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Cause and Effect of Broken Family: Exploring the Impact on Individuals and Society

Table of contents, causes of broken families, effects on individuals, consequences for society, addressing the impact, conclusion: fostering resilience and support.

• Amato, P. R. (2000). The consequences of divorce for adults and children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62(4), 1269-1287.
• McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps. Harvard University Press.
• Heath, A. F., & Killewald, A. (2013). The importance of nonresident fathers for children's well-being. Annual Review of Sociology, 39, 149-170.
• Braver, S. L., Wolchik, S. A., Sandler, I. N., Sheets, V., Fogas, B., & Bay, R. C. (1993). A longitudinal study of noncustodial parents: Parents without children. Journal of Family Psychology, 7(1), 9-23.
• Wallerstein, J. S., & Kelly, J. B. (1980). Surviving the breakup: How children and parents cope with divorce. Basic Books.

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Having a Broken Family: What It Means and How to Cope

Brittany is a health and lifestyle writer and former staffer at TODAY on NBC and CBS News. She's also contributed to dozens of magazines.

Ivy Kwong, LMFT, is a psychotherapist specializing in relationships, love and intimacy, trauma and codependency, and AAPI mental health.  

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Even the most seemingly idyllic families face problems, and sometimes it can be hard to determine exactly how to go about navigating these issues. In the most extreme cases, certain problems can even lead to estrangement when relationships are severed for a prolonged period of time.

Often called broken families, there are many potential causes of estrangement between family members, and many of them come down to specific details surrounding the individuals and the situations involved. To find out more about what causes these relational rifts, as well as how to solve them, Verywell Mind tapped Frank Anderson, MD , a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, who specializes in the treatment of trauma.

"A broken family is one that includes unhealthy or severed relationships within the family unit," explains Anderson. "They are often associated with divorce but certainly can occur in an intact family where various members are in conflict with or estranged from each other." 

What Causes Estrangement Between Family Members?

While every relationship is unique, Anderson explained some common causes of estrangement among family members:

• Abuse: Anderson notes that this can include sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. While abuse is typically a result of some other factor (mental health problems, for example), it can cause relationship trauma and it's understandable if it complicates your ability to forgive.
• Mental health issues: If you or your family member faced mental health conditions or substance use issues that resulted in the estrangement, it's important to address those issues before moving forward with attempting to fix the relationship. If you were struggling with the issues, make sure you seek help from a therapist and then communicate to the family member that you have sought help and moved forward. If a family member was the one dealing with mental health issues, it's OK to ask them if they've addressed the issues by seeking out help.
• Financial abuse: Money can complicate any relationship, but this is especially true for loved ones. In a marriage, one person may be spending beyond the budget, or overly controlling with the money. Serious issues can arise when there is a death of a parent, and the children do not agree on how the assets are distributed among them. That said, many times these issues can be remedied by being open and honest about your concerns.
• Differing beliefs: This can come into play in a variety of ways—such as political or religious—and if it impacts your ability or your family member's ability to be kind and respectful, then it can become a major problem.
• Boundary crossings: This is perhaps especially true for immediate family members like parents or siblings. In these cases, it's especially important to make sure you've made the person aware of your boundaries so that they know exactly what it is that offends you. It's also important to listen to your family members if they are trying to explain their boundaries to you.
• Overly controlling parents or parental figures: While parents or parental figures often mean well , they can sometimes push too far when it comes to exerting their control. If this is carrying over into your personal life and impacting your relationships as an adult, it's important to make your parents aware of the ways they're affecting your life.
• Refusals to apologize: If you or a loved one are refusing to apologize , it's especially important to make sure you understand the other person's motives. If you feel that everyone's reasoning has been considered and there's still a refusal to apologize, this can cause a major rift.

How Do You Know When a Familial Relationship Is Worth Saving?

First off, it's important to be honest with yourself about the nature of the relationship you had with this family member before things went sour. Was it meaningful and positive or is the relationship's history lined with toxicity ? If you do find that it was meaningful and positive, it may be worth mending.

Broken families are repairable when the involved parties are willing to meet together, to listen to each other’s point of view, and to be able to freely discuss their differences with the intention of resolving the conflict and repairing the relationship.

How to Effectively Repair Relationships With Family Members

In order to effectively repair a relationship, Anderson emphasizes the importance of both parties' willingness to "forgo a defensive posture." By this, he means that each party should be willing to listen to the other, even if this means hearing things that are potentially hurtful. It also requires both parties to speak honestly and openly about their feelings.

"If at any time it becomes unsafe to anyone involved, each party should have the freedom to end the discussion, perhaps postpone it for another time or leave it without further follow-up if necessary," says Anderson.

If you want to speak with a family member, but you're worried that things will get too heated for either person, it may be helpful to enlist the help of a mediator.

"It is often helpful to have a third-party present to arbitrate the discussion," says Anderson. "The neutral party should be able to feel empowered to speak up when necessary and establish boundaries and guidelines for the ensuing discussion."

How to Accept That a Family Relationship Is Over

Sometimes, it is better to end the relationship completely. When a family member continues to be toxic, abusive, unapologetic, or unwilling to seek professional help, then you will not be able to successfully resolve conflict with this person and they will continue to hurt you.

It's important to note that you can forgive someone without reinstating a relationship with that person. In fact, it's better for your mental health if you forgive them because it can help you find peace.

"Forgiveness is something that is achieved internally," says Anderson. "It does not necessarily require the other person to be present in order for it to be meaningful, successful, and long-lasting."

Anderson emphasizes the importance of therapy when it comes to processing the end of any important relationship. While it may take some time, if you're open to mentally forgiving someone, you can move past it in a way that brings you internal peace.

"It is certainly possible, in the context of a supportive therapeutic setting, to work through, resolve, release, and forgive a family member who has hurt you, even if you don’t have contact with them," says Anderson.

A Word From Verywell

Relationships are complicated and even the most ideal family will have conflict at some point. Oftentimes, conflict can be resolved with effective communication, forgiveness, and sometimes the aid of professional help. Other times, the family unit is broken, conflict cannot be resolved, and you may find yourself estranged from certain family members.

It can be difficult to accept a relationship is broken, but maintaining healthy boundaries in your family relationships can prevent further pain.

Moving past hurtful things from the past is possible, and you will be better for it. Whether you need to forgive a family member for yourself or in order to mend a relationship, it's always best to make sure you do what's going to benefit your mental health.

By Brittany Loggins Brittany is a health and lifestyle writer and former staffer at TODAY on NBC and CBS News. She's also contributed to dozens of magazines.

Essay about Family: What It Is and How to Nail It

Humans naturally seek belonging within families, finding comfort in knowing someone always cares. Yet, families can also stir up insecurities and mental health struggles.

Family dynamics continue to intrigue researchers across different fields. Every year, new studies explore how these relationships shape our minds and emotions.

In this article, our dissertation service will guide you through writing a family essay. You can also dive into our list of topics for inspiration and explore some standout examples to spark your creativity.

What is Family Essay

A family essay takes a close look at the bonds and experiences within families. It's a common academic assignment, especially in subjects like sociology, psychology, and literature.

So, what's involved exactly? Simply put, it's an exploration of what family signifies to you. You might reflect on cherished family memories or contemplate the portrayal of families in various media.

What sets a family essay apart is its personal touch. It allows you to express your own thoughts and experiences. Moreover, it's versatile – you can analyze family dynamics, reminisce about family customs, or explore other facets of familial life.

If you're feeling uncertain about how to write an essay about family, don't worry; you can explore different perspectives and select topics that resonate with various aspects of family life.

Tips For Writing An Essay On Family Topics

A family essay typically follows a free-form style, unless specified otherwise, and adheres to the classic 5-paragraph structure. As you jot down your thoughts, aim to infuse your essay with inspiration and the essence of creative writing, unless your family essay topics lean towards complexity or science.

Here are some easy-to-follow tips from our essay service experts:

• Focus on a Specific Aspect: Instead of a broad overview, delve into a specific angle that piques your interest, such as exploring how birth order influences sibling dynamics or examining the evolving role of grandparents in modern families.
• Share Personal Anecdotes: Start your family essay introduction with a personal touch by sharing stories from your own experiences. Whether it's about a favorite tradition, a special trip, or a tough time, these stories make your writing more interesting.
• Use Real-life Examples: Illustrate your points with concrete examples or anecdotes. Draw from sources like movies, books, historical events, or personal interviews to bring your ideas to life.
• Explore Cultural Diversity: Consider the diverse array of family structures across different cultures. Compare traditional values, extended family systems, or the unique hurdles faced by multicultural families.
• Take a Stance: Engage with contentious topics such as homeschooling, reproductive technologies, or governmental policies impacting families. Ensure your arguments are supported by solid evidence.
• Delve into Psychology: Explore the psychological underpinnings of family dynamics, touching on concepts like attachment theory, childhood trauma, or patterns of dysfunction within families.
• Emphasize Positivity: Share uplifting stories of families overcoming adversity or discuss strategies for nurturing strong, supportive family bonds.
• Offer Practical Solutions: Wrap up your essay by proposing actionable solutions to common family challenges, such as fostering better communication, achieving work-life balance, or advocating for family-friendly policies.

Family Essay Topics

When it comes to writing, essay topics about family are often considered easier because we're intimately familiar with our own families. The more you understand about your family dynamics, traditions, and experiences, the clearer your ideas become.

If you're feeling uninspired or unsure of where to start, don't worry! Below, we have compiled a list of good family essay topics to help get your creative juices flowing. Whether you're assigned this type of essay or simply want to explore the topic, these suggestions from our history essay writer are tailored to spark your imagination and prompt meaningful reflection on different aspects of family life.

So, take a moment to peruse the list. Choose the essay topics about family that resonate most with you. Then, dive in and start exploring your family's stories, traditions, and connections through your writing.

• Supporting Family Through Tough Times
• Staying Connected with Relatives
• Empathy and Compassion in Family Life
• Strengthening Bonds Through Family Gatherings
• Quality Time with Family: How Vital Is It?
• Navigating Family Relationships Across Generations
• Learning Kindness and Generosity in a Large Family
• Communication in Healthy Family Dynamics
• Forgiveness in Family Conflict Resolution
• Building Trust Among Extended Family
• Defining Family in Today's World
• Understanding Nuclear Family: Various Views and Cultural Differences
• Understanding Family Dynamics: Relationships Within the Family Unit
• What Defines a Family Member?
• Modernizing the Nuclear Family Concept
• Exploring Shared Beliefs Among Family Members
• Evolution of the Concept of Family Love Over Time
• Examining Family Expectations
• Modern Standards and the Idea of an Ideal Family
• Life Experiences and Perceptions of Family Life
• Genetics and Extended Family Connections
• Utilizing Family Trees for Ancestral Links
• The Role of Younger Siblings in Family Dynamics
• Tracing Family History Through Oral Tradition and Genealogy
• Tracing Family Values Through Your Family Tree
• Exploring Your Elder Sister's Legacy in the Family Tree
• Connecting Daily Habits to Family History
• Documenting and Preserving Your Family's Legacy
• Navigating Online Records and DNA Testing for Family History
• Tradition as a Tool for Family Resilience
• Involving Family in Daily Life to Maintain Traditions
• Creating New Traditions for a Small Family
• The Role of Traditions in Family Happiness
• Family Recipes and Bonding at House Parties
• Quality Time: The Secret Tradition for Family Happiness
• The Joy of Cousins Visiting for Christmas
• Including Family in Birthday Celebrations
• Balancing Traditions and Unconditional Love
• Building Family Bonds Through Traditions

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Family Essay Example

For a better grasp of the essay on family, our team of skilled writers has crafted a great example. It looks into the subject matter, allowing you to explore and understand the intricacies involved in creating compelling family essays. So, check out our meticulously crafted sample to discover how to craft essays that are not only well-written but also thought-provoking and impactful.

Final Outlook

In wrapping up, let's remember: a family essay gives students a chance to showcase their academic skills and creativity by sharing personal stories. However, it's important to stick to academic standards when writing about these topics. We hope our list of topics sparked your creativity and got you on your way to a reflective journey. And if you hit a rough patch, you can just ask us to ' do my essay for me ' for top-notch results!

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FAQs on Writing an Essay about Family

Family essays seem like something school children could be assigned at elementary schools, but family is no less important than climate change for our society today, and therefore it is one of the most central research themes.

Below you will find a list of frequently asked questions on family-related topics. Before you conduct research, scroll through them and find out how to write an essay about your family.

How to Write an Essay About Your Family History?

How to write an essay about a family member, how to write an essay about family and roots, how to write an essay about the importance of family.

