Families Key Words

Question 1

Apollonian image of the child

Answer 1

Sees children as being born good but requiring the good aspects of their nature to be coaxed out of them sympathetically.

Question 2

Beanpole family

Answer 2

The beanpole family is a 21st century version of the extended family: with a long thin structure, the beanpole family has strong ties but lives apart. There aren’t many children per family, but inter-generational ties are strong.

Question 3

Birth rate

Answer 3

The number of live births per 1000 of the population per year.

Question 4

Care gap

Answer 4

A shortage of capacity to care for family members eg. the problems produced when mothers from less developed countries emigrate in search of work but leave their children behind.

Question 5

Cereal packet image of the family

Answer 5

The image of the family often presented in marketing as a conventional heterosexual nuclear family.

Question 6

Child-centred

Answer 6

A situation in which the interests of children are put before the interests of adults.

Question 7

Cohabitation

Answer 7

Living together in an intimate relationship without being married.

Question 8

Confluent love

Answer 8

Love that is dependent upon partners benefiting from the relationship rather than unconditional love.

Question 9

Conjugal roles

Answer 9

The roles of husband and wife within marriage (can also be cohabiting).

Question 10

Death rate

Answer 10

The number of deaths per 1000 of the population per year.

Question 11

De-differentiation

Answer 11

A decline in the importance of differences between things eg. between age groups.

Question 12

Demographic revolution

Answer 12

A situation in which fertility rates and death rates decline as people come to expect lower rates of mortality and therefore have less children.

Question 13

Dependency ratio

Answer 13

The number of people in non-economically active age groups (children & retired) relative to the size of the population of working age.

Question 14

Developmentalism

Answer 14

The view that childhood consists of a series of stages in which children develop progressively.

Question 15

Dionysian image of the child

Answer 15

Sees children as pursuing their own desires, which can lead to them acting in evil ways.

Question 16

Disengagement

Answer 16

The gradual withdrawal of people from social roles eg. older people when they retire

Question 17

Division of labour

Answer 17

The way in which jobs are divided up between 2 or more people - who does which sees them as opposite.

Question 18

Dysfunctional families

Answer 18

Families which do not function well for family members or in fulfilling social roles eg. they fail to socialise children adequately

Question 19

Economic base

Answer 19

In Marxist theory the foundation of society consisting on the economic system

Question 20

Empty-shell marriage

Answer 20

A marriage where the partners continue to live together to live together but the emotional well-being and happiness of others.

Question 21

Extended kinship network

Answer 21

The interrelationships between people related by blood or marriage regardless of whether they live together.

Question 22

Familistic gender regimes

Answer 22

Sets of government policies which support which support traditional nuclear families in which husbands are the main breadwinner and wives do most of the domestic work.

Question 23

Family career-core

Answer 23

The most basic family unit consisting of a mother and child/children.

Question 24

Fertility rate

Answer 24

The number of live births per 1000 women aged 15 to 44 per year.

Question 25

Friendship networks

Answer 25

Groups of friends who interact with one another without living together.

Question 26

Gender regimes

Answer 26

Sets of government polices which make assumptions about the roles of men and women in family life.

Question 27

Geographical mobility

Answer 27

The movements of people of different regions or countries.

Question 28

Global chains of care

Answer 28

The interrelationship between migration and care when families are split up as a result of migration or other factors.

Question 29

Globalisation

Answer 29

The process by which geographical distance and national boundaries become less important as different parts of the world become more interconnected.

Question 30

Heteronorm

Answer 30

The belief that all sexually intimate relationships should be based on heterosexuality.

Question 31

Ideological state apparatus

Answer 31

Parts of society which encourage people to accept the values favoured by the ruling class and which help to maintain capitalist society.

Question 32

Illegitimacy

Answer 32

Children born to unmarried parents.

Question 33

Individualism

Answer 33

An emphasis upon the desires or interests or individual people rather than those of wider social groups.

Question 34

Individualistic gender regimes

Answer 34

Sets of government policies which do not assume that husbands and wives will follow traditional roles and which accommodate the choices made by individuals regardless of whether they are male or female.

Question 35

Infant mortality rate

Answer 35

The number of children dying before their first birthday per 1000 of live births per year.

Question 36

Kinship networks

Answer 36

Interrelationships between people related by blood or marriage whether or not they live together.

Question 37

Life course

Answer 37

The development of and change in people’s lives lives over periods of time. Unlike life-cycle the life course does not have fixed and predictable stages.

Question 38

Life-cycle

Answer 38

The stages of life eg. childhood, young adulthood and old age, which are predictable and assumed to be experienced in the same way by different people.

Question 39

Malestream

Answer 39

To feminists, something which is mainstream and male-dominated or biased in favour of men.

Question 40

Matrifocal family

Answer 40

A family headed by the mother where she is not co-resident with a male partner.

Question 41

Metanarrative

Answer 41

A ‘big story’ about how the world works and how people should live their lives eg. a political theory or religion.

Question 42

Net migration

Answer 42

The difference between the numbers entering and leaving a country (to live for some time & not a holiday).