What Are the Consequences of the Break-Up of Family Life in Many Countries Today?

In recent years, almost all countries have witnessed a gradual disintegration of the family unit. The concept of the ‘nuclear’ family, often living together and sharing resources, has been given up in favour of a single-unit household. Since large, extended families often served only to contribute to agrarian earnings, they dissolved to cater to the needs of the urban-industrial era.

Today, small families, (often with a single parent) are common. The divorce rate and the number of illegitimate children are also in the rise. Senior citizens are no longer a part of their families, and are left at the mercy of private and public "old person's homes". Children, too, leave home at an early age, for independence or income.

To meet the needs of the so called "rat race", often both parents have to work. Therefore children often spend their formative years without the care and guidance offered by parents. "Latch-key" children have independence thrust upon them when they most need care. They are often resentful of their parents, to a degree that they tend to do the same to their own children.

Children without supervision or children left wanting care and nurturing, tend to behave in ways that are socially and morally repugnant. It has been shown in studies worldwide that at least 85% of children under the age of eighteen dabbling in drugs such as marijuana and opium, come from "broken homes" or are "latch key" children, in households where both parents work.

Crime is increasing dramatically. Juvenile crime has probably shown the greatest rise. This is because, left unsupervised, children have the freedom to watch uncensored media, which is often violent or pornographic. Homicide, rape, vandalism or robbery by teenagers is no longer shocking.

In the East, a "joint family system" is still the norm. Values are imbibed through the experience of "elders", instead of personal experimentation. Skills and morals alike are drilled into impressionable young minds. The...