Family: Changing Family Patterns

Question 1

How many reasons are there for the change in divorce rate?

Answer 1

7

Question 2

How many marriages end in divorce?

Answer 2

40%

Question 3

How has divorce changed since the 1960s?

Answer 3

The has been an increase

Question 4

What are the (7) reasons for the change in divorce rate?

Answer 4

• Change in attitudes towards divorce, there is les stigma
• Changes in divorce laws have made it easier. They have become cheaper and have widen grounds for divorce such as unreasonable behaviour
• Secularisation, decline in religious beliefs
• People have high expectation of marriage and romantic love this is often lost in marriage (Giddens calls this confluent love)
• Women’s increased financial independence in work and welfare payments. (Allan and Crow marriage is less imbedded in the economic system)
• Feminist explanations: the home compares unfavourably with work for some women according to the dual burden (work and home) according to Hochschild
• Modernity and individualism. According to Beck 92 traditional norms have disappeared. Relationships are more fragile

Question 5

What do the New Right think about divorce?

Answer 5

They see high divorce rate as bad

Question 6

What do feminists think about divorce?

Answer 6

They see the increase in divorce is too because they see it as breaking free of patriarchy

Question 7

What do postmodernists think about divorce?

Answer 7

They see it as individuals now having the freedom to end relationships

Question 8

What does the personal life perspective think about divorce?

Answer 8

They see it as causing financial difficulties, but it has become normalised

Question 9

What are the years of the 3 divorce laws?

Answer 9

1969
1984
1996

Question 10

What was the 1969 divorce law?

Answer 10

Coming into effect in January 1971 it became cheaper because there were more grounds for divorce like “irretrievably broken down”. This therefore made it easier. You could get a divorce (if you both wanted one) if you could prove you’d been separated for 2 years, 5 of only one agreed

Question 11

What was the 1984 divorce act?

Answer 11

Before this law you had to stay married for 3 years before getting a divorce, now it was only one year.

Question 12

What was the 1996 divorce act?

Answer 12

It revolutionised the divorce process obtaining the name “quickie divorce”. People no longer had to prove 2 years of separation. You also no longer had to prove blame. There was the introduction of counselling and mediation to support couples thinking of a divorce.

Question 13

What is the trend in marriage?

Answer 13

Fewer people are getting married. There are more re marriages. People are marrying later
Fewer people marry in church

Question 14

What are the (3) reasons for the changes in marriage?

Answer 14

Secularisation: people are less religious
Women no longer need to get married
People are older and have more to loose through divorce.

Question 15

What is meant by cohabitation?

Answer 15

People live together but do not get married. Some may do it with the intention of marriage, particularly when they have a family. Others may do it with no intention of marriage

Question 16

What are the trends in same-sex marriage

Answer 16

Stonewall (LTBTQ pressure group) say that 5-7% of adults are in same-sex relationships because of the 2004 civil partnership act and the 2014 same sex marriage act.

Question 17

What is the trends in one person households?

Answer 17

One person households are growing due to

• Divorce
• Separation
• “Creative singlehood” choosing to live alone
• Widowhood

Question 18

What are the trends in women having children?

Answer 18

Nearly half of all children born is out of wedlock
Women are having children later
Some women are remaining childless (changes in technology and career choice)

Question 19

What are the trends in line parent families?

Answer 19

There has been an increase in lone parent families.
They are headed by women
Women choose to be single by choice

Question 20

What does Renvoize 1985 day about lone parent families?

Answer 20

Professional women are economically independent and are able to support a child without a man

Question 21

What does Cashmore 1985 say about lone parent families?

Answer 21

Women who have be in fractured or abusive families tend to choose to raise children on benefits rather than in a relationship

Question 22

What does Murray (New Right) 1984 day about lone parent families?

Answer 22

There is growth in lone parent families because of the welfare state creating a dependency culture

Question 23

According to the 2011 census what percentage of the UK population were white?

Answer 23

86%

Question 24

What are trends in Black and Afro Caribbean families?

Answer 24

They are more likely to be one parent families (1/3)
Mitzi 97 says this is because black wines are usually more independent and successful
Black women do well in education
They are likely to get good jobs
They don’t need a man
They are also likely to live in close extended families for support

Question 25

What are the trends in Asian families?

Answer 25

They tend to be bigger than other groups this is because they are younger
The nuclear family is the most common

Question 26

What does Wilmott 1988 day about the extended family today?

Answer 26

Although they are geographically dispersed they kept in contact through regular visits as phone calls. (Modified extended family)

Question 27

According to Rapaports what are the (5) ways a family can be diverse?

Answer 27

• Organisational
• Cultural diversity (cultures live in different types)
• Social class
• Life stage diversity (different types according to their age for example older people are more likely to live in single person households)
• Generation (families from different generations may have different attitudes)

Question 28

What do functionalists think about family diversity?

Answer 28

They are modernist
They believe that in the modern industrial society the nuclear family is the best type. They believe the man should have the instrumental role of bread winner (wage earner) and women should have the expressive role of the mother. These roles are functional for society

Question 29

What do the New Right think about family diversity?

Answer 29

They are modernist
They particularly dint like single parents and gay marriage and believe the collapse in the traditional family has led to a collapse on society. Benson 2006 found that out of 15,000 20% of cohabiting couples had split up in the first 3 years compared to 6% of married couples.

Question 30

What is the evaluative points of modernist perspectives of family diversity?

Answer 30

Feminists criticise this theory as they say the nuclear family is patriarchal and is therefore bad for women
The nuclear family is relatively new and isn’t used throughout the world. Bensons study can be criticised in that cohabiting couples are usually poorer so may split up due to poverty not because they are not married

Question 31

What is personal life perspective and of family diversity?

Answer 31

This is the idea that we don’t have as much as choice as post modernists think. Smart 2007 came up with the connectiveness thesis which is that we are bound by family. For example children children, gender and house much money we have

Question 32

What do postmodernists think about family diversity?

Answer 32

This is the idea that we live in a society based on the individual and we can pick and mix our family type. “Individualisation thesis”. Giddens 1992 says that relationships are now pure relationships as people are no longer stuck in a particular role and they exist solely to meet each other’s needs. They are more based on choice but can be unstable

Question 33

What is Beck (postmodernist) 1992 theory of the negotiated family?

Answer 33

Families vary according to wishes and expectations of members, he describes the Zombie category. The family appears to be alive but is dead in reality because it lacks security due to instability.