Changing Family Patterns

Question 1

Changing family patterns

Answer 1

• in the past 40 or 50 tears there have been some major changes ib the family and household patterns. E.g,:
• the number of traditional nuclear family households has fallen
• divorce rates have increased
• there are fewer first marriages, bur mire re remarriages
• people are marrying later in life
• more couples and cohabiting
• same sex relationships can be legally recognised through civil partnerships or marriages
• women are having fewer children and having them later
• there are more births outside marriage
• there are more lone parent families
• more people live alone
• there are more stepfamilies, and more couples without children

Question 2

Changing patterns of divorce

Answer 2

• since the 1960s, there has been a great increase in the number of divorces in the uk. The number of divorces doubled between 1961 and 1969, and doubled again by 1972. The upward trend continued, peaking in 1933 at 165,000
• since then, numbers have fallen somewhat, but still stood at 118,000 in 2012 - about 6 times higher than 1961. This rates means that bout 40% of all marriages will end in divorce
• one reason for the fall in the number of divorces since the 1990s is that fewer people are marrying in the first place and are choosing to cohabit instead
• about 65% of petitions for divorce now come from women. This is sharp contrast to the situation in the past. E.g, in 1946 only 37% of pensions came from women.
• some couples are more likely than others to divorce. Couples who’s marriages are at great risk include those who marry young, have a child before they marry or cohabit before marriage, and those where one or both partners have been married before

Question 3

Explanations for the increase in divorce

Answer 3

1. Changes in the law
2. De lining 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 4

1. Changes in the law

Answer 4

• divorce was very difficult to obtain in the 19th century Britain, especially for women. Gradually, changes in the law have made divorce easier. There have been three kinds of changes in the law:
• equalising the grounds (the legal reasons) for divorce between sexes
• widening the grounds for divorce
• making divorce cheaper
• when the grounds were equalised for men and women in 1923, this was followed by a sharp rise in the number of divorce petitions from women. Similarly, the widening of the grounds in 1971 to ‘irretrievable breakdown’ made divorce easier to obtain and produced a doubling of the divorce rate almost overnight. The introduction of legal aid for divorce cases in 1949 lowered the cost of divorcing rates. Divorce rates have risen with each change in the law
• although divorce is the legal termination of marriage, couples can and do find other solutions to the problem of an unhappy marriage. Such as:
• desertion - where one partner leaves but couple remain legally marriage
• legal separation - where a court separates the financial and legal affairs of the couple but where thru remain married and not free to re marry
• ‘empty shell’ marriage - where the couple continue to live under the same roof bur remain married in name only.

Question 5

What has changes in the law led to for divorce

Answer 5

• yet although changes in the law have given people the freedom to divorce more easily, this does not in itself explain why more people should choose to take advantage of this freedom. To fully explain the rise in divorce rates we must therefore look at other changes too. These include changes in public attitudes towards divorce

Question 6

2. Declining stigma and changing attitudes

Answer 6

• stigma refers to the negative label, social disapproval or shame attached to a person, action or relationship. In the past, divorce and divorces have been stigmatised. E.g, churches tended to condemn divorce and often refused to conduct marriage services involving divorces. Mitchel and goody note that an important change since the 1960s has been the rapid decline in the stigma attached to divorce
• as stigma declines and divorces becomes more socially acceptable, couples become more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving their marital problems
• in turn, the fact that divorce is now more common begins to ‘normalise’ it and reduces the stigma attached to it. Rather than being seen as shameful, today it is more likely to be regarded simply as a misfortune

Question 7

3. Secularisation

Answer 7

• secularisation refers to the decline in the influence of religion in society. Many sociologists argue that religious institutions and ideas are losing their influence and society is becoming more secular. E.g, church attendance rates continue to decline.
• as a result of secularisation, the traditional oppositions of the churches to divorce carries less weight in society and people are less likely to be influenced by religious teachings when making decisions about personal matters such as whether or not to file for divorce
• at the same time, many churches have also begun to soften their view on divorce and divorces, perhaps because they fear losing credibility with large sections of the public and with their own members

