Changing family patterns

Question 1

What is the divorce rate?

Answer 1

the number of divorces per 1000 married people per year.

Question 2

Has the divorce rate increased or decreased and why?

Answer 2

Changes in the law (as seen to the left)
Declining stigma and changing attitudes
Secularisation
Rising expectations of marriage
Women’s increased financial
independence
Feminist explanations
Modernity and individualisation

Question 3

What are the positive consequences of divorce?

Answer 3

society / individuals have high expectations for their relationships
Allows victims of domestic violence to leave
People in unhappy marriages can find someone new
Better home environment for children
Grandparents may see grandchildren more if asked to help with childcare.

Question 4

What are the negative consequences of divorce?

Answer 4

Highly stressful and traumatic time for all family members involved
Divorce could lead to feelings of depression
Financial difficulties relying on one income
Children may not see a parent or side of the family as regularly
Children feel torn about who to stay with

Question 5

Fletcher

Answer 5

argue that the divorce rate has risen because couples now demand more love, companionship, understanding, compatibility and fulfilment in their relationships.

Question 6

Hochschild

Answer 6

for many women, the home compares unfavourably with work. At work, they feel valued but at home, men’s continued resistance to housework makes the relationship less stable.

Question 7

What is the marriage rate and has this increased or decreased?

Answer 7

the number of people getting married per 1000 unmarried men or women aged 16 or over. This has been decreasing however there are more remarriages.

Question 8

What is cohabitation?

Answer 8

unmarried couple in sexual relationship living together

Question 9

Weeks

Answer 9

Gay people create chosen families based on the idea of ‘friendship as kinship’.

Question 10

Stats about childbearing

Answer 10

Nearly half (47%) of all children are born outside of marriage.
Women are having children later
Women are having fewer children
Women are remaining childless

Question 11

Stats about lone - parent families

Answer 11

1 child in 4 lives in a lone parent family
Over 90% are headed by lone mothers

Question 12

Stats about step-families

Answer 12

Account for over 10% of families
Step families are at greater risk of poverty
Face specific problems to do with division and loyalty

Question 13

Willmott

Answer 13

The extended family has not disappeared but continues to exist as the ‘dispersed extended family’ where relatives maintain frequent contact through visits and phone calls.