their fault or may

feel traumatised. This may lead to them being emotionally unstable and can strongly affect their

psychological health. Children may seem to be okay but something very drastically can happen

that can have them lead to stress.

“When the home environment is unstable and parents fight in the presence of their

children, children often think it is their fault and are traumatised. They worry that their

parents will not stay together and suffer emotionally. This affects their psychological

health adversely, takes a toll on their development and shows up as bad behaviour and

poor results in school” (Yeo, 2015, para 3).

This alone can lead to them become antisocial. Many family members don’t realize that with

them fighting in front of their kids can really affect them in the long run with their education and

their personally life.

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“Children thrive in stable and nurturing environments where they have a routine and

know what to expect. Although some change in children’s lives is normal and

anticipated, sudden and dramatic disruptions can be extremely stressful and affect

children's feeling of security. Within the context of supportive relationships with adults

who act as a buffer against any negative effects of instability, children learn how to cope

with adversity, adapt to their surroundings, and regulate their emotions” ( National

Scientific Council on the Developing Child 2007 ).

Divorce can be a big impact in children's lives, seeing both of their parents separate can make

them emotionally unstable. “While there has been considerable debate about the effects of

divorce or a new marriage on children, and whether it is the change in parental unions or the

underlying characteristics and behaviors of parents that impact children the most , increasing

evidence has increasingly documented the negative effects of family instability on children .

Studies show that parental divorce has the potential to cause short - term family crisis and long -

term, chronic strain on the family (Amato 2000)” (Sandstrom and Huerta, 2013, page 24).

Sandstorm and Huerta stated divorce can be the peak of have an unstable home, while the kids

think everything will be okay, within time they will feel a bit of discomfort, not wanted, and just

all over the place. This big of an impacted can lead them to have depression. Which will cause

them to not do so well in the educational life. Children who have single parents can be very hard
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because than it could feel as if they are competing against each other and they have to choose.

Most of all they will see that their family is not together it will feel as if it is they are apart and

not a family. “Single parenthood and cohabitation have lost much of their stigma as their

prevalence has increased. But there are still many reasons to be concerned about the well-being

of children in fragile families, and, indeed, research overwhelmingly concludes that they fare

worse than children born into married-couple households.4 What remains unclear is how large

the effects of single parenthood and cohabitation are in early childhood and what specific aspects

of life in fragile families explain those effects.” ( Waldfogel,Craigie & Brooks-Gunn, 2011, para

9)

Opinion

Within this research paper, it is obvious that students struggle while having an unstable

home. Not many people understand the problem that these students go through. They blame

themselves, or they do not get the support they need from their parent, they think that the

problem their parents are going through is their fault. A home that is not stable can have a very

big impact on a student's life especially if it coming from their parents. Some students don’t like

to speaker of how much they are struggling which is why they do not speak to anyone about

which is why they keep it to themselves. Many of these reason can lead to depression which can

lead to commit suicide. Adults think it’s just a teenage phase but it is more that that.
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Conclusion

Throughout this research it is known that students do not do good in their academics

because of their social life or because the are “teenagers”. The true is many students do not just

start when they hit highschool, they could have been like this since they were at a young age.

They could have grown into having already an unstable home which is why they have struggle

since they were young in their education. Having an unstable does affect a students education

because how can they continue to succeed in their education if they are going through a divorce,

not having the support, or thinking it is their fault when their parents argue. Fixing an unstable

home for students in their education can be so they can go to therapy and communicating when

needed. This so they will not struggle and will continue in their career path.

References
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Reference

A. (2014, June). What Impact does a child's housing have on their development and wellbeing?

Retrieved May 24, 2018, from

https://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/3063/AHURI_RAP_Issue_171_Wh

at-impact-does-a-childs-housing-have-on-their-development-and-wellbeing.pdf

Sandstorm, Heather, and Sandra Huerta. ​The Negative Effects of Instability on Child Development:

a Research Synthesis​. Sept. 2013,

www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/32706/412899-The-Negative-Effects-of-Instability

-on-Child-Development-A-Research-Synthesis.PDF.

Sutherland, A., How Instability Affects Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-instability-affects-kids

Yeo, J., When family problems affect children in school. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.schoolbag.sg/story/when-family-problems-affect-children-in-school