Jemimah-Nikky Jates' Blog

EFFECTS OF BROKEN HOMES ON SOCIETY

The family is undoubtedly the basic unit of the society. It is the pivotal point on which the society revolves. The extent of well-being of the individual families which constitute the society form the yardstick with which the success or failure of the society is measured.
It is therefore not rhetoric to state that once the family system collapses, the society concerned is doomed to fail.

When the average family that constitutes the society is intact, and continually and continuously functions as an integrated unit, the society in turn is integrated, orderly and peaceful. The individual members of the society thus have the opportunity of bringing the various values gotten from their homes to bear towards the development of every sector of the society.

However, where the rate of break-up of homes is on the increase, the reverse is the case. The family members are intellectually, morally, emotionally, psychologically, economically, physically and socially deprived. In the society, they can neither function nor deliver their quota towards the development of the society since they lack the values necessary for same, and which only a stable home can offer. . The children from such homes constitute nuisance in the society, indulging in all sorts of crimes and delinquent activities which pose clogs in the wheels of national development.


The members of the family, by their indulgence in such vicious habits like drunkenness, dependency on drugs, adultery, etc cause the disintegration of their home. The paradox in the whole affair is that the society, which ultimately bears the brunt of the problems caused by the broken-home syndrome, also contributes to its incidence and prevalence. Some of the ways through which the society compounds the problem is by its attitudes towards marriage since the attitude of the society towards the sanctity of marriage, towards the position of women in the home, and towards the importance of restraint in sexual relations, have effects on the broken home rate of any given social group.

In many cases children from such broken homes witnessed violence in their homes. This may cause them to portray violent tendencies right from school and when it is not curbed may turn them into sociopaths.