CHANGING PATTERNS IN FAMILY LIFE-PARENT CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

Question 1

Discuss how smaller family sizes has affected parent child relationships ?

Answer 1

Total fertility rate has decreased over the years.Women have 1.6
reasons for this:
1)women prioritising having a career so delay having children until later life
->decision to having fewer children
-women want to continue to work
-or she is less fertile due to age
2)cost of children
-children are an economic burden
Some argue it can lead to fulfilling relationships and culture of child centredness
Or it can lead to an increase of loneliness in children as they have fewer siblings/cousins to socialise with

Question 2

Discuss how lone parenthood has affected parent child relationships

Answer 2

25% of families are lone parents
Three reason for increase of this family type:
1)decline in stigma->women aren’t being judged for falling pregnant outside of marriage so can raise children without judgment
2)rise in divorce->more single mothers has mother usually get custody
3)mothers may choose to be single mothers->older women may be financially stable after a period of working so see no need to settle into a traditional family if they fall pregnant in an unstable relationship
CASHMORE:women prefer to raise their child alone
FEMINISTS:interpet their growth as female empowerment and changing position of women in society
NEW RIGHT (MURRAY): lone parent is a decline of moral standards
-lone parents correlates with growing welfare state
-welfare state provides women with perverse incentives to get pregnant in exchange for financial benefits eg housing
-Led to dependency culture:women expect support by the government
-Single parents is the underclass:lie below the respectable w/c and is responsible for many social problems including crime

Question 3

evaluation of Murray-new right

Answer 3

• views are based of stereo types

- 64% of families claim some form of benefit

Question 4

Discuss how reconstituted families has affected parent child relationships

Answer 4

10% of families are reconstituted
-caused by rising trends of divorces and remarriage in society
FERRI AND SMITH:
-step families are n different from a nuclear family
-step families are more likely to live in poverty.Man is trying to finically support biological children and step children
ALLAN AND CROW:
-Step families are more prone to tension and conflict, step relatives might not get on and people unsure of responsibilities towards step relatives
eg- step parents being reluctant to discipline step children
McCARTHY ET AL:
all families are different and unique