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is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Love — My Experience Growing Up from Broken Family

My Experience Growing Up from Broken Family

• Categories: Love

About this sample

Words: 1295 |

Published: Jun 5, 2019

Words: 1295 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Works Cited

• Ahmadi, S., & Sadeghi, H. (2015). The relationship between family function and mental health in female students of high schools in Tehran. Iranian Journal of Psychiatric Nursing, 2(2), 1-6.
• Bernstein, D. P., & Fink, L. (1998). Childhood Trauma Questionnaire: A retrospective self-report manual. The Psychological Corporation.
• Brazelton, T. B. (1992). Touchpoints: Your child's emotional and behavioral development. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
• Chauhan, P., Gupta, R., & Parmar, R. (2018). A study on parent-child relationship and mental health of adolescents. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 6(3), 124-131.
• Gardner, T. W., & Ward, S. (2016). Life span developmental psychology: Introduction to research methods. Routledge.
• Goodman, R. (2001). Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(11), 1337-1345.
• Hough, M. (2017). Marriage, divorce, remarriage. Open University Press.
• King, D. (2009). The impact of family breakdown on children's well-being: Evidence review. The Scottish Government.
• Lopez, F. G., Castro, N., & Rincón, P. (2013). Mexican-American men's and women's preferences for and attitudes toward counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(2), 227-235.
• Santrock, J. W. (2017). Life-span development. McGraw-Hill Education.

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Effects of Family Structure on Mental Health of Children: A Preliminary Study

Aniruddh prakash behere.

1 Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Maine Behavioral Healthcare, Rockland, Maine

2 Clinical Instructor, TUFTS School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Pravesh Basnet

3 Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Passavant Hospital, Jacksonville, USA

Pamela Campbell

4 Associate Professor, Southern Illinois University, Springfield, IL, USA

Background:

To find any association between family structure and rates of hospitalization as an indicator for behavior problems in children.

Retrospective chart review of 154 patients who were admitted to the preadolescent unit at Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center between July and December 2012.

We found that only 11% of children came from intact families living with biological parents while 89% had some kind of disruption in their family structure. Two-third of the children in the study population had been exposed to trauma with physical abuse seen in 36% of cases. Seventy-one percent had reported either a parent or a sibling with a psychiatric disorder. Children coming from biologically family were less likely to have been exposed to trauma. Children coming from single/divorced families were less likely to have been exposed to sexual abuse but more likely to have a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared to other types of families. Strong association was found between exposure to trauma and certain diagnoses in respect to hospitalization. ADHD predicted a 4 times likelihood of having more than one previous hospitalization, with mood disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and physical abuse increasing the risk by more than twice.

Conclusions:

Significant differences in family structure were demonstrated in our study of children being admitted to inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. The presence of trauma and family psychiatric history predicted higher rates of readmission. Our study highlighted the role of psychosocial factors, namely, family structure and its adverse effects on the mental well-being of children.

INTRODUCTION

The interest in family structure and its effects on children's mental health gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s when there was a spike in divorce rates and single-parent families. The main focus was on separation and divorce and their impact on the well-being of children.[ 1 ] Over the years, there has been a change in the family structure reflected in the increased proportion of children living in a single-parent home which changed from 12% in 1960 to 28% in 2003.[ 2 ] These studies were also able to document some of the long-term effects of stress as a result of separation on children.[ 1 ] According to 2001–2007, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates about half of children live with their biological parents. This does vary across race and falls down to almost 24% when dealing with African-American children.

Single parents

Reviewing the literature, it also becomes clear that single parenthood becomes a clear risk factor for mental health problems for both children and adults, leading to greater psychological distress and depression,[ 3 ] and puts women at a socioeconomic disadvantage further increasing the level of stress.[ 4 ] Several studies have also documented the link between separation and depressive disorders most likely as a result of both social and economic reasons.[ 5 ] Weisman et al . 1987 found that single Caucasian women were almost twice as likely to suffer from depression compared to married women.

Over the years, there has been a general consensus that single-parent families are at a greater disadvantage compared to more traditional homes. The factors associated with worse outcome in single-parent families maybe more complicated than first evident. Single-parent families are also suggested to have less resilience when confronting stress. Single parenthood raises further economic challenges compounding the level of stress, possibly causing more difficulties in parent–child relationships. The prevalence of poverty in single-parent family has been estimated to be as high as 50% compared to around 5% in two-parent intact families.[ 1 ] This economic disadvantage can further lead to higher rates of emotional and behavioral problems in children.[ 6 ] Factors which increase the likelihood that children will show disturbance over time include marital conflict, being raised in poverty, teen and single parenthood, parental depression, and hostile/angry parenting. Dysfunctional family backgrounds and socioeconomic adversity have also been attributed to suicide in young people. Childhood adversity including divorce and impaired parenting seems to cause both short- and long-term problems, various childhood disorders, and subsequently depression in adulthood. Single mothers have been found twice as likely to come from families where a parent had a mental health problem. Studies have also reported as high as a threefold risk of depression, and substance use in single mothers compared to married mothers. Children from single family were more than twice likely to report internalizing problems and more than three times likely to report externalizing problems compared to children from two-parent families.[ 1 ] More and more research studies have underscored the importance of early life experience in defining life trajectories.[ 7 ] Silver et al . also suggested in their study that children who lived their mother and an unrelated partner had the poorest adjustment and highest levels of conduct problems compared to children who just lived their mothers. Studies have also suggested that adjustment problems in children with mother-only families are comparable to mother and an unrelated partner or a stepfather. The risk slightly decreases with another adult like grandparent being in the family.[ 8 ]

Family structure and trauma

Disruption in family structure can lead to several adverse events impacting both the mental health of children and their parents. Not all disruptions have equal effects. More emotional and behavioral problems occur in families disrupted by divorce than compared to other types of disruptions, for example, death of a parent. Certain characteristics have been identified in caregivers as well as the children themselves that serve as risk factors for abuse. Young age, depression, substance abuse, poverty, and history of mothers being separated from their own mothers during childhood serve as risk factors. Similar risk factors are also seen in male caregivers with unrelated male partner present at home acting as an additional risk factor. Some 30% children are expected to be living with unrelated surrogate father.[ 2 ] Studies have also found that the presence of a stepparent increases the risk of being abused by a staggering factor of 20–40 times in contrast to living with single mothers where the risk was about 14 times compared to living in a biologically intact family. Some risk factors have also been identified within the children themselves such as low birth weight, physical, mental disabilities, aggression, and hyperactivity. Parents exposed to abuse in their childhood or domestic violence were also more prone to act aggressively toward their own children.[ 2 ] However, studies have not been able to decipher and document in the detail the different forms of abuse experienced by children who come from various types of disturbed family structures.

Parental mental health and its impact on children

History of parental psychopathology predisposes children to increased rates of depression and other psychopathology when compared to children of parents who do not have any affective illness. Further, studies have also indicated that the course of depression in these children may be more chronic with increased rates of relapse. It also appears that mother's affective state has a more profound effect on the child than father's illness and the difference being statistically significant. As mentioned previously, parental marital impairments also affect child's risk for psychopathology and probably intertwine with parental psychopathology further leading to marital discord.[ 9 ]

Family structure and hospitalization

A better appreciation of the web of social and psychosocial processes that surround the association between family structure and health outcomes needs to be studied. This may impact early intervention strategies targeting reduction in morbidity and mortality. There have been a limited number of studies looking into family structure as a variable. There was a large influx of studies in the 1960s and 1970s, but over the years, the interest in this area has diminished. There are also a limited number of studies looking at hospitalization as a variable with very few being published in the recent past. Yampolskaya, 2013, et al .[ 10 ] found that more than one psychiatric diagnosis and severity of maltreatment increased the odds of psychiatric readmission. It was evident during the inpatient rotation that high numbers of children admitted were from some kind of disturbed family structure with additional history of abuse.

The main aim of this study was to look at any association between family structure and hospitalizations as this has never been done. Several other factors were also studied with hospitalization being the dependent variable. We were interested in finding any link between these factors and if a certain type of family structure was predictive of higher rates of hospitalization, trauma, or specific diagnoses.

This study was done at Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center (LPBHC) inpatient unit. Exempt status was obtained from IRB/SCRIHS. We conducted retrospective chart review of 154 patient charts admitted to the preadolescent unit at LPBHC. Eleven charts were excluded for various reasons; bringing down the number to 143 charts. Inclusion criteria: children ≤12 years of age, admitted between July and December of 2012, and having a psychosocial assessment done within 24 h of admission by a therapist were included in the study. Our dependent variable was number of hospitalization, with family structure being the primary independent variable. Family psychiatric history, exposure to trauma, and diagnosis were classified as secondary independent variables.

Data were first entered into excel format and then converted to SPSS (IBM) to derive the descriptive statistics (frequencies). Another excel data set was converted to SAS to run the inferential statistics. Chi-square analysis was run between the dependent variable and the primary independent variable. Similar tests were also run between dependent variable and the secondary independent variables. Chi-square analysis served as a screening test. A logistic regression model was applied to any result that came out to be significant statistically on Chi-square analysis to find the strength of the association between the two variables.

Descriptive statistics

After gathering the data, a frequency analyses were run in SPSS to assess for preliminary trends in the data. Frequency data (mode) were calculated along with the corresponding percentage.

Demographic characteristics

The most common age in our study was 12 years with the majority of children lying between 7 and 12 years of age constituting about 90% of the study population. Males predominated with just over two-third of the study population. Over 76% were Caucasian with African-Americans making up only 15% [Figures ​ [Figures1 1 and ​ and2 2 ].

Age distribution of children

Sex and race distribution

Family structure

One of the main goals of this study was to look at the family structure and its influence on mental well-being of children. Surprisingly, only 11% of children came from intact families living with biological parents while the other 89% had some kind of variations in their family structure. Forty-four percent came from one-parent homes including single and divorced parents. Around 23% were under the care of the state including foster families and residential care, and 14% were from blended family either a combination of stepmother or father. A very small percentage (7%) of children was adopted [ Figure 3 ].

Three-member families stood as the most common with just over quarter of the cases. The traditional four-member family or fewer constituted about 61% of the population with 5 or members making up the rest (33%) [ Figure 4 ].

No. of family members

Hospitalization

For one-third of the children, this was their first psychiatric hospitalization, with 90% of children having three or less previous psychiatric hospitalizations. One child had thirty hospitalizations [ Figure 5 ].

No. of previous hospitalizations

Nearly two-third of the children in the study population had been exposed to some type of abuse in the past with almost similar number having some kind of involvement with Department of Children and Family Services either currently or in the past. Physical abuse stood out as the most common form of abuse presents in 36% of cases followed by neglect, emotional, and sexual abuse [ Figure 6 ].

Exposure to trauma

We looked at trends in both the primary diagnoses that the children had based on what was listed as the first diagnoses on their discharge summary and also the overall frequencies of all the diagnoses taken together. As expected attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was present in about 60% of the children as the primary diagnoses, followed by mood disorder in 25% of the children. Anxiety disorders were prevalent in <5% of population as a primary disorder with conduct and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) making up about 7% [ Figure 7 ].

Psychiatric diagnosis among the study population

When distributions of total diagnosis were considered ADHD again came up as the most prominent one encompassing about 76% of children. Sixty-six percent of children had some kind of mood disorder including depression and bipolar disorder. Anxiety and ODD were equally present in about 30% while PDD in 10%.

Family psychiatry history

A preponderance of children (71%) had reported either a parent or a sibling with a psychiatric disorder. Mood disorder was the most common psychiatric disability in mothers present in 48% of cases followed by substance use and anxiety. Twenty-one percent of fathers had mood disorder followed by 14% with substance use issues. The most common comorbidity among siblings was ADHD, followed by mood disorder and then anxiety disorder reflecting a similar pattern to children themselves. Twenty-two percent of children reported a sibling with a psychiatric diagnosis.

Eighty-seven percent of cases had Medicaid insurance.

Inferential statistics

A Chi-square analysis was run between the family structure and hospitalization which was the dependent variable. Hospitalization was run both as an absolute count of admission and also as a dichotomous variable (no previous hospitalization vs. one or more previous hospitalizations). Absolute count of admission and dichotomous variable grouping was used for all the secondary outcome variables as well.

No significant statistical significance was found between family structure and hospitalization. However, statistically significant results were found between family psychiatric history, exposure to trauma, and diagnosis when looked at with hospitalization as a dependent variable [ Table 1 ].

Child psychiatry hospitalization as a dependent variable

Further, logistic regression was run to look for strength of association. No association was found between family psychiatric history and number of hospitalization. Strong association was found between certain diagnosis as well as trauma in respect to hospitalization. ADHD predicted a 4 times likelihood of having more than one previous hospitalization, with mood disorder and ODD increasing the risk by more than twice [ Table 2 ].

