1.3.5 Families and Households: Changing Patterns and Family Diversity

Question 1

The Extended Family Today

Cheal

Answer 1

• Rules around obligation to assist : spouse, daughter, daughter in law, son, others.
• Sons are rarely chosen for health support and daughters rarely chosen for financial support.

Question 2

The Extended Family Today

Brannen

Answer 2

• ‘beanpole’ family - extended vertically but not horizontally.
• Emerged as a result of higher life expectancy and lower family sizes.

Question 3

The Extended Family Today

Chamberlain (1999)

Answer 3

• Studied Caribbean families and found that despite being geographically dispersed, they continue to provide support. ‘Multiple nuclear families’.
• lol

Question 4

The Extended Family Today

Willmott (1988)

Answer 4

• Extended family continues to exist as a ‘dispersed extended family’ where relatives are geographically seperated but maintain frequent contact.

:)

Question 5

The Extended Family Today

Charles (2008)

Answer 5

Studies families in Swansea and found that the multi generational family is ‘all but extinct’ except in the Bangledeshi community.

Question 6

Divorce

Explanations for the increase in divorce

(7)

Answer 6

1. Changes in the law
2. Declining stigma and changing attitudes
3. Secularisation
4. Rising expectations of marriage
5. Women’s increased financial independence
6. Feminist explanations
7. Modernity and Individualisation

Question 7

Divorce

Smart (2011)

Answer 7

• Personal life perspective
• Divorce can become normalised and family life can adapt to it without disintigrating.
• A transition rather than a problem.

Question 8

Divorce

Morgan (1996)

Answer 8

• Interractionalist
• We cannot generalise around the meaning of divorce as it is different for everyone.

Question 9

Divorce

‘Pure relationship’ definition and which theorists coined it?

Answer 9

• Beck and Giddens - individualists
• A relationship which seeks to satisfy the partner’s romantic needs, not under obligation from society / kids / norms

Question 10

Divorce

Bernard (1976)

Answer 10

• Radical feminist
• Women are becoming more conscious of patriarchal oppression and more confident in rejecting it, leading to higher divorce rates.

Question 11

Divorce

Cooke and Gash (2010)

(Criticise Sigle Rushton)

Answer 11

Found no evidence that working women are more likely to divorce because women working has become the norm.

Question 12

Divorce

Hochschild (1997) which links to Sigle Rushton’s findings

Answer 12

• Hochschild - Women feel more valued at work then they do at home. Men’s reluctance to do housework is a source of frustration.
• Sigle Rushton - Mothers with a dual burden are more likely to divorce then those who do all, or none of the housework.

Question 13

Divorce

Fletcher (1966)

Answer 13

• Higher divorce rate is a result of the higher expectations which people place on marriage, leading to a couple being less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage

Question 14

Divorce

What date what the Divorce Law Reform Act and what did it change?

Answer 14

• 1969
• Made the ‘irrotrieval breakdown’ of marriage the sole ground for divorce.

Question 15

Ethnic Differences in Family Patterns

Matrifocal definition

Answer 15

Female headed family

Question 16

Ethnic Differences in Family Patterns

Reynolds (2010)

Answer 16

• Argues that statistics are misleading and that many of the black women headed families classed as single are actually in supportive LAT relationships.

slay

Question 17

Ethnic Differences in Family Patterns

Heidi Mirza (1997)

Answer 17

• The high rate of lone parent families amongst blacks is not a result of disorganisation, but of the high value black women place on independence.
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Question 18

Ethnic Differences in Family Patterns

Why is it more common for Asian families to be multi generational?

(3)

Answer 18

1. Younger age profile of British Asians, since a higher proportion are of childbearing age in comparison to the population as a whole.
2. High value places on extended family.
3. Need for assistence when migrating.

Question 19

Ethnic Differences in Family Patterns

Reasons for more black lone parents

(3)

Answer 19

1. The legacy of slavery - couples were separated and the children went with the mother, establishing a matrifocal pattern.
2. High male unemployment
3. Black women valuing independence more highly.

Question 20

Ethnic Differences in Family Patterns

What percentage of Black families are lone parent?

Answer 20

49%

Question 21

Partnerships

What government policies are there for same sex?

Answer 21

Same Sex Couples act 2013 gave same sex couples the right to marry.

