Family

Question 1

Beanpole families

Answer 1

Families where there are very few children but the inter-generational connections (grandparents, parents, children) are very strong. For examples, families where children are often looked after by their grandparents.

Question 2

Bigamy

Answer 2

A marriage where someone is married to two people. This doesn’t necessarily mean the two spouses a person has live within the same house, it could be that someone has separated from their husband/wife and remarries without divorcing their previous husband/wife.

Question 3

Birth rate

Answer 3

The rate of births within a population, over a certain time.

Question 4

Breadwinner

Answer 4

A breadwinner is the person in a family/marriage that goes out to work and provides for the family economically. The breadwinner was traditionally the husband, but nowadays it is common for both the husband and wife to work.

Question 5

Cereal packet family

Answer 5

The cereal packet family is the way the media present the family in advertisement; the typical nuclear family with married parents and two children.

Question 6

Child-centredness

Answer 6

Sociologists argue that the family has now become more child-centered. This means that decisions made in the household depend on how it will benefit the child, and can also mean that relationships between children and others are formed on the basis of what the child can gain from the relationship.

Question 7

Civil partnership

Answer 7

Civil partnerships allow same sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as legally married couples. The only real difference is that partnership between same sex couples is not recognised by religious authorities.

Question 8

Cohabitation

Answer 8

Where a couple are not married but live together. Cohabitation is on the rise because there is no longer any real stigma relating to sex outside of wedlock so there is less pressure to get married. Cohabiting couples do not have the same rights as married couples and only get similar rights after cohabiting after 5 years.

Question 9

Commune

Answer 9

A commune is an alternative to the mainstream idea of family. Communes are collective communities consisting of lots of families which share possessions and property. Everyone has equal rights, and income and wealth is often shared. There is no social hierarchy and everyone contributes their craft and work skills for the food of the commune as a whole.

Question 10

Conjugal roles - joint

Answer 10

Conjugal roles are the different roles the husband and wife have in the family, which consists of the jobs and responsibilities each spouse has in the household. In joint conjugal roles, the husband and wife share housework, childcare and leisure time and even though the type of housework each spouse does might be different, they have an equal share.

Question 11

Conjugal roles - segregated

Answer 11

In segregated conjugal roles, one spouse might bear all the housework whilst the other has all the leisure time, and their roles are unequal.

Question 12

Death rate

Answer 12

The number of deaths per 1000 in population.

Question 13

Democratic relationships

Answer 13

relationships between husband and wife where each person gets an equal say in the household decisions and no spouse has all the power in the relationship. Democratic relationships can also be between parents and child, where parents and children can diplomatically talk with each other when there has been conflict, rather than the child being punished.

Question 14

Demography

Answer 14

The study of the general population, in terms of statistics such as birth/death rate, or marriage/divorce rate. It attempts to explain patterns across the population.

Question 15

Domestic abuse

Answer 15

Violence within the home. It can develop where there is an inequality between husband and wife and one exercises power over the other, whether this is through violence, controlling the other person’s social activities or being intimidating towards them.

Question 16

Domestic division of labour

Answer 16

This refers to how housework and household tasks are distributed between husband and wife in the home. Traditionally, the woman has to do most domestic work whilst the man went out to work and had little involvement with the housework. Nowadays, the division of labour is more equal, with often both partners going out to work and both helping within the house.

Question 17

Divorce rate

Answer 17

The number of divorces per 1000 population. This has increased in the UK because a) it is easier to divorce, b) there is less social stigma on someone who is divorced, c) increasingly unrealistic expectation of a dream partner, d) rise in feminism and female independence, e) less value and importance place on marriage, f) secularisation - decline in religious beliefs.

Question 18

Dual-worker families

Answer 18

These are families where both the husband and wife go to work.

Question 19

Extended family

Answer 19

Families where there are more than two generations in a household, or aunties/uncles live there. For examples, a family where the children, parents and grandparents live in the same house.

Question 20

Empty Nest

Answer 20

A household in which parents live in a house but the children have all grown up and left for work/studies.