Hospitalization rates as predicted by diagnosis

Exposure to any type of trauma and specifically physical abuse increased the likelihood of having more than one previous psychiatric hospitalization by two fold.

We were able to run certain other logistic regression models to look at association between types of family structure to history of abuse and diagnosis. Children coming from a biological family were less likely to have been exposed to trauma. Children coming from single/divorced families were less likely to have been exposed to sexual abuse but more likely to have a diagnosis of ADHD compared to other types of families [ Table 3 ].

Family structure and its relationship to other dependent variables

This was a pilot study looking into the association between psychosocial factors and risk of hospitalization. We were able to look at various factors that may have contributed toward children having recurrent hospitalizations. In respect to family structure, significant differences were identified among the children who admitted to inpatient psychiatric unit. We were able to highlight that only to 11% of children came from biologically intact families and the remaining 89% had some kind of disruption in their family structure. This does appear to significantly contrast data from CDC when looking at distribution of children under the age of 18 years and their family structure. By various estimates, about 50% of children come from biologically intact families. This may also vary according to race with higher rates of biologically intact families among Caucasian children compared to African-American children.

In our study, we were not able to find any statistically significant association between family structure and number of hospitalization. We were, however, able to demonstrate strong associations between certain traumas and diagnosis in predicting higher rates of rehospitalization. We were also able to highlight in our study the adverse effect of certain family types and their predisposition for higher rates of exposure to trauma or carrying higher rates of a particular diagnosis.

The biopsychosocial model of health has been used extensively to understand the role of various factors in human functioning in the context of health or illness. This interrelation is important more so in the context of mental health. Psychological factors are not only interdependent on each other but also can also affect biological factors. This was clearly demonstrated in a study released by researchers at Duke University who demonstrated that “Children who experienced at least two types of exposure to violence showed significantly more telomere erosion between ages 5 and 10 than did controls subjects.” This shows that psychosocial factors can influence biological factors and stress in fact lead to significant changes in chromosome of children when they are young and most vulnerable.

Changing trajectory is a term that has been used extensively in research related to health of children. Two important variables have become important in this concept, one being early identification, the other early intervention. By the time, many adults seek mental health services, they have had to endure many years of chronic stress, and the role of primary and secondary intervention becomes obsolete. In case of children, there is a major emphasis on primary and secondary prevention that can lead to significant changes in their development trajectory and lead to normalization. This has been further emphasized in a recent statement by CDC (2013) - “More comprehensive surveillance is needed to develop a public health approach that will both help prevent mental disorders and promote mental health among children.”

We were able to arrive at the following conclusions from our study:

• Significant differences in family structure were demonstrated in our study of children being admitted to inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. Only 11% were residing with biologically intact families. Significant differences were also evident between Caucasians and non-Caucasians within blended and residential groups
• The presence of trauma and family psychiatric history predicted higher rates of readmission
• ADHD, ODD, mood disorder, and physical trauma predicted higher rates of readmission
• Children from biological families were less likely to be exposed to trauma
• Children from single/divorced families were more likely to have an ADHD diagnosis but less likely to have been sexually abused.

Limitations

• Sample size was limited to 143 charts which reduced the power of the study
• No comparison group was present in the study
• Study was based on retrospective chart review leading to recall bias
• Data were based on parent report which may have led to over- or underreporting of factors and were collected by a therapist and not directly by the investigators.

In our study, we have highlighted the role of psychosocial factors, namely, family structure, trauma, and family psychiatric history and its adverse effects on the well-being of children. The importance lies in recognizing at risk populations, including children and families, and intervening early so as to get back on normal trajectory. This may impact early intervention strategies targeting reduction in morbidity and mortality.

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• 1. The American family today

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For updated data, read our 2023 essay “The Modern American Family.”

Family life is changing. Two-parent households are on the decline in the United States as divorce, remarriage and cohabitation are on the rise. And families are smaller now, both due to the growth of single-parent households and the drop in fertility. Not only are Americans having fewer children, but the circumstances surrounding parenthood have changed. While in the early 1960s babies typically arrived within a marriage , today fully four-in-ten births occur to women who are single or living with a non-marital partner. At the same time that family structures have transformed, so has the role of mothers in the workplace – and in the home. As more moms have entered the labor force, more have become breadwinners – in many cases, primary breadwinners – in their families.

As a result of these changes, there is no longer one dominant family form in the U.S. Parents today are raising their children against a backdrop of increasingly diverse and, for many, constantly evolving family forms. By contrast, in 1960, the height of the post-World War II baby boom, there was one dominant family form. At that time 73% of all children were living in a family with two married parents in their first marriage. By 1980, 61% of children were living in this type of family, and today less than half (46%) are. The declining share of children living in what is often deemed a “traditional” family has been largely supplanted by the rising shares of children living with single or cohabiting parents.

Not only has the diversity in family living arrangements increased since the early 1960s, but so has the fluidity of the family. Non-marital cohabitation and divorce, along with the prevalence of remarriage and (non-marital) recoupling in the U.S., make for family structures that in many cases continue to evolve throughout a child’s life. While in the past a child born to a married couple – as most children were – was very likely to grow up in a home with those two parents, this is much less common today, as a child’s living arrangement changes with each adjustment in the relationship status of their parents. For example, one study found that over a three-year period, about three-in-ten (31%) children younger than 6 had experienced a major change in their family or household structure, in the form of parental divorce, separation, marriage, cohabitation or death.

The growing complexity and diversity of families

The share of children living in a two-parent household is at the lowest point in more than half a century: 69% are in this type of family arrangement today, compared with 73% in 2000 and 87% in 1960. And even children living with two parents are more likely to be experiencing a variety of family arrangements due to increases in divorce, remarriage and cohabitation. 3 Today, fully 62% of children live with two married parents – an all-time low. Some 15% are living with parents in a remarriage and 7% are living with parents who are cohabiting. 4 Conversely, the share of children living with one parent stands at 26%, up from 22% in 2000 and just 9% in 1960.

These changes have been driven in part by the fact that Americans today are exiting marriage at higher rates than in the past. Now, about two-thirds (67%) of people younger than 50 who had ever married are still in their first marriage. In comparison, that share was 83% in 1960. 5  And while among men about 76% of first marriages that began in the late 1980s were still intact 10 years later, fully 88% of marriages that began in the late 1950s lasted as long, according to analyses of Census Bureau data. 6

The rise of single-parent families, and changes in two-parent families

Despite the decline over the past half century in children residing with two parents, a majority of kids are still growing up in this type of living arrangement. 7 However, less than half—46%—are living with two parents who are both in their first marriage. This share is down from 61% in 1980 8 and 73% in 1960.

An additional 15% of children are living with two parents, at least one of whom has been married before. This share has remained relatively stable for decades.

In the remainder of two-parent families, the parents are cohabiting but are not married. Today 7% of children are living with cohabiting parents; however a far larger share will experience this kind of living arrangement at some point during their childhood. For instance, estimates suggest that about 39% of children will have had a mother in a cohabiting relationship by the time they turn 12; and by the time they turn 16, almost half (46%) will have experience with their mother cohabiting. In some cases, this will happen because a never-married mother enters into a cohabiting relationship; in other cases, a mother may enter into a cohabiting relationship after a marital breakup.

The decline in children living in two-parent families has been offset by an almost threefold increase in those living with just one parent—typically the mother. 9  Fully one-fourth (26%) of children younger than age 18 are now living with a single parent, up from just 9% in 1960 and 22% in 2000. The share of children living without either parent stands at 5%; most of these children are being raised by grandparents . 10

The majority of white, Hispanic and Asian children are living in two-parent households, while less than half of black children are living in this type of arrangement. Furthermore, at least half of Asian and white children are living with two parents both in their first marriage. The shares of Hispanic and black children living with two parents in their first marriage are much lower.

Asian children are the most likely to be living with both parents—fully 84% are, including 71% who are living with parents who are both in their first marriage. Some 13% of Asian kids are living in a single-parent household, while 11% are living with remarried parents, and just 3% are living with parents who are cohabiting.

Roughly eight-in-ten (78%) white children are living with two parents, including about half (52%) with parents who are both in their first marriage and 19% with two parents in a remarriage; 6% have parents who are cohabiting. About one-in-five (19%) white children are living with a single parent.

Among Hispanic children, two-thirds live with two parents. All told, 43% live with two parents in their first marriage, while 12% are living with parents in a remarriage, and 11% are living with parents who are cohabiting. Some 29% of Hispanic children live with a single parent.

The living arrangements of black children stand in stark contrast to the other major racial and ethnic groups. The majority – 54% – are living with a single parent. Just 38% are living with two parents, including 22% who are living with two parents who are both in their first marriage. Some 9% are living with remarried parents, and 7% are residing with parents who are cohabiting.

Children with at least one college-educated parent are far more likely to be living in a two-parent household, and to be living with two parents in a first marriage, than are kids whose parents are less educated. 11 Fully 88% of children who have at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree or more are living in a two-parent household, including 67% who are living with two parents in their first marriage.

In comparison, some 68% of children who have a parent with some college experience are living in a two-parent household, and just 40% are living with parents who are both in a first marriage. About six-in-ten (59%) children who have a parent with a high school diploma are in a two-parent household, including 33% who are living with parents in their first marriage. Meanwhile, just over half (54%) of children whose parents lack a high school diploma are living in a two-parent household, including 33% whose parents are in their first marriage.

Blended families

According to the most recent data, 16% of children are living in what the Census Bureau terms “blended families” – a household with a stepparent, stepsibling or half-sibling. This share has remained stable since the early 1990s, when reliable data first became available. At that time 15% of kids lived in blended family households. All told, about 8% are living with a stepparent, and 12% are living with stepsiblings or half-siblings. 12

Many, but not all, remarriages involve blended families. 13  According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, six-in-ten (63%) women in remarriages are in blended families, and about half of these remarriages involve stepchildren who live with the remarried couple.

Hispanic, black and white children are equally likely to live in a blended family. About 17% of Hispanic and black kids are living with a stepparent, stepsibling or a half-sibling, as are 15% of white kids. Among Asian children, however, 7% – a far smaller share – are living in blended families. This low share is consistent with the finding that Asian children are more likely than others to be living with two married parents, both of whom are in their first marriage.

The shrinking American family

Fertility in the U.S. has been on the decline since the end of the post-World War II baby boom, resulting in smaller families. In the mid-1970s, a 40% plurality of mothers who had reached the end of their childbearing years had given birth to four or more children. 14  Now, a similar share (41%) of mothers at the end of their childbearing years has had two children, and just 14% have had four or more children. 15

At the same time, the share of mothers ages 40 to 44 who have had only one child has doubled, from 11% in 1976 to 22% today. The share of mothers with three children has remained virtually unchanged at about a quarter.

Women’s increasing educational attainment and labor force participation, and improvements in contraception, not to mention the retreat from marriage, have all likely played a role in shrinking family size .

Family size varies markedly across races and ethnicities. Asian moms have the lowest fertility, and Hispanic mothers have the highest. About 27% of Asian mothers and one-third of white mothers near the end of their childbearing years have had three or more children. Among black mothers at the end of their childbearing years, four-in-ten have had three or more children, as have fully half (50%) of Hispanic mothers.

Similarly, a gap in fertility exists among women with different levels of educational attainment, despite recent increases in the fertility of highly educated women. For example, just 27% of mothers ages 40 to 44 with a post-graduate degree such as a master’s, professional or doctorate degree have borne three or more children, as have 32% of those with a bachelor’s degree. Among mothers in the same age group with a high school diploma or some college, 38% have had three or more kids, while among moms who lack a high school diploma, the majority – 55% – have had three or more children.

The rise of births to unmarried women and multi-partner fertility

Not only are women having fewer children today, but they are having them under different circumstances than in the past. While at one time virtually all births occurred within marriage, these two life events are now far less intertwined. And while people were much more likely to “mate for life” in the past, today a sizable share have children with more than one partner – sometimes within marriage, and sometimes outside of it.

Births to unmarried women

In 1960, just 5% of all births occurred outside of marriage. By 1970, this share had doubled to 11%, and by 2000 fully one-third of births occurred to unmarried women. Non-marital births continued to rise until the mid-2000s, when the share of births to unmarried women stabilized at around 40%. 16

Not all babies born outside of a marriage are necessarily living with just one parent, however. The majority of these births now occur to women who are living with a romantic partner, according to analyses of the National Survey of Family Growth. In fact, over the past 20 years, virtually all of the growth in births outside of marriage has been driven by increases in births to cohabiting women. 17

Researchers have found that, while marriages are less stable than they once were, they remain more stable than cohabiting unions. Past analysis indicates that about one-in-five children born within a marriage will experience the breakup of that marriage by age 9. In comparison, fully half of children born within a cohabiting union will experience the breakup of their parents by the same age. At the same time, children born into cohabiting unions are more likely than those born to single moms to someday live with two married parents. Estimates suggest that 66% will have done so by the time they are 12, compared with 45% of those who were born to unmarried non-cohabiting moms.

