Family and Households: key terms

Question 1

Absent parent

Answer 1

In a situation where a lone-parent family is raising a child, the absent parent is the one with limited or no contact with the child

Question 2

Achieved status

Answer 2

A position in society which individuals gain through their own efforts, rather than being born with it

Question 3

Anti-social Family

Answer 3

Ideas, attitudes and values in society (ideology) which results in people who do not live in a stereotypical NF, being judged as inferior, eg single working mum who leaves child alone at home, a “latch-key kid”, child less families etc

Question 4

Agenda setting

Answer 4

Deciding which issues will be placed on the agenda to be decided upon

Question 5

Age Patriarchy

Answer 5

Inequalities between adults and children. Adult domination and child dependency. Power rests with the adults, particularly males

Question 6

Ageing population

Answer 6

In an ageing population, the proportion of the population over retirement age is gradually increasing. The figures show that old people are living longer and will carry on increasing in the years to come

Question 7

Ascribed status

Answer 7

A position in society which is the result of a fixed characteristic given at birth, such as gender or class origin

Question 8

Asymmetrical family

Answer 8

Term used by Willmott and Young to describe the fourth stage of the family where the men become more work orientated, spending less leisure time at home while the women take the major responsibility for the home and children

Question 9

Beanpole families

Answer 9

Families where 3 or 4 generations survive with only 1 or 2 children in each generation, hence the family is vertically extended but not horizontally extended, thus long and thin

Question 10

Bigamy

Answer 10

The illegal practice in a monogamous society of having more than one spouse at one time

Question 11

Birth rate

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Breadwinner

Answer 12

The person in the household who is the main income earner

Question 13

Broken Britain

Answer 13

The idea by the New Right that youth crime, school failure, long-term unemployment, poverty and teenage pregnancies occur more often where fathers are absent

Question 14

Burden of dependency

Answer 14

A burden is a major responsibility. In Britain the working age population has the responsibility of supporting all the dependent people. As the numbers of old people increase we have to pay more to help support them, but there are fewer people to pay. This is because the birth rate is dropping

Question 15

Care in the community

Answer 15

A policy of deinstitutionalisation introduced during ’90s, removing certain groups of people from institutional care into the care of the family and wider community

Question 16

Cereal packet family

Answer 16

A NF idealised by the media where there is a father, mother, two children (girl and boy) and the father is the breadwinner whilst the mother stays at home

Question 17

Chaos of love

Answer 17

Beck and Beck-Gernsheim argue that the characteristics of the modern world (stress, multiple roles etc) have led to personal relationships between men and women becoming a battleground as evidenced by rising divorce rates

Question 18

Childfree

Answer 18

The idea that some people feel happy about not having children because they are free to do what they want

Question 19

Childless

Answer 19

When people are unhappy about not having children because they unable to have them an is not a matter of choice

Question 20

Child bearing

Answer 20

Having children

Question 21

Child Labour Acts

Answer 21

Controlled hours worked by children, excluding them from the workplace

Question 22

Child rearing

Answer 22

The way in which children are primary socialised and cared for in the family. Many sociologists are interested in class differences in how children are ‘reared’ as this impacts on the health and shape of future generations of society

Question 23

Child Support Agency (CSA)

Answer 23

Est in 1993 by conservative gov to help reduce growing cost to the taxpayer of providing finacial support for lone parent families. Main task of the CSA was tracing absent parents who were not contributing to the upkeep of their children, assessing maintenance and ensuring payment

Question 24

Child-centredness

Answer 24

It is argued that familes are more child focused and less on adults. It developed with the NF. More attention, money and status is given to the child

Question 25

Childhood

Answer 25

A socially constructed and biological state, usually a period before adult status and referring to a set of beliefs about what is to be a ‘child’

Question 26

Chosen families

Answer 26

Weeks sees gays as creating families based on the idea of “friendship as kinship” where friendships become a type of kinship network. Close friends, ex-partners and others, who are not related by blood or marriage

Question 27

Civil partnerships

Answer 27

The term used to describe ‘gay marriages’, a legal recognition of a gay relationship which gives couple the same rights as straight married couples. Introduced Dec 2005

Question 28

Cohabitation

Answer 28

A situation in which a couple lives together although not legally married

Question 29

Commune

Answer 29

A form of family living in which groups of individuals, related or not, live together and share poverty

Question 30

Compulsory schooling

Answer 30

Legislation introduced whereby every child must attend school. From Sep 2014 every child must attend school or training until 18

Question 31

Confluent love

Answer 31

A term used by Giddens to describe a form of intimate relationships which is dependent on both partners finding fulfilment and satisfaction in the relationship

Question 32

Conjugal roles

Answer 32

The roles played by a husband and wife within marriage, particularly when referring to the domestic division of labour

