Analysis of Child Development in Broken family

Analysis, Pages 16 (3828 words)

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THESIS

From the suggestion of one researcher that broken homes equal broken people, and that broken people break others. Although this particular article focuses on the idea that boys without authoritative role models are well placed to get caught in the Sturm und Drang of adolescence, it seems the issues these children develop can be teased to a more widespread problem; perhaps it is a perceived brokenness of the normal familial network that creates the sense of injustice and turmoil that fuels the actions of these children.

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Review of Literature

The following paragraphs present the different ways of how teenagers in a broken family cope with their problems. It is first summarized after the divorce of the child’s parent followed by its effect on the child until it reaches its youth days.

After the Divorce of the Child’s parents

According to Green (2014), after divorce, children of all ages may experience deficits in emotional development and may seem tearful or depressed, and that can last several years after a child’s parents’ have separated.

Some older children may show very little emotional reaction to their parents’ because they are actually bottling up their negative feelings inside. This emotional suppression makes it difficult for parents, teachers and therapists to help the process her feelings in developmentally appropriate ways. In school most of the children with broken families end up having poor academic and change of lifestyles. This poor academic progress can stem from a number of factors, including instability in the home environment, inadequate financial resources and inconsistent routines.

Divorce affects children’s social relationships for several ways. Some children act out their distress about their broken family by acting aggressive and by engaging in bullying behaviour, some may experience anxiety and can make it difficult for them to join co-curricular activities, and develop a cynical attitude towards relationship, harbour feelings of mistrust towards both parents and potential romantic partners. At home their lifestyle will change, more chores, heavier responsibilities, and the older sibling may have to act a parental-type role when interacting with younger siblings. Children of divorce tend to fall in their academics and in their social life. Children are already affected when the divorce is on the process, not before.

Effects on the child to its youth days

Children are most likely to move or change school after divorce and can’t catch up with making friends and their academics. Most of the children who don’t know how to cope with their situation ended up having low self-esteem, anxiety, and trust issue. (Mann, 2011) And there is a higher suicide rate for children of divorce than for children of normal families. There is no correlation found between the death of a parent and suicide of a child. The suicide seems to be triggered by being rejected by a parent. (Larson, 1990) In general, children of divorce feel emotionally unsafe as a child. Most of them don’t feel any attention and are 6 times more likely to feel alone as a child. When in need of comfort they do not go to their parents. (Marquardt, 2005), they are mostly unhappy, behave impulsive and irritable. They are socially withdrawn and as a result, they feel lonelier, insecure, anxious, and are less obedient to their divorced parents. (Wallerstein, 1991)

The so called “sleeper effect” kicks in on children of divorce on a later age. Most Young boys tend to express their emotions and frustrations freely. Their emotions fade out. Young girls however, keep their emotions internally more often. They do not deal with them. Their emotions stay within and they surface when they mature. Usually, this occurs in a period in which they make essential decisions for their lives for many years to come. They are unconsciously influenced by the anxiety and fear resulting from the divorce of their parents long ago. (Wallerstein & Blakeslee, n.d.) If children are confused with different things going on in the family or at school and they have feelings of frustration, more disagreements may occur. Behaviour problems tend to increase for boys when a step-father is introduced to the family (Muzi, 2000).

However, if mothers inappropriately discuss financial matters with their children or express a negative feeling toward their ex-spouse, it can decrease the desire for the child to spend time with the parent due to increase confusion about the whole situation (Bigner, 2002). Adjusting issues that children may have include academic problems, internalizing and externalizing problems, low self esteem, and early engagement in sexual activities (Anderson 1999)

Current Situation

It is said that half of the world’s community is plagued by broken families and crime. Over the past few decades, marriage has become less important and that is the cause of the problem. Better parenting and stronger families is the key to mending the broken society. (Problem of the Broken Family, 2014) Families are the core of society. When families fall apart, society falls into social and cultural decline. Ultimately the breakdown of the world’s family is at the root of nearly every other social problem and pathology. Most children grew up in intact, two-parent families. Today, children who do so are a minority. Illegitimacy, divorce, and other lifestyle choices have radically changed almost every family, and thus have changed the social landscape. "There is a mountain of scientific evidence showing that when families disintegrate, children often end up with intellectual, physical and emotional scars that persist for life."

