Note: not on-site psychologists

essays written by psychologists on the place of each individual (or each family member) in these broken homes

"Understanding Abusive Families: An Ecological Approach to Theory ...
by SR Sokoloff - 1999 - Related articles
Understanding Abusive Families: An Ecological Approach to Theory and Practice • Violence and Sexual Abuse at Home: Current Issues in Spousal Battering and ..."
http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/5...

"Solihull Council - How to report a concern about a child or young ...
Abuse can happen to a child at any age, from birth up to 18 years of age and can happen in well-off families and in poor families; it can happen to black ..."
http://www.solihull.gov.uk/staysafe/18809.htm

"Famille tuyau de poêle
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« Famille tuyau de poêle » est une expression de la culture populaire péjorative issue à l'origine de la pièce de théâtre de Jacques Prévert intitulée du même nom (1933), relatant les péripéties d'une famille bourgeoise dépravée (pratiquant l'inceste, entre autres) mais se prétendant hypocritement très vertueuse[1].

Le terme « tuyau de poêle » lui-même désigne au départ le chapeau haut de forme, s'appliquant ainsi initialement pour désigner la famille de cette pièce. Mais il s'appuie également sur une analogie plus concrète, en effet les tuyaux de poêle s'assemblent en s'emmanchant les uns dans les autres. Une « famille tuyau de poële » désigne donc dans sa première acception une famille dont les membres ont tous des rapports sexuels entre eux.

Aujourd'hui, bien qu'étant toujours aussi péjorative, le sens de l'expression a sensiblement évolué, sa connotation sexuelle s'est fortement estompée, s'appliquant davantage aux familles nombreuses et peu cultivées issues de milieux défavorisés ou populaires, voire parfois plus simplement aux familles de « beaufs »."
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famille_tuyau_de_poêle
"

This is a commonly used expression - if it is families that is being discussed here. (I am assuming it is).

If you need to emphasise the point that it is in the homes of "dysfunctional families", you could either say
* "in the homes of dysfunctional families"
or
* "in dysfunctional domestic environments" perhaps.

"There is an ever increasing awareness of violence happening in the domestic environment, in homes of dysfunctional families. "
http://www.2ndchancecounseling.com/domestic/

"A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior and even abuse on the part of individual members of the family occur continually, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is normal. Dysfunctional families are most often a result of the alcoholism, substance abuse, or other addictions of parents, parents' untreated mental illnesses/defects or personality disorders, or the parents emulating their own dysfunctional parents and dysfunctional family experiences."
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Dysfunctional_family

French term (edited): foyers \"tuyaux de poêle\"

As I understand it, the term is used quite loosely in French and therefore has different connotations depending on the context. Most commonly, I have seen it used to refer to families afflicted by incest, especially where this incest occurs across different generations of family members (e.g. parents with children instead of being limited to between siblings). This is the original meaning of the term.

But more recently the sense has evolved and the term can now be used in a sense that has no sexual connotation. In this latter sense it can refer to a family that is generally poor, rather vulgar and with colourful manners (lack of social sensitivity).

So the sense in your text, Eleanor, depends on whether the text as a whole is talking about the problem of incest.

I give two web references below that explain the two different meanings.

These families are "pressure cookers" – volatile, apt to blow, even when the underlying dysfunction may not being actively displayed.

Will try to provide some useful references later.

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Note added at 1 day35 mins (2011-04-06 18:18:33 GMT)
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Some references, such as they are:

"Welcome to family life, TV-style.
"It is a pressure cooker where the stress never ends and where parenthood is less a clearly defined position of authority than a perpetual work in progress. It is not always clear who’s in charge. What is clear is that Father does not necessarily Know Best, and Mother doesn’t always have much of a clue either.
"Indeed, the parents are often as uncertain, impulsive, error-prone and, in some ways, as adolescent as their offspring."
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/family/articles/2010/03/06/i...

"Some of us live day to day in a pressure cooker environment, whether it be work, family obligations or expectations we place on ourselves."
http://lisakifttherapy.com/mental-health/mental-health-tips-...

"A PRESSURE COOKER
"Ron Desnoyers, a psychiatric social worker at St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, can testify to the significant increase in patients coming into the hospital with feelings of hopelessness and depression around the holidays. Desnoyers says he's noticed that families have become more isolated through the years, which makes family get-togethers more of a pressure cooker."
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2010...

"Upon Iwao's return, this claustrophobic family unit seems like a pressure cooker ready to explode as Shizuo struggles to keep it intact, and so Iwao severs his ties, traveling across the country masquerading as both university professor and lawyer, leaving Kazuko behind with his family and a trail of corpses behind him stretching from Kyushu to Hokkaido."
http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/vengeance-is-mine.shtml

"Pressure Cooker Families" (section title) on page 21 of this PDF:
http://www.swordandtrumpet.org/issues/2004_11_Nov.pdf