Question 33

Consumption cleavage

Answer 33

Linked to post-modernists who have described how we can construct or “buy” ourselves a positive identity. Consumerism is key to how we make a positive identity

Question 34

Co-parenting/ joint parenting

Answer 34

Parents who continue to share repsponsibility for raisng their children after they have separated or divorced

Question 35

Cottage industry

Answer 35

The production of goods in the home

Question 36

Creative singlehood

Answer 36

The idea that some people choose to be single in order to live a life filled with hobbies, friends and positivity. They may reject long-term committed relationships because they feel they will become responsible for another’s welfare which will lessen their enjoyment of life

Question 37

Culture

Answer 37

The values and norms of a society, its a whole way of life

Question 38

Dark side of the family

Answer 38

In opposition to the view that the family is a ‘good’ thing, this concept suggests that for some individuals the family may be harmful

Question 39

Dark figure of crime

Answer 39

Term used to describe problems with the accuracy of official statistics. For example, the figures for domestic violence are likely to be much higher than the statistics suggest, maybe as individuals’ do not report the offence to the police

Question 40

Death of the family

Answer 40

An expression used to indicate that the family as an institution is ‘dying’. Evidence for this is seen as the increase in divorce and cohabitation, rise in births outside of marriage and greater numbers of single parent families

Question 41

Death rate

Answer 41

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

Question 42

Dependency ratio

Answer 42

This means the number of working population to the number of non working/ dependant population

Question 43

Dependant children

Answer 43

Children either under 16 or 16-19 and undertaking full time education

Question 44

Deterministic

Answer 44

Used as a criticism of more structural theories such as Marxism, Functionalism as they assume that individuals’ have no free will, so that society determines/controls their behaviour

Question 45

Demography

Answer 45

The study of population and population movement including birth rates, fertility rates, mortality rates and migration

Question 46

DINKY

Answer 46

‘dual income no kids yet’. This term usually refers to a young couple; both in well-paid employment who have a high disposable income to spend on themselves and their home

Question 47

Divorce

Answer 47

The legal termination of a marriage which allows the couple to remarry

Question 48

Divorce Law Reform Act 1971

Answer 48

This act may divorce far easier to access for most couples because it widened the grounds for terminating a marriage. Before the only instances a couple could divorce were proving the following: unreasonable behaviour, adultery, cruelty and desertion. Brought in ‘irretrievable breakdown’

Question 49

Divorce rate

Answer 49

The number of divorces per 1000 married couples in the population per year

Question 50

Domestic division of labour

Answer 50

Refers to the way in which household and childcare tasks are divided between members of the family, particularly the adult male and female partners

Question 51

Domestic labour

Answer 51

Unpaid work such as housework and childcare within the home and family

Question 52

Domestic abuse

Answer 52

The abuse of a spouse or partner or a child by an adult family member. Most adult victims are women; feminists argue this is a result of a patriarchal system

Question 53

Domestic violence

Answer 53

Usually refers to the physical abuse of a spouse or child by an adult family member. Most adult victims are women; feminists argue this is a result of a patriarchal society

Question 54

Dual burden

Answer 54

The double burden of paid employment and domestic labour

Question 55

Dual career family

Answer 55

Both parents in a NF are employed in professional occupations

Question 56

Dual-worker families

Answer 56

Both parents in a NF are employed

Question 57

Dysfunctional family

Answer 57

Idea that some families are ‘broken’ or do not ‘work properly’ perhaps by failing to socialise children adequately or there being a lack of stability for relationships

Question 58

Economic dependence

Answer 58

Feminists argue that marriage is patriarchal partly because it encourages women to rely financially on husbands either in part time, low wage occupations or not at all by assuming traditional housewife role

Question 59

Emotional work

Answer 59

The emotional input (caring, nurturing, supporting) a mother/wife or father/husband puts into their family. It is the invisible aspect of the conjugal role relationship

Question 60

Empty nest families

Answer 60

Families where the children have grown up and moved out of the parental home, leaving the adult partners as a couple by themselves

Question 61

Emigration

Answer 61

This is when people move out of an area or country

Question 62

Ethnic diversity

Answer 62

The way in which families differ from each other depending on their specific cultural norms/values. African Caribbean families are more matrifocal and single-mothers, while Asian families are more extended and nuclear

Question 63

Ethnocentric

Answer 63

To assume that western culture notion of childhood is superior to others

Question 64

Expressive role

Answer 64

Parsons: played by the woman within marriage and the caring, nurturing, supportive role. Many functionalists believe women carry out this role as a result of biology and feminists believe women are socialised to this role

Question 65

Extended family

Answer 65

A family unit that lives together/keeps in close contact and which includes a wider range of kin than the nuclear family