Their peers become their family because they have a need to belong. Emotional abandonment happens when parents are physically around, but never have time for their children. Again, it may be a difficult, time-consuming job, a very active social life or the selfishness of taking care of oneself first. Morality is learned at home by example. Saying one thing and doing another sends the wrong message.
Parents have the obligation to teach their children right from wrong.
Without a strong set of moral values, a teenager might be very easily influenced by his peers and by strangers. A parental spiritual abandonment happens when parents fail to satisfy the spiritual needs of their children. This void ends up being filled with negative stimulators such as drugs. Children of all ages need to know that God loves them. When parents stop abandoning their children, the school shootings, hit lists and violence will be curtailed.