A QUANTITATIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF FAMILIAL LONG DISTANCE

RELATIONSHIP TO THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

In Partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the subject
Mathematics in the Modern World

NIÑA MAE L. SUMILANG

November 2019

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page 1
Table of Contents 2

Introduction
Background of the Study………………………………………………………. 1
Objectives…………………………………………………………………….... 2
Literature Review……………………………………………………………… 3
Hypothesis ……………..……………………………………………………… 4
Significance of the Study………………………………………………………. 5
Definition of Terms……………………………………………………………. 6

Methodology
Research Design………………………………………………………………... 7
Population and Sampling……………………………………………………….
Data Collection Procedures……………………………………………………. 7
Data Analysis (Statistical Treatment)………………………………………… 8

Result and Discussion

Presentation of Computation………………………………………………… 9
Presentation of Data………………………………………………………….. 10

Conclusion and Recommendation

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….. 11
Recommendation……………………………………………………………... 12

Bibliography………………………………………………………………................... 13
Appendices……………………………………………………………………………... 14

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 INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

College is one of the biggest event in the school life of a student. As students

move to a higher education, they seek better education offers and greater opportunities

as a preparation for the near future. Majority of the schools are located in the city which

is why students residing in the province move away from their homes to fulfill their

academic desires. Moving away from what people call “home” is probably one of the

hardest goodbye. This kind of set-up brings different impact on various aspects either it

will help a student positively or negatively in terms of academics. Adapting to a new

social environment, different education system and learning approach, more freedom

which equates to a heavier responsibility, that are being faced by each individual.

Vieira (2015) mentioned in her study that the distance between the family home

and the university has a negative impact on the students. It also adds to the difficulty of

coping up to the environment. But, it still varies depending on the person. Some wants

to move away to practice their independence but it is quite hard to those individuals who

have strong family bonds. Difficulties being faced of a being may lead to different

personal problems that might affect one’s academic performance. Thus, this paper

functions to determine the relation of living away from your parents to the student’s

academic performance. As well as the consequences and benefits brought by living

independently.

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Objectives

The study focuses on the impact of familial distance to the academic

performance of college students. Precisely, this study seeks to answer the following:

1. What is the effect of living away from home to students?

2. What is the academic performance of students living away from their parents?

3. Is there a significant difference of being far away from home towards the

student’s academic performance?

Literature Review

FAMILIAL LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP

Moving away from home can bring adverse impacts depending on how a person

deal with it. Some might look at it as an advantage since there will be no limitations but

along with it are disadvantages such as doing chores self-reliantly, very far from what

others have imagined. It is like saying goodbye to a carefree life. A study conducted by

Vieira C., Vieira I., & Costa (2017) mentioned that geographical distance from the place

of study to the residence worsens the difficulties of coping and adjusting to the

university. Thus, difficulties may result to problems that affects a wide range of aspect

as what Chow and Healey (2008) stated wherein distance from the family home to the

place of study may trigger and aggravate some of the negative problems. One of it is in

psychological wherein it may result to homesickness and depression, social which may

be experienced when having difficulties in adapting to a new environment or worse,

academics which may end up dropping out of school.

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 Living independently also comes as a person moves away. According to a study

conducted by Jordyn & Byrd (2003), leaving their parent’s home is one of the most

crucial points of a young adult’s life. Along with this is facing challenges alone with

minimal help from parents. It could also mean freedom, being able to do things without

limitations but along with it are heavier responsibilities. In an Asian aspect, the Filipino

society is very family-oriented. Filipinos value the concept of family so much to the point

that the family members get too attached with each other. It has been a practice in the

Philippine society that children would live with their parents until they could already be

fully independent and are able to establish a stable life (Watkins and Astilla, 1980).

ACADEMIC ASPECT OF BEING FAR FROM HOME

Focusing on the main effect of being far from home which is homesickness, it

was revealed that severe homesickness in college can lead to less adaptability to

environment and higher levels of psychological disturbance as well as

absentmindedness which could greatly affect one’s study (Fisher & Hood, 1987).