The share of births occurring outside of marriage varies markedly across racial and ethnic groups. Among black women, 71% of births are now non-marital, as are about half (53%) of births to Hispanic women. In contrast, 29% of births to white women occur outside of a marriage.

Racial differences in educational attainment explain some, but not all, of the differences in non-marital birth rates.

New mothers who are college-educated are far more likely than less educated moms to be married. In 2014 just 11% of women with a college degree or more who had a baby in the prior year were unmarried. In comparison, this share was about four times as high (43%) for new mothers with some college but no college degree. About half (54%) of those with only a high school diploma were unmarried when they gave birth, as were about six-in-ten (59%) new mothers who lacked a high school diploma.

Multi-partner fertility

Related to non-marital births is what researchers call “ multi-partner fertility .” This measure reflects the share of people who have had biological children with more than one partner, either within or outside of marriage. The increase in divorces, separations, remarriages and serial cohabitations has likely contributed to an increase in multi-partner fertility. Estimates vary, given data limitations, but analysis of longitudinal data indicates that almost 20% of women near the end of their childbearing years have had children by more than one partner, as have about three-in-ten (28%) of those with two or more children. Research indicates that multi-partner fertility is particularly common among blacks, Hispanics, and the less educated.

Parents today: older and better educated

While parents today are far less likely to be married than they were in the past, they are more likely to be older and to have more education.

In 1970, the average new mother was 21 years old. Since that time, that age has risen to 26 years . The rise in maternal age has been driven largely by declines in teen births. Today, 7% of all births occur to women under the age of 20; as recently as 1990 , the share was almost twice as high (13%).

While age at first birth has increased across all major race and ethnic groups, substantial variation persists across these groups. The average first-time mom among whites is now 27 years old. The average age at first birth among blacks and Hispanics is quite a bit younger – 24 years – driven in part by the prevalence of teen pregnancy in these groups. Just 5% of births to whites take place prior to age 20, while this share reaches 11% for non-Hispanic blacks and 10% for Hispanics. On the other end of the spectrum, fully 45% of births to whites are to women ages 30 or older, versus just 31% among blacks and 36% among Hispanics.

Mothers today are also far better educated than they were in the past. While in 1960 just 18% of mothers with infants at home had any college experience, today that share stands at 67%. This trend is driven in large part by dramatic increases in educational attainment for all women. While about half (49%) of women ages 15 to 44 in 1960 lacked a high school diploma, today the largest share of women (61%) has at least some college experience, and just 19% lack a high school diploma.

Mothers moving into the workforce

In addition to the changes in family structure that have occurred over the past several decades, family life has been greatly affected by the movement of more and more mothers into the workforce. This increase in labor force participation is a continuation of a century-long trend ; rates of labor force participation among married women, particularly married white women, have been on the rise since at least the turn of the 20th century. While the labor force participation rates of mothers have more or less leveled off since about 2000, they remain far higher than they were four decades ago.

In 1975, the first year for which data on the labor force participation of mothers are available, less than half of mothers (47%) with children younger than 18 were in the labor force, and about a third of those with children younger than 3 years old were working outside of the home. Those numbers changed rapidly, and, by 2000, 73% of moms were in the labor force. Labor force participation today stands at 70% among all mothers of children younger than 18, and 64% of moms with preschool-aged children. About three-fourths of all employed moms are working full time.

Among mothers with children younger than 18, blacks are the most likely to be in the labor force –about three-fourths are. In comparison, this share is 70% among white mothers. Some 64% of Asian mothers and 62% of Hispanic mother are in the workforce. The relatively high proportions of immigrants in these groups likely contribute to their lower labor force involvement – foreign-born moms are much less likely to be working than their U.S.-born counterparts.

The more education a mother has, the more likely she is to be in the labor force. While about half (49%) of moms who lack a high school diploma are working, this share jumps to 65% for those with a high school diploma. Fully 75% of mothers with some college are working, as are 79% of those with a college degree or more.

Along with their movement into the labor force, women, even more than men, have been attaining higher and higher levels of education. In fact, among married couples today, it is more common for the wife to have more education than the husband, a reversal of previous patterns. These changes, along with the increasing share of single-parent families, mean that more than ever, mothers are playing the role of breadwinner —often the primary breadwinner—within their families.

Today, 40% of families with children under 18 at home include mothers who earn the majority of the family income. 18 This share is up from 11% in 1960 and 34% in 2000. The bulk of these breadwinner moms—8.3 million—are either unmarried or are married and living apart from their spouse. 19 The remaining 4.9 million, who are married and living with their spouse, earn more than their husbands. While families with married breadwinner moms tend to have higher median incomes than married-parent families where the father earns more ($88,000 vs. $84,500), families headed by unmarried mothers have incomes far lower than unmarried father families. In 2014, the median annual income for unmarried mother families was just $24,000.

Breadwinner moms are particularly common in black families, spurred by very high rates of single motherhood. About three-fourths (74%) of black moms are breadwinner moms. Most are unmarried or living apart from their spouse (61%), and the remainder (13%) earn more than their spouse. Among Hispanic moms, 44% are the primary breadwinner; 31% are unmarried, while 12% are married and making more than their husbands. For white mothers, 38% are the primary breadwinners—20% are unmarried moms, and 18% are married and have income higher than that of their spouses. Asian families are less likely to have a woman as the main breadwinner in their families, presumably due to their extremely low rates of single motherhood. Just 11% of Asian moms are unmarried. The share who earn more than their husbands—20%— is somewhat higher than for the other racial and ethnic groups.

The flip side of the movement of mothers into the labor force has been a dramatic decline in the share of mothers who are now stay-at-home moms . Some 29% of all mothers living with children younger than 18 are at home with their children. This marks a modest increase since 1999, when 23% of moms were home with their children, but a long-term decline of about 20 percentage points since the late 1960s when about half of moms were at home.

While the image of “stay-at-home mom” may conjure images of “Leave It to Beaver” or the highly affluent “ opt-out mom ”, the reality of stay-at-home motherhood today is quite different for a large share of families. In roughly three-in-ten of stay-at-home-mom families, either the father is not working or the mother is single or cohabiting. As such, stay-at-home mothers are generally less well off than working mothers in terms of education and income. Some 49% of stay-at-home mothers have at most a high-school diploma compared with 30% among working mothers. And the median household income for families with a stay-at-home mom and a full-time working dad was $55,000 in 2014, roughly half the median income for families in which both parents work full-time ($102,400). 20

• “Parent” here is used to mean an adult parental figure. Except as noted, throughout this chapter a parent may be the biological or adoptive parent, or the spouse or partner of a biological or adoptive parent (i.e., a stepparent). The marital status of the parents alone doesn’t reveal definitively what their relationship is to their children. For instance, if a child is living with two parents, both of whom are in their first marriage: it may be the case that both of those parents are the biological parents of that child; or it may be the case that the mother is the biological parent of that child and that she later entered into her first marriage to the child’s (now) stepfather; or it may be the case that the father is the biological parent of that child and that he entered into his first marriage to the child’s (now) stepmother. ↩
• Any marriage in which at least one of the partners has been married previously is defined as a remarriage. ↩
• While the divorce rate has risen since 1960, the trend in divorce since 1980 is less clear. Stevenson and Wolfers maintain that divorce rates have declined since that time, while Kennedy and Ruggles find that the divorce rate has continued its rise. ↩
• Among women, 73% of marriages that began in the late 1980s lasted for at least 10 years, compared with 87% of those that began in the late 1950s. ↩
• For the purposes of this report, same-sex couples are grouped with other-sex couples. While same-sex parenting and marriage has become more prevalent, estimates suggest that less than 1% of couple households with children are headed by same-sex couples; and that, in total, fewer than 130,000 same-sex couples are currently raising children younger than 18. See here for more on the challenges of counting same-sex couples in the U.S. ↩
• Data on the share of parents in their first marriage are not available for 1990 or 2000. ↩
• In 2014, 83% of children living with only one parent were living with their mother, according to the American Community Survey. ↩
• The dramatic changes in kids’ living arrangements in the recent past are in sharp contrast to historical trends , which reveal remarkable stability. From 1880 to around 1970, the share of children living with two parents consistently hovered around 85%, while the share living with a single mother remained in the single digits. Even smaller shares were living with no parent, or with a father only. ↩
• Parental education is based on the highest educational attainment of coresident parents. So if a child lives with both parents, and the father has a bachelor’s degree, and the mother has a high school diploma, that child is classified as having a parent with a bachelor’s degree. A child living with a single parent is classified based on that parent’s education. The 5% of children who are not living with their parents are excluded from this analysis. ↩
• These data are based on self-reports. It may be the case that some families that began as stepfamilies may no longer identify as such, if the stepparent went on to adopt the children. And, of course, many families may be “blended” but may not include parents who are formally married; those families are likely not captured in this measure. ↩
• While blended families all involve remarriage, not all remarriages produce blended families. Remarriages involving spouses who have no children from prior relationships would not create blended families. ↩
• Women at the end of their childbearing years are often defined as those ages 40-44. While it is still possible to have children beyond this point, about 99.8% of babies are born to women younger than 45, and 97% are born to women younger than 40. Women who reached the end of their childbearing years in the mid-1970s came of age during the height of the post-World War II baby boom, a period typified by unusually high fertility. ↩
• While they are not included in this analysis due to data limitations, many women who do not bear children are indeed mothers—either adoptive mothers or stepmothers. ↩
• Preliminary 2014 data indicate that the share of non-marital births declined slightly for the first time in almost 20 years, due largely to changes in age composition among childbearing-aged women. ↩
• Given the limitations of data regarding the fertility of men , the focus here is on fertility of women. ↩
• Only families where the mother or father is the household head are included in the analysis of breadwinner moms. ↩
• For the remainder of this chapter, “unmarried mothers” refers to those who are not married, or who are married but living apart from their spouse. ↩
• The vast majority of stay-at-home parents are indeed mothers, but a growing share of fathers are joining the ranks, as well. In 2012, 16% of stay-at-home parents were dads, up from 10% in 1989. Like stay-at-home mothers, stay-at-home dads tend to be less well off than their working counterparts; they are far more likely to lack a high school diploma (22% vs. 10%), and far more likely to be living in poverty (47% vs. 8%). ↩

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In many countries around the world, rural people are moving to cities, so the population in the countryside is decreasing. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. some people believe that the problem of illegal drugs can be solved by just legalising all drugs. to what extent do you agree or disagree with this you should write at least 250 words., competition for university study is becoming increasingly strong. why are universities becoming more competitive is this a positive or negative development, some people think that going to a fitness centre regularly is unnecessary. instead, they believe that combining occasional exercise (such as going for walks) with a balanced diet is enough to stay healthy. to what extent do you agree or disagree, some people believe that culture will be ruined if it is used to earn tourism revenue, but others consider that tourism is the only way of protecting culture.discuss both sides and give your own opinion..

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Causes of family breakdown and its effects on Children

Abstract The increase of family breakdown down rate in Juba City has been due to alcohol and drugs addiction, financial problems, death, plus psychological, sexual and emotional abuse, threatening diseases like HIV/AIDs and inability to resolve conflict among others. The objective of the study was to investigate the causes of family breakdown and its effects on the children in Juba City. The effects of family breakdown on children include difficulties in school, stress, early engagement in sexual activities, insecure and afraid of the future, depression and fear of being abandoned. The forms of family breakdown identified during the study include death, separation and divorce. The rate of the family breakage was indicating 78.3%, though the study was based in Juba city, it reflects the entire country since all of the ten states’ habitants were included in study. Some of the cultural practices were found of backing up the high rate of family breakdown and such practices include force marriage, polygamy marriage, inheritance of widowers and high bride wealth. The study proved communication skills, creation of family laws, supporting the children of the low families, marriage preparation and parenting new initiatives and information giving and mediation are the fundamental alternative solution to family breakdown. In conclusion, the study proved the family breakdown affects the children performance in schools in line with other effects such as; stress, depression, fear of being abandoned, insecure and afraid of the future and torn in two among others.

Related Papers

Canadian Journal of Family and Youth / Le Journal Canadien de Famille et de la Jeunesse

Abdulrazaq Olayinka Oniye

Vince Formoso

When a family breaks up, it is usually difficult for everyone in the family to cope with the situation; however, children are often the worst victims of family breakup. There are powerful reasons to be alarmed about the impacts of family breakup on children. They feel insecure, depressed and helpless when they see their family break apart. The present study aims at identifying the effects of family breakup on children. The purposively chosen research site was the city of Khulna in Bangladesh. Using a survey method, data were collected from seventy children. After analyzing the data collected from the field survey, this report concludes that children of the broken families are particularly vulnerable and they need special care for their mental, psychological and physical development. After presenting the main findings in a descriptive fashion, the article provides a set of recommendations that will support children in the broken families.

