Changing patterns in the family Flashcards
Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, childbearing and the life course, including the sociology of personal life, and the diversity of contemporary family and household structures
47% of children in 2013
were born to unmarried parents
1 in 3 marriages
are not the first marriage of at least 1 partner
in 2011 1 in 10 children
were being raised in a step family
in 2013 only 21% of households
were a couple with dependent children
50% of marriages end in divorce, increased from
25% in 1974
in 2010 1 in 6 adults under 50
were cohabiting (up from 1 in 100 in the 1960s)
22% of couples who live together in 2021
are unmarried (doubled since 1996)
in 2022, 23% of dependant children
live in lone parent families, up from 7% in 1972
65% of marriage ceremonies
are religious
in 2017 more than 80% of married couples
had lived together before marriage
the number of opposite sex marriages has
halved since 1972
1 in 5 of people who cohabit
are ‘serial cohabiters’ who have lived with other partners before
Beaujouan and Ni Bhrolchain (2011) view on cohabitation
- cohabitation is not causing a decrease in marriage
- it’s a ‘trial period’ to ‘screen out’ weaker relationships
- 80% of modern marriages involve couples who were already cohabiting
Smart and Stevens (2000) - cohabitation
- cohabiting couples are ‘testing the water’
- cohabitation is a temporary phase and a precursor to marriage
New right view on cohabitation
P.Morgan (2000)
- it’s replacing marriage and is less stable
- refers to cohabitation as ‘marriage-lite’
- cohabiting couples are less happy and less fulfilled, and are more likely to be abusive, unfaithful and split up
Hedonism (meaning)
the search for personal happiness and pursuit of pleasure (growing in modern society)
almost half of young people stay in uni until at least the age of 21
then they have debt etc so it delays other commitments compared to older generations who started work at 16
since the 1960s contraception
has been free from the NHS including the pill
Illouz - view on relationships
- since 16th century individualisation has increased
- survey of mostly middle class, straight western couples
- ‘ideology of personal freedom’ - everyone can choose their partner and lifestyle (eg with dating apps)
- link between casual sex and marxism - the commercialisation of female bodies
in 2018 the average woman in Europe had 1.58 kids
down from 2.57 in 1960
in the UK abortion was legalised in
1967
in the UK the pill was introduced in
1961
in 1970 1 in 10 uni students was female
this increased to 1 in 3 in 1980
following 1970 equal pay act
in 2021, 75% of mothers with dependent children
had a job
in 2021, 57.7% of families with dependent children
had both partners in full time employment
50% of 30 year olds today are childless
up from 18% in 1971 (ONS)
37% of childless adults never want kids
but only 26% of childless adults definitely do want kids (YouGov)
70% of divorces are
initiated by women
Mitchell and Goody (1997) - divorce
since the 1960s the stigma surrounding divorce has rapidly declined
Allan and Crow (2001) - marriage
“Love, personal commitment and intrinsic satisfaction are now seen as the cornerstones of marriage. The absence of these feelings is itself justification for ending the relationship”
Leach - increased divorce
the family suffers from emotional overload
Hothschild (feminist, 1997) - increase in divorce
Home compares unfavourably with work - women feel their partners are emotionally absent
Greer (radical feminist) - increase in divorce
wives are no longer content to suffer oppression from their husbands
Lone parent family stats
- percentage of lone parent families has tripled since 1972
- 1 in 4 families with dependent children were lone parent families in 2014
- 9 in 10 lone parent families are headed by women - courts tend to give mothers custody
Reasons for more lone parent families
- greater economic independence of women
- improved contraception
- changing male attitudes
- fewer ‘shotgun’ weddings
- increased availability of contraception
- changing social attitudes
Murray (New Right, 1990) - lone parent families
generous welfare policies encourage women to have children they would otherwise be unable to support
seen as a problem within society - moral panics
Allan et al - blended families
‘natural families’ have a sense of unity through shared history and experiences which is lacking in stepfamilies
in couples which both have children from previous relationships, there is a
70% chance of divorce
more divorced men than women
get remarried
where one or both partners is getting married for a second time there is a 31% risk of divorce
compared to a 45% risk of divorce amongst couples where they’re getting married for the first time (ONS)
BUT - this is more down to age (Benson), as its couples that marry later that have a lower risk of divorce
Levin (2004) - Living Apart Together relationships (LATs)
- 2 million LATs in 2002
