Divorce Flashcards
How many couples got divorced in 1993
165000
Divorce reform act
1969- allowed couples to legally obtain a divorce if they could prove that their relationship had experienced an irretrievable breakdown
Matrimonial and family proceedings act
Reduced the time limit for divorce from three years to one year
Family law act
Increased the minimum time limit for divorce to 18 months and introduced a cooling off period where they are expected to attend marriage counselling
Thornes and collard
There has been an increase in divorce due to the changing expectations of family life - women are developing higher expectations of marriage -75% are filed by women
New right - Murray
Increase in divorce has led to a rise in fatherless families in which are not being socialised in to the correct norms - claims that an underclass has emerged in which single mothers are claiming state benefits
Beck and Beck-Gernsheim ( late modernity )
Increase in individualism and choice ( individualisation thesis) - partners are more likely to prioritise their own interests and there has also been a decline of traditional pressures such as religion
Functionalism - fletcher
Suggests that people have higher expectations of marriage , by breaking up and re-marrying, individuals will have a happier experience of family life and therefore perform their roles more effectively
Rodgers and Pryor
When children are raised without a father figure they are more likely to : underachieve in education , engage in underage sexual activity, be involved in crime and have addiction issues
Feminists : DUNCOMBE and Marsden
Increase in divorce illustrates the frustration of women who feel that their marriages are exploitative. They endure a triple shift , divorce can therefore be a positive movement for women
Single parent families
In 2009 there were 1.9 million single parent families which equates to around a quarter of all family units
Mooney et al.
Suggests that parental conflict has more of a detrimental effect on child development than parental separation so being raised by a single parent may provide more stability
Burghes and Brown
Conducted a qualitative study of unstructured interviews on 31 single mothers who were teenagers at conception and found that most of teenage pregnancies were accidental and chose to keep the babies due to strong anti-abortion views . Although single mothers declared that it was hard work but they also found it an enormous joy