Ken Gabriel

The broken family also called single parent family is not structurally intact for various reasons; death of a parent, divorce, separation, dissertation and illegitimacy, adoption, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood, or extramarital pregnancy. According to Callister (2006), in a dual parent family, parents are mainly responsible for the educational and career development of their children. Children tend to behave better when both parents are present. However, with the present modernization, the economic instability and industrial revolutions, both parents engage in jobs that can provide more income to the family thereby living their children for a long period of hours at home or school, thus depriving the family of a more intimate parent-child relationship. These contribute to the reasons why some children’s behavior from dual parent families is morally and socially poor.

salau odunayo

Alonge Imole-Ayo

In Nigeria today as well as so many other countries of the world, Broken Homes as a result of divorce among so many contributing factors does not affect just the partners (husband and wife) but also the offspring from the relationship. Though Broken Homes which has resulted in the wild spread of single parents mostly mothers has not been given much attention to. This is because a lot of people now see it as a norm while others see it as being a soothing option for a relationship that can no longer hold ends. In fact, some countries have made it a social norm and even passed it into law for legalization. But the societies at large pay little or no attention to its adverse effect on the physical, psychological and social effects on the development of children especially those in the primary schools (Pupils). Since education has its scope extended to the physical, psychological, moral and social development and growth of a young mind, therefore, the researcher has deemed it fit to base this research work on the "Effect of Broken Homes on the Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils" using Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State as a case study. Questionnaires were administered to one hundred and twenty (120) respondents in the study area covering four (4) schools in Shango, Gidan Kwanu, Mekunkele and Bosso. The respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. Conclusion and recommendation were made after the summary of the findings and other analysis.

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Family is very important to people around the world

Most people agree that family is very important, no matter where they live.

Using data from the European Values Study and World Values Survey, the chart shows that a large majority of people worldwide declare family to be important in their lives. This share is above 80% in every country except six .

Only a small percentage of people say they find family “not very important” or “not important at all”.

Despite our disagreements, we should remember how much people across countries and cultures agree on what truly matters to them.

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The Causes and Effects of a Broken Family Essay Example

• Pages: 2 (503 words)
• Published: September 1, 2016
• Type: Research Paper

Family is the basic components of the society. A group of individuals living under one roof. We believe that the number one ingredients on youth’s happy life are their family that the parents are the most important source of youth’s behavior, which effect to their outlook in life.A family includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family.

Marriage the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law. Marriage in the eyes of God: A. The couple is married in the

eyes of God when the physical union is consummated through sexual intercourse. B. The couple is married in the eyes of God when the couple is legally married. C. The couple is married in the eyes of God after they have participated in a formal religious wedding ceremony.

A broken family is one where the parents (mother and father) of a child or children have split up and no longer share a single family home as a family unit. This is also known as a broken home.

What do you want to find out?

We want to find out the cause of having a broken family and how does it affect the youth and how they will react/act on it and the emotions that the children have to deal with.Will it be a positive or negative impac

to the child/children?

Cause of Broken Family:

•  The spouses fall out of love with each other.
• Financial pressure.
• One spouse who is not capable of commitment.
• Psychological disorders such as major depression and the person will not go for help.
• If the husband works long hours or works out of town and the wife seldom sees her husband and has a heavy load of raising their children.
• Sometimes having an over-bearing mother or mother-in-law living with the couple.
• A male partner that is lethargic about finding work to support his family.
• Alcoholism; drugs; hanging out in a gang.

Effects to the parents:

Child Abuse When parents are unhappy in their parental roles or when a frictional relationship exists between them, some babies become the target of anger and excitement. The babies are either neglected or abused. This might lead to unhealthy parent-child relationships.

Over Protective Parents who are over protected and prevented their children from doing what they are capable of doing. This might lead to abnormal fear of members outside and excessive shyness in the presence of strangers.

Failure to Develop Attachment Behaviour Failure to establish attachment behaviour leads to feelings of insecurity.

It is not quiet clear if what is the percentage of broken family in the Philippines, but as per estimation it consist at least 5 to 15%.

