Family diversity

Question 1

Social class diversity

Answer 1

Bourdieu (2005) – Cultural capital:
Cultural differences are important as middle class parents often possess what Bourdieu called ‘cultural capital’. This is forms of cultural capital that can help their children to do well in education and fit in better in the higher levels of society.
Katz (2007) – Poverty:
Children from poorer families are likely to be disadvantaged. This may be due to a lack of resources for example, an insufficient income to ensure a decent standard of housing, diet and access to leisure activities. The stress of living in poverty make it difficult for parents to bring up their children effectively. However there is also equally good evidence to show that most parents living in poverty are remarkably resilient and possess strong coping skills.

Question 2

Ethnic diversity: Asian family life

Answer 2

• Roger Ballard - notes that when South Asian migrants first settled in the UK, they tended to bring the traditions of family life from their country of origin. These included a preference for large multi-generational household, traditional gender roles, strong sense of obligation towards other family members and a sense of family honour, referred to izzat. Recently there is evidence of change among south Asian families, especially with younger generations who expect more choice in their marriage partners and most families are now based around nuclear rather than extended families. Levels of divorce and lone parenthood are also starting to increase.
• Richard Berthoud (2001) suggests that Asians remain in many ways more traditional than white people as couples are more likely to marry young and less likely to cohabit, divorce or live alone.
• Lucinda Platt (2009) family size remains larger among South Asians. Only 16% of white households contain four or more people, whereas 43% of Pakistani households and 49% of Bangladeshi households are this size.

Question 3

Ethnic diversity - African-Caribbean family life

Answer 3

-Richard and Berthoud and Sharon Beishon (1997) found lower rates of formal marriage among British African-Caribbean and higher rates of divorce and separation. This meant that lone-parent families are more common among African-Caribbean’s than other ethnic groups.
While, lone parenthood is a feature of some British African-Caribbean families, this can be misleading and can hide the existence of extended family support networks. Mary Chamberlain (1999) found that extended family members often provided support to lone parent.s

Question 4

Sexual diversity -

Answer 4

Giddens (1992): There has been a greater acceptance of same-sex relationships which has led to the emergence of new types of families and intimate relationships. Giddens sees this as part of a transformation of intimacy whereby individuals have greater freedom to choose what kinds of intimate relationships the engage in.

-Weeks, Donovan and Heaphy observed that many gay and lesbian people describe their households and friendship networks as chosen families because they are able to choose who to include in their families and negotiate a more egalitarian relationships instead of following the old norms.

-Cheshire Calhoun (1997):
Argues that gay men and lesbians have traditionally been treated as family outlaws who threaten family life. Recently modern life has been characterised by greater choice and so gay and lesbian lifestyles have become more accepted.