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The Psychological Effects of the Absentee Parents to the Personality

Development of College Students

A Research Paper
Presented to
the Faculty of the Languages and Literature Department
College of Liberal Arts
De La Salle University – Dasmariñas

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Course
ENGL102 – Communication Art and Skills 2

Efellaine M. Castro
Jomari del Rosario
April Jane Gonzales
Josef Paolo Jimenez
Kong Tae-Kyu

September 2011
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Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................... 3

Methodology ................................................................................................... 5

Results ............................................................................................................ 6

Discussion ....................................................................................................... 10

References ...................................................................................................... 13
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Introduction

Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings

and behaviors that make a person unique. In addition to this, personality arises
from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life (Feist &
Feist, 2006). There has been much research on the crisis of single parent home
and discussion that American families suffer because one or both parents are
frequently absent (Lamb, 1990, as cited in Feist & Feist). The primary reason
why families suffer is because fathers are absent and their absences have an
impact on the critical development of their sons and daughters. They are as
much critical to their daughters as well as their mothers too. Obviously, they
provided half the genetic material for personality development. The same, too,
may be applied to a Southeast Asian country like Philippines, whom people
represented by the numbers 8.6 million to 11 million or about 11% of the total
population are outside the country, typically heading for work
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Filipino) .

Most psychologist including S. Freud, C. Jung, K. Horney and M. Klein

believed in the notion that filial neglect or pampering shapes the personality and
well-being of a child. (As cited in Feist & Feist, 2006) , according to Bowlby’s
attachment theory, which resorted to unorthodox psychoanalytic thinking by
taking into account the childhood and its proceeding developmental years (that
is, adolescence) as its starting point and then extrapolating forwards to
adulthood. Bowlby firmly believed that the attachments, bonds and loyalty formed
during childhood. Because childhood attachment is crucial to later development,
Bowlby argued that investigators should study childhood directly and not rely on
distorted retrospective accounts from adult (Bowlby, 1969; 1988, as cited in Feist
& Feist).

Being in agreement to the Attachment Theory of John Bowlby, the

researchers wanted to work under the assumption that early separation of a
parent to child makes a wholly complicated scenario when it comes to
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psychological growth. The parents must create a secure base for the child and
establish a persona that the parents are accessible and dependable for the child
to have a secured ego and confidence (en.wikipedia.org/Attachment_Parenting).
However, we Filipinos that have been barely touched by Western psychology,
some facts may not be applicable to us, or some other effects are still hidden and
waiting to be discovered. The values that parents/guardians ascribe to money
and adult attention inputs vary according to the conditions facing the household.
Families with OFW parent ascribe higher value to money while families with no
OFW parent ascribe higher value to adult attention inputs. With respect to
families with OFW parent, parents/guardians value money and adult attention
inputs differently from their children (Edillon, R., 2008).

The study is focused on unearthing the underlying facts and effects of

parental absence during the critical stage of a child‟s up to his/her college years
on the personality of college students, which haven‟t been much discussed about
nowadays. We are also touching the surface of growing liberalism among
mom/dad‟s-away-so-why-the-heck-would-I-care college students and how does it
relates to the personality of children left behind that are not like them. How do
they bear the social costs of being left behind, ethical dilemma, separation
anxiety and stunted psychological growth of students are also addressed in this
study.
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Methodology

This study was done at De La Salle University – Dasmariñas, particularly

at the student‟s dormitories inside the school premises and also at the building of
the College of Business Administration.

The necessary secondary information needed to accomplishing the

research was gathered through the aid of the University library and the Electronic
Resource Services (ERS), providing various related books, periodicals, journals,
articles and On-line sources. The survey was created to suit the needed data to
finish the study.

The participants were the dormitory boarders living inside the University
campus together with some selected students from the College of Business
Administration whose parent/s are working overseas.

Based on the answers given by the participants, the researchers

considered the modal result of the and focused more on the relation of the
remittance parallel to the condition of the left-behind youth and their perception of
their parents. The researchers showed the percentage of scores to determine
the level of dispersion of the answers and how close one college student feels to
another.

The University Dormitory and College of Administration building was

visited by the researchers. Before conducting the survey, the researched asked
the matron permission to enter and perform the survey on their own rooms. The
survey lasted about 10-15 minutes, though other participants have been hesitant
to answer. The behaviors and gestures of the respondents are also kept on track
by the researchers.
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RESULTS

1. Effects of absentee parents on the personality of the students.

Personality of one‟s individual is based on how they were brought up by

their parents; hence it could have a great impact on the development of their
characters and its current state.