Question 8

4. Rising expectations of marriage

Answer 8

• functionalist sociologists such as fletcher argue that the higher expectations people place on marriage today are a major cause of rising divorce rates. Higher expectations make couples less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage
• this is linked to the ideology of romantic love - an idea that has become dominant over the last couple of centuries. This is the belief that marriage should be based solely on love, and there for each individual there is a mr or miss right out there
• it follows that if love dies, there is no longer any justification for remaining married and every reason to divorce so as to be able to re new the search for one’s true soulmate
• in the past, by contrast, individuals often had little choice in who they married, and at the time when the family was also a unit of production, marriages were often contracted largely for economic reasons or out of duty to one’s family
• under these circumstances, individuals were unlikely to have the high expectations about marriage as a romantic union of two souls that many couples have today. Entering marriage with lower expectations, there were therefore less likely to be dissatisfied by the absence of romance and intimacy
• today, on the other hand, marriage is increasingly viewed not a a binding contract, but as a relationship in which individuals seek personal fulfilment, and this encourages couples to divorce if they do not find it.
• however, despite todays high divorce rates, functionalists such as fletcher take an optimistic view. They point to the continuing popularity of marriage. Most adults marry, and the high rate of re marriage after divorces shoes that although divorces may have become dissatisfied with s particular partner, they have not rejected marriage as an institution
• however, feminist critics argue that this is too rosey a view. They argue that the oppression of women within the family is the main cause of marital conflict and divorce, but functionalists ignore this. Although functionalist offer an explanation of rising divorce rates, they fail to explain why it is mainly women rather than men who seek divorce

Question 9

5. Women’s increased financial independence

Answer 9

• one reason from women’s increased willingness to seek divorce is that improvements in their economic position have made them less financially dependent on their husband and therefore freer to end an unsatisfactory marriage
• women today are much more likely to be in paid work. The proportion of women working rose from 53% in 1971 to 67% in 2013
• although women are generally still earn less than men, equal pay and anti and anti discrimination laws have helped to narrow the pay gap
• girls greater success in education now helps them achieve better paid jobs than previous generations
• the availability of welfare benefits means that women no longer have remain financially dependent on their husbands
• these developments mean that women are more likely to be able to support themselves in the event of divorce
• Allan and crow put forward a similar view. They argue that ‘marriage is less embedded within the economic system’ now. There are fewer family firms and the family is no longer a unit of production, so spouses are not so dependent on each other economically
• in particular, women now have their own separate source of income from paid work. Not having to rely on their husbands financially, women therefore do not have to tolerate conflict or the absence of love, and in such circumstances they are more willing to seek divorce

Question 10

6. feminist explanations

Answer 10

• feminists argue that married women today bear a dual burden: the are required to take on a paid work in addition to performing domestic Labour. in this view of feminists, they has created a new source of conflict between husbands and wives, and this is leading to a higher divorce rate than in the past
• while there may have been big improvemenst in women positions in the public sphere of employment, in education, politics and so on, feminists argue that in the private sphere of family and personal relationships, change has been limited and slow. they argue that marriage remains patriarchal, with mens benefiting from their wives ‘trial shift’ of domestic work and emotion work
• similarly, Hochschild argues that for many women, the home compares unfavourably with wolk. at work, women feel valued. at home, mens continuing resistance to doing housework is a source of filtration and makes marriage less stable. in addition, the fact that both partners now go out to work leaves less time and energy for the emotion work needed to address the problems that arise. both these factors may contribute to a higher divorce rate
• however, cooke and gash found no evidence that working women are more likely to divorce. they argue that this is because working has now become the accepted norm for married women