He continues, "We talk about the drug crisis, the education crisis, and the problem of teen pregnancy and juvenile crime. But all these ills trace back predominantly to one source: broken families. (Zinsmeister, n.d.) Broken homes and broken hearts are not only the reason for so many social problems. They are also the reason for the incumbent economic difficulties we face as a culture. The moral foundation of society erodes as children learn the savage values of the street rather than the civilized values of culture. And government inevitably expands to intervene in family and social crises brought about by the breakdown of the family. Sociologist Daniel Yankelovich puts it this way: people suspect that the nation's economic difficulties are rooted not in technical economic forces (for example, exchange rates or capital formation) but in fundamental moral causes.

There exists a deeply intuitive sense that the success of a market-based economy depends on a highly developed social morality--trustworthiness, honesty, concern for future generations, an ethic of service to others, a humane society that takes care of those in need, frugality instead of greed, high standards of quality and concern for community. These economically desirable social values, in turn, are seen as rooted in family values. Thus the link in public thinking between a healthy family and a robust economy, though indirect, is clear and firm. (Anderson, 1994)

Perhaps it is the social expectation of an American Dream-styled belief that two parents, a healthy marriage and two children, who go to college, plus some sort of pet is what one should receive whilst growing up, despite that this is not only a difficult balance of relationships to maintain but not the ‘norm’ for most people in America.

This sense that one has been ‘left out’ or done out of what they believe that everyone else normally receives perpetuates a sense of injustice that often translates into violence within society.

Broken Family can be describing as a broken home, this is where a child doesn’t have a both parent at home. The husband and wife are legally separated. Sometimes death of one member of the family can lead to broken family. Or else broken family is incomplete. However, no matter how ideal a family in the terms of their relationship, there are still hardships and misunderstandings that will come along the way. Broken family varies from numerous reasons why it had to be that way.

Misunderstanding starts from simple domestic quarrel that grows impertinently damaging the long-forged relationship between the family members. The most common dispute between a husband and a wife is the financial issue. There are difference between a complete and a broken family. Complete family can looked at their child properly than a broken family can. Most of the Teenagers who belongs to a broken family did not graduate. They even suffer emotional stress and depression which usually leads to suicide.

While those teenagers who belong to a complete family graduated with even honours. But there are some products of broken family who were successful because their experiences inspire them to make a better family someday unlike the family they have. Members of a complete family are also capable of handling problems than a member from a broken one but they are both acceptable in the society.

In today’s society broken family is a major problem that should be given enough attention. The behaviour of family setup affects the social, economic and political aspects of a country. It should always be remembered to keep the family away from the thoughts of separation. One in three children life with a single-parent or with step mom or dad, researchers found that there are 3.8million children, the great majority of them in single-parent families. 30 per cent of the country’s children and their numbers are up by nearly a fifth over the past decade, according to a study by the Office for National Statistics published last June 2010.

According also to the ONS analysis of data from its monthly Labour Force Survey of 60,000 households, 3.8million children live with only one of their biological parents because they have a lone mother or their father or mother has left home. And there are 2.7million who live with a single mother and 200,000 with a lone father. A further 500,000 are in cohabiting step-families, and 400,000 in married step-families.

Single people and cohabiting couples will significantly outnumber the married by the 2030s, the ONS said. Already the proportion of people who are husbands or wives has fallen below half the adult population to 49 per cent.

By 2033 that will become 42 per cent, according to projections on marriage. Numbers of cohabiting couples will rise from 2.3million to 3.8million, the ONS said.

There are causes why there are broken families or broken homes, around the world. Some of this are maybe because of the Wrong choice in marriage, Disagreement is the only language they understand.. In this kind of situation, hatred, unfaithfulness, fighting, anger, suspicion, cheating becomes the order of the day and break-up is the end result. And it may be also because of the Parental or friends influence, because broken homes today are caused by undue influences and interference of parents, friends and relations in the private affairs of the family. Time consuming jobs is not good for the family, most of the parents, when a man or woman stays too long at work, the other partner will start feeling lonely, neglected, abandoned and sometimes frustrated. Striking a balance will be a good idea. There are Theories that is based on our topic, about being in a Broken Family. The Psychoanalytic theories emphasized the importance of relationship and attachments between children and their parents.