Figure 1.1 : Parent working abroad

Parent working abroad

20
10
0
mother father both
Series1 13 11 6

Based on figure 1.1, it shows that 43.33% or 13 out of 30 respondents

have mothers going in and out of the country to work overseas.

Figure 1.2 : Personality involvement

Personality involvement
40
30
20
10
0
O Yes O No O Maybe
Series1 29 1

Figure 1.2 shows that 3.33% or one participant of 30 respondents is

uncertain that his/her parent/s has something to do with his personality
development
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Figure 1.3: Guardian at home

Guardian at home
15
10
5
0
distant
aunt/un family
mother father grandpa relative/ nanny no one
cle friend/s
rent/s s
Series1 8 8 11 3 0 0 0 0

As shown in figure1.3, 26.67% or 8 respondents have one of their parents

living with them. Moreover 36.67% or 11 out of 30 respondents are living with
their grandparents who look after them.

2. Monetary support as a compensation for the time lost while working

overseas.

The family left behind is privileged to relish the huge amount of money that
is being sent to them every month. They could afford to acquire the things that
they would want to have and go to places that they would like to visit.

Figure 2.1: Job Category

Job Category
8
6
4
2
0
Engineeri Office
Domestic Marine/ Business
ng/Techn Educator employe Other
work Nautical related
ical e
Series1 6 6 6 1 5 4 2

As shown in figure 2.1 Most of the respondents had parents that are working in a
domestic, engineering and nautical jobs.

Figure 2.2: Gross Remittance

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Gross Remittance
10
8
6
4
2
0
O O O O O O O
O above
below 20,000- 35,000- 50,000- 65,000- 80,000- 95,000-
110,000
20,000 35,000 50,000 65,000 80,000 95,000 110,000
Series1 1 4 5 3 3 2 3 9

Based on the figure 2.2, 30% or 9 out of the 30 surveyed students have
parents who remit above 110,000 every month (in Philippine Peso).

Figure 2.3: Years before coming home

Years before coming home

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
O the
O
parent
O O every
O O does
O every every five
every every not
every three four (5)
6-12 other have a
year (3) (4) years
mos. year definit
years years or
e
more
arrivi…
Series1 6 10 8 3 2 1 0

Figure 2.3 shows that 33.33% or 10 among the 30 participants have

parents who are regularly coming home every year.

3. Parental authority while being away.

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Physical absence and being distant from one‟s offspring as a parent has
never been easy. Working afar from the children could have a great effect on
how a child sees their parents as a figure of authority.

Figure 3.0: Authority Acknowledgement

Authority Acknowledgement
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
O Yes O No O I’m not sure
Series1 27 1 2

As shown in figure 3.0, 90% or 27 respondents still acknowledge their parent‟s

authority while being away.
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Discussions

Parental care and presence are great shapers of a child‟s personality.

The way of they are brought up gives us a pattern on how they interact with other
people and the way they deal with circumstances at hand.
Psychoanalytic theorists Melanie Klein (1882-1960), John Bowlby (1907-
1990) and Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999), theorized the Object-Relations theory
which stemmed out with the Attachment theory that is the dynamics of long-
term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant
needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and
emotional development to occur normally (en.wikipedia.com/