Question 11

7. modernity and individualism

Answer 11

• sociologists such as beck and giddens argue that in modern society, traditional norms, such as the duty to remain with the same partner for life, lose their hold over individuals
• as a result, each individual becomes free to pursue his or her own self interests. this sure has become know as the individualisation thesis
• relationships thus become more fragile, because individuals become unwilling to remain with a partner if the relationship fails to deliver personal fulfilment. instead, they seek what gidden calls the ‘pure relationship’ - one that exists solely to satisfy each partners needs and not out of a sense of duty, tradition or for the sake of the children. this results in high divorce rates
• at the same time, the rising divorce rate ‘normalises’ divorce and further strengthens the belief that marriage exist solely to provide personal fulfilment
• modern society also encouraged individualism in other ways. e.g, women as well as men are now expected to work and are encouraged to pursue their own individual career ambitions. this can cause conflicts of interest between spouses and contribute to maritial breakdown
• some sociologist also argue that modernist encourages people to adopt a neoliberal, consumerist identify based on the idea of freedom to follow ones self interest. this pursit of self intrest is likely to pull spouses apart

Question 12

the meaning of high divorce rate - the new right

Answer 12

• sociologists disagree about the effects of todays high divorce rate on society and on individual family members
• the new right see a high divorce rate as undesirable because it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family, which they regarded as vital to social stability
• in their view, a high divorce rate creates a growing underclass of welfare dependant female lone parents who are a burden on the state and it leaves boys without the adult male role model they need. they believe it also results ib poorer health and educational outcomes for children

Question 12

The meaning of high divorce rates - feminism

Answer 12

• feminist see a high divorce rate as desirable because it shows that women are breaking free from the oppression of the patriarchal family

Question 13

The meaning of a high divorce rate - postmodernist and individualism

Answer 13

• see a high divorce rate a showing that individuals now have the freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs. They see it as a major cause of greater family diversity

Question 14

The meaning of a high divorce rate - functionalists

Answer 14

• argue that a high divorce rate is not necessarily a threat to marriage as a social institution. It is simply the result of people’s higher expectation’s of marriage today. The high rate of re marriage shows people’s continuing commitment to the idea of marriage

Question 15

The meaning of high divorce rates - interactionists

Answer 15

• aim to understand what divorce means to the individual. Morgan argues that we cannot generalise about the meaning of divorce, because every individuals interpretation of it is different
• mitchel and goody provide a good example of this. One of their interviewees described the day her father left as one of the best days of her life, whereas another said that she had never recovered from her father deserting the family

Question 16

The meaning of a high divorce rate - the personal life perspective

Answer 16

• aspects that divorce can cause problems, such as financial difficulties and lack of daily contact between children and non resident parents
• however, writers from this perspective, such as smart, argue that divorce has become ‘normalised’ and that family life can adapt to it without disintegrating. Rather than seeing divorce as a major social problem, we should see it as just ‘one transaction amongst others in the life course’

Question 17

Marriage

Answer 17

• there have been a number of important changes in the pattern of marriage in recent years:
• fewer people are marrying: marriage rates are at their lowest since the 1920s. In 2012, there were 175,000 first marriages for both partners - less than half the number for 1970
• however, there are more re marriages. In 2012, one third of all marriages were re marriages for on or both patenters. For many people, this is leading to ‘serial monogamy’: a pattern of marriage - divorce - re marriage
• people are marrying later: the average age of first marriage rose by seven years between 1971 and 2012, when it stood at 32 years for men and 30 for women
  Couples are less Likely to marry in church. In 1981, 60% of weddings were conducted with religious ceremonies, buy by 2012 this had fallen to 30%

Question 18

Reasons for changing patterns of marriage

Answer 18

• first marriages
• changing attitudes to marriage
• secularisation
• declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage
• changes in the position of women
• fear of divorce

Question 19

Reasons for the changing patterns of marriage

Answer 19

• many of the reasons for a fall in the number of first marriages are similar to the reasons for the increase in divorce examined earlier. They include:
• changing attitudes to marriage
• secularisation
• declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage
• changes in the position of women
• fear of divorce

Question 20

Changing attitudes to marriage

Answer 20

• there is less pressure to marry and more freedom for individuals to choose the type of relationship they want. There is now a widespread belief that the quality of a couples relationship is more important than its legal status. The norm that everyone ought to get married has greatly weakened

