1. CXC
SOCIAL STUDIES PROJECT
SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT ( S.B.A )
YEAR 2012
Name of candidate: Annalee Tana Augustin
School: St. Joseph’s Convent Secondary School
Center #:
Candidate #:
Teacher: Mrs. James
TITLE:
An examination of the life of a female teenager without a
male model, the father to be precise and the effect this has
on the individual.
Annalee Augustin
11/1/2012
2. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
Acknowledgements 3
Introduction 4
Statement of the problem 5
Reason for selecting the area of research 5
Method of investigation 6
Data collection instrument 7
Procedures for data collection 9
Presentation of data 10
Analysis and interpretation of data 11
Statement of findings 12
Recommendations and implementation strategy 13
3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The successful completion of this examination would not have been
made possible without the assistance, patience, and co-operation of my
social studies teacher, my parents, uncle, special companion and
grandmother. Therefore, I am pleased to express thanks to Miss for
lending support and valuable time spent on rendering assistance when
necessary. Members of my family have also been a constant source of
encouragement and assistance and to them I express lots of gratitude.
Lastly, I would like to thank students of 5a and students of other
schools for their support and co-operation in answering the
questionnaires.
4. INTRODUCTION
The phenomenon of a father’s absence in his daughter’s life appears to
have risen. Girls and young women who have an unstable father figure
seem prove to unplanned pregnancy, low self esteem, dropping out of
high school and college, failing subjects constantly and as adults, they
are more likely to experience poverty and divorce, and more likely to
engage In promiscuity.
I have been a student at St. Joseph’s convent for six years and during
this time I have observed a decrease in grades overall performances
and school attendance within my classroom and forms. When asked to
name a few of the distractions, lack of support from their father topped
the charts, being one of the most prominent and major distractions.
Therefore, I have decided to conduct a survey to interpret to what
extent the young females are distracted by the absence of their father
from their lives.
5. CHAPTER 1:
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
What effect does the absence of a father figure in the home have on
the development of young women?
CHAPTER 2:
REASON FOR SELECTING THE AREA OF RESEARCH
The reason this topic was selected is because young females of this
modern days are on the street more than the males with no decency, a
lot of teenage pregnancies, and juvenile delinquents. When a question
is asked about their reason for doing that, the answer somewhat links
to them not having their fathers or a male role model in their lives to
discipline them and warn them about the world or to aid them
financially for school and whatever needs they had. So the research is
to find out how many females who attend school presently are affected
by the absence of their father from their lives.
6. CHAPTER 3:
METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
The method used in order to collect data was a survey with the use of
printed questionnaires. The questionnaire as a tool for collecting data
has a number of disadvantages:
It requires little time to be completed
Respondents feel comfortable in answering questionnaires since
there is no need for personal identification
It can be done at the convenience of the person required to have
it completed.
7. CHAPTER 4:
DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT
My name is Annalee Augustin and I am a fifth form student at the St. Joseph’s convent
secondary school, and I will be most grateful if you participate in this questionnaire. This is a
study being conducted as part of my school based assessment. This survey is being carried out
to determine the effects the absence of a father has on the development of a young woman. I
am soliciting your assistance towards the completion of my S.B.A. please complete the
following questionnaire by putting a tick in the box provided and writing on the lines
provided for the open ended questions. Specific instructions are given where necessary. You
are advised to answer the following questions honestly and truthfully, and remember this is not
a test so there are no wrong or right answers. Your identification is not required and all
information will be kept in confidence. I am looking forward for your kind co-operation. Thank
you
SINCERELY
Annalee Augustin
1) What is your age group?
12-14 15-17 18-20
2) What type of family do you presently live in?
Single parent extended sibling nuclear
3) How would you describe your family’s finances?
Below average average above average
4) If you have any brother or sisters, whose company do you rather?
Brother sister
5) On a scale of 1-10, rate your relationship with your mother with 1 being the worst and 10 being the
best
6) How often do you communicate with your father?
Daily weekly fortnightly monthly Yearly He is deceased never
7) Do you spend time with your dad?
Yes No
8. 8) Do you think your relationship with him needs to be improved?
Yes No
If no , please state why
_____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
9) What is your level of confidence as a person as a result of the absence of your father from your life?
Very low Low Average Good Very Good
10) In your opinion has the lack of your father’s permanent presence in the home affected you?
Yes No
11) Do you have more male or female friends?
Male Female Equal
12) Do you have a special male friend/boy friend?
yes no
13) If yes how often d o you spend time with him?
Daily weekly fortnightly monthly Weekends
14) Do you some-how feel that he plays a father role in his own way?
Yes No
15) Do you eventually want to get married?
Yes No
If no please state one reason why
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
16) Do you think a father figure in the home is important?
Yes No
Give one main reason for your response.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
17) How long have you father not played his role or have been out of your life?
All my life less than a year 1-5 years 6-10 11-17
18) What is the reason for the absence of your father in your life? Tick all answers which pertain to you.
don’t know he is deceased don’t know i exist in jail or in the army travelled
19) Do you have a step father?
Yes No
20) If you were to pick your own biological father, who would you choose?