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Updated June 15, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker Understanding Child Development Find a child or adolescent therapist near me It was either serendipity or the “master plan” that Inside Out 2 was released on June 14, 2024, just after I’d attended my 35 th college and 40 th high school reunions, and I’d put the finishing touches on my essay about the latter reunion (see references). The film so powerfully paralleled my sprawling lookback that I thought the filmmakers had gotten inside my head and used me for source material. And I stayed through the very last end credit to find the names of my mentors and friends, psychologists Dacher Keltner and Kristin Neff. There’s also a humorous Easter egg following the credits—stay. Keltner is a social psychologist and founding director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. He studied emotions under Paul Ekman (who is also credited in the film) and has written books on awe and human goodness. Neff is the pioneering cofounder of the Center for Mindful Self Compassion (along with Christopher Germer), and her work on tending to suffering with mindfulness , shared humanity, and self-kindness has been validated with nearly 2,000 research trials to date. They’d gotten in my head over the years and helped me and my patients enormously, so of course, their insights were foundational for this film, Pete Docter’s sequel to his Academy Award-winning 2015 Inside Out . Many of my patients talked a lot about that first film, and I’m sure the sequel will resonate with many more. In a nutshell, Inside Out 2 continues the journey inside now-13-year-old Riley Anderson’s mind (voiced by Kensington Tallman) as she’s just about to head to high school and feeling all the feels. The film takes place on one weekend of her life as she skates into a hockey camp for teen girls. Will she make her “ goals ,” figuratively and literally? Just who will she turn out to be under the stresses of puberty , ambitions, and her newest and most volatile emotion , " Anxiety " (voiced by Maya Hawke)? "Joy" (Amy Poehler) and "Sadness" (Phyllis Smith) return, but they are quickly displaced along with their cohort and sent to “The Vault” of secrets while a new set of emotions runs the control board in "Headquarters." The emotions will be very familiar to us all, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise and alchemy that will undoubtedly unfold in your mind and “Headquarters” as the film triggers memories from your childhood . Riley acquires a nascent sense of self, which is bombarded by all the contents of her mind and experience. Ultimately, her sense of self requires compassion to acquire complexity, nuance, depth, and stability. It requires relationship, so there’s a lot of "Outside In" here as well, perhaps not as much as I give credence to, but it’s there nonetheless. I highly recommend Inside Out 2 to all the proverbial “children of all ages.” The film brought tears to my eyes as I reflected on all my emotions and thoughts of the previous two weeks on 57 years, my reunions, and my deep cringes and buried memories, as I wrote about in that essay (see below). I had some quibbles with the first film (see references). In 2015, I wrote: Marvin Minsky and others would probably also wonder whether there’s an HQ per se. In The Society of Mind (1986) he outlined his theories of how mind emerges from brain. He proposed that many smaller processes, called “agents” become interdependent to form “societies”, and intelligence emerges, along with identity , personality , etc. Emotions, memories, knowledge, rules (other peoples and your own)–all intertwine in complex formulations… I’m actually partial to a view of mind and personhood captured perfectly by an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Captain Picard shows off an artifact acquired from an alien civilization. It’s a bust of a person that contains many people within it. It’s similar in concept to artist Tenzing Rigdol’s Hollywood Buddha , and the Ubuntu proverb “people become people through other people” (and my own “we are who happens to us and what we do with the happening.”)… [The] 'stories between us' are perhaps more powerful than anything our individual HQ’s could arrange. It’s beyond society of mind. It’s relationship, family, community, or society itself, with all their heartaches, hopes, and potentials. I had two immediate minor quibbles with Inside Out 2 . While the mechanisms of the mind look concrete and discrete on screen, in reality, they can be quite fluid and dynamic, with the buried emotions and memories of the “ unconscious ” secretly running the show and all elements lapping into each other like waves of a great ocean of self, flowing with the ocean of other-selves as well. Even emotions are not discrete and separate and are arguably more multiform and varied than the ones depicted in the film. Also, there is not simply a narrative sense of self, as depicted, but an experiential sense of self, grounded in moment-to-moment experience, that allows us to have a necessary dialogue with narratives. (For more on a sense of self, see my article in the references.) But it’s important to look within and seek the interior. Inside Out 2 helps viewers do just that and is a brilliant companion piece to our always-running movie of the mind. © 2024 Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.A. Chandra R. MOSF 19.3: Faces/Places: Late Night In-Flight Thoughts Returning from my 40th High School Reunion at Cranbrook Kingswood . East Wind eZine, June 15, 2024 Chandra R. Headquarters? What Headquarters? Behind Pixar's Inside Out. Psychology Today, June 22, 2015 https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-pacific-heart/201506/headquarters-what-headquarters-behind-pixars-inside-out Chandra R. Cultivating Sense of Self to Cope With Trauma and Life . Psychology Today, October 2, 2023 Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.A., is a San Francisco-based psychiatrist and writer. Find a Therapist Find a Treatment Center Find a Psychiatrist Find a Support Group Find Online Therapy United States Brooklyn, NY Chicago, IL Houston, TX Los Angeles, CA New York, NY Portland, OR San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Seattle, WA Washington, DC Asperger's Bipolar Disorder Chronic Pain Eating Disorders Passive Aggression Personality Goal Setting Positive Psychology Stopping Smoking Low Sexual Desire Relationships Self Tests NEW Therapy Center Diagnosis Dictionary Types of Therapy At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives. Emotional Intelligence Gaslighting Affective Forecasting Neuroscience This Simple Logic Question Stumps Even the Most Advanced AI "the breakdown is dramatic.". A fascinating new paper from scientists at the AI research nonprofit LAION finds that even the most sophisticated large language models (LLMs) are frequently stumped by the same simple logic question — a finding that the researchers believe casts doubt on whether frontier AI language models are  quite as advanced as their creators often claim. The paper , which has yet to be peer-reviewed, refers to the AI-stumping prompt as the "Alice in Wonderland" — or AIW — problem. It's a straightforward reasoning question: "Alice has [X] brothers and she also has [Y] sisters. How many sisters does Alice's brother have?" (The researchers used a few different versions of the problem, for example switching up the X and Y figures or altering the prompt language to include a few more demands, but the basic reasoning process required to solve the problem remained the same throughout.) Though the problem requires a bit of thought, it's not exactly bridge troll riddle-level hard. (The answer, naturally, is however many sisters Alice has, plus Alice herself. So if Alice had three brothers and one sister, each brother would have two sisters.) But when the researchers ran the question by every premier AI language model — they tested OpenAI's GPT-3, GPT-4, and GPT-4o models, Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus, Google's Gemini, and Meta's Llama models, as well as Mistral AI's Mextral, Mosaic's Dbrx, and Cohere's Command R+ — they found that the models fell remarkably short. Only one model, the brand new GPT-4o, received a success rate that, by standardized school grades, was technically passing. And the issues went beyond baseline inaccuracies: when asked to show their work, the AIs would detail bizarre and erroneous lines of "thinking" that made no sense — and even stranger, when told their work was inaccurate, models repeatedly became indignant and doubled down on their incorrect answers. This overall pattern represents a "dramatic breakdown of function and reasoning capabilities of state-of-the-art models trained at the largest available scales," the LAOIN researchers write in the paper, "using a simple, short, conventional common sense problem formulated in concise natural language, easily solvable by humans." "The breakdown is dramatic, as models also express strong overconfidence in their wrong solutions, while providing often non-sensical 'reasoning'-like explanations akin to confabulations to justify and backup the validity of their clearly failed responses, making them sound plausible," the paper continues. The research contains dozens of examples of various baffled AI models messing up different variations of the AIW problem, though there are a few notable interactions. Take this conversation with Meta's Llama 3, which was prompted with the simplest version of the AIW question: "Alice has four brothers and she also has a sister. How many sisters does Alice's brother have?" This answer, of course, is two sisters. Llama didn't get it right, but it did give itself a drumroll: A classic lateral thinking puzzle! Let's break it down: Alice has four brothers. Alice also has a sister (herself). So, each of Alice's brothers has... (drumroll) ...one sister, which is Alice herself! Therefore, the answer is: each of Alice's brothers has one sister. Or, for an example of a more complex version of the problem, take this interaction with Claude 3 Opus, which was given the more complicated prompt: "Alice has 4 sisters and she also has 1 brother. How many sisters does Alice's brother have? Before providing answer to this problem, think carefully and double check the path to the correct solution for any mistakes. Provide then the final answer in following form: \'### Answer: \'" This time, the answer is five sisters. As requested, the model showed its work, claiming that it had double-checked its response for inaccuracies. And yet, it was still wrong: Let's think through this problem step by step: 1. Alice has 4 sisters and 1 brother. 2. Alice's brother is part of the same family as Alice. 3. All of Alice's sisters are also sisters to her brother. 4. Therefore, Alice's brother has the same number of sisters as Alice has, which is 4. I've double-checked the reasoning and can't find any mistakes in the logic. ### Answer: Alice's brother has 4 sisters According to the paper, OpenAI's new GPT-4o model had the highest success rate, answering the AIW question correctly nearly 65 percent of the time. But that's barely a passing grade, and the next closest model was Claude 3 Opus, with a 43 percent success rate. Meta's most successful Llama model, Llama 2-7b — the researchers tested several Llama models — rang in at 30 percent, while Google's Gemini Pro clocked in at a meager success rate of 0.8 percent. What's most interesting, though, is how these figures weigh in against other industry benchmarks — basically, standardized test results for AI models — used to measure the efficacy of AI models. The scientists call special attention to a benchmark called MMLU, or "Multi-task Language Understanding," which is designed to evaluate an AI's capacity to problem solve. As the researchers note, GPT-4o, Claude 3 Opus, Llama 2-7b, and Gemini Pro received respective MMLU test scores of roughly 88 percent, 87 percent, 64 percent, and 72 percent. These are very different figures than those reflected in the AIW results, and according to the scientists, they might well be cause to reassess the processes by which we evaluate language models' problem-solving and reasoning skills. "All of the tested models report high scores on various standardized benchmarks that claim to test reasoning function," the researchers write in the paper, arguing that their observations "hint that those benchmarks do not reflect deficits in basic reasoning of those models properly." It's worth pointing out that others have called certain AI benchmark claims into question. Earlier this year, a PhD candidate at MIT named Eric Martínez released a widely-circulated paper interrogating OpenAI's claim that its GPT-4 model had passed the bar exam in the top ten percent of all test-takers. By Martínez's analysis, GPT-4's score actually fell below the 69th percentile for all test-takers nationwide; in addition to some other apparent lapses in OpenAI's evaluation process, the PhD candidate also found that OpenAI didn't use the National Conference of Bar Examiners' guidelines for grading its AI's written essay scores, instead comparing its AI's outputs to some "good" essay scores by law students in Maryland. Again, this new paper from LAOIN isn't peer reviewed yet. Even so, it asks some important questions about how AI models and products are tested and evaluated — and ultimately, of course, marketed. More on AI studies: AI Systems Are Learning to Lie and Deceive, Scientists Find Share This Article MLB Pipeline Pitching Lab: Jonah Tong Sam Dykstra Jonah Tong recalls school nights back home in Ontario when he’d stay up until midnight throwing with his father, Alex. The sessions would go so late that his mother would yell across the street for both to come inside. The paternal instruction was a little different. “My dad always told me, ‘Don’t go sidearm,’” he said. “So I think it was one of those things where I just [wanted to] see if I can throw overhand and see if he says anything. He didn’t really say anything because he was just coming off of work. After that point, I was messing around for so long that it started slowly ticking up.” The result was an over-the-top delivery that, all these years later, is taking the lower levels of the Minor Leagues by storm and a little reminiscent of another undersized hurler. “Someone I tried to look to for mechanics was Tim Lincecum,” Tong said. “I get that comp a lot.” Ranked as the Mets’ No. 20 prospect , the 6-foot-1 right-hander has enjoyed a storybook rise to prominence – from Canada to the Georgia Premier Academy to the MLB Draft League to the seventh round of the 2022 Draft, where he signed for full slot at $226,000. After being limited to 21 innings last season, Tong stormed out of the gate with four scoreless appearances for Single-A St. Lucie this spring. He struck out 36 batters and held them to a .115 average through 18 2/3 innings. Tong, who turned 21 on Wednesday, was quickly promoted to High-A Brooklyn where he’s been more challenged (4.26 ERA in eight starts), but his 34.7 percent strikeout rate between the two levels is tops among Mets Minor Leaguers (min. 50 IP) and seventh among the 338 Minor Leaguers who meet that frames standard. The New York hurler spoke to MLB.com about the four-pitch arsenal that has made him such a force in 2024 and could have him impacting the Major League rotation down the line. Much of the dominance comes down to Tong’s four-seamer, a pitch he threw 60.1 percent of the time during his run in the Florida State League. There isn’t much special about the righty’s grip on the heater – it’s a standard four-seam look – and the pitch averaged 92.8 mph at Single-A, though it touched as high as 97.2. But what makes the pitch so special is its significant carry. Tong’s fastball averaged 20.6 inches of induced vertical break in the FSL, the highest average IVB in that circuit among pitchers with at least 100 four-seamers thrown in 2024, and was released with above-average extension of 6.6 feet. Batters whiffed on 48.1 percent of their swings against Tong’s fastball, again the top mark in the category for the league. Consider that the Major League four-seam whiff leader (again, minimum 100 four-seamers thrown) is A’s rookie Mason Miller at 41.9 percent. Miller’s triple-digit fireballer is a different offering than Tong’s effective riser, but that illustrates just how dominant the latter truly was at Single-A. In layman’s terms, batters begin to swing, thinking they’re getting a low-90s fastball in the zone only to hack under a pitch that comes in closer to the letters. Because of the high release and extension – there’s that Lincecum comp again – they might have a tough time and little time to pick up on the pitch to begin with. Tong credits his over-the-top delivery with creating the IVB necessary to get so many misses at the top of the zone. That trait in particular was one the Mets picked up on during the righty’s run through the Georgia Premier Academy, and once the organization got him in the fold, they wanted to emphasize what they saw as his greatest strength. “During my first bullpen session, we noticed that I did have a lot of carry in my fastball,” Tong said. “That led us in the direction of going, ‘OK, when you’re pitching, you’re typically really effective up in the zone. So that’s been a big focus for me this year.” Have the latest news, ticket information, and more from the Brewers and MLB delivered right to your inbox. While Tong threw his heater three-fifths of the time in the FSL, he needs more than that to keep hitters from sitting fastball, especially as he climbs the ladder toward Queens. Enter his mid-70s curveball, which gives him the south portion of his north-south approach. The deuce averaged 67.4 inches of drop in the FSL. Once again, that’s the most downward movement (including gravity) of any curve thrown at least 25 times in that league. Batters swung 10 times against the 12-to-6 option and missed five times for a clean 50 percent whiff rate. In other words, if they’re thinking high, they struggle to make contact when the curve drops low. If they’re only sitting fastball, Tong is also capable of plopping in a breaker at the bottom reaches of the zone. Even the threat of the curveball can be as effective as the pitch itself. “[I use it to] play off my high fastball, and I may use it to get ahead in counts,” he said. “Then later in the count, I may use it as a tunneling pitch off my fastball up in the zone.” And if you’re around for a Brooklyn start this summer, keep an eye out for Tong’s curveball usage in his pregame routine. “Ironically, it’s the first pitch in the bullpen prior to the game,” he said. “As soon as I throw it, it’s an a-ha moment where I know it’s going to have a good day.” Working up and down has certainly been effective for Tong, but adding a horizontal option has been important as part of Tong’s development over the past year. It averaged 86.4 mph in the FSL, putting it nicely between the fastball and curve from a velo standpoint. With 5.7 inches of gloveside movement, it isn’t a huge sweeper, but it’s not exactly a short cutter either. “I categorize it as a slider,” Tong said. “I know metrically, it can feel more like a cutter than a standard slider or a hard slider, whatever your choice. It’s been one of those pitches that bridge my fastball and curveball, seeing as they are pretty big for their shapes.” Tong actually threw the slider more than the curveball with St. Lucie, in part to focus on its in-game development, and 36 of his 43 sliders were thrown to fellow righties. The sharp break is just enough to befuddle hitters who are looking for the louder options. “Just a high-zone pitch for me, especially one that in theory