Question 21

Secularisation

Answer 21

• the churches are in favour of marriage, but as their influence declines people feel freer to choose not to marry. E.g, according to the 2001 census, only 3% of young people with no religion were married, as against up to 17% of those with a religion

Question 22

Declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage

Answer 22

• cohabitation, remaining single, and having children outside marriage are all now widely regarded as acceptable, so that pregnancy no longer automatically leads to a ‘shotgun wedding’ in 1989, 70% believed that couples who want children should get married but by 2012 only 42% thought so

Question 23

Changes in the position of women

Answer 23

• with better educational and career prospects, many women are now less economically dependant on men. This gives them greater freedom not to marry. The feminist view that marriage is an oppressive patriarchal institution may also dissuade some women from marrying

Question 24

Fear of divorce

Answer 24

• with the rising divorce rate, some may be put off marrying because they see the increased likelihood of marriage ending in divorce

Question 25

Remarriages

Answer 25

• the main reason for the increase in re marriages is the rise in the number of divorces. The two have grown together so that the rising number of divorcees provides a supply of people available to re marry

Question 26

Age on marrying

Answer 26

• the age at which couples marry is rising because young people are postponing marriage in order to spend longer in full time education, and perhaps to establish themselves in a career first. Another reason is that more couple are now cohabiting for a period before they marry

Question 27

Church weddings

Answer 27

• couples nowadays are less likely to marry in church for two reasons:
• secularisation - fewer people see the relevance of religious ceremony
• many churches refuse to marry divorcees and divorcees may in any case have less desire to marry in church

Question 28

Cohabitation

Answer 28

• cohabitation involves an unmarried couple in a sexual relationship living together. While the number of marriages have been falling, the number of couples cohabiting continues to increase:
• cohabiting families with children are fast growing family type
• three are 2.9 million cohabiting heterosexual couples in Britain. About 1 in 8 adults are now cohabiting double the number in 1996
• there are an estimated 69,000 same sex cohabiting couples
• about a fifth of all those cohabiting are ‘serial cohabitants’ which have one or more previous cohabitations

Question 29

Reasons for the increase in cohabitation

Answer 29

• increased cohabitation rates are a result of the decline in stigma attached to sex outside marriage. In 1989, only 44% of people agreed that ‘premarital sex’ is not wring at all, buy 65% took this view by 2012
• the young are more likely to accept cohabitation
• increased career opportunities for women may mean they have less need for the financial security of marriage and are free to opt for cohabitation
• secularisation: young people with no religion are more likely to cohabit than those with a religion

Question 30

The relationship between cohabitation and marriage

Answer 30

• although cohabitation is increasing as marriage decreases, the relationship between the two is not clear cut. For some couples, cohabitation is just a step on the way to getting marriage, whereas for others it is a permanent alternative to marriage
• Chester argues that for most people, cohabitation is part of the process of getting married. E.g, coast study- 75% of cohabiting couples say that they expect to marry each other

Question 31

A trial marriage?

Answer 31

• many see cohabitation as a trial marriage and intend to marry if it goes well. Most cohabiting couples decide to marry if they have children. In some cases, cohabitation is a temporary phase before marriage because one or both partners are awaiting a divorce
• on the other Hand, some couples see cohabitation as a permanent alternative to marriage. Benjin argues that cohabiting among some young people represents a conscious attempt to create a more personally negotiated and equal relationship than conventional patriarchal marriage. E.g, Shelton and john found that women who cohabit do less housework than married counterparts

Question 32

Same sex relationships

Answer 32

• stonewall, the campaign for lesbians, gay and bisexual rights, estimates that about 5% to 7% of adult population today have same sex relationships. It is impossible to judge whether this represents an increase because in the past, stigma and illegality mean that such relationships were more likely to be hidden
• there is evidence of increased social acceptance of same sex relationships in recent years. Male homosexual acts were decriminalised in 1967 for consenting adults over 21. More recently the age consent has been equalised with heterosexuals. Opinion polls show more tolerance of homosexuality
• social policy now treats all couples more equally. E.g, since 2002, cohabiting couples have had the same right to adopt as married couples. On 2004, the civil partnership act gave same sex couples similar legal rights to married couples in respect of pensions, inheritance, tenancies and property. Since 2014, same sex couples have been able to marry

