Changing family patterns

Question 1

What are two changing patterns of divorce?

Answer 1

• since the 1960s there has been an increase in divorce
• about 65% of petitions for divorce come from women

Question 2

What are the 7 explanations for the increase in divorce?

Answer 2

• changes in the law
• decline in stigma and changing attitudes
• secularisation
• rising expectations of marriage
• women increased financial independence
• feminist explanations
• modernity & individualisation

Question 3

What have been the three kinds of changes to the law?

Answer 3

• equalising the grounds for divorce between sexes 1923 > led to a sharp rise in divorce petitions from women
• widening the grounds for divorce 1971> made divorce easier to obtain
• making divorce cheaper 1949 >introduction of legal aid for divorce cases

Question 4

How has declining stigma affected divorce rates?

Answer 4

• divorce has become more socially acceptable > couples become more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving martial problems
• becomes normalised

Question 5

How has secularisation affected divorce rates?

Answer 5

• less influence of religion on society
• church attendances rates declining
• traditional opposition to divorce carries less weight in society

Question 6

How has the rising expectations of marriage affected divorce rates?

Answer 6

• Functionalist Fletcher > higher expectations make couples less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage
• ideology of romantic love > each individual has their Mr or Miss Right
• marriage not seen as binding contract but a relationship in which individuals seek personal fulfilment

Question 7

How do feminist critique Fletchers view on divorce?

Answer 7

• argue that his view is too rosy > ignore the oppression of women as the main cause of marital conflict & divorce
• assumes all individuals freely leave unsatisfactory marriages > women may feel pressured to stay due to societal or economic constraints

Question 8

How has women’s increase financial independence?

Answer 8

• improvements in women’s economic position has made them less financially dependent on their husbands
  > women today more likely to be in paid work
  > equal pay and anti-discrimination laws have helped narrow the pay gap
  > girls better success in education helps them achieve better paid job

Question 9

How has feminism affected divorce rates?

Answer 9

• in the private sphere of the family > marriage still remains patriarchal with men benefiting from their wives ‘tiple shift’
• created a new source of conflict between husbands and wives

Question 10

How has modernity and individualisation affected divorce rates?

Answer 10

• Beck & Giddens argue that in modern society, traditional norms loses their hold over individuals
• each individual has become free to pursue their own self interest > individualisation thesis
• people remain unwilling to remain a relationship that fails to deliver personal fulfilment > seek a pure relationship based on satisfying each others need
• likely to pull spouses apart

Question 11

What are the different sociological perspectives views on the high rates of divorce?

Answer 11

• New right > see it as undesirable as it creates underclass of welfare dependent female lone parents who are a burden on the state
• Feminists > see it as desirable because it shows women are breaking free from the oppression of the patriarchal NF
• Postmodernists > it shows that individuals have freedom to choose to end a relationship if they need > leads to family diversity
• functionalists> not a threat to marriage as a social institution, remarriage shows peoples continuing commitment
• PLP > family life can adapt to divorce without disintegrating

Question 12

What are two changing patterns of divorce?

Answer 12

• fewer people are marrying
• more remarriages > leading to a serial monogamy

Question 13

What are the 5 reasons for a fall in the number of marriages?

Answer 13

• secularisation
• declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage e.g. cohabitation
• changes in women position
• fear of divorce

Question 14

What is cohabitation?

Answer 14

• an unmarried couple who have a sexual relationship living together

Question 15

What are two changing patterns of cohabitation?

Answer 15

• 3.5 million cohabiting heterosexual couples in Britain
• about a fifth of all those cohabiting are serial cohabitants

Question 16

What are the reasons for increase in cohabitation?

Answer 16

• decline in stigma of sex outside of marriage
• changing position of women > less need of financial security of marriage
• secularisation

Question 17

What do most cohabiting couples see cohabitation as?

Answer 17

• a trial marriage
• cohabitation = temporary phase before marriage

Question 18

Other than a trial marriage what do other cohabitating couples see cohabitation as?

Answer 18

• some see as a permanent alternative to marriage
  Beijn > represents a more conscious attempt from younger couples to create a more personally negotiated and equal relationship than conventional patriarchal marriage

Question 19

What is a changing pattern of same sex relationships?

Answer 19

• 5-7% of the adult population today have same-sex relationships

Question 20

What may explain the trend towards same-sex cohabitation & relationships that resemble same sex relationships?

Answer 20

• increased social acceptance
• Weeks sees lesbian and gay men as creating family based on the idea of ‘friendship as kinship’ > describes these as chosen families as they offer same security as heterosexual families

Question 21

What are the changing trends of one-person household?

Answer 21

• big rise in number of people living alone
• half of all one person household are over 65

Question 22

What are the reasons for trends of one-person households?

Answer 22

• increasing in separation and divorce > father likely to leave family home & children live with mother
• decline in numbers marring > people remaining single

Question 23

What did Duncan and Philips find about those not living with a partner?

Answer 23

• found for the BSA survey that about 1 in 10 adults are ‘living apart together’ > in a significant relationship but not married or cohabitating

Question 24

What are the changing trends of childbearing?

Answer 24

• nearly half of all children are born outside of marriage
• women are having children later
• women are having fewer children

Question 25

What are the reasons for changes in child bearing patterns?

Answer 25

• decline in stigma and increase in cohabitation
• women have more options other than motherhood & want to establish themselves e.g. education

Question 26

What are the changing trends of lone parent families?

Answer 26

• LPF make up 24% of all families with children
• about 90% of these families are headed by lone mothers

Question 27

What are the reasons for changing trends in lone parent families?

Answer 27

• increase in divorce and separation
• increases in number of never married women having children
• decline in stigma to attached to births outside of marriage

Question 28

What are the critiques of the New right view on LPF?

Answer 28

• welfare benefits are far from generous because:
  > lack of affordable childcare prevents lone parents from working
  > inadequate welfare benefits
  > most lone parents are women who generally earn less than men
  > failure of fathers to pay child support

Question 29

What are the changing trends of stepfamilies?

Answer 29

• stepfamilies (aka reconstituted) account for over 10% of all families with children
• stepfamilies are at greater risk of poverty
• stepfamilies may face issues of divided loyalties & issues such a contact with non-resident parent can cause tensions

Question 30

What are the reasons for the changing trends of stepfamilies?

Answer 30

• divorce and separation leads to increase in stepfamilies
• children more likely to remain with mother so more children in stepfamilies are from women’s previous relationship
• greater risk of poverty because there are more children & father may have to support children from previous relationship as well
• tensions face may be due to lack of clear social norms about how individuals should behaving in SP

Question 31

How has immigration changed family patterns?

Answer 31

• Migrants brought with them the family patterns of their countries origin

Question 32

What are the family patterns of British South Asian families accoridng to Berthoud?

Answer 32

• had high rates of marriage and low rates of cohabitation & divorce
• arranged marriages common among Sikh & Muslims
• higher rate of three generational households
• high value places on ‘izzat’ especially related to daughters

Question 33

What are the family patterns of White British families?

Answer 33

• lower marriage & fertility rates, later marriage, small family sizes

Question 34

What are the family patterns of Black British Caribbean families?

Answer 34

• lower marriage rates than other two groups and low fertility rates
• higher rates of lone parenthood
• high rates of intermarriage

Question 35

Although the extended family may have declined, why has it not disappeared?

Answer 35

• Willmott argues it continues exists as a ‘dispersed extended family’ where relatives are geographically separated but maintain frequent contact through visits and phone calls