2. Partnerships

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

1. Marriage
2. Reasons for Changing Patterns of Marriage
3. Cohabitation
4. Reasons for Increase in Cohabitation
5. Relationship between Cohabitation and Marriage
6. Same-Sex Relationships (+ Chosen Families)
7. One-Person Households (+ Reasons for Change)
8. ‘Living Apart Together’

Question 2

1. Marriage

Answer 2

• Fewer people are marrying (marriage is at the lowest since 1920)
• 2012: marriages were less than half of 1970s
• However, there are more re-marriages: 2012 - 1/3 marriages were re-marriages (Serial Monogamy)
• People are marrying later: average age of first marriage rose by 7 years between 1971 and 2012
• Couples are less likely to marry in church:
• 1981: 60% of weddings conducted in religious ceremonies
• 2012: 30%

Question 3

2. Reasons for Changing Patterns in Marriage

Answer 3

• Changing Attitudes (less pressure to marry)
• Secularisation (2001 Census: 3% of young people with no religion were married)
• Declining Stigma attached to alternatives: (1989: 70% believes that couples who want children should be married. 2012: 42% thought so)
• Changes in position of women: better education, financial independence and legal rights
• Fear of Divorce: many do not marry due to fear of divorce

Question 4

3. Cohabitation

Answer 4

• Cohabiting couples with children is increasing
• 1/8 are now cohabiting (double 1996)
• 69,000 same-sex cohabiting couples
• 1/5 of those cohabiting are ‘serial cohabitants’

Question 5

4. Reasons for Changing Patterns in Cohabitation

Answer 5

• Decline in Stigma: (`1989: 44% of people agreed ‘pre-marital sex is not wrong’ 2012: 65% agreed)
• Young are more likely to cohabitate
• Change in women’s position
• Secularisation: young people with no religion more likely to cohabit than those with religion

Question 6

5. Relationship Between Cohabitation and Marriage

Answer 6

• Cohabitation is a step way to marriage (trial marriage)
• For some, it is a permanent alternative (Bejin: true among young)
• Chester: for most people, cohabitation is part of the process of marriage

Question 7

6. Same-Sex Relationships

Answer 7

• Stronewall: 5-7% of adult population have same-sex relationships
• This shows an increase from the past when homosexuals were stigmatised
• 1967, 2004, 2004, 2013

Chosen Families:

• Weeks: increased social acceptance may explain a trend towards same-sex acceptance
• Weeks sees gays as creating families based on ‘friendship as kinship’, friendships become a type of kinship network

Question 8

7. One-Person Households

Answer 8

• 2013: almost 3/10 households contained one person (3x that of 1961)
• 40% of all one-person households are over 65.
• Pensioner one-person households have doubled since 1961)
• 2033: over 30% of adult population will be single

Reasons for Change

• Increase in separation / divorce
• Decline in marriage

Question 9

8. ‘Living Apart Together’

Answer 9

• British Social Attitudes Survey: 1/10 adults are LATs - significant relationship but not married or cohabiting