Parents and Children

Question 1

Describe changes in childbearing

Answer 1

• 47% of children are now born outside of marriage
• Women are having children later, the average age at the birth of their 1st child is 28 years old
• Women are now having fewer children on average

Question 2

Describe reasons for the changes in childbearing

Answer 2

• Declining stigma against births outside of marriage
• Women now have more options than just motherhood, and seek a career instead

Question 3

Describe changes to lone-parent families

Answer 3

• 1 child in 4 lives in a long-parent family
• Over 90% of these families are headed by lone mothers
• A child living with a lone parent is twice as likely to be in poverty as child living with 2 parents

Question 4

Describe reasons for changes in lone-parent families

Answer 4

• Divorce and separation are more socially acceptable
• Lone-parent families tend to be female-headed due to the belief that women are suited to the ‘expressive’ role, divorce courts usually give custody to the mothers, men are less willing to give up work for children.
• Women are also single by choice, e.g. Cashmore found some WC mothers with less earning power chose to live on benefits without a partner, often because they had experienced abuse

Question 5

Describe the New Right view on lone parenthood and the welfare state

Answer 5

• The New Right Thinker Murray sees the growth of lone parenthood due to an over-generous welfare state providing benefits
• He argues this has created a ‘perverse incentive’, which rewards irresponsible behaviour like having children without being able to provide for them. This creates a ‘dependency culture’, where people assume the state will support them and their children
• For Murray, the solution is to abolish welfare benefits, this would reduce the dependency culture that encourages births outside of marriage

Question 6

What do critics of the New Right argue?

Answer 6

• They argue welfare benefits are far from generous and lone-parent families are more likely to be in poverty
• This is due to a lack of affordable child care prevents lone parents from working, most lone parents are women who earn less than men, and the failure of fathers to pay maintenance

Question 7

Describe changes in stepfamilies

Answer 7

• Stepfamilies are on the rise and account for over 10% of all families with dependent children in Britain
• Ferri and Smith found that stepfamilies are similar to nuclear families in that the involvement of stepparents in childcare is a positive one, but they found stepfamilies are at a greater risk of poverty, may due to the fact they may have to provide for children from previous relationships

Question 8

Describe reasons for the changes in stepfamilies

Answer 8

• The increase of lone parents, divorce and separation means the creation of stepfamilies is more likely
• More children in stepfamilies are from the women’s previous relationship, as when they break up children are more likely to remain with their mother