Question 21

Empty shell marriage

Answer 21

A marriage here the husband and wife may still live together but no longer longer love each other or bond with each other.

Question 22

Family Diversity

Answer 22

This refers to how, in society today there are many different family types, such as nuclear families, lone parent families, extended families etc - not just the nuclear family.

Question 23

Fertility rate

Answer 23

Number of live births per 1000 women of childbearing age.

Question 24

Generation

Answer 24

Group of the population who were all born within a similar time, usually within 30 years of each other.

Question 25

Household

Answer 25

A group of people that live together but are not necessarily blood related, for example a student household at university.

Question 26

Househusband/Wife

Answer 26

A husband or wife whose primary role within the household is looking after the house: tidying, cooking, cleaning etc.

Question 27

Lone-parent family

Answer 27

A family where there is only one parent looking after the children due to divorce or a break up.

Question 28

Matriarchal family

Answer 28

A family where the mother takes the ruling position in the household and is the head of the family, making most of the decision.

Question 29

Monogamy

Answer 29

Marriage between one man and one woman. Serial monogamy is when someone develops a habit of divorcing and remarrying.

Question 30

New man

Answer 30

The new man is a recent sociological idea of there being a new type of man that takes on the role of househusband, where he looks after children sometimes whilst his wife works, and looks after the housework as a whole. This differs to the traditional idea of the man being the breadwinner whilst the woman being a housewife.

Question 31

Neo-conventional families

Answer 31

Chester defines the neo-conventional family as a duel earning family in which both spouses go out to work.

Question 32

Nuclear family

Answer 32

The traditional family in which there is two married parents and a small number of children (usually two).

Question 33

Patriarchy

Answer 33

A family in which the father takes position as head of the household and makes most of the decisions in the family.

Question 34

Polygamy

Answer 34

A type of marriage where someone has multiple husbands/wives. It is illegal in the UK but more common in countries like India.

Question 35

Reconstituted family/step-family

Answer 35

families where a parent has re married so the child(ren) will get a step parents and possibly step siblings.

Question 36

Symmetrical families

Answer 36

Families where the husband and wife share housework, childcare and leisure time and have equal roles. The sociologists Willmott and Young found that, according to their studies, symmetrical families where on the rise in Britain.

Question 37

Traditional family roles

Answer 37

Traditional family roles were that where the husband earned money but apart from his career, had little involvement with the housework apart from DIY and some childcare. The mother would stay at home and look after the house and children, and she would do all the cooking and cleaning. She would generally have less leisure time than the husband. These traditional roles are seen as unequal.

Question 38

How do functionalist approach view families and family life?

Answer 38

Functionalists believe that the nuclear family performs important functions for individuals and society.

Question 39

How do new right approaches view families and family life?

Answer 39

The new right approach argues that the family values are declining and, as a result, the family is in crisis.

Question 40

Why has the symmetrical family emerged?

Answer 40

The rise of the symmetrical family is linked to feminism, effective contraception, changes in the social position of women and increased interest in home life.

Question 41

How have relationships between parents and their children changed over time?

Answer 41

Relationships between parents and their children have changed over time. One view is that there is now less emphasis on discipline and more emphasis on individual freedom. Children may contribute to childcare and domestic tasks within families.

Question 42

What are the changing patterns of life expectancy and infant mortality?

Answer 42

Life expectancy has increased. This is linked to welfare state provisions, developments in public health and medicine, and improvements in diet and nutrition. The infant mortality rate has fallen.

Question 43

What are the changing patterns of marriages?

Answer 43

The marriage rate is declining, people are getting married at a later age, cohabitation has increased and the proportion of births outside marriage and increased. Civil partnership were introduced in the UK in 2005.

Question 44

What are the consequences of divorce?

Answer 44

Divorce has consequences for individuals and society. One consequence is an increase in step families. Other possible consequences are loss of contact between children and one parent, conflict between former spouses over parenting and property issues, loss on income for former spouses and loss of emotional support, particularly for divorced men.

Question 45

Halsey

Answer 45

Evidence shows that children whose parents do not follow the traditional norm are more likely to die younger, have more illness, do less well at school, suffer unemployment.