Question 22

Partnerships

Duncan and Phillips for the British Social Attitudes survey (2013) - LATs

Answer 22

• 1 in 10 adults are in LATs (which is half the number classified as single).
• ‘too early’ to cohabit, wanted to keep own home, past relationship trauma

Question 23

Partnerships

Same sex
Weston (1992)

Answer 23

• describes same sex cohabitation as ‘quasi-marriage’
• Cohabiting contrasts gay lifestyle of casual relationships in the past.

Question 24

Partnerships

Same Sex
Stonewall (2012)

Answer 24

• 5 to 7% of the adult population are in same sex relationships.
• Cannot judge whether this is an increase or decrease due to past stigmas and laws.

Question 25

Partnerships

Cohabitation
Bejin (1985)

Answer 25

Cohabitation amoungst young people represents a conscious choice to create a more personally negotiated and equal relationship then patriarchal marriage.

Question 26

Partnerships

Cohabitation
Chester
Coast (2006)

(Relating theorists)

Answer 26

Chester
* Cohabiting can be seen as a ‘trial marriage’ which is part of the process of getting married.

Coast
* - 75% of cohabting couples say they intend to marry each other.

Question 27

Partnerships

Cohabiting statistics

(2)

Answer 27

• 1 in 8 couples are cohabiting
• Estimated 2.9 million cohabiting couples in Britain

Question 28

Family Diversity

Rapoport’s five types of diversity (CLOGS)

Answer 28

1. Cultural - e.g ethnic groups have different family structures
2. Life cycle differences - e.g pensioner couples, newlyweds, young couple with kids
3. Organisational - e.g joint or conjugal roles
4. Generational differences - e.g in attitudes towards cohabitation
5. Social class - e.g differences based on resources

Question 29

Family Diversity

Chester

Answer 29

• Although there is some increased diversity, the nuclear family remains dominant.
• Neo-conventional family - where both families work (like the symmetrical family)
• The nuclear family remains the norm that people aspire to and many of those not in a nuclear family have been or will.

Question 30

Family Diversity

The New Right

(3)

Answer 30

• Sees the patriarchal nuclear family as the only normal one and all other as abnormal / problematic.
• Believe in intrumental and expressive roles based on biology.
• Believe lone parents are problematic as they cannot discipline children, don’t provide a male father figure, and are poor so a burden on the welfare state.

Question 31

Family Diversity

Parsons
functionalist

(functional fit and irreducible functions)

Answer 31

• ‘functional fit’ between modern society and nuclear family.
• Nuclear family allows for a gepgraphically and socially mobile workforce.
• two ‘irreducible functions’ - the primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities.

Question 32

Family Diversity

Which perspectives are considered modernist?

(2)

Answer 32

• Functionalism
• The New Right

Question 33

Postmodernism and family diversity

Explain the ‘connectedness thesis’ and name the theorist.

Answer 33

• Smart
• Argues decisions are made within a “web of connectedness”
• Argues that personal histories and relationships all strongly influence our current relationships and obligations.

Question 34

Postmodernism and family diversity

What are the criticisms of the individualisation thesis?

(3)

Answer 34

• Exaggerates how much choice people really have
• Ignores that our decisions are made in a social context
• Ignores the importance of social structures (class inequalities, gender norms) in influencing relationships.

Question 35

Postmodernism and family diversity

How does Beck describe postmodern society and the impact on family?

Answer 35

Argues that we now live in a
‘risk society’
where people calculate the risks and rewards before making decisions
The ‘negotiated family’ is not fixed but varies according to its members, making it less stable

Question 36

Postmodernism and family diversity

Describe the ‘pure relationship’ and who theorised it?

Answer 36

• Giddens
• The ‘pure relationship’ is one that exists in postmodern society purely to satisfy the partner’s needs, not under obligation.
• Only survives as long as it brings satisfaction to each partner

Question 37

Postmodernism and family diversity

Describe the individualisation thesis and the sociologists that came up with it.

Answer 37

• Giddens and Beck
• The individualisation thesis argues that traditional social structures, such as class, gender, and family, have lost their influence over society. This gives individuals more choice over their relationships.

Question 38

Postmodernism and family diversity

Stacey

Answer 38

• Argues that more freedom and choice has benefited women as they have freed themselves from patriarchal oppression.
• Found women in California were working, improving their education. improving job prospects, divorced.
• Identified the ‘divorce extended family’ in which family members are connected by divorce.

Question 39

Postmodernism and family diversity

Explain postmodern society

Answer 39

A society past the ‘modern’ society with its orderly structures (e.g. nuclear family), into a chaotic postmodern society with no dominant family type, but choice in relationship style.