The Family - Marriage & Divorce (Week 18) Flashcards
1
Q
Why has Marriage rate been falling?
A
- People marrying at a later age, reducing the number of marriages in a year.
- Some people choose not to marry at all now.
2
Q
Serial Monogamy
A
This is where an individual may be involved in a sequence of sexually exclusive relationships, but only one at a time.
* This sometimes happens because of a death of a partner but today divorce is the main cause.
* There has been an increase in serial monogamy.
* Some people have serial relationships and never get married.
3
Q
Reasons for marital change
A
- Demographic changes
- Some age groups more likely to marry than others
- Less stigma attached to having children outside marriage
- Cohabitation is a popular alternative
4
Q
Reason for Marital change
Demographic changes
A
- Marriage in the Uk was most popular after the second world war (1970s).
- There was a baby boom > greater number of babies were born > led to population growth > led to rise in marriages in the 1970s when the first wave of baby boomers reached adulthood.
5
Q
Reason for Marital Change
Age Cohort Differences
A
- There are peak periods when marriage is more likely. So more people in that age range = higher number of marriages.
- Number of children or elderly in a population affects marriage stats.
6
Q
Reason for Marital change
Change in attitudes
A
- Less social pressure to get married these days.
- Women have more career opportunities and greater financial independence > less economic pressure to get married.
- Marriage is now a ‘lifestyle choice’ > women are less likely to enter a relationship that limits their ability to have a career.
7
Q
Reason for Marital Change
Co-habitation
A
- Has risen as an alternative to marriage.
- Self & Zealey - cohabitation numbers are high because people delay marriage.
- Secularisation has led to changes in the meaning and significance of marriage.
- Importance of the institution of marriage has declined.
- Beck (1992) - People in post-modern societies assess the likely risks/consequences of their actions and avoid them by not getting married. eg. the likelihood of divorce, emotional & economic consequences
- Around 25% of young people now co-habit
- The number of co-habiting families has increased from 9% in the 2000s to 15% now.
- Gillis (1985): co-habitation rates are not legally recorded so stats aren’t very reliable.
8
Q
Smart & Stevens (2000) Cause of increase in co-habitation
A
- Reduced social pressures of marriage
- Lower levels of stigma attached to living with someone and not marrying.
- The wider availability of birth control and abortion.
9
Q
Empty shell marriage
A
When people still live together because they cannot afford to live apart but no longer have a ‘loving’ marital relationship.
10
Q
Why Divorce Rates have increased?
A
- More marriages = more divorces
- Same sex couples have been able to marry since 2014 which has increased divorce rates.
11
Q
Divorce Statistics
A
- 107,599 divorces of opposite-sex couples in 2019, increasing by 18.4% from 90,871 in 2018.
- 822 divorces among same-sex couples in 2019, 428 divorces in 2018
- Unreasonable behaviour was the most common reason for divorce in 2019
12
Q
Grounds for divorce
A
- 62% of divorces of opposite-sex couples in 2019 were petitioned by the wife.
- Unreasonable behaviour has only been the most common ground for husbands petitioning since 2006.
- in the 1980s-1990s adultery was the most common ground for husbands petitioning and between 1999-2005 it was separation (two years with consent).
13
Q
Duration of Marriage
A
- In 2019, median duration of marriage for divorces in opposite-sex couples was 12.3 years. 2018 it was 12.5 years.
- In 2019, median duration of marriage for divorces in same-sex couples was 4.3 years for men and 4.1 years for women
14
Q
Divorce over 65
A
- Older people in the Uk are getting married and divorces in older age.
15
Q
Silver separators
A
- number of brides and grooms aged 65 and over went up by 46% in a decade, from 7,468 in 2004 to 10,937 in 2014.
- This is due to the post-war baby boom and people living longer.
16
Q
Legal Change
A
- 1969 Divorce Reform Act: the UK introduced ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ as the only requirement for divorce. Before that, one partner had to find fault with the other.
- 1984 Matrimonial & Family Proceedings Act: Divorce possible after 1 year.
- 1996 - No longer have to prove total breakdown of marriage.
17
Q
Causes of Divorce
A
- Easier & Cheaper
- Secularisation: marriage is no longer seen as a sacred institution
Contemporary ideas have changed: couples enter a relationship seeking to fulfil their personal interests in the partnership in 2 ways:
1. Romantic love - love given is unconditional but if one partner falls out of love, there is nothing to hold it together.
2. Confluent love - love is not unconditional. Love is given in return for something else. eg. enhancing social status. If this changes overtime, there is nothing to hold the marriage together.
18
Q
Analysis of of Marriage & Divorce
A
- Marriage is no longer a moral commitment but a search for personal happiness.
- Divorcees are not unhappy with marriage and may want to marry again.
- People have romanticised ideas about love and family life. When they realise these ideas aren’t realistic, they may divorce as a way out.
19
Q
Changing expectations
Fletcher and Parsons
A
- Functionalists (Fletcher & Parsons) claim that people expect and demand more from marriage.
- Because of this, they are less likely to put up with an unhappy marriage and it’s likely to end in divorce.
- Fletcher(1966) argues that a higher divorce rate reflects a higher value placed on marriage.
- People don’t reject the institution they reject the person.
20
Q
Giddens (1992)
A
- Relationships are now based on intamacy, closeness & emotion rather than duty & obligation reflected in traditional marriage vows. *‘For better or for worse, for richer for poorer, til death do us part’ *
- Intimate relationships last as long as partners are happy and fulfilled.
21
Q
Changes in parental role
A
- Parental control over children has decreased over the past 50 years.
- Expansion of higher education = an increasing number of young people leaving home at a younger age.
- Therefore it’s easier for young coupes to cohabit with no parental control.
- This perpetuates a trend of cohabitation rather than marriage.