Question 33

Chosen families

Answer 33

-weeks argues that increased social acceptance may explain a trend towards same sex cohabitation and stable relationships, that resemble those found among heterosexuals. Weeks sees gays as creating families based on the idea of ‘friendship as kinship’, where friendships become a type of network. He describes these as ‘chosen families’ and argues that they offer the same security and stability as heterosexual families
- similar, Weston describes same sex cohabitation as ‘quasi marriage’ and notes that many gay couples are now deciding to cohabitate this with the gay lifestyle of the 70s, which large rejected monogamy and family life in favour of causal relationships

Question 34

One person households

Answer 34

Fewer people today are living in couples:
- there has been a big rise in the number of people living alone. In 2013, also most three in ten households contained only one person
- 40% of all one person households are over 65. Pensioner one person households have doubled since 1961. Men under 65 were the group most likely to live alone
- by 2033, over 30% of the adult population will be single

Question 35

Reasons for the changes

Answer 35

• the increase in separation and divorce has created more. One person households, especially among men under 65. This is because, following divorce, any children are more likely to live with their mother; their father is more likely to leave the family home
• the decline in the numbers marrying, and the trend towards marrying later, also mean more people are remaining single. The proportion of adults who are single has risen by half since 1971. Many of these are living alone. It is possible that a growing number are opting for ‘creative single hood’ - the deliberate choice to live alone
• however, while many of these choose to remain single and live alone, some are alone because there are too few partners available in their age group. These are mainly older widows

Question 36

‘Living apart together’ -LAT

Answer 36

• it is often assumed that those not living with a partner do not have one, whether from choice or not. However, research by Duncan and Phillips for the British social attitudes survey found that about 1 in 10 adults are ‘living apart together’ /‘LAT’. This is about half of all the people official classified as single. It has been suggested that this may reflect a trend towards less formalised relationships and ‘families of choice’
• however, Duncan and Phillips found that both choice and constraint play a part in whether couples live together. E.g, some said they could not afford to. However a minority actively chose to live apart. E.g, because they wanted to keep their own home, it was ‘too early’ ect
• public attitudes towards LATs are favourable. A majority believe that ‘a couple do not need to live together to have a strong relationship’, while 20% see LATs as their ‘ideal relationship’

Question 37

Childbearing

Answer 37

• nearly half of all children are now born outside marriage: over twice as many as in 1986. However, nearly all of these births are jointly registered by both parents. In most cases, the parents are cohabiting
• women are having children later: between 1971 and 2012, their average age at the birth of their first child rose by 4 years to 28.1 years
• women are having fewer children than in the 20th century, though the number increased slightly in the early 21st century. The average number of children per women fell from a peak of 2.95 in 1964 to a record low of 1.63 in 2001, rising somewhat to a peak of 1.94 in 2010
• more women are remaining childless: it is predicted that a quarter of those born 1973 will be childless when they reach the age of 45

Question 38

Reasons for the changes

Answer 38

• reasons for the increase in births outside marriage include a decline in stigma and increase in cohabitation. E.g, only 28% of 25-34 year olds now think marriage should come before parenthood
• the later age at which women are having children, smaller family sizes and the fact that more women are remaining childless, all reflect the fact that women are now have more options than just motherhood. Many are seeking to establish themselves in a career before starting a family, or instead of having children at all

Question 39

Lone parent families

Answer 39

• lone parent families now make up 22% of all families with children. One child in four lives in a lone parent family.
• over 90% of these r families are headed by lone mothers
• until the early 1990s, divorced women were the biggest group of lone mothers. From the early 1990s, single women became the biggest group of lone mothers
• a child living with a lone parent is twice as likely to be in poverty as a child living with two parents