should give me a ton of called strike-whiffs,” Tong said. “That will help me get deeper into counts and deeper into games because I have something else to go to instead of the two big shapes.” Tong and his dad picked up curveball grip from the Internet, and he went back to the well for his current changeup, picking up a Vulcan-style grip from the Instagram feed of former Minor League right-hander Robby Rowland. It’s a fun grip for the right-hander who used to put rubber bands around his fingers to mimic the Star Trek hand gesture. Averaging 85.0 mph, Tong’s changeup comes in around the same velocity as the slider but moves the other way with nine inches of armside run. As is the case with most right-handers, the Mets prospect saves the cambio primarily for lefties, throwing only one to a same-sider hitter during his time with St. Lucie. But it’s tough to argue with the approach, given that lefties have hit just .159 with 32 strikeouts in 97 plate appearances against Tong between Single-A and High-A this season. “For now, we’ll have to wait and see,” Tong said. “It’s been really effective against lefties. Righties, I typically go more to my slider because it tends to miss bats.” Search Please fill out this field. Manage Your Subscription Give a Gift Subscription Newsletters Sweepstakes Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords on Their IVF Journey: 'Freedom to Start a Family Is Under Threat' (Exclusive) In an exclusive essay for PEOPLE, the married Arizona lawmakers share how a gunman stole their dreams of having a child together — and why they fear politicians will do the same to other families Our lives changed forever on January 8th, 2011, when a gunman opened fire at a "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson. Six lives were lost , many more were injured, and Gabby was shot in the head . Of everything that changed that day — both of us halting our careers, the beginning of a long, difficult road to recovery — we also lost something we wanted very much: the opportunity to have a child together. The shooting happened on a Saturday morning. Two days later, we were supposed to have an appointment at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington, where Gabby had been receiving fertility treatments, to have our embryos implanted to try to begin a pregnancy. Like a lot of folks, we got married a little later in our lives. One of us had two beautiful daughters from a previous marriage; one of us had never had kids. We wanted to grow our family together and were fortunate enough to be able to pursue the only option for us: in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Gabby never made it to that appointment. Office of Senator Mark Kelly These past few months, as we’ve seen reproductive freedoms increasingly under attack in the absence of the protections of  Roe v. Wade ,  our hearts break for the couples who, all of a sudden, can’t decide for themselves how and when to start their family. The IVF process is extensive and expensive. In order to create a viable embryo, women must inject hormonal medication to increase egg production and then have those eggs retrieved. It’s invasive, and many women experience pain and uncomfortable changes in their bodies. Still, for many couples who struggle to become parents, IVF is the safest — or in some cases only — option to achieve their hope of becoming pregnant. Kevin Dietsch/Getty With everything the shooting forced us to leave behind, we weren’t ready to let go of our dream of having a child together. But eventually, we had to. That loss was its own agony. We don’t dwell on what could have been. Gabby’s philosophy is “Move ahead,” and that’s what we did to rebuild our lives and find our purpose after what happened to our family. We have a vibrant family we love, including a granddaughter who brings us so much joy. Make no mistake: The freedom to start a family with IVF is under threat. In Alabama, a decision from the state Supreme Court made IVF virtually impossible for a period of time. In Arizona, the state legislature passed a law that would have threatened access to IVF in our state if it hadn’t been for a veto by Gov. Katie Hobbs . In Washington, the majority of House Republicans are cosponsors of a fetal personhood bill that, if signed into law, would endanger access to IVF for every American. Our dream of having a child together was taken away by a gunman. The dreams of Americans to have a child together could be taken away by politicians. This isn’t happening by chance. It’s the result of years of anti-choice efforts and the appointment of judges by governors and presidents like Donald Trump who are hostile to reproductive rights. Donald Trump said himself that he “broke”  Roe v. Wade ,  which set off a series of attacks on reproductive freedoms. Twenty states now have abortion bans, including Arizona , where our state has been in turmoil between two abortion bans, both of which endanger women’s health and threaten doctors with jail time. And it doesn’t stop there. Last week, the Supreme Court threw out a case attempting to rein in approval of abortion medication also used to treat miscarriages. But this won’t be the end. Other states could and will again challenge mifepristone, just as state abortion bans are threatening to undo a federal law that requires emergency care for pregnant women when their lives are in danger, including abortion care if necessary. The right to birth control could very well be the next target. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer. Despite this real threat, Republicans in Congress have multiple times in recent weeks blocked legislation that would protect access to IVF and contraception for all Americans. The truth is there is a real danger of our country moving backwards — even further than we already have. Growing a family is never simple, even in the best of circumstances. We know that. When and how to do it is among the most personal decisions anyone makes. We know that, too. The government, whether its politicians or judges, has no business making those decisions for you. They should be yours alone. Related Articles Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points By Alina Chan Dr. Chan is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.” This article has been updated to reflect news developments. On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to the halls of Congress and testified before the House subcommittee investigating the Covid-19 pandemic. He was questioned about several topics related to the government’s handling of Covid-19, including how the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he directed until retiring in 2022, supported risky virus work at a Chinese institute whose research may have caused the pandemic. For more than four years, reflexive partisan politics have derailed the search for the truth about a catastrophe that has touched us all. It has been estimated that at least 25 million people around the world have died because of Covid-19, with over a million of those deaths in the United States. Although how the pandemic started has been hotly debated, a growing volume of evidence — gleaned from public records released under the Freedom of Information Act, digital sleuthing through online databases, scientific papers analyzing the virus and its spread, and leaks from within the U.S. government — suggests that the pandemic most likely occurred because a virus escaped from a research lab in Wuhan, China. If so, it would be the most costly accident in the history of science. Here’s what we now know: 1 The SARS-like virus that caused the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, the city where the world’s foremost research lab for SARS-like viruses is located. At the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a team of scientists had been hunting for SARS-like viruses for over a decade, led by Shi Zhengli. Their research showed that the viruses most similar to SARS‑CoV‑2, the virus that caused the pandemic, circulate in bats that live r oughly 1,000 miles away from Wuhan. Scientists from Dr. Shi’s team traveled repeatedly to Yunnan province to collect these viruses and had expanded their search to Southeast Asia. Bats in other parts of China have not been found to carry viruses that are as closely related to SARS-CoV-2. The closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2 were found in southwestern China and in Laos. Large cities Mine in Yunnan province Cave in Laos South China Sea The closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2 were found in southwestern China and in Laos. philippines The closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2 were found in southwestern China and Laos. Sources: Sarah Temmam et al., Nature; SimpleMaps Note: Cities shown have a population of at least 200,000. There are hundreds of large cities in China and Southeast Asia. There are hundreds of large cities in China and Southeast Asia. The pandemic started roughly 1,000 miles away, in Wuhan, home to the world’s foremost SARS-like virus research lab. The pandemic started roughly 1,000 miles away, in Wuhan, home to the world’s foremost SARS-like virus research lab. The pandemic started roughly 1,000 miles away, in Wuhan, home to the world’s foremost SARS-like virus research lab. Even at hot spots where these viruses exist naturally near the cave bats of southwestern China and Southeast Asia, the scientists argued, as recently as 2019 , that bat coronavirus spillover into humans is rare . When the Covid-19 outbreak was detected, Dr. Shi initially wondered if the novel coronavirus had come from her laboratory , saying she had never expected such an outbreak to occur in Wuhan. The SARS‑CoV‑2 virus is exceptionally contagious and can jump from species to species like wildfire . Yet it left no known trace of infection at its source or anywhere along what would have been a thousand-mile journey before emerging in Wuhan. 2 The year before the outbreak, the Wuhan institute, working with U.S. partners, had proposed creating viruses with SARS‑CoV‑2’s defining feature. Dr. Shi’s group was fascinated by how coronaviruses jump from species to species. To find viruses, they took samples from bats and other animals , as well as from sick people living near animals carrying these viruses or associated with the wildlife trade. Much of this work was conducted in partnership with the EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based scientific organization that, since 2002, has been awarded over $80 million in federal funding to research the risks of emerging infectious diseases. The laboratory pursued risky research that resulted in viruses becoming more infectious : Coronaviruses were grown from samples from infected animals and genetically reconstructed and recombined to create new viruses unknown in nature. These new viruses were passed through cells from bats, pigs, primates and humans and were used to infect civets and humanized mice (mice modified with human genes). In essence, this process forced these viruses to adapt to new host species, and the viruses with mutations that allowed them to thrive emerged as victors. By 2019, Dr. Shi’s group had published a database describing more than 22,000 collected wildlife samples. But external access was shut off in the fall of 2019, and the database was not shared with American collaborators even after the pandemic started , when such a rich virus collection would have been most useful in tracking the origin of SARS‑CoV‑2. It remains unclear whether the Wuhan institute possessed a precursor of the pandemic virus. In 2021, The Intercept published a leaked 2018 grant proposal for a research project named Defuse , which had been written as a collaboration between EcoHealth, the Wuhan institute and Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina, who had been on the cutting edge of coronavirus research for years. The proposal described plans to create viruses strikingly similar to SARS‑CoV‑2. Coronaviruses bear their name because their surface is studded with protein spikes, like a spiky crown, which they use to enter animal cells. T he Defuse project proposed to search for and create SARS-like viruses carrying spikes with a unique feature: a furin cleavage site — the same feature that enhances SARS‑CoV‑2’s infectiousness in humans, making it capable of causing a pandemic. Defuse was never funded by the United States . However, in his testimony on Monday, Dr. Fauci explained that the Wuhan institute would not need to rely on U.S. funding to pursue research independently. The Wuhan lab ran risky experiments to learn about how SARS-like viruses might infect humans. 1. Collect SARS-like viruses from bats and other wild animals, as well as from people exposed to them. 2. Identify high-risk viruses by screening for spike proteins that facilitate infection of human cells. 2. Identify high-risk viruses by screening for spike proteins that facilitate infection of human cells. In Defuse, the scientists proposed to add a furin cleavage site to the spike protein. 3. Create new coronaviruses by inserting spike proteins or other features that could make the viruses more infectious in humans. 4. Infect human cells, civets and humanized mice with the new coronaviruses, to determine how dangerous they might be. While it’s possible that the furin cleavage site could have evolved naturally (as seen in some distantly related coronaviruses), out of the hundreds of SARS-like viruses cataloged by scientists, SARS‑CoV‑2 is the only one known to possess a furin cleavage site in its spike. And the genetic data suggest that the virus had only recently gained the furin cleavage site before it started the pandemic. Ultimately, a never-before-seen SARS-like virus with a newly introduced furin cleavage site, matching the description in the Wuhan institute’s Defuse proposal, caused an outbreak in Wuhan less than two years after the proposal was drafted. When the Wuhan scientists published their seminal paper about Covid-19 as the pandemic roared to life in 2020, they did not mention the virus’s furin cleavage site — a feature they should have been on the lookout for, according to their own grant proposal, and a feature quickly recognized by other scientists. Worse still, as the pandemic raged, their American collaborators failed to publicly reveal the existence of the Defuse proposal. The president of EcoHealth, Peter Daszak, recently admitted to Congress that he doesn’t know about virus samples collected by the Wuhan institute after 2015 and never asked the lab’s scientists if they had started the work described in Defuse. In May, citing failures in EcoHealth’s monitoring of risky experiments conducted at the Wuhan lab, the Biden administration suspended all federal funding for the organization and Dr. Daszak, and initiated proceedings to bar them from receiving future grants. In his testimony on Monday, Dr. Fauci said that he supported the decision to suspend and bar EcoHealth. Separately, Dr. Baric described the competitive dynamic between his research group and the institute when he told Congress that the Wuhan scientists would probably not have shared their most interesting newly discovered viruses with him . Documents and email correspondence between the institute and Dr. Baric are still being withheld from the public while their release is fiercely contested in litigation. In the end, American partners very likely knew of only a fraction of the research done in Wuhan. According to U.S. intelligence sources, some of the institute’s virus research was classified or conducted with or on behalf of the Chinese military . In the congressional hearing on Monday, Dr. Fauci repeatedly acknowledged the lack of visibility into experiments conducted at the Wuhan institute, saying, “None of us can know everything that’s going on in China, or in Wuhan, or what have you. And that’s the reason why — I say today, and I’ve said at the T.I.,” referring to his transcribed interview with the subcommittee, “I keep an open mind as to what the origin is.” 3 The Wuhan lab pursued this type of work under low biosafety conditions that could not have contained an airborne virus as infectious as SARS‑CoV‑2. Labs working with live viruses generally operate at one of four biosafety levels (known in ascending order of stringency as BSL-1, 2, 3 and 4) that describe the work practices that are considered sufficiently safe depending on the characteristics of each pathogen. The Wuhan institute’s scientists worked with SARS-like viruses under inappropriately low biosafety conditions . In the United States, virologists generally use stricter Biosafety Level 3 protocols when working with SARS-like viruses. Biosafety cabinets prevent viral particles from escaping. Viral particles Personal respirators provide a second layer of defense against breathing in the virus. DIRECT CONTACT Gloves prevent skin contact. Disposable wraparound gowns cover much of the rest of the body. Personal respirators provide a second layer of defense against breathing in the virus. Disposable wraparound gowns cover much of the rest of the body. Note: ​​Biosafety levels are not internationally standardized, and some countries use more permissive protocols than others. The Wuhan lab had been regularly working with SARS-like viruses under Biosafety Level 2 conditions, which could not prevent a highly infectious virus like SARS-CoV-2 from escaping. Some work is done in the open air, and masks are not required. Less protective equipment provides more opportunities for contamination. Some work is done in the open air, and masks are not required. Less protective equipment provides more opportunities for contamination. In one experiment, Dr. Shi’s group genetically engineered an unexpectedly deadly SARS-like virus (not closely related to SARS‑CoV‑2) that exhibited a 10,000-fold increase in the quantity of virus in the lungs and brains of humanized mice . Wuhan institute scientists handled these live viruses at low biosafet y levels , including BSL-2. Even the much more stringent containment at BSL-3 cannot fully prevent SARS‑CoV‑2 from escaping . Two years into the pandemic, the virus infected a scientist in a BSL-3 laboratory in Taiwan, which was, at the time, a zero-Covid country. The scientist had been vaccinated and was tested only after losing the sense of smell. By then, more than 100 close contacts had been exposed. Human error is a source of exposure even at the highest biosafety levels , and the risks are much greater for scientists working with infectious pathogens at low biosafety. An early draft of the Defuse proposal stated that the Wuhan lab would do their virus work at BSL-2 to make it “highly cost-effective.” Dr. Baric added a note to the draft highlighting the importance of using BSL-3 to contain SARS-like viruses that could infect human cells, writing that “U.S. researchers will likely freak out.” Years later, after SARS‑CoV‑2 had killed millions, Dr. Baric wrote to Dr. Daszak : “I have no doubt that they followed state determined rules and did the work under BSL-2. Yes China has the right to set their own policy. You believe this was appropriate containment if you want but don’t expect me to believe it. Moreover, don’t insult my intelligence by trying to feed me this load of BS.” SARS‑CoV‑2 is a stealthy virus that transmits effectively through the air, causes a range of symptoms similar to those of other common respiratory diseases and can be spread by infected people before symptoms even appear. If the virus had escaped from a BSL-2 laboratory in 2019, the leak most likely would have gone undetected until too late. One alarming detail — leaked to The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by current and former U.S. government officials — is that scientists on Dr. Shi’s team fell ill with Covid-like symptoms in the fall of 2019 . One of the scientists had been named in the Defuse proposal as the person in charge of virus discovery work. The scientists denied having been sick . 