- long term, committed relationships that don’t live together - alternative to marriage/cohabitation rather than preceding them
- “pure relationship” so can be independent
- 3 reasons for choosing them: responsibility and care (eg for elderly or kids), practical reasons (eg jobs far away) and risk (been hurt before, don’t want to repeat)
Arguments for LATs
- easier to find space
- allows for extremely long-term relationships as easier to be committed for longer
Arguments against LATs
- can be a choice to preserve an unhealthy relationship where living together is unbearable
- may prevent issues from being solved
Reasons for increased LATs
Technology - allows people to meet that live far away and helps them to keep in touch
Rising divorce rates - divorcees may be scared to remarry so want to avoid risk and unmarried people may be scared of divorce so don’t want to marry
Changes to the world of work - people travel more so could be inconvenient to live together and longer hours eg night shifts may make living alone easier
Functionalists suggest that the classic extended family is
dying out
Lane, Spencer and McCready - traditional classic extended family endures
- “the family is at the heart of the (romany) gypsy life and most gypsies continue to live in extended family groups”
- “most gypsy families maintain traditional gender roles, with the women being responsible for the home, the cooking and the cleaning”
The decline of traditional working class communities (close knit, helping eachother)
Thatcher’s government closed a lot of mines which forced workers to move elsewhere for work
Berthoud - south asian families
tend to be larger than other families, due to having more children and multiple generations under one roof
Modified extended families
- a multigenerational family living apart but keeping in touch and maintaining kinship links
- increased in UK due to technology and ease of transportation
Beanpole families
- several generations but less siblings, cousins etc - less members of each generation so the family tree is long and thin
- increased due to improved healthcare so higher life expectancy and people having less kids
Berthoud - caribbean families
- family life in the Caribbean community is based on ‘modern individualism’ (less focus on tradition, emphasis on choice)
- lone parenthood is higher among Caribbean families than any other ethnic group
Stats suggesting the traditional nuclear family is in decline
- 90% of families have dual employment
- 1 in 2 kids born to unmarried parents
Stats suggesting the traditional nuclear family isn’t in decline
- 2/3 of marriages are people’s first marriage
- majority of children still live with biological parents
Charles (2008) - classic extended families are
almost extinct, even in the working class
KIPPERS (kids in parents pockets eroding retirement savings)
- 24% of 20-34 year olds live with parents (2014, Shelter)
- 73% of these say they don’t want to
- by their early 30s - 1 in 10 men and 1 in 20 women living with parents
- 25% increase since 1996
Chester (1985) on family diversity
- Claims that arguments about family diversity are exaggerated and the basic features of family have remained largely unchanged for the majority of the population since the 1950s
- most adults still marry and have children, most children are still raised by the natural married parents
Rapoport and Rapoport - ways that family life is diverse
Organisational
Cultural
Class
Life course
Cohort
Rapoport and Rapoport - Organisational diversity
- the way families organise themselves in terms of roles (eg symmetrical)
- increased diversity - more symmetrical and blended families
- 39% increase in blended families 2003-2013
Rapoport and Rapoport - Cultural diversity
- families differ in terms of beliefs and values
- some cultures place more emphasis on being married with kids
- 47% of asian households in 2011 were made up of couples with children
Rapoport and Rapoport - Class diversity
- availability of resources, quality of housing, leisure opportunities etc all impact family life
- well-educated middle class women with careers are more likely to delay having kids or not have kids
- in 2014 8% of babies were born to mothers with a higher professional occupation than their partner
- 87% of mothers with children under 5 from high income families are married compared to 24% of those in lower income groups (marriage foundation)
Rapoport and Rapoport - Life course diversity
- people change family structures throughout their lives
- in 2014 1/4 of families with kids were lone parent families
Rapoport and Rapoport - Cohort diversity
- change over time based on generational views
- eg more people having kids out of wedlock - 1/2 of kids born have unmarried parents
Reasons its difficult to identify the extent of marital breakdown
some people aren’t legally divorced but still separated
some may live in empty shell marriages - couples that live together but don’t love eachother