Conferring to BrightHub’s post, one of the top reasons of college students dropping out

of university is due to homesickness and freshmen are the most vulnerable to this.

Contrastingly, recent studies tend to rely on students from a few large public

research universities rather than a broad range of institutions, which precludes any

analysis of institutional differences in the impact of residence. Using a sample of 1st-

year students from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), it was

found out that, for majority in most institutions, whether living-off campus or within the

campus, does not have a significant effect on 1st-year academic performance. On the

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other hand, among Black students, those who live on campus have significantly higher

GPAs than similar students at the same institution who live off campus with family.

Same results were scrutinized among students enrolled in Liberal Arts Institutions.

In Turley and Wodtke’s (2010) study concluded that students who live on campus

performs better academically and in extracurricular activities. than those living with their

family. They are more active in school which results to higher GPAs than those who live

with their families. These students claimed that they become more ambitious,

independent and better prepared when they attend to academic institutions that are

away from their families. Most of them uttered that they were abler to focus on their

studies when they are living alone. Lastly, on a research conducted by Glory, Go,

Gonzales, et. Al (2014) living alone does not affect the academic performance of

students in a negative way. As a matter of fact, it affects students positively in a way

that it makes them more independent.

PARENTAL PRESENCE TO STUDIES

Family’s presence always makes a difference in everything. Actual moral support

from family boosts one’s morale and confidence that gives more motivation and will to

strive harder. Academic breakdown is very common among students and the best cure

is the presence of a very supportive family around them. In the Western setting, Walker

and Satterwhite (2002) looked into the role of a family to the academic performance of

African American and Caucasian college students. They found that though the families

of these students affect their performance in school, the effect is just small. Meaning it

does not greatly affect their studies. This is just a common scenario wherein leaving

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their homes once they have reached their legal age for study purposes and to be more

independent. However, Bower and Griffin (2011) mentioned that parental involvement

bears a lot of positive effects other than academics such as increased motivation, self-

esteem and self-reliance therefore ensuing academic success regardless of economic

background. Contrariwise, inadequate or no parental involvement contributes to low

student achievement and engagement. Chohan and Khan (2010) scrutinized the impact

of parental support on the academic performance and self-concept of students unveiled

that the parent’s support has a consistent and positive effect on the academic

achievement of an individual.

Hypothesis

There is no significant relationship between the familial distance towards the

academic performance of students.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will provide knowledge to people about the impact of

living away from family in relation to their academic performance. As well as to

house the differences of undergraduate Filipino students versus Western students.

Filipino youth’s independence does is unpredictable and is not related to their age

but on their level of maturity. Up until now, most of the college students in the

country are still reliant to their parents.

The beneficiaries of this study is the researcher, the students, the family, and

future researchers. This study will be benefited by: the researcher because of

conducting an in-depth study with regards to the relationship of living away from

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 home to their academic performance; the students since they will be able to come

up of different coping mechanisms to adjust in their new learning environment and

decide carefully whether moving is the best thing to do; the family to fully

understand the struggles of a student when living away from home and help their

children decide genuinely; lastly, the future researchers can use this study as a

reference in conducting a more thorough study.

Definition of Terms

Academic Performance is the student’s reporting of the past quarters and their

expected performance to that duration.

College, as defined by Cambridge, is a place or a university of higher education where

you can study for an undergraduate degree.

Familial Long Distance Relationship is the separation of students to their family just

to study.

Living Away is moving from one place to another geographically for various reasons

such as for studies.

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 METHODOLOGY

This chapter explains the process that will be applied to scrutinize the information

based on the response of the participants. It also shows the procedure to show the

significant difference of each statements.

Research Design

The research study will use a quantitative research design which emphasized

measurements that are objective and the mathematical, statistical or numerical analysis

of data collected through manifesting a statistical data that are already preceding using

computational techniques (Babbie, 2010). More specifically, descriptive research design

will be used in which describes the characteristics of the population or phenomenon that

is being studied (Bhat, n.d).