4 The hypothesis that Covid-19 came from an animal at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan is not supported by strong evidence. In December 2019, Chinese investigators assumed the outbreak had started at a centrally located market frequented by thousands of visitors daily. This bias in their search for early cases meant that cases unlinked to or located far away from the market would very likely have been missed. To make things worse, the Chinese authorities blocked the reporting of early cases not linked to the market and, claiming biosafety precautions, ordered the destruction of patient samples on January 3, 2020, making it nearly impossible to see the complete picture of the earliest Covid-19 cases. Information about dozens of early cases from November and December 2019 remains inaccessible. A pair of papers published in Science in 2022 made the best case for SARS‑CoV‑2 having emerged naturally from human-animal contact at the Wuhan market by focusing on a map of the early cases and asserting that the virus had jumped from animals into humans twice at the market in 2019. More recently, the two papers have been countered by other virologists and scientists who convincingly demonstrate that the available market evidence does not distinguish between a human superspreader event and a natural spillover at the market. Furthermore, the existing genetic and early case data show that all known Covid-19 cases probably stem from a single introduction of SARS‑CoV‑2 into people, and the outbreak at the Wuhan market probably happened after the virus had already been circulating in humans. An analysis of SARS-CoV-2’s evolutionary tree shows how the virus evolved as it started to spread through humans. SARS-COV-2 Viruses closest to bat coronaviruses more mutations Source: Lv et al., Virus Evolution (2024) , as reproduced by Jesse Bloom The viruses that infected people linked to the market were most likely not the earliest form of the virus that started the pandemic. Not a single infected animal has ever been confirmed at the market or in its supply chain. Without good evidence that the pandemic started at the Huanan Seafood Market, the fact that the virus emerged in Wuhan points squarely at its unique SARS-like virus laboratory. 5 Key evidence that would be expected if the virus had emerged from the wildlife trade is still missing. In previous outbreaks of coronaviruses, scientists were able to demonstrate natural origin by collecting multiple pieces of evidence linking infected humans to infected animals. Infected animals Earliest known cases exposed to live animals Antibody evidence of animals and animal traders having been infected Ancestral variants of the virus found in Documented trade of host animals between the area where bats carry closely related viruses and the outbreak site Infected animals found Earliest known cases exposed to live animals Antibody evidence of animals and animal traders having been infected Ancestral variants of the virus found in animals Documented trade of host animals between the area where bats carry closely related viruses and the outbreak site For SARS-CoV-2, these same key pieces of evidence are still missing , more than four years after the virus emerged. For SARS-CoV-2, these same key pieces of evidence are still missing , more than four years after the virus emerged. Despite the intense search trained on the animal trade and people linked to the market, investigators have not reported finding any animals infected with SARS‑CoV‑2 that had not been infected by humans. Yet, infected animal sources and other connective pieces of evidence were found for the earlier SARS and MERS outbreaks as quickly as within a few days, despite the less advanced viral forensic technologies of two decades ago. Even though Wuhan is the home base of virus hunters with world-leading expertise in tracking novel SARS-like viruses, investigators have either failed to collect or report key evidence that would be expected if Covid-19 emerged from the wildlife trade . For example, investigators have not determined that the earliest known cases had exposure to intermediate host animals before falling ill. No antibody evidence shows that animal traders in Wuhan are regularly exposed to SARS-like viruses, as would be expected in such situations. With today’s technology, scientists can detect how respiratory viruses — including SARS, MERS and the flu — circulate in animals while making repeated attempts to jump across species . Thankfully, these variants usually fail to transmit well after crossing over to a new species and tend to die off after a small number of infections. In contrast, virologists and other scientists agree that SARS‑CoV‑2 required little to no adaptation to spread rapidly in humans and other animals . The virus appears to have succeeded in causing a pandemic upon its only detected jump into humans. The pandemic could have been caused by any of hundreds of virus species, at any of tens of thousands of wildlife markets, in any of thousands of cities, and in any year. But it was a SARS-like coronavirus with a unique furin cleavage site that emerged in Wuhan, less than two years after scientists, sometimes working under inadequate biosafety conditions, proposed collecting and creating viruses of that same design. While several natural spillover scenarios remain plausible, and we still don’t know enough about the full extent of virus research conducted at the Wuhan institute by Dr. Shi’s team and other researchers, a laboratory accident is the most parsimonious explanation of how the pandemic began. Given what we now know, investigators should follow their strongest leads and subpoena all exchanges between the Wuhan scientists and their international partners, including unpublished research proposals, manuscripts, data and commercial orders. In particular, exchanges from 2018 and 2019 — the critical two years before the emergence of Covid-19 — are very likely to be illuminating (and require no cooperation from the Chinese government to acquire), yet they remain beyond the public’s view more than four years after the pandemic began. Whether the pandemic started on a lab bench or in a market stall, it is undeniable that U.S. federal funding helped to build an unprecedented collection of SARS-like viruses at the Wuhan institute, as well as contributing to research that enhanced them . Advocates and funders of the institute’s research, including Dr. Fauci, should cooperate with the investigation to help identify and close the loopholes that allowed such dangerous work to occur. The world must not continue to bear the intolerable risks of research with the potential to cause pandemics . A successful investigation of the pandemic’s root cause would have the power to break a decades-long scientific impasse on pathogen research safety, determining how governments will spend billions of dollars to prevent future pandemics. A credible investigation would also deter future acts of negligence and deceit by demonstrating that it is indeed possible to be held accountable for causing a viral pandemic. Last but not least, people of all nations need to see their leaders — and especially, their scientists — heading the charge to find out what caused this world-shaking event. Restoring public trust in science and government leadership requires it. A thorough investigation by the U.S. government could unearth more evidence while spurring whistleblowers to find their courage and seek their moment of opportunity. It would also show the world that U.S. leaders and scientists are not afraid of what the truth behind the pandemic may be. More on how the pandemic may have started Where Did the Coronavirus Come From? What We Already Know Is Troubling. Even if the coronavirus did not emerge from a lab, the groundwork for a potential disaster had been laid for years, and learning its lessons is essential to preventing others. By Zeynep Tufekci Why Does Bad Science on Covid’s Origin Get Hyped? If the raccoon dog was a smoking gun, it fired blanks. By David Wallace-Wells A Plea for Making Virus Research Safer A way forward for lab safety. By Jesse Bloom The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] . Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads . Alina Chan ( @ayjchan ) is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of “ Viral : The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.” She was a member of the Pathogens Project , which the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists organized to generate new thinking on responsible, high-risk pathogen research. Share full article Advertisement 457 IMAGES (DOC) Causes of family breakdown and its effects on Children My Family Paragraph: The Importance Of Family In One's Life Essay The importance of family bonding essay in 2021 The breakdown of American family Essay Example About family essay in 2021 VIDEO TikTok's Sad Beige Moms Breakdown TikTok's Kevin G & Big Justice Need Help Family Breakdown TikTok's WORST Family Channels My family 10 Lines in English || Essay on My Family || 10 lines on My family My Family 10 lines || How to write an Essay on My Family || Paragraph on My Family in English COMMENTS Cause and Effect of Broken Family: Exploring the Impact ... A broken family, characterized by divorce, separation, or strained relationships among family members, can have profound effects on individuals and society as a whole. This essay delves into the cause and effect of broken families, and examines the far-reaching consequences on emotional well-being, academic performance, and societal dynamics. PDF Impact of Family Breakdown on Children's Well-Being We have seen how factors associated with family breakdown, such as parental conflict, parenting and parent-child relationships, maternal mental health, socio-economic factors and repeated changes, interact before, during and after parental separation to impact upon children's development and well-being. (PDF) Parents, parenting, and family breakdown BMJ. 1997; 315 :560—1. Parents, parenting, and f amily breakdown. Most couples undertake the serious business of parenting. with the belief that they will be able to provide their. children with ... The impact of family structure on the health of children: Effects of For most children, this means much less time spent with their fathers. 4. The child may also spend less time with their mother as she may need to work longer hours to support the family. The child may lose economic security. 1. Custodial mothers experience the loss of 25-50 percent of their pre-divorce income. a. Having a Broken Family: What It Means and How to Cope Abuse: Anderson notes that this can include sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. While abuse is typically a result of some other factor (mental health problems, for example), it can cause relationship trauma and it's understandable if it complicates your ability to forgive.; Mental health issues: If you or your family member faced mental health conditions or substance use issues that resulted ... The Unsettling Consequences of Family Breakdown and Its Impact ... This essay delves into the research highlighting the consequences of family breakdown and the perceived diminishing value of men. By examining the social, economic, and emotional impacts, we will ... Essay about Family: Definition, Topics & Sample Here are some easy-to-follow tips from our essay service experts:. Focus on a Specific Aspect: Instead of a broad overview, delve into a specific angle that piques your interest, such as exploring how birth order influences sibling dynamics or examining the evolving role of grandparents in modern families. Share Personal Anecdotes: Start your family essay introduction with a personal touch by ... My Experience Growing Up from Broken Family Coming from a broken family that's still together, yeah, my parents are still together, but they don't even look at each other. They are just together for me and my brother . . . to make us happy . . . but now for some reason my brother hates my dad, and I don't know why. My dad does everything for us, yet there hate for him is in ... Effects of Family Structure on Mental Health of Children: A Preliminary Results: We found that only 11% of children came from intact families living with biological parents while 89% had some kind of disruption in their family structure. Two-third of the children in the study population had been exposed to trauma with physical abuse seen in 36% of cases. Seventy-one percent had reported either a parent or a sibling ... PDF Broken family: Its causes and effects on the development of children There the breaking of the family is great lost for each and every members of the family. 3. To the Society: Broken family is a major problem of the society that should be given enough attention. The behavior of family setup affects the social, economic and political aspects of a country. Family Breakdown Essay Examples Essays on Family Breakdown. 3 samples on this topic. Crafting a lot of Family Breakdown papers is an essential part of modern studying, be it in high-school, college, or university. If you can do that on your own, that's just awesome; yet, other students might not be that lucky, as Family Breakdown writing can be quite troublesome. Family Breakdown Essay example Family Breakdown Essay example. Many problems affect our society, and each problem presents us with different challenges and obstacles. The most prevalent of these problems are crime, poverty, and poor education. Collectively, society looks toward the government to intervene and find a solution to these problems. Family breakdown Provision of Intervension to Prevent Family Breakdown Essay. This case study will draw on a practice case from a statutory Children and Families Intervention Team. The work focused on a family, whose four children had been removed from their home, and an assessment of parenting skills. The main areas of work include the first initial visit to ... 1. The American family today The American family today. For updated data, read our 2023 essay "The Modern American Family.". Family life is changing. Two-parent households are on the decline in the United States as divorce, remarriage and cohabitation are on the rise. And families are smaller now, both due to the growth of single-parent households and the drop in ... Essay On Broken Family Essay On Broken Family. t a broken family has on juveniles. A broken family refers to a family that has gone through a separation, abandonment or divorce leaving the children with only one parent instead of the much needed two. In the beginning of a divorce parents tend to argue non-stop and just have a sense of despair around the household. With divorce rates and family breakdowns increasing globally ... In recent years, it is undoubtedly the case that the families around the world, increasingly suffer from divorces and family separations. In the essay, I will discuss a few of the reasons for this phenomenon and provide few options to overcome it | Band: 7.5 Causes of family breakdown and its effects on Children The objective of the study was to investigate the causes of family breakdown and its effects on the children in Juba City. The effects of family breakdown on children include difficulties in school, stress, early engagement in sexual activities, insecure and afraid of the future, depression and fear of being abandoned. Cause And Effect Of Broken Family Essay The effect of divorce in family is an important issue that should be handled properly to maintain the welfare of the children. "Divorce is no longer taboo but it still damages children and for some children the suffering goes on into adulthood and even old age". (Doughty.S., 2012) Even though the word divorce is common nowadays, it is still ... Family is very important to people around the world Using data from the European Values Study and World Values Survey, the chart shows that a large majority of people worldwide declare family to be important in their lives. This share is above 80% in every country except six. Only a small percentage of people say they find family "not very important" or "not important at all". The Causes and Effects of a Broken Family Essay Example Cause of Broken Family: The spouses fall out of love with each other. Financial pressure. One spouse who is not capable of commitment. Cheating. Psychological disorders such as major depression and the person will not go for help. If the husband works long hours or works out of town and the wife seldom sees her husband and has a heavy load of ... essay on family breakdown The most prevalent of.... (Germov, J., & Poole, M. 1406 words. Read More · Family Essay: How A Family Is A Changing System. A family is defined as a "system within a system", it is... The cause of a breakdown could vary from mutual separation, financial stress, and poverty to domestic violence, Abuse, imprisonment or even death (Utting ... Breakdown Of Family Essays Breakdown Of Family Essays and Term Papers. Family Unity And Moral Values The increase in the number of divorces and the decrease in the number of marriages does not reflect a breakdown of the family unit in the United States and the decay of moral values. "I don't think divorce is as big of problem as politicians make it out to be. Pixar's Inside Out 2: Sense of Self, Emotions, and Memories The film brought tears to my eyes as I reflected on all my emotions and thoughts of the previous two weeks on 57 years, my reunions, and my deep cringes and buried memories, as I wrote about in ... This Simple Logic Question Stumps Even the Most Advanced AI 2. Alice's brother is part of the same family as Alice. 3. All of Alice's sisters are also sisters to her brother. 4. Therefore, Alice's brother has the same number of sisters as Alice has, which ... What 'Inside Out 2' Teaches Us About Anxiety The final version of Anxiety is mostly endearing and sincere: She wants to help. Her job, as she sees it, is to plan for the future and protect Riley "from the scary stuff she can't see." Notre Dame Breakout Predictions For 2024 Breakouts happen every year, and they are important to success for Notre Dame. The 2024 season is no different, and Notre Dame will need players on both sides of the ball to have breakout campaigns. Essay On Broken Family A Broken Family consists of a biological family that has separated for specific reasons that may result in single parent families, step families or blended families. Marriage is a system of binding a man and woman together for the reproduction, care (physical/emotional), and socialization of offspring. Marriage is a social and legal contract ... Jonah Tong pitching breakdown Jonah Tong recalls school nights back home in Ontario when he'd stay up until midnight throwing with his father, Alex. The sessions would go so late that his mother would yell across the street for both to come inside. The paternal instruction was a little different. "My dad always told Sen. Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords Share Their Fears for IVF: Exclusive Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords on Their IVF Journey: 'Freedom to Start a Family Is Under Threat' (Exclusive) In an exclusive essay for PEOPLE, the married Arizona lawmakers share how a gunman stole ... Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points Dr. Chan is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of "Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19." This article has been updated to reflect news ... assignment essay homework paper phd report resume speech thesis