Marriage, Divorce and Family Diversity: Family Diversity - Marriage and Divorce Flashcards
What % one-parent households were there in the UK by 1961?
2% of all UK households.
How many one-parent families with dependent children were estimated by the ONS by 2012?
2 million one-parent families.
What did Kieran and Holmes (2010) find about parenthood and ethnicity?
- Found the rates of one parenthood vary according to ethnicity.
- Found that lone parenthood was most common among Black and mixed-race mothers, particularly in deprived urban areas in the major cities of the UK.
In 2012, what % of one-parent families were headed by women?
And in 2012, what 49% of single mothers had children within marriage but…?
- 91%.
- …but were separated, divorced or widowed.
What % of one-parent families headed by women did Gingerbread (2019) find?
- Gingerbread (2019) → around 90% of one-parent families in the UK are headed by women.
- This may suggest there is still a familial ideology (reinforced by family courts) which tends to assume that women should take on the main caring responsibilities for children when marriages break down or children are born outside relationships.
However, what did Haskey (2002) find about female single parents and what do these findings suggest?
(what % of single mothers are teenagers and what does Haskey note about m.c. career women?)
- Haskey identified a fast-growing group of female single parents made up of those who have never married or cohabited.
- This group isn’t composed of teenagers, who actually make up less than 2% of single parents.
- Instead, Haskey notes that a rising number of m.c. career women are electing to have children in their late 30s and early 40s, and they are choosing to bring these children up alone.
In contrast, what do New Right sociologists suggest?
New Right sociologists suggest there is a large group of single mothers who have never married or cohabited, who are long-term unemployed, less educated and attracted to lone motherhood by the ‘perverse incentive’ of being able to claim welfare benefits.
What do 2013 statistics suggest about single-parents’ financial situation?
2013 statistics suggest that approximately 650,000 single parents are currently not in work and are therefore dependent on state financial support.
How do New Right sociologists typically see the lone-parent family?
- They see the lone-parent family as an inherently second-rate and imperfect, ‘broken’ or ‘fractured’ family type.
- They argue such families are caused by adults who put their own selfish needs before those of their children, and by the state’s willingness to pay out pounds in benefits to people who live in this type of family.
- They are particularly critical of families headed by lone-mothers.
- They argue that children from these families lack self-discipline and can be emotionally disturbed by the lack of a firm father figure in their lives.
Flouri and Buchanan (2002) studied 17,000 children from families that have experienced separation and divorce. What was found?
- In families where fathers were still involved with their children, the children were more successful in gaining educational qualifications and continued to seek out educational opportunities in adult life.
- They were less likely to get in trouble with the police and less likely to be homeless.
- These children also grew up to enjoy more stable and satisfying relationships with their adult partners.
- However, Buchanan found that if conflict between parents continued after divorce, children could become vulnerable to mental health problems.
The Centre for Justice report ‘Fractured Families’ (2013) reported that a child being brought up in a one-parent family headed by a lone mother is more likely to…
- Grow up in poorer housing.
- Experience behavioural problems.
- Perform less well in school + gain fewer educational qualifications.
- Need more medical treatment.
- Leave school + home when young.
- Become sexually active, pregnant or a parent at an early age.
- Report more depressive symptoms and higher levels of smoking, drinking and other drug use during adolescence and adulthood.
Who conducted a study of family breakdown on children’s wellbeing?
Mooney et al. (2009)
How did this study by Mooney et al. (2009) critique the New Right’s stance on one-parent families?
- It suggests that parental conflict is more important than parental separation as an influence is producing negative outcomes in children.
- They contrasted couple families experiencing high levels of conflict with one-parent families and found that children in the former were more likely to have emotional or behavioural problems than children in the latter.
What does Ford and Millar (1998) argue about the ‘perverse incentive’ arguement?
- The ‘perverse incentive’ argument is flawed when the quality of life of lone parents is examined.
- Many experience poverty, debt and material hardship despite being paid state benefits.
- Ford + Millar’s survey found that many single mothers attempted to protect their own children from poverty by spending less on themselves.
Ford and Millar suggest that the New Right analyses strongly imply that the poverty that single mothers experience is the result of ‘choosing’ this lifestyle. How do Ford and Millar argue against this?
(single mothers and poverty, single women and council estates, values of motherhood, surveys about children and family life)
- They argue that the New Right have misinterpreted this relationship.
- The survey of single mothers suggests that poverty is a major cause of single parenthood.
- Single women from poor socio-economic backgrounds living on council estates with higher than average rates of unemployment are more likely than others to become single mothers.
- Motherhood is regarded as a desired and valued goal by these women because it is a realistic alternative to their poor economic prospects.
- Surveys of such women suggest that children are a great source of love and pride, and most lone parents put family life at the top of things they regard as important.
What do feminist sociologists argue about how the one-parent family is viewed?
- Feminist sociologists maintain that the one-parent family is unfairly discriminated against because of familial ideology, which emphasises the nuclear family ideal.
- This ideal leads to the negative labelling of one-parent families by teachers, social workers, housing departments, police and the courts.
How is the self-fulfilling prophecy produced through housing officers?
- Housing officers may allot them a council house or flat on a problem estate because they label such families a problem.
- This may produce a self-fulfilling prophecy as their children go to failing inner-city schools, come into contact with children who are delinquent or criminal, and are criminalised by a police force which may label everyone who lives on a ‘problem’ estate as potentially criminal through the use of stop and search policing.