Question 40

Reasons for the patterns

Answer 40

• the number of lone parent families has risen due to the increase in divorce and separation and more recently, due to the increase in the number of never married women having children
• this is linked to the decline in stigma attached to births outside marriage. In the past, the death of one parent was a common cause of lone parent families, but this is no longer very significant
• lone parent families tend to be female headed from several reasons. These include:
• the widespread belief that women are nature suited to an ‘expressive or nurturing role
• the fact that divorce courts usually give custody of children to mothers
• the fact that men may be less willing than women to give up work to care for children

Question 41

Single by choice

Answer 41

• single by choice many lone parent families are female headed because the mothers are single by choice. They may not wish to cohabit or marry, or they may wish to limit the fathers involvement with the child
• renvoize found that professional women are able to support their child without the fathers involvement
• equally, as cashmore found, some working class mothers with less earning power chose to live on welfare benefits without a partner, often because they had experienced abuse. Feminist ideas, and greater opportunities for women, may also have encouraged an increase in the number of never married lone mothers

Question 42

Lone parenthood, the welfare state and poverty

Answer 42

• the new right thinker Murray sees the growth of lone parent families as resulting from an over generous welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and their children
• Murray argues that this has created ‘perverse incentive’, that is rewards irresponsible behaviour, such as having children without being able to provide for them. The welfare state creates a ‘dependency culture’ in which people assume that the state will support them and their children
• for Murray, the solution is to abolish welfare benefits. Those would reduce the dependency culture that encourages births outside marriage
  -however, critics of the new right views argue that welfare benefits are far from generous and long parental families are much more likely to be in poverty. Reasons for this include:
• lack of affordable childcare prevents lone parents working: 60% of them are unemployed. This is twice as high as among mothers with parents
• inadequate welfare benefits
• most lone parents are women, who generally earn less than men
• failure of fathers to pay maintenance, especially if they have formed a second family that they have to support

Question 43

Step families

Answer 43

• stepfamilies (often called reconstituted families) account for over 10% of all families with dependent children in Britain
• in 85% of stepfamilies, at least one child is from the woman’s previous relationships, while in 11% there is at least one child from the mans previous relationship. In 4% of stepfamilies there are children from both partners previous relationships
• ferri and smith found that stepfamilies are very similar to first families in all major respects, and the involvement of stepparents in childcare and childrearing is a positive one. However they found that stepfamilies are at a greater risk of poverty
• according to Allan and crow, stepfamilies may face particular problems of divides loyalties and issues such as contact with the non resident parent can cause tensions
• McCarthy et al conclude that three is diversity among these families and so we should speak of ‘stepfamilies’ plural rather than ‘the stepfamily’. Some have few tensions, while for those that do, the tensions are not so different from those in ‘intact’ families

Question 44

Reasons for the patterns of stepfamilies

Answer 44

• stepfamilies are formed when lone parents form new partnerships. Thus the factor causing an increase in the number of lone parents, such as divorce and separation are also responsible for the creation of stepfamilies
• more children in stepfamilies are from the women’s previous relationship that’s the mans because, when marriages and cohabitations break up, children are more likely to remain with their mother
• stepparents are at greater risk of poverty because there are often more children and because the stepfather may also have support children from a previous relationship
• some of the tension s faced by stepfamilies may be the result of a lack of clear social norms about hoe individuals should behave in such families

Question 45

Ethnic differences in family patterns

Answer 45

• immigration into Britain since the 1950s has helped to create greater ethnic diversity. Analysis of the 2011 census shows that 86% of the uk population were white. Of the 14% belonging to an ethnic minority, the main groups were Asian and Asian British black and black British and mixed. Greater ethnic diversity has contributed to changing family patterns in the uk

