FAMILY+HOUSEHOLDS - New right and the family

Question 1

What 3 things do they believe is the result of the decline of traditional families and increase of family diversity

Answer 1

• Increased crime
• Decreased moral standards
• Dependency culture
• (Social problems)

Question 2

What action was takin in 1993 to encourage people to return to traditional family values
- What was the result of this

Answer 2

• the Back to Basics campaign launched by the Con. gov.

RESULT: It was seen to be hypocritical and a failure

Question 3

What statistical evidence is there for ‘non nuclear families being a problem’

• Unmarried couples
• Children from broken homes
• Young people with split up parents
• Lone parent families

Answer 3

UNMARRIED COUPLES: Family breakdown rate of 20%
BROKEN HOMES: 5x more likely to develop emotional problems and 9x more likely to become young offenders
SPLIT UP PARENTS: 3x as likely to be badly behaved and become aggressive
LONE PARENTS: more than 2x as likely to live in poverty

Question 4

What criticisms are there of the new rights view of the family

• Chester
• Feminists (2 reasons)
• Welfare dependency

Answer 4

CHESTER: NR exaggerates the extent of cohabitating and single parent families - most children spend most of their lives in a nuclear family
FEMINISTS: Gender roles are socially determined, not biological
- Divorce is also better as women aren’t at risk of abusive behaviour
WELFARE: Most single parents try to find work so aren’t welfare scrounges

Question 5

Criticisms.2 
CITVAS
- Who are they 
- What did they do 
- What were they results of this 
- In detail, what specifically were the problems with these two groups

Answer 5

WHO: An organisation that represents the NR view on the family
WHAT: A document - experiments in fatherless living on the consequence of rising single parent families
RESULTS: 2 problems were found about
1) Lone mothers
2) Children from lone parent families
PROBLEMS:
1) Lone mothers: Poorer (2x), likely to have mental health problems like psychological stress (2.5x than married mothers), may have problems interacting with children
2) Children: Mental health problems (2x), trouble in school (3.3x) like difficulties with teachers (50%), likely to run away from home (14%)

Question 6

What similarities are there of the NR theory to functionalism

• Type of family
• Roles within the family
• Family diversity?
• Function of the family

Answer 6

FAMILY: Traditional nuclear family
ROLES: Biologically determines
DIVERSITY: Causes problems
FUNCTION: place of contentment and refuge

Question 7

Murray - Fatherless families

• What did he find about the children from fatherless families
• Why does this happen
• Instead, what do these children experience in a fatherless family
• What does he argue is the solution to this problem

Answer 7

WHAT: More young low income males choose not to take jobs and turn to crime and drug abuse
WHY: They are in fatherless families = no male role model from mainstream society
INSTEAD: These kids have a female headed, dependent on welfare benefits family
SOLUTION: Socialisation and role models to develop attitudes where work is the centre of a mans life, which is lacking in female headed families