Families and households- partnerships Flashcards
What did Duncan and Phillips find in 2013?
1/10 adults were LATs through choice and constraint play a part in whether couples live together
Who is the author of LATs?
Levin (2004)
What does Levin say?
-New family form
-Long-term, committed, intimate relationships
-Alternative to marriage/cohabitation
-They can pursue intimacy and being in a couple but you can obtain autonomy and identity
What are the reasons for the growth of LATs?
-Social changes+changing norms
-Rise in divorce which is a more socially acceptable way to deal with the ‘fallout’
-Decline in marriage
-Increase in cohabitation
-Growing individualisation- more prone to find new partners
-Changes in the labour market mean that it is more difficult to retain their existing jobs and income in their areas
-Modern technology like Facetime, messages, and video links mean that people can maintain relationships virtually
Why have there been changes in childbearing?
-Women having less/no bearing
-More single-parent families
Why are women having fewer children?
-The changing role of women, more focussed on their career
-Expensive
-More socially acceptable to not have children
-Births outside marriage have risen
What percentage of single-parent families are female-headed?
-90%
What are the advantages of single-parent families?
-A better relationship with a lone parent
-Avoids conflict
-Can remarry
What are the disadvantages of single-parent families?
-Only one parent figure
-Judgement from peers
-One income
-One viewpoint
Do feminists support lone-parent families?
Yes
How common are lone-parent families?
1 in 4
Are lone-parent families more likely to live in poverty?
Yes
Why have LPFs increased?
-Divorce
-Separation
-Less marrige ‘creative singlehood’
-Death of spouse
What does Renivoise say about LPFs?
-Professional women can support their children without the father’s involvement
What are the reasons for LPFs?
-Reproductive technology, sperm donor, surrogacy
-Improved contraception
According to who-1 in 10 dependent children who lived in stepfamilies in 2011 feel closer to their birth parents
Allan et al
What are the disadvantages of stepfamilies?
More likly to question and disagree on things such as discipline, whose roles are whose and how the household is organised
What do philips and Duncan argue about LATs?
-Both choice and constraint play a part in weather couples live together
-Some people could not affort to be LATs
-Some people actively choose to live apart
-To early to cohabbit
-Keep there own home
-LATs are not abnormal anymore
What do femminists argue about new trends in partnerships?
-Positive for women
-Provides them with financial independence as they are more career centred so can choose to be independence
-Free from exploitation and domination
What do Allan and crow (2001) argue the increase in lone parenthood is mainly due to two factors?
-Marital breakdwon (mainly divorce)
-Rise in births to unmarried mothers
What are the main reasons for an increase in lone parenthood?
-Divorce- 1969 reform act made it easier and cheaper and a no fault divorce
-Economic independence-more young women are in professional careers, greater economic independence,less dependnt on financial support from a husband, greater economic oppotunities and choices
-Changing attitudes- growing tolerance, stigma has reduced, less pressure on mother to remarry, secularisation (wedlock), more of a norm
-Welfare system
What does new right argue about the welfare system?
-Over generous welfare payments, major cuase of the increase in lone parent families, women dont rely on men
Why are lone parent families normally matrifocal?
-Women are more liekly to gain custody
-Men have better paid job, reluctant to give up their jobs to look after children
-Father may have abandend the mother before birth
-Men view giving up work as a threat to their masculinity and fear of beind ridiculed
-Women are seen as more nuturing and better to be raising children and a more socially acceptable figuire
What do Functionalists and new right argue about lPFs?
-Threat to society
-not able to provide proper socialization and moral education for children (underperform)
-Little understanding of the responbillities and duties of a father
-Become emotionally disturbed
-Have a low IQ and poor physical health
-Poverty and unemployment
-Afro-carribean families are more likely to display dilliquent behaviour
-Financial burden on society
-Underclass-Wewlfare state usually supports these families
What do postmodernists argue about lone parent families?
- More freedom
-More fmailiy diversity is a positive thing
Why do people critcise New rights view?
-Little insentive to become a lone aprent, they do not want to rely on state benefits
-Find it impractical to live on state benefits as they would like to work but they cant
-Lont parenthood is mostly short lived
-Femminists argue that LPFs are not inaequate