Attachment_Theory). Now, the primary caregiver herein is the mother, as the

Filipino families are mostly patriarchal. It is the mothers that are left at home to
care for the young ones and help them mold their own personality.
Effects of absentee parents on the personality of the students.
The absence of one‟s parents during the critical developmental stage of
youth may be distressing. Based on the survey conducted by the researchers,
most of the participants had mothers going in and out of the country. 19 out of
the 30 participants were left to be taken care of by their fathers, grandparents or
relatives. According to Jones, L. & Siewart P.‟s(n.d.) research publication Filipino
American women, work and family: an examination of factors affecting high
labor force participation , Filipino American women have the highest level of
participation in the labor force of any female group including Caucasian women:
68 percent compared to the national rate of 49 percent for all women.
Considering this fact published by the Hawaiian government, the researches
could safely say that the children left behind due to overseas work are deprived
of the precious maternal care. As such, absence of the Good Breast (coined by
Melanie Klein) can distort the establishing or well established foundation of a
child‟s personality. Matriarchal care, being lost with the absence of the mother
takes toll on the child‟s personality even when he is already at college. One or
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both parent‟s venture for a job overseas leaves quite a big impression on the side
of the children (Scalabrini migration center, 2003)
Children left behind are more prone to psychological and emotional stress,
feelings of abandonment, and low-self esteem, all of which may ultimately cause
damage to the child„s overall development and patterns of socialization (De La
Garza R., 2010). These emotional stresses are carried by the children until they
are adolescent or college students. Question number nine of the survey asked
the participants if the parent/s outside the country had a role in their personality
development. Only one of the participants said that the absent parent/s had not
had any role on his development. Hesitation has been portrayed by the very
same participant while answering this question. This implies that he is either
unsure of his absent parent‟s role, or uncomfortable with the question. By
criticizing the way they answered their questionnaires, a third of them are
careless takers (they did not read the directions which says „shade‟ their choice,
not mark or check, two of them tried to blacken the circle when he realized he
needed to shade them, not encircle it), two-thirds had answered it attentively and
readily with pleasure, which only implies they had a good parentage and
confident with their own upbringing.
Monetary support as a compensation for the time lost while working
overseas.
Monetary support compensates for the time lost, if the parent/s working
abroad is/are coming home regularly. Question number three asked for monthly
remittance of their parents. Nine of the participants or 30 percent of them had
parents who remit 110,000 pesos monthly. Thirty percent may have had so
much material belongings and may have had leisure early in life. Twenty-two or
73 percent had parents coming home within a couple of years (all the parents
had a pattern of home coming), which implies that they see their parents
regularly. With the growing trend of global parenting, the parents away may have
seen their children‟s progress and growth through the years by means of
communication technologies such as cellular phones, e-mails, videocams (Reyes
M., 2008)
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Parental authority while being away

The parent/s working overseas is/are still seen as figures of authority by

their children. Ninety percent or 27 participants said they still see them as figure
of authority. Two of them answered they are not sure. The perception of
uncertainty with the parent authority can be related to the attachment they had
while they were young. The participants who answered “I‟m not sure” in the
questionnaire are polar opposites. The first one is a girl who dresses smart
enough, while the other (a guy) looks depressed and emotional (also hesitant to
answer). The researchers could only assume that the well dressed participant
had found a secure attachment on her caregiver or guardian, while the emotional
one had a retarded psychological and social growth. College students who had a
secure attachment have high self-esteem, enjoys intimate relationships, seeks
out social support, and have an ability to share feelings with other people (Cherry
K, n.d.).

As conclusion to this study, the researchers found out that parents help
shape the personality of college students by means of attachment establishment
through the formative years. As absentee parent/s go home within two years,
they are able to contribute on the rearing of their children. Monetary support
compensates to the time lost, although not in every aspect of their college
children‟s needs. Lastly, the college students still see the parent/s overseas as
figure/s of authority, however remote their parent/s can be.
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REFERENCES
Book
Feist J., Feist G. (2006), Theories of personality 6th Ed., Singapore, McGraw-Hill
International
Online Articles
Attachment theory. Date Retrieved: September 1, from: http://en.wikipedia.org
/Attachment_Theory
Attachment Parenting, Date Retrieved: September 2, 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_parenting
Cherry K. (n.d.), Attachment Styles, Date Retrieved: September 3, 2011, from
http://psychology.about.com/od/loveandattraction/ss/attachmentstyle4.htm
De La Garza R. (2010), Migration, development and children left behind: a
multidimensional perspective, Date Retrieved: August 22, 2011, from
http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Postscript_Formatted__Migration_
Development_and_Children_Left_Behind.pdf
Edillon R. (2008), The effect of parent's migration on the rights of children left
behind, Date Retrieved: August 25, 2011, from:
http://www.childmigration.net/files/Philippines_The_Effects_of_Parents_Mi
gration_on_the_Rights_of_Children_Left_Behind__corrected_8Sep2008.p
df
Jones, L. & Siewart P.‟s(n.d.) research publication Filipino american women,
work and family: an examination of factors affecting high labor force
participation, Date Retrieved: September 8, 2011 from
http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Filipino-am_Women,_Work_and_Family
An_Exam_of_Factors_Aff_Participation.pdf
Reyes M. (2008), Migration and filipino children left-behind: a literature review,
Date Retrieved: September 7, 2011 from http://www.unicef.org/
philippines/Synthesis_StudyJuly12008.pdf
Scalabrini Migration Center (2004), Hearts apart. Date Retrieved: September 10,
2011 from http://www.smc.org.ph/heartsapart/
Overseas Filipino, Date Retrieved: September 7, 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Filipino