Can broken homes cause mental and physical illness in children and teens?

"Cause" is a...: ...Loaded word: it implies that a broken home can take a perfectly normal child and turn her into a mental wreck. There are many contributing factors to mental illness: internal factors and external stressors. A broken home is certainly a stressor, but it is rarely the sole cause of anything.

Chaos : A chaotic household is toxic to a developing child. The child's brain adapts to the chaos around it, rather than accumulate appropriate learning. The adaptation leads to maladaptation & social dyspraxia which can lead to poor behavior & poor judgment in social settings like school. Mental disorders are biochemical, but the developing brain is highly pliable selecting what is necessary to survive.