Demography, Marriage, Diorce And Family Diversity

Question 1

What is the birth rate and why has there been a long term decline in number of births since 1940s

Answer 1

Birth rate: The number of live births per thousand of the population per year. There has been a decline, due to the baby boomers who were born post world wars

Question 2

What is the total fertility rate?

Answer 2

The average number of children women will have during their fertile years (15-44)

Question 3

What is the average age of a mother at child birth?

Answer 3

30.7

Question 4

What are the 4 main reasons for a decline in the birth rate?

Answer 4

• Changes in women’s positions. - decline in the infant mortality rate. - Children are now an economic liability. - Child centredness

Question 5

What is immigration, Net Migration and emigration?

Answer 5

Immigration - The movement into an area or society. Emigration - Movement out of an area or country. Net migration - Difference between the numbers immigrating and the numbers emigrating.

Question 6

What’s an immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker?

Answer 6

Immigrant - a person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another. Refugee - A person who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. Asylum seeker- A person who says he or she is a refuge, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated.

Question 7

What are the possible reasons why immigration is a problem in the UK?

Answer 7

Housing Crisis, NHS struggling financially, Illegal Immigrants, Crime,Overpopulation,Job crises.

Question 8

What are the trends in UK immigration recently?

Answer 8

• Net migration has been stable since 2015 at around 200,000 to 300,000 a year. - Biggest sources of immigration are Eastern European countries (e.g Poland). - The UK population stands at more than 65 million, Net migration accounts for 75% of this growth.

Question 9

What are the push and pull factors for migrants coming to the Uk?

Answer 9

Push : Unemployment /low wages, war and conflict, political and religious persecution. Pull: higher wages/job prospects p, good social welfare, tolerance of diversity

Question 10

What did Harper (education) in 2012 discover about changes in women’s positions

Answer 10

That Education is the most important reason for the long term fall in birth and fertility rates.

Question 11

What’s the infant mortality rate

Answer 11

The number infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year.

Question 12

What did Brass and Kabir (1978) say about the decline in infant mortality rate?

Answer 12

The trend to smaller families began not in rural areas, where the IMR originally began to fall, but in urban areas, where the IMR remained higher for longer.

Question 13

What are the 3 main effects of changes in Fertility?

Answer 13

1) The Family, 2) The dependency ratio, 3) Public services and policies.

Question 14

How is the family affected by changes in fertility?

Answer 14

Smaller families = women going to work. Creates a dual earner couple rather than the husband being the common “breadwinner”

Question 15

What is the dependency ratio?

Answer 15

Relationship between working (independent) and non-working (dependent) parts of the population

Question 16

How does changes in fertility affect the dependency ratio?

Answer 16

Childhood may become lonelier, more childless adults might mean less voices speaking up for them. In long term there will be a smaller working population

Question 17

How does changes in fertility rate affect public services and policies?

Answer 17

Fewer schools, child health and maternity services needed. Also will have an ageing population

Question 18

What is the death rate?

Answer 18

Number of deaths per thousand of the population per year.

Question 19

What was Tranter (diseases) in 1996 reason for the decline in birth rate?

Answer 19

He found that over 3/4 of the decline in the birth rate from 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as measles, smallpox, diphtheria,typhoid and tuberculosis.

Question 20

What did McKeown in 1972 argue about nutrition?

Answer 20

That improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths. Better nutrition increases resistance to infection and increased survival chances of those who become infected.

Question 21

What are the reasons for the decline in death rate?

Answer 21

Improved Nutrition, medical improvements, smoking and diet, public health measures, other social changes , life expectancy, class gender and regional differences.

Question 22

What did Walker (2011) discover to do with class and death?

Answer 22

Those living in the poorest areas of England die on average 7 years earlier than those in the richest area, while the average difference in disability-free life expectancy is 17 years

Question 23

What is the trend of the average age of the UK population?

Answer 23

It is rising. In 1971- 34.1. In 2021- 41.7

Question 24

What did Hirsch (pyramids) in (2005) discover about the ageing population

Answer 24

That the traditional age pyramid is disappearing and being replaced more or less by equal sized blocks.

Question 25

What are the possible causes for the ageing population?

Answer 25

Increasing life expectancy, declining infant mortality rate, declining fertility rate.

Question 26

What are the effects of an ageing population on families and households

Answer 26

Older couple households, older one-person households, extended families, extended ties and residential proximity, beanpole families, grand parenting, the economic consequences

Question 27

What did Robin Cohen (2006) find about class differences against immigrants

Answer 27

3 different ‘types’ of people :
Citizens - with full citizenship rights such as voting rights.
Denizens- privileged people welcomed by the state- such as billionaire ‘oligarchs’
Helots - the most exploited group- include illegally trafficked workers

Question 28

What did Ehrenreich and Hochschild (2003) find about the feminisation of migration?

Answer 28

That care work, domestic work and sex work in the UK is increasingly done by women from poorer countries.

Question 29

What is the main trend of marriages?

Answer 29

There has been a long term decline in the number of marriages

Question 30

What’s the 4 social factors which explain changing patterns of marriage?

Answer 30

Economic factors, changing gender roles,postmodernism- more individual Freedom/changing values/decline of traditional, The New right - moral decline.

Question 31

When was the divorce reform act? And when did it become effective?

Answer 31

1969, became effective from 1st of Jan 1971

Question 32

What was the peak year for the divorce rate?

Answer 32

1987

Question 33

What are the 7 reason sociologists identify to explain the increase in divorce

Answer 33

Changes in the law, declining stigma and changing social attitudes, secularisation, rising expectations of marriage, the ideology of romantic love, marriage is seen as unrealistic, social networking sites

Question 34

How has declining stigmas affected divorce?

Answer 34

Divorce is no longer viewed as something shameful

Question 35

What is secularisation

Answer 35

Refers to the declining significance of religion in society

Question 36

What did Beck and Beck- Gernsheim (1995) suggest about divorce rates?

Answer 36

Results of a rapidly changing and postmodern world which values: individualisation, conflict and choice

Question 37

What did Deborah Chambers (2001) argue about family’s in 1950s

Answer 37

Developed their family and social structures on the white middle class nuclear family which was prominent in the media.

Question 38

What is Parsons functional fit 2 ‘irreducible functions’?

Answer 38

Primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities

Question 39

What did Amato in 2000 say about families?

Answer 39

That families face greater risk of poverty, educational failure, crime, health problems and issues in future relationships.

Question 40

What is Willmots symmetrical family

Answer 40

It is where a family a family divides all responsibilities equally between partners

Question 41

What is Robert Chester’s neo-conventional family?

Answer 41

A dual earning family in which both parents go out to work not just the father