The Family Flashcards
Adolescence
distinctive phase of childhood, first theorised by Hall (1904), which starts with the onset of puberty and ends at the beginning of adulthood.
Age set
people of a similar age who share certain rights and responsibilities because of their age.
Age stratification
system of social ranking by age. Children, for example, may be ranked lower than adults because they have fewer rights.
Ageing population
an increase in the average (median) age of a population due to rising life expectancy and/or failing birth and fertility rates.
Ageism
discrimination on the basis of age.
Beanpole family
an inter-generational, vertically extended family structure with very weak intra-generational links. This structure develops in societies with low or declining birth rates and increasing life expectancies.
Childhood
socially variable period of pre-adulthood.
Civil partnership
same-sex relationship giving the participants similar legal rights to married couples.
Cohabitation
a relationship where two people live together as if they were married.
Cohabitation
a relationship where two people who are not married to each other live together as if they were married.
Common-law family
adult couple and children living together as a family without the adults being legally married.
Commune
shared household involving a group of largely unrelated people living together.
Confluent love
refers to the idea of love being contingent; it is given in return for something else.
Conjugal roles
male and female roles played within the home.
Conjugal roles
male and female roles played within the home. Joint conjugal roles involve adults within the family sharing domestic duties. Segregated conjugal roles involve a clear separation between family members.
Dependency ratio
relationship between the economically inactive section of a population and those who are economically active. A high dependency ratio means, for example, that there are more elderly people who depend on fewer younger people to maintain things like state pensions or health services funded through taxation.
Disengagement
process whereby people withdraw from social relationships, as the age.
Divorce
legal dissolution of a marriage.
Divorce
legal termination of a marriage.
Domestic labour
work done within the home, often performed by women.
Domestic violence
any form of physical or verbal abuse towards family members within the home.
Dual burden (double shift)
the idea that women perform ‘two shifts’, one inside the home as domestic labourers and one outside the home as paid employees.
Dysfunctional
the idea that something, such as a family structure, is not performing its function correctly and that it may be actively harmful to the individual and/or society.
Empty-shell marriage
when a couple continues to live together, even though the marriage may be effectively over, for reasons other than love.