Are single-parent families a major cause of social dysfunction?
Yes: Broken families strongly correlated with a range of social pathologies. Is the single-parent family a symptom or a cause of social disintegration in the United States? Paradoxical as it may sound, it is both. Obviously, people living in single-parent families do not have bad intentions, but they are trapped by their own or their parents’ actions in a form of community that harms children. The evidence is all around us: dangerous, failing schools in America’s inner cities, crime-plagued neighborhoods, crowded prisons and high rates of drug addiction. Different family forms are the end result of two major kinds of rejection among adult parents: either out-of-wedlock birth or divorce. In 1950, for every 100 children born, 12 children entered a broken family. In 1992, for every 100 children bore, 58 entered a broken family. With proportions this high it is more difficult for the nation to have a consensus on family life. But, even as the consensus decreases, the case for the intact ma
