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Introduction

The family as the basic unit of Philippine society is very significant to Filipinos. It

demands his interest and loyalty more than any other institution in the larger society. Perhaps the

most common assumption about the families is that they are necessary. The idea that people

could not do without such an important and worthwhile social institution is based primarily on

the mere fact of the continuing existence of families, although, as people have seen, they are not

fixed in structure and composition. It influences every aspect of life. It can then be said that

community life is organized by the family. Furthermore, the family is a universal and basic social

unit as the site for co-operation and exchange of resources is taken to include money, food, skills

and space. In addition, the home as a conflict-free arena, thus ignoring power relation between

family members and presume that all members share the same interest.

The modern setup of living makes it impossible to go through life without meeting

conflicts and frustration of all kinds- financial, educational, family and occupational. At times

people cannot cope with these challenges. As a result, there is dissatisfaction with society and

the strain affects his or her attitudes, reaction and conduct. The constant feeling of failure and the

inability to make proper adjustment to problems change his or her total personality. Life becomes

a persistent state of maladjustment and sometimes causes broken homes.

Marriage may be said to be the most intimate human relationship since a husband and

wife are expected to be one. Underlying this oneness, however, there should be a presence of

mutual understanding and this can be attained through communication and deep dialogue which

is a regular feature of marital life (Sussman, 1985). Marriage therefore has played an important

role for women as the source of marital security, and as almost their sole route for social

mobility.
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Marital conflict is one of the most common problems of the family. It is natural and

normal to have conflict from time to time, especially during the first few years of the marriage,

because no two spouses ever agree completely on basic values, attitudes towards allocation of

certain privileges and distribution of scarce resources or on perceptions of the precise meaning of

the role responsibilities (Melville, 1980).

While family values and norms are derived from and independent on the general culture

of the community, the prevailing type of the family system and socialization practiced can gently

affect changes in society. This is due to the fact that the family holds the personality and

character of young people. Thus, a child becomes more conscious of his environment, he will

learn to view his parents and observe the roles they play at home. According to Macaraya (1989),

they help form the childs own good role so that the characteristics that are identified as male and

those as female are defined in terms of what he has seen in his father and mother respectively. In

other words, parents are the ones who greatly set the emotional atmosphere of the home.

The childs natural nursery is the home. The home has the responsibility of establishing

limits and incentives for the process of socialization. The most important teachers are the parents

in the process of the childs growth. For their actions and words, they constantly show the child

how to cope with life situations, how he is to handle emotions, and how he is to live with others.

Broken homes are a social reality that one meets nowadays. Classrooms around the

world are becoming full of children who come from broken homes. It is often the observation

of teachers that these children or adolescents have difficulty relating to others, socializing with

others, and generally have more difficulty in performing well in school. This term paper aims to

find out the causes of broken homes in the Filipino context and the effects of broken homes on

Filipinos.