Question 46

Black families

Answer 46

• black Caribbean and black African people have a higher proportion of lone parent households. in 2012, just over half of families with dependant children headed by a black person were lone parents families. This compared with only one of the nine Asian families and just under a quarter of the population as a whole
• the high rate of female headed, lone parent black families has has sometimes been seen as evidence of family disorganisation that can be traced back to slavery or, more recently, to high rates of unemployment among black males.
• under slavery, when couples were sold separately, children stayed with the mother. It is argue that thus established a pattern of family life that persist today. It is also argue that male unemployment and poverty have meant that black men are less able to provide for their family, resulting in higher rates of desertion or material breakdown
• however, mirza argues that the higher rate of lone parent families among blacks is not the result of disorganisation, but rather reflects the high value that black women place on independence. Reynolds argues that the statistics are misleading, in that many apparently ‘lone’ parents are in fact in stable, supportive but non cohabiting relationships

Question 47

Asian families

Answer 47

• Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian households tend to be larger than those of other ethnic groups, at 4.4, 4.3 and 3 persons per household respectively, compared with 2.4 for both black and Caribbean and white British households
• such households sometimes contain three generations, but most are in fact nuclear rather extended. Larger household sizes are partly a result of the young age profile of British Asians, since a higher proportion are in the childbearing age groups compared with the population as a whole
• larger Asian households also to some extent reflect the value placed on the extended family in Asian cultures. However, practical considerations, such as the need for assistance when migrating to Britain, are also important. E.g, Ballard found that extend family ties provided an important source of support among Asian migrants during the 1950s and 1960s
• in this early period of migration, houses were often shared by extended families. Later, although most Asian households were now nuclear, relived often lived nearby. There was frequent visiting, and kinship networks continued to be a source of support. Today, Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus are still more likely than other ethic groups or religious groups to live in extend family units

Question 48

The extend family today

Answer 48

• the existence of the extend family among minority ethnic groups raises the question of how widespread or important this kind of family is in the uk today. According to functionalists such as parson, the extended family is the dominant family types in pre industrial society, but in modern industrial society it is replaced by the nuclear family
• e.g, Charles study of Swansea found, the classic three generation family all living together under one roof is now ‘all but extinct’. The only significant exception she found were among the city’s bangladehis community
• however, while the extend family may have decided, it has not entirely disappeared. Instead, as willmott argues, it continues to exist as a ‘dispersed extended family’, where relatives are geographically separated but maintain frequent contact through visits and phone calls
• similarly, chamberlains study of Caribbean families in Britain found that, despite being geographically dispersed, they continue to provide support. She describes them as ‘multiple nuclear families’ with close and frequent content between siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins, who often make a big contribution to childbearing

Question 49

The ‘beanpole’ family

Answer 49

• bells findings suggest the importance of the so called ‘beanpole’ family. The beanpole family is particular type of extended family, which brannen describes as ‘long and thin’:
• it is excreted vertically through three or more generations: grandparents and children
• but it is not extended horizontally: it doesn’t involve aunts, uncles, cousins ect
• e.g, Charles found the same high level of constant between mothers and adult and daughters that bell had found in the 1960s. However, in the case of brothers and sisters, there had been a sharp decline in both support and contact. This suggests a ‘beanpole’ structure.
• beanpole families may partly be the result of two demographic changes:
• increased life expectancy- means more surviving grandparent and great grandparents
• smaller family size - means people have fewer siblings and thus fewer horizontal ties

Question 50

Obligations to relatives

Answer 50

• yet despite the rise of the beanpole family, many people still feel a sense of obligation to help to their wider extended kin. E.g, finch and mason found that over 90% of people had given or received financial help, and about half had cared for a sick relative
• however, there is some variability in what can be expected of different relatives. E.g, finch and mason found that more is expected of females than males. Similarly, cheal argues that, when it comes to help with household tasks
• cheal notes that where personal care for an elderly women is needed, a daughter or daughter in law is preferred if the husband is not available. Sons are rarely chosen as caregivers for an elderly woman. On the other hand, daughters are rarely chosen as appropriate people to provide money
• but while daughters are more likely than sons to take responsibility for the care of elderly relatives, not all the daughters in a family necessarily play an equal part. As mason found, much depends on the history of the relationship, the particular obligations women feel towards their relatives, and what other responsible.