Population and Sampling

This study will be administered in Calayan Educational Foundation and the

twenty (20) respondents will be chosen through purposive sampling technique since the

researcher is in need of students who are living away from their family in order to extract

a more specific result. Purposive sampling technique is a method wherein it is a non-

probability sampling and produces in-depth understanding of the phenomenon

understudy. The respondent required in this study must be a a.) college student

studying at Calayan Education Foundation Inc. b.) living away from his/her family c.)

willing to participate regardless of age, course, and year level since their response is the

central argument.

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Data Collection Procedures

Data will be collected through survey in order to collect and interpret the different

views of a particular population. The method of data collection is a Likert Scale, a widely

used research technique in gathering and analyzing data from respondents quickly and

efficiently by rating different statements from agree to strongly agree and disagree to

strongly disagree. The research questions will contain twenty (20) close-ended

questions and informative questions written in a survey questionnaire. Before

proceeding in collecting data, the researchers will present a consent to all the

participants or respondents which will serves as the voluntary agreement between the

researchers and respondents to participate in the research study.

Data Analysis (Statistical Treatment)

After the data has been collected, the researchers followed definitive steps: 1.)

understanding the variables involved which enables us to distinguish variables by both

cause and effect. In this way, we can identify whether it is dependent or independent as

well as their measurement scales 2.) running descriptive statistics which are used to

summarize the basic features of a data set through measures of central tendency,

which is mainly computing for the mean. 3.) running appropriate inferential statistics

specifically t-test and lastly 4.) look for statistical significance which is generally

computed through a ‘p-value’, which states that the probability of your findings are more

than coincidence.

First, the response of the participants will be gathered and tallied then it will be

computed using WAM wherein:

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 x̄ ⅀(𝑤 ·𝑥)
𝑤=
⅀𝑤

W = weighing factor
X = number
The data will be analyzed using a t-test wherein the compared variables are their

own perceptions of living alone. The mean of the single item from table A will be

compared to the mean of a single item from table B. These two will be tested under t-

test that will show their significant relationship. The Confidence level is set at 95%, as

such the margin for error is 5%. Therefore, when the p-value that comes out from the

statistical analysis is less than 0.05, the difference of the answers is statistically

significant.

x̄ 1 − x̄ 2
𝑡=
𝜎2 𝜎2
√ 1 +√ 2
𝑛1 𝑛2

Where:

x̄ = sample mean
σ2 = standard deviation
n = sample size
And the verbal interpretation that will be used for WAM is:
Point Value Range Interval Verbal Description
4 3.26 – 4.00 Strongly Agree
3 2.51 – 3.25 Agree
2 1.76 – 2.50 Disagree
1 1.00 – 1.75 Strongly Disagree

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 Results and Discussion
The data obtained from the respondents will be computed and shown here using
tables. Conclusions will be written every after tables.
A. Weighted Arithmetic Mean
I. Living Away from Parents

FREQUENCY Weighted
Verbal
INDICATORS Arithmetic
4 3 2 1 Description
Mean
1. Living away from my parents make me
14 4 2 0 3.6 SA
independent.
2. I like living alone. 4 4 10 2 2.5 DA
3. I moved away for better education quality. 11 4 4 1 3.25 A
4. Living alone makes me productive. 5 10 5 0 3.0 A
5. It gives me more time to study. 5 12 3 0 3.1 A
6. I do things without getting told. 6 11 3 0 3.15 A
7. I prefer living with my family than living
10 7 2 1 3.3 SA
alone.
8. Living alone makes me lazy. 4 4 8 4 2.4 DA
9. Living away makes me homesick. 6 8 3 3 2.76 A
10. It stresses me out when living alone. 4 5 7 4 2.45 DA
Over-all WAM 2.95 A
It was evident in the table that majority of the respondents strongly agreed (3.6) that
living away from their parents make them independent but on the other hand, the one
with the lowest mean (2.4) according to the respondents was living alone make them
lazy where they strongly disagreed.
II. Impact on Academic Performance

