Family breakup refers to any situation where a family changes dramatically in the number of people or places involved, including divorce, parental abandonment, or death. Legal issues such as custody may arise. Single parent families and unique situations are still considered families, but family dissolution refers to a change in family status.
Family breakup occurs when a group of people who have lived together in a domestic manner, typically involving at least one adolescent and two parents, ends or changes these living arrangements. This term is used relatively loosely, referring to any situation in which a family that once fit the nuclear family model changes dramatically in the number of people or places involved. Not only is family dissolution a term used for divorce, but it is also used for parental abandonment or the death of a parent. While family dissolution is used very generically in a variety of contexts, there are also legal issues, such as custody, surrounding family dissolution that make the definitions more important.
Many families end in dissolution of marriage or divorce. Even in no-fault divorces, parents typically restructure the methods they used to raise their children and the places they used to raise them. For example, what was once one household can become two households. Other parties, such as stepparents, may also be involved in the family. Depending on the situation, the former family unit may continue to act as a single unit or split completely into two separate bodies.
Death and desertion, in which one party leaves the family with no option or intention to return, can also break up a family. These events are usually less legally challenging for the remaining family, although they are often sadder for those involved. Both death and abandonment can result in the addition of family members when the remaining parent remarries.
There are also unique situations that lead to the breakup of the family. For example, some single parents who are drafted into the military are forced to leave their children behind. Also, a parent who goes to prison can break up a family. Any number of infractions can cause government officials to remove children from a household as well. In some cultures, duties such as military service replace parental obligations, causing many families to break up.
Single parent families and other unique situations are still considered families by those living in those situations and many others. Family dissolution, therefore, mainly refers to a change in family status. The family does not cease to exist as the term dissolution might imply, but it changes enough that it is no longer quite the same family. There are a variety of social and emotional effects involved when thinking of these families as broken, so it is advisable to simply think of them as different. Even broken families can be emotionally fulfilling and loving.
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