Consider an ecological analysis of their education, training, neighborhood, family ties, and the demographic and economic patterns of unemployment and of migration, in addition to their personal characteristics. A young boy went to school and held his classmates hostage because he wanted to visit his mother who is currently in jail. A lot of these violent acts could be avoided if only children had more people that they could talk to and express their feelings. We have understood since the days of Durkheim's work anomic and altruistic suicide. We know that not to have viable social bonds is to risk alienation and anomie to the point that suicide is clinically more likely.
Young children are dependent on the extended family for most of their social bonds.
Where the family is dysfunctional social bonds are often lacking at a critical time in development. Most of us have been taking the perspective of society's claim against the parents to take on this responsibility. Valencia, Cloyd, Latanya, and Shameica have taken the unusual approach of recognizing that good faith listening may not in fact be within the family's alternatives, and they are suggesting that the children need more people to take over the functions of social bonding through listening.