Changing Family Patterns
- Created by: miapill
- Created on: 16-12-13 10:53
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- Changing Family Patterns
- Divorce
- Increasing - From 30,000 in 1965 to 170,000 in 2005
- 7/10 applications for divorce are from women
- Declining stigma and changing attitudes
- MITCHELL & GOODY: Rapid decline in the stigma attached to divorce
- As it becomes more common, it 'normalises'
- Secularisation
- Decline in the influence of religion in society
- Rising expectations of marriage
- FLETCHER: HIgher expectations are a major cause of higher divorce rates
- If love dies, they'll be less happy to tolerate it and want to renew their search for Mr/Mrs Right
- 40% of all marriages will end in divorce
- The meaning of high divorce rates
- FEMINISTS: Women can break free from oppression
- THE NEW RIGHT: Divorce creates and under-class of welfare dependent lone parents.
- POST-MODERNIST: Individuals have a freedom of choice
- Parents and Children
- Childbearing
- 1 in 4 born outside marriage - decline in stigma, increase in cohabitation
- Women are having children later leading to smaller families or even remaining childless - Women wish to pursue a career first
- Lone-parent Families
- 24% of all families - 1 in 4 children live in one
- 90% headed by lone mother
- A child in a lone-parent family is twice as likely to live in poverty
- Reasons for changes
- Increase in divorce and seperation with mother more likely to get custody of child
- Decline in stigma to births outside of marriage
- Welfare State
- NEW RIGHT thinker MURRAY: Created a perverse incentive creating a dependency culture
- CRITICS: Welfare benefits not generous enough - Lack of affordable childcare = 60% unemployed - Failure of fathers to pay maintenance
- Stepfamilies
- Children more likely to be from womans previous relationship than mans - women more likely to get custody
- ALLAN & CROW: Tensions about contact with non-resident parent
- Reasons for patterns
- Increase in divorce
- Greater risk of poverty - Stepfather still has to provide for previous family
- Tensions = Different social norms
- Childbearing
- Partnerships
- Marriage
- Fewer people are marrying - More re marriages - People are marrying later - Couples are less likely to marry in a church
- Reasons for changes
- Less pressure to marry, freedom in choosing type of relationship
- Secularisation and churches refuse to re-marry divorcees
- Declining stigma to marriage alternatives
- Changes in the position of women - Less economically dependent
- Fear of divorce
- Increase in re-marriages is due to the increase in divorces - More divorcees, more people to re-marry
- Cohabitation
- Unmarried couple in sexual relationship living together
- Increasing - Fastest growing family type in the UK
- Decline in stigma attached to sex outside marriage
- Women economically independent
- Secularisation and churches refuse to re-marry divorcees
- Relationship with marriage
- Cohabitation can be just a step on the way to getting married
- 75% of cohabiting couples say they expect to marry each other
- Like a trial marriage
- CHESTER: Part of the marriage process
- 75% of cohabiting couples say they expect to marry each other
- Can be permanent - BEJIN: For young couples it's more equal and personal
- SHELTON & JOHN: Women do less housework when cohabiting
- Cohabitation can be just a step on the way to getting married
- Same-sex Relationships
- Increased social acceptance
- Social Policy: Age of consent equalised - Same rights to adopt
- Same-sex Relationships
- Increased social acceptance
- Social Policy: Age of consent equalised - Same rights to adopt
- Social Policy: Age of consent equalised - Same rights to adopt
- 5-7% of adult population in same-sex relationship - hard to determine increase from past.
- WEEKS: Gay families based of friendship and kinship - These 'chosen families' just as stable
- ALLAN & CROW: More flexible due to absence of framework
- Increased social acceptance
- Same-sex Relationships
- Social Policy: Age of consent equalised - Same rights to adopt
- 5-7% of adult population in same-sex relationship - hard to determine increase from past.
- WEEKS: Gay families based of friendship and kinship - These 'chosen families' just as stable
- ALLAN & CROW: More flexible due to absence of framework
- Increased social acceptance
- One-person Households
- Big rise
- 3 in 10 households - Half are of pensioner age
- Reasons for changes
- Increase in divorce
- Decline in numbers marrying or marrying later
- Not enough partners in age group (pensioners)
- DUNCAN & PHILLIPS: Living apart together
- In significant relationship but not married or cohabiting
- May be because they cannot afford to or want to keep their own home
- Marriage
- Ethnic Differences
- Immigration has created a greater ethnic diversity
- Black Families
- Highest proportion of lone parent households - mostly female headed
- Can be traced back to slavery - Couples sold seperately, child went with mother
- High rates of un-employment among black males - less able to provide for the family, resulting in higher rates of desertion or marital break down
- MIRZA: To do with the high value of independence black women have.
- The Extended Family Today
- CHARLES: Extended family "all but extinct". Mothers and daughters maintain contact.
- WILLMOTT: Continues to exist as a 'dispersed extended family' - geographically separated but frequent contact through calls and visits
- Extended family continues to play the important role of emotional and financial support, even if they don't live together
- Divorce
- 40% of all marriages will end in divorce
- REYNOLDS: Statistics are misleading, these families can be stable and supportive
- MIRZA: To do with the high value of independence black women have.
- Asian Families
- Ethnic Differences
- Immigration has created a greater ethnic diversity
- Black Families
- Highest proportion of lone parent households - mostly female headed
- Can be traced back to slavery - Couples sold seperately, child went with mother
- High rates of un-employment among black males - less able to provide for the family, resulting in higher rates of desertion or marital break down
- Larger than other ethnic groups
- Can sometimes hold three generations but mostly nuclear although still live nearby
- BALLARD: Extended family an important source of support during migration
- Can sometimes hold three generations but mostly nuclear although still live nearby
- Ethnic Differences
- CHARLES: Extended family "all but extinct". Mothers and daughters maintain contact.
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