This theory tells the three major personality mechanisms which is as follows: The id, ego, and the super ego. One of the major personality mechanisms is the Id. It was contained by the instinctual, unconscious desire and especially sexual and aggressive which a child was born. It was governed by the pleasure principle, seeking to achieve pleasure and to avoid pain. While the Ego was the seat of consciousness, it was developed out of the id about the age of three. It was tried to achieve the desires of the id while taking account of the reality of social convention and could delay immediate gratifications of long-term goals. Children can develop a strong ego if they had a loving and strong relationship with their parents.

And the Superego is developed out of the ego at the age of five, it’s also contained two functions, the first one is the conscience and the other one is the ego-ideal. Based on Wikipedia, Conscience is a judgement that assists in distinguishing right from wrong. But in the personality mechanisms Conscience is acted to inhibit instinctual desires that violated social rules. There’s also a formation depending on parental punishment arousing anger that children then turned against themselves. Ideas that are inspired counselling and social work approaches, as they try to rehabilitate the offenders by building up a warm relationship with them. Most studies from the broken homes have focused on the loss of the father rather than the mother. The Modern theories of the relationship between the disrupted families and the delinquency fall into three major classes, the Trauma theories. Based from Wikipedia, Trauma means “wound” in Greek and it’s often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one's ability to cope or integrate the emotions involved with that experience.

Psychologically traumatic experiences involvement in physical trauma that threatens one's survival and sense of security. The definition of Trauma differs among the individuals by their subjective experiences. The next major classes of modern theory between disrupted families and the delinquency fall is the Life course theories, this focuses on the separation as a sequence of stressful experiences, and on the effects of multiple stressors such as parental conflict, parental loss, reduced economic circumstances, changes in parent figures, and poor child-rearing methods. And the last one is the Selection theories, which talks about the argue that disrupted families produce delinquent children because of pre-existing differences from other families in risk factors, such as parental conflict, criminal or antisocial parents, low family income, or poor child-rearing methods.

What will be the effect of a Broken Family to the Student’s Performance in School? This research is based on the U.S Centre for Marriage and Family as they release their study on November 2005 that broken family structures consistently lead to education difficulties for children. The study says “When it comes to educational achievement, children living with their own married parents do significantly better than other children.” Children living in a situation other those with their own married father and mother are known as non-intact families. They are significantly higher rates of difficulty with all levels of education. Each child a year spends with a single mother or stepparent “reduces that child’s overall education attainment by approximately one-half year.”

The study also says that the comprehensive review of recent academic research about the relationship between family structure and children’s academic performance. Education outcomes from children growing up with their own married parents to children in non-intact family structures such as divorced, single, remarried or cohabiting parents. These family structures were consistently found as the deciding factor in a wide range of child behaviours that affects their academic performances including their emotional and psychological distress. This also includes the attention disorders, social misbehaviours, substance abuse, sexual activity and the common problem of teenagers, teen pregnancy. Those children from non-intact homes had higher rates of depression, anxiety, lower self-esteem and stress, particularly as teenagers. They’ve found out that some children from broken homes were three times more likely to suffer from attention deficit disorder than children from intact homes. Thos children from single-parent homes suffered from physical health problems.

While Pre-school children from Single-parent homes were less likely to be given help with letter-recognition. Children from non-intact families’ scores consistently lower on reading comprehensions and in Mathematics. And they’re struggling in maintain their grade levels overall. While children from married parents had much lower rates of behavioural problems inside the classroom. Particularly boys from broken marriages showed a higher rate of classroom misbehaviour. 30% of teenage students from broken families more likely miss school, always late or cut class than students from intact homes, because single parents had more difficulty monitoring their children. These may cause the children to be at high risk for smoking, consuming alcohol or drugs. Most of the teenagers now a day were more likely to be sexually active and had higher rates of pregnancy, especially those from the non-intact families.