FREQUENCY Weighted
Verbal
INDICATORS Arithmetic
4 3 2 1 Description
Mean
1. Living away from my parents affects my
1 5 10 4 2.15 DA
studies.
2. Being away improves my academic
1 12 7 0 2.13 DA
performance.
3. I get high grades. 2 10 8 0 2.70 A
4. Being alone makes me focus more on my
4 9 6 1 2.80 A
studies
5. Being alone is a great opportunity for me to
4 12 4 0 3.00 A
improve my studies.
6. I have good study habits. 2 13 4 1 2.80 A
7. I am inspired to study harder when I see my
15 3 2 0 3.65 SA
family.

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 8. I often procrastinate. 4 9 6 1 2.80 A
9. I skip classes just to go home to my town. 1 2 7 10 1.70 SD
10.Living alone makes me unable to focus on
1 4 7 8 1.90 D
my studies.
Over-all WAM 3.14 A

On the impact of familial long distance relationship to academic performance, the

one with the highest mean was seeing their family makes them more inspired and the
one with the lowest was they skip classes just to go home to their town.

B. T-Test

Impression
Critical Decision
Item A Item B P-Value (Significant
Value
when p<0.05)
1 Living away
Living away from
from my There is a
my parents Reject
parents make 2.09 0.00 significant
affects my H0
me difference
studies
independent
2 Being away
There is no
I like living improves my Accept
2.09 0.29 significant
alone. academic H0
difference
performance.
3 I moved away
There is a
for better I get high Reject
2.09 0.04 significant
education grades. H0
difference
quality.
4 Being alone
Living alone There is no
makes me focus Accept
makes me 2.09 0.19 significant
more on my H0
productive. difference
studies
5 Being alone is a
It gives me great opportunity There is no
Accept
more time to for me to 2.09 0.54 significant
H0
study. improve my difference
studies.
6 I do things There is no
I have good Accept
without getting 2.09 0.23 significant
study habits. H0
told. difference
7 There is no
I prefer living I am inspired to Accept
2.09 0.05 significant
with my family study harder H0
difference

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 than living when I see my
alone. family.
8 Living alone There is no
I often Accept
makes me 2.09 0.13 significant
procrastinate. H0
lazy. difference
9 Living away I skip classes There is a
Reject
makes me just to go home 2.09 0.00 significant
H0
homesick. to my town. difference
10 Living alone
It stresses me There is no
makes me Accept
out when living 2.09 0.08 significant
unable to focus H0
alone. difference
on my studies.

T-Test of Two Sample Means

Critical
Table A Table B P-Value Impression Decision
Value
There is a
2.95 3.14 2.26 0.05 significant Reject H0
difference

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

This chapter shows the summary of findings as per objective and the

assumptions drawn from the tests conducted.

Summary of Findings

After tallying the data gathered from the respondents, the following results are derived.

1. It was found out that the top effect of living away from their parents is that it

makes them independent, it garnered a WAM of 3.6 which has a verbal

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 description of Strongly Agree. Conversely, the statement “living alone makes me

lazy got the lowest WAM, 2.4.

2. In terms of the students’ academic performance while living away, it was

determined that seeing their family makes them more inspired (3.65) and the one

with the lowest mean was the statement “I skip classes just to go home to my

town” with a WAM of 1.70. Secondly, in the t-test conducted, the researcher

paired various statements. It was revealed that they moved away for a better

quality of education and there is a significant difference to it in relation to their

high grades which makes it reject the null hypothesis.

3. Lastly, t-test was used to determine the relationship of the two variables which

are living away from parents and their academic performance. It was concluded

that there was a significant difference between the two variables that made the

researcher reject the null hypothesis.

