Family Diversity in UK and demographic trends

Question 1

Who talks about family diversity?

Answer 1

Robert and Rhona Rapoport

Question 2

What did they argue?

Answer 2

The NF was no longer the main family type but they were optimistic about these changes. They argue there isn’t a ‘right’ type of family and celebrate the fact that people now have more freedom and choice.

Question 3

Who is supportive of family diversity?

Answer 3

Feminists - they see the NF as benefiting men and other types of family as giving women more freedom.

Question 4

Who is critical of family diversity?

Answer 4

Functionalists and New Right. They support the conventional NF and particularly dislike same sex and single parent families.

Question 5

Give examples of social class diversity?

Answer 5

1. MC use nannies to look after children while WC use families/friends
2. WC more likely to use physical punishments whereas MC are more likely to use verbal punishments
3. UC&MC attend fee paying independent schools

Question 6

What is the family life cycle?

Answer 6

The types of families and households an individual is likely to experience in their life.

Question 7

What does Chester argue?

Answer 7

For most people, the NF remains the most typical family type. Single-parents will remarry and become nuclear families, singletons will eventually marry.

Question 8

What is the significant change in the past 30yrs for Chester?

Answer 8

Women are working which has lead to the ‘neo-conventional family’

Question 9

What are the different types of family?

Answer 9

Nuclear, extended, reconstituted, same sex, single parent, beanpole

Question 10

How are Asian families ethnically different?

Answer 10

• extended family ties remain strong
• asian families live close together
• marriage attends to be arranged/divorce is uncommon
• 3/4 of Asian families include children
• tend to be larger than those of other ethnic groups

Question 11

How are African-Caribbean families ethnically different?

Answer 11

More likely to be single-parent - 50% compared to 25% as a whole

Question 12

Why are African-Caribbean families more likely to be single parent?

Answer 12

• a legacy of the slave trade when families were often split, and children stayed with the mother
• black unemployment, which is linked to male underachievement at school
• tradition - the woman is in charge of the household

Question 13

What are the reasons for the growth of single parent families?

Answer 13

• divorce is much cheaper and easier
• greater social acceptance (secularisation and less stigma attached)
• the welfare state - women no longer have to rely on a man or marriage to support them
• changing attitudes to marriage
• an increase in the never-married single mother

Question 14

Why are single parent families normally headed by women?

Answer 14

1. When couples divorce women are far more likely to be given custody of the child
2. Men tend to have better-paid jobs so are reluctant to give these up
3. Many men may be reluctant to give up work and care for a child as it could threaten their masculinity
4. Women are socialised to be nurturing and to expect to be mothers, so being a mother is more socially acceptable to them than it would be to a man

Question 15

Why is the New Right and Functionalists critical of single-parent families?

Answer 15

Argue that a single parent can’t provide adequate socialisation and that 2 parents are needed: a male and female role.

Question 16

What does research from McLanahan and Booth indicate?

Answer 16

Children from single parent families do less well at school and are more likely to be delinquents. They are also more likely to become single parents themselves and experience lower earnings as adults.

However it isn’t known whether these differences stem from the absence of the second parent or from the lower average incomes of single-parent families

Question 17

Give a critical view on single parent families

Answer 17

They are more likely to be dependent on the welfare state and not in work. Some critics argue this isn’t fair to those who do work and pay their taxes.

Question 18

Give some positive views on single parent families

Answer 18

• Many children from single parent families do well educationally and take up professional jobs. Many single parents raise their children well and the children don’t become delinquents.
• most women don’t choose to be single parents and it’s often just one stage in a person’s family life cycle. (Chester)
• Other family types aren’t perfect either. E.g. nuclear families that aren’t working.

Question 19

What does Cashmore point out?

Answer 19

One good parent is better than two bad parents. If the two parents are always arguing and fighting, the single-parent family may be better for the child.

Question 20

Why are feminists supportive of single parent families?

Answer 20

For the independence it provides women. Also, the woman may have left her partner because of domestic violence, so the single parent family is better for the woman and child.