Children who were from single-parent home by the time they were ten were more than twice is likely to be arrested by age of 14. Who never lived with their own father had the highest likelihood of being arrested. These study reports that majority of U.S children will spent a significant part of their child hood by the time they reach 18. And Single parent homes in the U.S. nearly doubled in the period from 1968-2003. Based on other researches, Most of the Children from unmarried parents/separated families often fail and are at risk emotionally. This may not be completely applicable in all instances of broken homes. The environment where a child finds himself/herself goes a long way in determining his learning ability and ultimately his academic. There are different effects of a broken family for the Development of the children. Such as Emotional development, this is the growth in the child’s ability to distinguish between and to express their emotions in socially acceptable way and to be able to understand the emotional content of other people’s communication.

Some of the children who show little emotional response are actually bottling up their negative feelings. Educational Development, this talks about the performance of the children inside their classroom, and in what way that broken homes can affect them in their studies. Social Development, Other children may experience anxiety, which can make it morw difficult for them to seek positive social interactions and engage in developmentally beneficial activities such as teen sports. Teens from broken families might develop a cynical attitude toward relationships and harbour feelings of mistrust. Family Dynamics is the interaction between the family members as well as the varying relationships that can exist within a family. Based on the new living arrangements, the children may need to perform more chores and assume additional roles in the new household's basic functioning. A broken home can confuse or disrupt a child’s world.

This was proven to be true from infancy through the teen years. Most of the children experience wide array emotions to try to navigate. Their Parents have to provide them as much stability as possible and involve other to be the responsible role models, to provide the support for their child. It’s important that the child knows that he/she is still safe, love and cherished. Frustration with a broken family can manifest through open aggression by throwing tantrums, hitting, and other outward expressions of pain. As Lesia Oesterreich, M.S., of the National Network for Child Care website suggest that the younger child is not able to express emotions verbally and does not understand the negative feelings he’s/she’s experiencing. And it’s also important that the parent will help the child to vocalize these emotions and make the children aware that these are valid feelings.

The children may feel that their behaviour drove the other parent away and might strive to improve the behaviour of the child in hopes of the parent returning. Reassure your children will not be the cause and will be continue to be loved by both parents. The child should know that just because his parents' relationship has changed. The child may feel embarrassed that his/her family is not intact and withdraw from normal activities. Those children could put on a brave front, pretending that everything is okay even when hurting. From which Michelle New, Ph.D. of the Kids Health website, suggested. Parents should maintain established routines at home to make everything feel as normal as possible, Encourage your child to have close contact with family and friends to encourage him at this time.

Children from broken families are nearly five times more likely to suffer damaging mental troubles than those whose parents stay together, Government research has found. It also showed that two parents are much better than one if children are to avoid slipping into emotional distress and anti-social behaviour.

The findings say that children’s family backgrounds are as important - if not more so - than whether their home is poor, workless, have bad health, or have no one with any educational qualifications.

The research adds to a wealth of data that shows children suffer badly from divorce or parental break-up, and that those brought up by a single parent are more likely to do badly at school, suffer poor health, and fall into crime, addiction and poverty as adults.

The report, funded by the Department of Health and published by the Office for National Statistics, investigated emotional disorders - ranked as those which cause considerable distress and interference with the way in which children perform at school and during play.

It also looked at conduct disorders which result in aggressive, violent or anti-social behaviour. The researchers studied nearly 8,000 children aged between five and 16 in 2004 and found almost one in ten had disorders. The children were checked again last year.

The report said that a child whose parents had split during this time was more than four and a half times more likely to have developed an emotional disorder than one whose parents stayed together. They were nearly three times more likely to exhibit a conduct disorder.

Eleven per cent of those children whose families broke up had emotional disorders, against 3 per cent among those whose families were still together. Nearly a third of children found to have mental disorders in 2004 still suffered from them three years later.

The Department of Health said: ‘The Government is committed to helping children and young people experiencing mental health problems.’

But academic Patricia Morgan, author of several studies on family break-up, said: ‘This does not come as a surprise, and things are going to get worse.

‘Broken families and serial fathers produce homes full of conflict and chaos and they are terrible for children.’

References

Bigner, J. (2002). Parent-Child Relations: An Intoduction to Parenting. (6th ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.
Freeman, H. S. Family transitions during the adolescent transition: implications for parenting. Adolescence. Fall 2002. Retrieved September 27, 2004 online via www.findarticles.com.
Muzi, M. J. (2000). The experience of Parenting. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Wallerstein, Judith S. (1991). The long-term effects of divorce on children: A review. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30(3), 349-360.