Changing Family Patterns

?
  • Created by: ash8642
  • Created on: 12-04-19 11:07
View mindmap
  • Changing Family Patterns
    • Decrease in Marriage
      • In 2005, there were less than half the number of first-time marriages than in 1970
      • Fewer people are marrying, currently the lowest rates since the 1920s
      • People are marrying later
        • Average age in the UK for first marriage is 32 for men, 30 for women
      • Venues have changed
        • Less couples are choosing to marry in a church (only 35% in 2005)
    • Increase in Remarriage
      • In 2005, 4 in 10 marriages were between men and women where one or both have been previously married
      • Serial monogamy
    • Increase in Cohabitation
      • The fastest growing family type in the UK
        • 3.3 million cohabiting couples
      • Chester (1985): for most people. cohabitation is a process towards marriage
      • Coast (2006): 75% of cohabiting couple expect to marry each other
      • Bejin (1985): cohabitation among young people is a viable alternative arrangement to marriage
        • Representing a conscious attempt to create a more personalised and equal relationship than conventional (patriarchal) marriage
      • Giddens: pure relationships
      • Beck: negotiated families
    • Increase in Divorce
      • Divorce Reform Act 1969
        • Easier for one partner to leave the other
      • Stacey (1989): women are the instigators of change
        • Divorce-extended family
    • Decrease in Childbearing
      • Decline in the birth rate and total fertility rate
        • BR: 29 (1900) to 12.1 (2018)
        • TFR: Risen since 2001 but still lower than in the past
      • Changing position of women
        • Sarah Harper: women are more likely to pursue a career so put children on hold
        • Equality laws
        • Women's role in the family
    • Increase in Single-Parent Families
      • Now make up of 22% of families with children
      • 90% are female-headed
      • Pre-1990s: generally divorced women
      • Post-1990s: single (never married) women
      • Amato (2000): children are twice as likely to be in poverty
      • New Right: single mothers are married to the state
    • Increase in Same-Sex Couples
      • Stonewall (2012): 5-7% of couples
      • Giddens: pioneers of family diversity
    • Ethnic Differences
      • Family structure/type/size
      • China's One-Child Policy
      • Nazi's Pure Families

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Sociology resources:

See all Sociology resources »See all Families and households resources »