Family diversity - Family Types Flashcards
Define family?
A family refers to a group consisting of a man and a woman and their dependant children who live together.
Define life course?
Examples?
1) Life course is a sequence of significant events that individuals experience as they make their way through life and choices they make and meanings they give to the stages of their lives.
2) marriage/cohabitation/parenthood/divorce
What do Allan and Crow say about the life course?
Up to the 20th century there was a fairly standard life course. Social norms dictated that this was the proper expected way to live our lives.
However, since the 1960’s changes have impacted life course and households bear little resemblance to the traditional family.
What are all 11 family types?
- lone parents
- reconstituted families
- same sex relationships
- one-person households
- LATs
- shared households
- extended families (classic/modified)
-bean pole - childbearing
- adult kids
- Asian/black families
Define lone parents?
Describe the trend in lone parents? (2)
Explain these trends? (3)
One parent raising their child alone.
TRENDS:
1) 90% of lone parents are women - women are more suited for the expressive roles.
2) 22% of all families are lone parents - tripled since the divorce reform act.
EXPLANATIONS:
- increase in divorce & separation.
- secularisation - decline in stigma.
- ‘Feminisation of the economy’ -women chose a husband out of love.
Define Reconstituted families?
Describe the trend in reconstituted families? (1)
Explain these trends? (1)
Where 2 or more families are blended together.
TRENDS:
1) 10% of families are reconstituted (with dependent children).
EXPLANATIONS:
- more divorce men remarry than women.
Define same sex relationships?
Describe the trend in same-sex relationships? (1)
Explain these trends? (3)
Homosexual couples.
TRENDS:
1) significantly increased.
EXPLANATION:
- legislation changes (same sex marriage 2013).
- secularisation (no longer a sin).
- social acceptance.
Define one-person households?
Describe the trend in one-person households? (3)
Explain these trends? (3)
Living alone.
TRENDS:
1) 1/3 of households.
2) 40% of one-person households are 65+
3) growth in younger one-person households.
EXPLANATIONS:
- increase in separation and divorce (mum and children leave the dad).
- ‘feminisation of the economy’ (women financially secure).
- less social stigma.
Define LATs?
Describe the trend in LATs? (1)
Explain these trends? (3)
People in relationships who chose to live in separate households.
TRENDS:
1) increase in the last 20 years.
EXPLANATION:
- practical reasons (working/studying apart).
- reduces risk of separation.
- existing responsibilities for parents/children.
Define shared households?
Describe the trend in shared households? (1)
Explain these trends? (3)
Group of people living together in the same house (related or not).
TRENDS:
1) increasingly common amongst young people & immigrants.
EXPLANATIONS:
- cheap and convenient.
- less stressful than living with parents.
- immigrants may not have jobs or resources to live alone.
Define classic extended family?
Define modified extended family? (Vertical & Horizontal)
Describe the trend in the extended families? (1)
Explain these trends? (1)
1) families all live under the same roof.
2) Vertical: involved grandparents, parents and children.
Horizontal: aunts, uncles, parents, children and cousins.
TRENDS:
- classic extended found in small communities (travellers, south Asian, immigrants)
EXPLANATIONS:
- the extended family survived because of its important functions such as financial and domestic help.
Define beanpole families?
Describe the trend in beanpole families? (1)
Explain these trends? (2)
A multi-generational family - long and thin in structure.
TRENDS:
1) increased over the years.
EXPLANATIONS:
1) Greater life expectancy.
2) fewer children being born (childbearing).
Define childbearing?
Describe the trend in childbearing? (2)
Explain these trends? (3)
Women having children.
TRENDS:
1) Number of births decreasing.
2) Women delay having children.
EXPLANATION:
1) Feminisation of the economy - priority to their jobs/career.
2) Practical reasons - cost of raising children (250K).
3) accessibility to contraception + abortions.
Define adult kids?
Describe the trend in adult kids? (2)
Explain these trends? (1)
Adults who still live with their parents.
TRENDS:
1) 1/3 men still live with their parents.
2) 1/5 women still live with their parents.
EXPLANATIONS:
1) Practical reasons - cost of education/living.
ASIAN
Describe the trends in Asian families? (3)
Explain the trends? (2)
TRENDS:
1) higher % of arranged marriages
2) larger family size
3) young age profiles
EXPLANATIONS:
1) religious duty
2) more fertile
BLACK
Describe the trends in Black families? (3)
Explain the trends? (2)
TRENDS:
1) high percentage of lone parents. (Female headed)
2) low marriage rates
3) highest percentage of single never-married lone mother
EXPLANATIONS:
1) legacy of slavery (child sold with mother)
2) high rates of unemployment + poverty amongst black men (reduced ability to support family)
LONE PARENTS
Negatives/Positives? (1)
Theoretical views?
+/-:
1) creates a dependency culture on the welfare state.
VIEWS: Charles Murray
- argues benefits encourage women to have children so they can be ‘married to the state’.
- Welfare state rewards irresponsible behaviour by offering ‘perverse incentive’ - creates dependency culture.
Solution: abolish welfare state.
RECONSTITUTED FAMILIES
Negatives/Positives? (2)
Theoretical views?
+/-:
- tension between parents + step siblings.
- risk of poverty due to wages split.
THEORETICAL VIEWS: Alan + Crowe
- suggest step families can be complex.
- greater loyalty to natural parents creates tension with step parents.
- children are less accepting of step parents.
SAME SEX RELATIONSHIPS
Negatives/Positives? (2)
Theoretical views?
+/- :
- equality (no gender scripts)
- social stigma
THEORETICAL VIEWS: Weeks
- states gay people create new ways of understanding the family based on ideas of ‘kinship networks’.
- chosen families - offer stability, security + sense of identity
- greater equality (no gender scripts)
ONE PERSON HOUSEHOLD
Negatives/Positives? (2)
Theoretical views?
+/- :
- more freedom / self-reliance
- hard to balance cost and household work
THEORETICAL VIEWS: Stein ‘creative singlehood’
- believes this reflects a growing lifestyle choice
- welcome freedom to live alone.
LAT’s
Negatives/Positives? (3)
Theoretical views?
+/- :
- independence / freedom / personal space (less chance of separation)
- financial pressure (2 homes)
- jealousy
THEORETICAL VIEWS: Levin
- states LATs enables couples to pursue intimacy while preserving individual identities.
- LATs is a socially acceptable way of dealing with divorce / separation rates.
SHARED HOUSEHOLDS
Negatives/Positives? (3)
Theoretical views?
+/- :
- less independence
- cheaper
- lead to conflict (over space/duties)
THEORETICAL VIEWS: Sue Heath
- believes young people are less likely to follow traditional routes of living arrangements.
EXTENDED FAMILIES
Theoretical views?
- obligation to relatives - to help their wider extended family.
Finch + Mason:
- found over 90% of people had given or received financial support + had cared for a sick relative.
- women are preferred as caregivers rather than men as they have a ‘maternal instinct’ + nurturing personality.
ADULT KIDS
Negatives/Positives? (3)
Theoretical views?
+/- :
- financial burden on parents
- conflicts
- help (financially + domestically) for children
THEORETICAL VIEWS: Heath
- Suggests young people are now less likely to follow traditional roots of leaving home once finishing education + settling in careers / relationship.
