Changing Family Patterns Flashcards
alternatives to divorce: 3 key
- desertion
- legal separation
- ‘empty shell’ marriage
explanations for the increase in divorce:
- changes in law
- declining stigma and changing attitudes
- secularisation
- rising expectations of marriage
- women’s increased financial independence
- feminist explanations
- modernity and individualism
4 negative consequences of divorce:
- emotional strain
- lack of socialisation
- emotional trauma
- loss of childhood
different types of partnerships:
- marriage
- civil partnerships
- civil ceremony
cohabitation:
- relationship which involves an unmarried couple in a sexual relationship living together
how has marriage changed?
- civil partnerships
- secularisation
- marriage at a later date
- increased cohabiting
- decline in marriage rates
beanpole family:
particular extended family
continuation: beanpole family
extended vertically: grandparents, parents and children
extended horizontally: not aunts, uncles and cousins
childbearing:
child births that are mostly by cohabiting couples
2 reasons for the pattern:
- divorce
- decline in stigma
2 reasons for changes in childbearing:
- births outside marriage is due to a decline in stigma and a rise in cohabiting
- women are having children later due to them focusing on their careers
3 reasons why lone parent families are generally headed by the women:
- women have the nurturing, expressive role
- divorce courts tend to usually give women the custody of the children to the mothers
- men be less willing than women to give up work to care for the children
changes in patterns of marriages:
- fewer marriages
- increased marriages
- later marriages
- fewer church ceremonies
explanations for the decrease in first marriages:
N: norms ( changes in attitudes, secularisation and decline in stigma:
- cohabiting are now acceptable and pregnancy are not the automatic response for ‘shotgun marriage’
continuation:
w: women (feminism, independence, career aspects)
- better educational careers
- less economically dependence
- greater freedom to marriage
fear of divorce:
- some may see marriage as the likelihood of divorce due to the high divorce rate
changing patterns of divorce: stats
- in (2018): 90,000 in the UK of opposite-sex couples and 428 same-sex couples
- in (1971): 74,000 divorces in the year Divorce Reform Act came into place
reasons for increase in divorce: 5
- changing attitudes to relationships
- reduced stigma and secularism
- increased life expectancy
- changing gender roles
- growing individualism in society
changing patterns of family life: marriage and cohabiting
- changing role of women in society
- changing social attitudes
- rising divorces and insecurity of relationships
- changes to social institutions
continuation:
- Giddens’ ideas of confluent love and Baumen’s liquid love suggest that people will opt for serial monogamy over long-term relationships
- marriage delay + fear of divorce
increase in instability in relationships and society
divorce rate decrease while re-marriages increase - process of secularisation has led people to see marriage as outdated and less stigma towards allternatives
sociologist on divorce:
Fletcher (1966) argues that the higher expectations people place on marriage today is a major cause of rising divorce rates.
These higher expectations make couples less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage, which in turn leads to increasing divorce rates.
symbolic interactionism:
Davis Morgan (1996) argues we can’t generalise what divorce means because everyone’s interpretations are different.
Feminists on divorce:
Women are more likely to initiate divorces, which suggests that marriage works less well for women than for men.
