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The Characteristics of a Dysfunctional Family

The Roles Children Play

Shirley J. Davis
7 min readJun 18, 2020
Photo by Bruno Kelzer on Unsplash

Living in a dysfunctional family is difficult. There are no set rules, no empathy, and no security from parents who are usually self-involved. There are no perfect families. The Cleavers and the Brady Bunch are only television shows to entertain; they are not reality.

This article will discuss what constitutes a dysfunctional family, traits that signify one is present. The article also will cover the roles children of these harmful families take on.

Dysfunctional Families are Not a Joke

Modern culture would flippantly toss about terms such as dysfunctional family and do not deal with the realities of its definition. The term dysfunctional family means a family that lives in constant conflict and instability. The parents in these family units may abuse or neglect their children or both.

The children in a dysfunctional family are forced to allow the horrid behavior of their parents because they are young and cannot fend for themselves. A few of the causes for a dysfunctional family are the presence of codependency, addiction, or mental illness that is untreated.

The maltreatment of children in a dysfunctional family can leave lifelong scars.

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Shirley J. Davis
Shirley J. Davis

Written by Shirley J. Davis

I am an author/speaker/grant writer in the U.S. My passion is authoring information about mental health disorders, especially dissociative identity disorder..

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