Rapoports (1982)

• First to point out the family structure and patterns are diverse.
• 1978, 20% of families consisted of married couples with children.
• Decline in the proportion of households with married couple and dependent children, now only 23% (social trends)

• ORGANISATIONAL DIVERSITY = different family types have different structures/patterns. Some one partner at work, some dual-income. Increasing numbers of reconsistuted families.
• CULTURAL DIVERSITY = Different lifestyles of families in different ethinic origins and religious beliefs.
• CLASS/ECONOMIC DIVERSITY = differences between family relationships and lifestyles of working-class, middle-class and upper-class families.
• LIFE-COURSE DIVERSITY = changes for the different time of life of the family. Eg. newly married couples, couples with dependent children and couples with adult children.
• COHORT DIVERSITY = different generations/ people born at the same time may have similar experiences of family life due to common experience of wider social and historical events.

• Majority of people in Britain still live at least some part of their life in a nuclear family strucure.
• Most people want to live in a nuclear type arrangement.

PETER WILMOTT (1980)

• Dispersed extended family is a form that is becoming more dominant in Britain.
• In times of emergency, extended kin are invaluable.
• In modern Britain kinship is largely chosen and flourishes.

DISPERSED EXTENDED FAMILIES = two or more related families who co-operate with each other even though they may live some distance apart. contact are fairly frequent.

JULIA BRANNEN (2003)

• Agrees with Wilmott's view.
• There are strong intergenerational (between generations) links in British families.
• