Partnerships

Question 1

What are some of the trends in marriage in recent years?

Answer 1

1. Fewer people are marrying: marriage rates are at their lowest since the 1920’s
2. There are more re-marriages: 2012- 1/3 of all marriages were re-marriages for one or both partners
3. People are marrying later: the average age of first marriage rose by 7 years between 1971 and 2012, when it stood at 32 for men and 30 for women
4. Couples are less likely to marry in church: only 30% of marriages in 2012 were religious compared to 60% in 1981

Question 2

What are the reasons for changing patterns of marriage?

Answer 2

1. Changing attitudes to marriage
2. Secularisation: 2001 census- only 3% of young people with no religion were married compared with 17% of those who were religious
3. Declining stigma attached to marriage alternatives: 1989- 70% believed that couples who want children should get married, 2012: only 42%
4. Changes in the position of women
5. Fear of divorce

Question 3

What are some statistics about cohabitation?

Answer 3

• Cohabiting couples with children are a fast-growing family type
• There are 2.9 million cohabiting heterosexual couples in the UK. About 1 in 8 now cohabit- double that of 1996
• There are an estimated 69,000 same-sex cohabiting couples
• About 1.5 of all those cohabiting are ‘serial cohabitants’ who have had one or more previous cohabitations

Question 4

What are the reasons for an increase in cohabitation?

Answer 4

1. Increased cohabitation rates are as a result of the decline in stigma attached to sex: 1989- only 44% of people agreed that ‘premarital sex is not wrong at all’ whereas in 2012- 65% took this view
2. The young are more likely to accept cohabitation
3. Increased career opportunities for women may mean they have less need for the financial security of marriage and are freer to opt for cohabitation
4. Secularisation: young people w/o a religion are more likely to cohabit than those who do

Question 5

What does Chester argue that the relationship between cohabitation and marriage is?

Answer 5

• For most people, cohabitation is part of the process of getting married
• Coast (2006): 75% of cohabiting couples say that they expect to marry each other

Question 6

What does Bejin (1985) argue about cohabitation being a permanent alternative to marriage?

Answer 6

• A cohabitation among some young people represents a conscious attempt to create a more personally negotiated and equal relationship than conventional patriarchal marriage

Question 7

What did Stonewall (2012) find out about same-sex relationships?

Answer 7

• Estimates about 5-7% of the adult population today have same-sex relationships
• Increased evidence of social acceptance of same-sex relationships in recent years:
  a) male homosexual acts were decriminalised in 1967 for consenting adults over 21, now it’s been lowered to the heterosexual age
  b) since 2002: cohabiting couples have had the same right to adopt as married couples
  c) 2004 civil partnerships act
  d) 2014: same-sex couples have been able to marry

Question 8

What is Weeks’ idea of ‘friendship as kinship’?

Answer 8

• Increased social acceptance may explain a trend towards same-sex cohabitation and stable relationships that resemble those found among heterosexuals
• Friendship becomes a type of kinship network and that they are ‘chosen families’

Question 9

How is Weston’s idea of ‘quasi-marriage’ similar to Weeks’ ‘chosen families’?

Answer 9

• Many gay couples are now deciding to cohabit as stable partners
• This is in contrast with the 70’s where the gay lifestyle largely rejected monogamy and family life in favour of casual relationships

Question 10

What are some statistics about one-person households?

Answer 10

• There has been a big rise in the number of people living alone: 2013- almost 3 in 10 households contained one person
• 40% of all one-person households are over 65
• By 2033, over 30% of the adult population will be single

Question 11

What are the reasons for the increase in one-person households?

Answer 11

• Increase in separation and divorce, as the child is more likely to go with the mother than the father
• More people are remaining single due to a decline in marriage and the trend towards marrying later
• Also perhaps due to the fact that there are too few partners available in their age group

Question 12

What did Duncan and Phillips find out through the 2013 BSA about ‘living apart together’?

Answer 12

• About 1 in 10 adults are ‘living apart together’
• This is about half of all the people officially classed as ‘single’
• For some, there were money issues such as wanting to keep their own home, others it was ‘too early’ to cohabit
• The LAT’s have positive public attitudes: the majority believe that a couple don’t have to live together to have a strong relationship and 20% of people say that an LAT is their ‘ideal’ relationship