UK is ‘world leader’ in family breakdown – but is it any wonder?
by Rebekah Moffett, Christian Concern:
A study by think tank Centre for Social Justice recently revealed that Britain is a “world leader” in family breakdown, with only around two thirds of all children under 15 still living with both parents. Yet, while most people have become accepting of family breakdown, the effects of it have often gone unreported.
Family breakdown “one of the quickest routes into poverty”
According to the study, which used figures from market research agency ComRes, “the stark fact is that the break-up of family relationships is one of the quickest routes into poverty.” And while government reports have long shown that families that are torn apart are more than twice as likely to experience poverty as those that stay together, little is said or done about it.
In fact, the route into poverty isn’t the only ill effect of family breakdown. The study reveals that children whose parents split up when they are under 18 are 2.3 times more likely to experience homelessness; twice as likely to get into trouble with the police or spend time in prison; 1.9 times more likely to experience educational underachievement; 1.9 times more likely to separate from the parents of their own child/ren; 1.8 times more likely to experience alcoholism; 1.7 times more likely to experience teen pregnancy. The list goes on.
“If figures showed such causal links on this scale in any other area of government,” concludes the study, “there would be a clamour for something to be done.” So why isn’t there?
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