Your father your grandfather your step father
Your godfather your uncle other ____________________
9. CHAPTER 5:
PROCEDURES FOR DATA COLLECTING
For this school based assessment, teenagers were chosen and the
sample group to help conduct this survey. Four female teenagers of five
different secondary school were each chosen in order to answer the
questionnaires. Their ages range from 12-20 and they were chosen by
random selection. Twenty questionnaires were distributed to female
teenagers, each consisting twenty questions with three which are open
ended and the remainder, seventeen are closed ended. The
questionnaires were distributed to the twenty female teenagers of the
five different secondary schools namely; St. Joseph’s convent, Entrepot
secondary, Castries comprehensive secondary, Corinth secondary and
Babonneau secondary on Monday 8th October 2012 and collected by
Friday 12th October 2012.
10. CHAPTER 6:
PRESENTATION OF DATA
Question 6: how often do you communicate with your father?
A pie chart showing frequency of
communication between father and
daughter
0%
10% deceased
15%
yearly
5%
20% never
10% fortnightly
weekly
monthly
40% daily
Figure 1
Figure one is a pie chart showing the responses of the females as to
how often they communicate with their father. From the seven options
it was seen that majority of the respondents “never” communicate with
their father, followed by those who communicate with their fathers
yearly, then monthly, ten percent (10%) communicate with their father
fortnightly whiles the other ten percent (10%) respondents with fathers
who are deceased, then the minority weekly. It was also seen that none
of the respondents communicate with their father daily.
11. Question 9: what is your level of confidence as a person as a result of
the absence of your father from your life?
A bar chart showing the levels of confidence of
females without their father in their life
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
very low low average good very good
Figure 2
Figure two is a bar chart illustrating the confidence levels of females
due to the absence of their fathers from their life. It was noticed that a
majority of females’ confidence level is low, thirty-five percent of them
to be precise (35%). Twenty percent (20%) confidence is very low,
twenty-five percent (25%) confidence is of average, fifteen percent
(15%) confidence is good and five percent (5%) confidence is very good.
12. Question 20: if you were to pick your own biological father, who would
you chose?
Table showing the answers of respondents of who they wish to be
their father
Options chose No. of Percentages
from respondents
Father 1 5%
Grandfather 3 15%
Stepfather 5 25%
Godfather 7 35%
Uncle 4 20%
other 1 5%
Figure 3
Figure three is a table illustrating replacements for fathers
by the respondents. From the table, a plurality of females
wish to replace their father with their godfather ,35% to
be exact, where as the minority still want their father as
their biological father and same amount of respondents
ticked other so the percentage is equal, 5%. As we can see
above, 35% prefer their godfather, 20% prefer their uncle,
25% prefer their stepfather, 15% prefer their grandfather,
and 5% prefer their father. so when we observe the table
properly we’ll realize that 95% of the respondents prefer
anyone other than their father to be their biological
father.
13. CHAPTER 7:
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
From this it can be said that most of the respondents chosen by using the random
sampling method were youths with age group of 15-20 years of age. The third
question on the questionnaire asked the respondents to describe their family’s
finances; a vast number of participants’ families’ finances are below average, sixty
percent (60%), following average twenty-five percent (25%), and minority
attaining ten percent (10%). From the information mentioned above it can be said
that majority of fatherless females are not financially stable.
Based on question four which asked,” if you have any brothers or sisters, whose
company do you rather? ” and question 11 which asked, ”do you have more male
friends or female friends?” from this analysis we can see that the respondents
rather the company of male because for question 4 the ratio of brothers to
sisters is 12:8 with 12 being the brothers and for question 11 the ratio is 8:6:6
with being males.
Based on question 5 which asked them to rate the relationship with their
mothers, it can be seen that majority of the respondents have a good relationship
with their mother. On a scale of 1-10, twenty percent (20%) rated 10, fifteen
percent (15%) rated 9, fifteen percent (15%) said 8, five percent (5%) rated 7,
fifteen percent (15%) said 6, five percent (5%) rated 5,4,3,2,1 and 0.
According to question 8, sixty-five percent (65%) of the respondents believe that
their relationship with their fathers needs to be improved whiles the other 35%
think otherwise. Of the 20 respondents 70% have boyfriends whiles the remaining
30% don’t have and 65% of the 70% with boyfriends believe that he plays a father
role in his own way whereas the remaining 35% don’t.
In analyzing question 20, 35% of the respondents prefer their godfather over their
father, 20% prefer their uncle, 25% prefer their step father, 15% prefer their
grandfather and 5% prefer their father. It can be noted here that 95% of the
respondents prefer anyone other than their biological father to be the father in
their life.
14. CHAPTER 8:
STATEMENT OF FINDINGS
The researcher found that:
1. Majority of females are affected by the absence of their father
and is part of the cause for their outrageous behaviors
2. Many females never grew up with their fathers in their life
3. Majority of fatherless females prefer the company of a male
friend than a female one.
CHAPTER 9:
RECOMMENDATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
RECOMMENDATION
The issue of fatherless daughters could be hugely reduced
by the use of family counseling to help with good family
relationship. Soon to be fathers should be question about
future plans and whether he is going to be in that child’s life
and whether he is able to support financially.
Mothers could act on the situation and take the father to
family court and arrangements could be made whereby the
father is to visit the child and support and co-operate and
there will be consequences if he fails to do so.
IMPLEMENTATION
Government can offer subsidies to firms to set up a particular
area and invest in new technologies, offer training to unemployed
or underprivileged fathers and mothers whose finances are below
average.
