Family diversity

Question 1

What is family ideology?

Answer 1

The dominant set of beliefs, values and images about how families and how they ought to be

Question 2

What is a nuclear family?

Answer 2

Two generations: married parents and their biological children living in the same household.
The stereotypical view of the family in the UK

Question 3

Chester, the neo-conventional family

Answer 3

The view that the nuclear family is threatened by diversity and is breaking up is challenged by Chester. He found that the main features of family life have remained fairly stable as:

• most people still get married
• most children reared by their natural parents
• most people stay married

Question 4

What did Chester argue?

Answer 4

That the statistics used to support the idea of increasing diversity can be misleading

Question 5

What Chester did believe?

Answer 5

That one major change had taken place in the life of nuclear families; a change in the role of husband and wife.

Question 6

Single parent families statistics

Answer 6

• Since the 1970s single parent families have tripled in the UK
• About 25% of all families with dependent children are single parent families
• About 90% of them are headed by women
• One child in five now live with a lone parent
• Britain has the highest rate of lone parenthood in Europe

Question 7

What are the reasons for the growth for growth of single parents?

Answer 7

• Increase in never married mothers
• Divorce, cheaper and easier
• Social acceptance, less stigma
• Welfare state, too easy to get housing benefits

Question 8

Why are single parent families normally headed by women?

Answer 8

• Divorce, women more likely to get custody
• Employment, men reluctant to give up jobs
• Masculinity, men may feel looking after a child threatens this
• Socialisation, women are socialised into being more nurturing
• Social norms and values

Question 9

Allan and Crow

Answer 9

Explain that the increase in lone parents is due to marital breakdown and a rise in births to unmarried mothers.
They suggest that this can be explained by an increasing acceptance of diversity and choice in family

Question 10

Mcintosh

Answer 10

Claims that single mothers have been stigmatised and blamed for problems such as youth crime and umemployment

Question 11

What do Feminists argue?

Answer 11

That the family ideology causes problems for one parent families because it leads to a negative label.
Single women from poor socio economic backgrounds living on council estates with higher than average rates of employment are more likely to become lone parents

Question 12

Reconstituted families

Answer 12

• Such families are on the increase because of the rise in divorce
• 2003, estimated 776,000 children lived in this type of family
• An increasing number of children experience co parenting

Question 13

De’Ath and Slaters (1992) study

Answer 13

Identified a number of challenges facing reconstituted families
- Children being pulled into two directions
- Conflict with step parents and step siblings
- Complications when the new couple have children of their own

Question 14

Singlehood

Answer 14

• Big rise in number of people living alone.
• 2006, almost 3/10 households contained only one person.
• Half of one person households are people of a pensionable age
• Men aged under 65 are most likely to live alone

Question 15

Same sex relationships

Answer 15

• Stonewall (2008) estimates 5-7% of the adult population today have same sex marriages
• Impossible to say if this figure has increased or decreased
• Evidence of increased social acceptance
• 1967, male homosexual acts decriminalised
• Age of consent has now been equalised with heterosexuals
• Civil partnership 2004
• 2014, changing rights in a marriage

Question 16

Kath Weston

Answer 16

Notes that many gay couples are starting to cohabit as stable partners

Question 17

Religious beliefs and family size

Answer 17

Religious beliefs can affect family size, the disapproval of contraception by the Roman Catholic church may explain the higher average family size amongst the Roman Catholics

Question 18

2001 Census and family

Answer 18

Religion can affect the liklihood of marriage and having dependent children
2001 census found that in the UK, Muslims were the most likely group to live in households with dependent children.

Question 19

Bhatti - Asian families

Answer 19

Used in depth interviews of Asian families in England to find a strong emphasis on family loyalty and on trying to maintain traditional family practices.
Izzat, the principles of family honour was taken very seriously and mothers saw their family roles as the most important duty in life.
This suggests that Asian families add to diversity in the UK maintaining traditional, nuclear families with very strong extended kinship

Question 20

Ballard (1982)

Answer 20

Found extended families are more common in minority ethnic groups.
Commonly patriarchal
In 2000, highest rates of marriage were among Pakistani and Bangladeshi women
Divorce rates a low
Arranged marriages are still common

Question 21

African - Caribbean families

Answer 21

The Policy Studies Institute found that British African households had fewer long term partnerships than other groups and were more likely to have children

Question 22

African - Caribbean family dynamic

Answer 22

• Mother is often bread winner
• Lone parenthood higher amongst African Caribbean mothers
• Low marriage rates

Question 23

African - Caribbean families, Chamberlain

Answer 23

Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts have more importance in African - Caribbean families than in white British families. Siblings often play a significant part in bringing up younger brothers and sisters.

Question 24

African - Caribbean families, Reynolds

Answer 24

Argues that despite the large number number of female headed households amongst Black - Caribbean households in the UK, visiting relationships are more common. This is where the female head of household has a male partner who visits her frequently but does not live under the same roof