Can't we just drop a nuke on the Vatican

[Rhyfelwyr]

A) What exactly is a broken family?

One where the relationship between the parents falls apart, or where they fail to fulfil their basic parental duties (whether it is due to alcoholism, drugs, being in prison, or whatever).

B) I'm not exactly sure which correlation you claim to be "common knowledge". Divorce causing child abuse? Divorce leading to gang violence? And in which context do you claim this to be true? Only for the lower classes? And what are you comparing? Children with divorced parents with children who never experienced divorce? Wouldn't it be more sensible to take only families who experienced a servere conflict between the parents and compare children of these families whose parents divorced (Group 1) or stayed together despite the problems (Group 2)?

The correlation is between negligent/poor parenting and/or an unhappy household on the one hand, and children becoming involved in bad things on the other. As to your last question there, I am not suggesting that hapless marriages should not end in divorce, or that staying together would be good for their children. I am simply saying that an unhealthy relationship between the parents will often have some sort of effect on the children.

I do indeed insist. Though maybe my disagreement may be solved when I understand better what you mean with "broken family".

Well hopefully I explained what I meant there above. tbh, I never had a specific study in mind. If you just google things like "relationship between parenting/divorce and delinquency/anti-social behaviour, there's and endless supply of studies that, at a glance, all seem to indicate at least some degree of correlation. They also tend to discuss the issue of causation.

BTW there were enough cultures where children were not raised by both parents but e.g. by the mother and her brothers and sisters. How can you be sure that the two biological parent model is superior?

Of course these ways can work, but I see them more as variations on the nuclear family take (in the sense that the bonds are still essentially biological), rather than something else entirely. Grandparents, aunts and uncles etc can of course have varying roles of involvement in bringing up children, and they can also provide a safety net should something happen to the parents. I've never heard someone seriously argue that foster care was the best way to raise a kid.