Conclusions

Based from the findings gathered, conclusions were drawn.

1. Living away from their family makes them independent. Clearly, it does not give a

negative impact on themselves.

2. In line with their academic performance, although they prefer living with their

family since they are more inspired, they resist the temptation of skipping classes

just to go home to their town.

3. It was revealed that there is a significant difference between living away from

their family towards their academic performance. Although living away from ones

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 family is difficult, especially in a time of crucial transition such as college life, it

may also bring positive effects. Though participants are aware that living away

from the family makes them more independent, they are not aware that this may

also affect their academic performance in a positive light.

Recommendations

This section provides a beneficial guide that will not only result certain issues, but

result in a beneficial outcome. In lieu of this, the researcher recommends the following:

Students

Students must always weigh their feeling of homesickness to the positive

impact of living away from their family. Enjoy school life and participate in school

activities to relieve homesickness. Communicate with your family through social media

more often.

Family

The family of the student must understand and see that living away brings

positive effects to their children. Giving them their personal time to study improves their

academic performance.

Future Researchers

Future researchers may explore more on the different aspects such as the

social exposure, emotional aspect, depression, sibling relationships, problem solving,

etc. In addition, the researchers suggest that data should be gathered from a larger

sample in order to attain more accurate findings. The researchers also suggest that

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participants should also be gathered from participants from other parts of the country

who reside in Manila while they are studying. This is to have a more balanced data

analysis.

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 References
A Quantitative Study on Effects of Living Away From Home to the Academic

Performance of Undergraduate Students. (2014, April 8). Retrieved from

https://ffaammiippoopp.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/a-quantitative-study-on-effects-of-

living-away-from-home-to-the-academic-performance-of-undergraduate-students/.

How to Deal with Homesickness in College. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.hap.org/blog/2018/09/homesick-in-college.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT AND ITS AFFECTS ON STUDENT ACADEMIC

ACHIEVEMENT. (2015, May). Retrieved from

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/48504579.pdf.

Shahrier, Mohd. Ashik & Islam, Md. Nurul & Kayesh, Kazi & Khatun, Mahbuba.

(2015). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND FAMILY

RELATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. 10. 21-29.

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 The questionnaire aims to measure the impact of living away from home towards
their academic performance. Also, this intends to examine the relationship of the two
variables.

Directions: Kindly rate the following statements under different criteria by using the
given scale and placing a checkmark on the file space provided.
Numerical Rating and Equivalent: (4) Strongly Agree, (3) Agree, (2) Disagree, (1)
Strongly Disagree.

4 3 2 1
SA A D SD
A. Living away from parents
11. Living away from my parents make me independent.
12. I like living alone.
3. I moved away for better education quality.
4. Living alone makes me productive.
5. It gives me more time to study.
6. I do things without getting told.
7. I prefer living with my family than living alone.
8. Living alone makes me lazy.
9. Living away makes me homesick.
10. It stresses me out when living alone.

B. Impact on Academic Performance

2. Living away from my parents affects my studies.
2. Being away improves my academic performance.
13. I get high grades.
14. Being alone makes me focus more on my studies
15. Being alone is a great opportunity for me to improve my
studies.
16. I have good study habits.
17. I am inspired to study harder when I see my family.
18. I often procrastinate.
19. I skip classes just to go home to my town.
20.Living alone makes me unable to focus on my studies.

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Date: ____________________________________

Dear Respondents,

The researcher is currently conducting a research as a partial fulfillment in the

subject Mathematics in the Modern World entitled “A Quantitative Study on the Impact
of Familial Long Distance Relationship to the Academic Performance of College
Students” which aims to examine the impact of being far away from your home in
relevance of a student’s academic performance.

In lieu of this, may I request you to answer the attached answer sheet and carefully
read and rate the statements. We guarantee that your answers will be treated with strict
confidentiality.

Thank you very much,

Respectfully,

Niña Mae L. Sumilang

Researcher

Name (optional) : _________________

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