Family Problems and the Court

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APRESSING problem confronting the American social order is that of preserving and strengthening the It is no exaggeration say that satisfactory family life is basic all adequate social relations; for a primary function of the family is its contribution the development and fulfillment of human personalities, and personalities that are inadequately developed or unfulfilled are incapable of assuming membership in the society. It is no exaggeration, either, say that American families have in recent decades been subjected extraordinary stresses, and expected meet unusual demands. The increasing urbanization, industrialization, and mobility of our society, the lessening of sacred controls upon our ways of thinking and doing, and the increasing and sometimes illdefined emphasis upon personal freedom -coupled with the social effects of two world wars and a continuing police action-have all posed problems of impressive dimensions for the Our society's efforts aid the family have often been sketchy, sometimes ill advised, and rarely co-ordinated. Each discipline which views the family as its responsibility has moved with only a partial interdependence to do something about the family. Governmental agencies have assumed responsibility, an increasing degree, for measures aimed at stabilizing and guaranteeing the economic function of the family through social security measures of one sort or another. Social agencies have increasingly assumed responsibility for providing the family with counseling for its interpersonal problems, the school with guidance and therapy in the rearing of its children, the church with religious indoctrination for its members, and so on. But divorce, desertion, nonsupport, and other evidences of family instability continue exhibit themselves at an alarming rate, and with no significant decreases in sight.