INTRODUCTION

Family is a single word with many different meanings. People have many ways of defining a family and
what being a part of a family means to them. What every family has in common is that the people who
call it a family are making clear that those people are important in some way to the person calling them
his family. Some teenagers can define a family as their best friend, teacher, classmate and people who
can always be there for them. But some other teenagers defined it as their enemy, problem, heartache
and most hated people in their life because of being into a broken family.

A broken family is defined as a family that has split or separated due to a variety of reasons that we will
know in the next part of this research. Broken homes can cause children to question their self- worth, to
experience unnecessary grief, guilt and confusion. It can affect their whole life, especially in their studies
and in their emotions. Being into a broken family gives a lot of effects in a teenager. The one who should
support and be there for them are the one who hurts their feeling. This leads to children being raised by
single parents, stepparents or others not related to the biological parents.

The study is primarily focused on the impact of broken family among the teenagers and students. In this
study, the researchers will focus on the behavior of the students in school and how it affected their lives.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The focus of the study is to discover the effects of a broken family among the teenagers.

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following problems: a.) What is the cause of having a broken family?
b.) What will be the attitude of the teenager to the school? c.) What is the effect of having a broken
family to their lives? d.) How can a teenager help prevent having a broken family?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study was to identify the overall effect of a broken family among teenagers. To
fulfill this main objective, the following specific objectives were identified: a.) To know more the effects
of being into a broken family among teenagers b.)
broken family can negatively affect all domains of your child’s development.

broken family can negatively affect all domains of your child’s development. The effects of a broken
family on a child’s development depend on numerous factors, including the age of the child at the time
of parents’ separation, and on the personality and family relationships. Although infants and young
children may experience few negative developmental effects, older children and teenagers may
experience some problems in their social, emotional and educational functioning. prefix = o ns =
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Emotional

After a divorce, children from pre-school through late adolescence can experience deficits in emotional
development. Children of all ages may seem tearful or depressed, which is a state that can last for
several years after a child’s parents’ have separated, explains psychologist Lori Rappaport. Additionally,
some older children may show very little emotional reaction to their parents’ divorce. According to Lori
Rappaport, this may not be developmentally beneficial. Some children who show little emotional
response are actually bottling up their negative feelings. This emotional suppression makes it difficult for
parents, teachers and therapists to help the child process her feelings in developmentally appropriate
ways.

Educational

Slowed academic development is another common way that separation of the parents affects children.
The emotional stress of a divorce alone can be enough to stunt your child’s academic progress, but the
lifestyle changes and instability of a broken family can contribute to poor educational outcomes. This
poor academic progress can stem from a number of factors, including instability in the home
environment, inadequate financial resources and inconsistent routines.

Social

Divorce affects children’s social relationships in several ways. First, some children act out their distress
about their broken family by acting aggressive and by engaging in bullying behaviour, both of which can
negatively affect peer relationships. Other children may experience anxiety, which can make it 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, both toward their parents and potential romantic partners, explains
psychologist Carl Pickhardt in the article, ‘Parental Divorce and Adolescents’ published in Psychology
Today.
Family dynamics

By its very nature, divorce, changes not only the structure of the family but also its dynamics. Even if you
and your spouse have an amicable divorce, simply creating two new households permanently alters
family interactions and roles. Based on the new living arrangements, your children may need to perform
more chores and assume additional roles in the new household’s basic functioning. Additionally, in some
broken families, older children may take on a parental-type role when interacting with younger siblings
because of their parents’ work schedules or inability to be present in the way that the parents were
before the divorce.

Courtesy Anna Green, Demand Media

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