Family Flashcards
Key Definitions
Key Definitions
Household
Group of people living together in the same place.
E.g. a family, group of students, a couple fostering children, lodger renting a room in a house.
Family
All people who are related to each other through blood, marriage or adoption.
Family types
Family types
Nuclear family
Married mother and father with dependent children.
Extended family
Relatives in addition to the immediate family.
Vertically extended family has three or more generations; children, parents and grandparents.
Horizontally extended family has two generations; such as aunts, cousins or uncles.
Reconstituted Family
A family created because of divorced couples remarrying who may have children from their previous marriages.
Lone Parent family
One parent (mother or father) with their dependent children.
Single Sex family
(Lesbian or gay)
A couple of the same sex who might be
living together.
Cohabitating Family
Where a couple are living together but they are not
married.
Beanpole family
Particular type of vertically extended family with up to
four generations, making them appear long and thin in
structure.
GLOBAL FAMILIES
The variety of practices regarding family and marriage all over the world.
“Normal” family life in one culture might be considered strange in another culture.
Different countries also have different laws regarding marriage.
Polygamy
A marriage where one partner is allowed legally to marry several partners at the same time.
This practise is found in many smaller traditional societies, particularly in parts of northern Africa.
Arranged marriages
Someone else, such as parents, organise their
children’s marriage. They suggest a spouse to their child, who are quite often unknown to the child, and then the child decides on whether they do want to marry them or not.
One-child policy in China
A policy of each family having a maximum of one child was introduced by the Chinese government in 1979 to slow down population growth.
Ethnic minority families
Ethnic minority families
British African-Caribbean
High rate of single-parent families.
In particular, matrifocal families that are mother centred.
This group has a lower rate of marriage, and a higher rate of divorce.
South Asian such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi people
Have extended families.
They are more likely to get married
.
More likely to have larger families.
Women are less likely to work.
Family diversity and the work of the Rappaports.
Family diversity and the work of the Rappaports.
Who are they?
The Rappaports were PIONEERS IN THE FIELD OF FAMILY RESEARCH.
They were a married couple who studied the changing nature of families in both Britain and America.
What did they say?
The Rappaports were among the first to identity that the nuclear family was changing and that it was no longer the dominant family type.
They felt that these changes were POSITIVE and that it allowed for more different types of families to be
accepted.
Revision Tip
This topic is great to go on a mind map about the nuclear family and how it is changing. Great for questions like:
‘Discuss how far sociologists agree that the nuclear family is the dominant family type in the UK’ (15m)
Family Diversity
Five different types of family diversity.
Organisational diversity
These are huge differences in the ways that our families are organised.
The decline of marriage and rise of divorce has led to families being structured differently,
as have the changes to
family roles inside the family
too.
Associated keywords: Lone parent Reconstituted Conjugal roles Symmetrical family
Cultural diversity
Cultural differences can lead to different types of
families.
These can emphasise the importance of different aspects of the family. E.g. size, division of
labour, roles.
Associated keywords: Monogamy Polygamy Division of labour Conjugal roles
Social class diversity
Family types differ between different classes. For example, the Rappaports found that middle-class families had more of an emphasis on equality so were more likely to share roles. Working class families had more traditional conjugal roles.
Associated keyword:
Conjugal roles
Life cycle diversity
Differences in family types can appear across families
with members from DIFFERENT HISTORICAL PERIODS.
E.g. Your attitudes to something like gay marriage may be very different to those of your grandparents.
Family life course diversity
Family types will change over time as children grow
up and move on.
Associated keywords:
Empty nest families
Boomerang families
Explaining the reason for the change in family structures
Questions in the exam that cover this section of the family topic are usually 8 mark questions.
Therefore, you must know 2/3 reasons in detail for each change in family structure.
Example question; explain two reasons for increase in cohabitation.
The 2/3 reasons will come from the following list:
Changes in social norms, Secularisation, Values and laws, Feminism, Economic factors, Technology, Immigration.
Tip
Reasons such as social norms and secularisation can be used to explain nearly all types of change in family structure.
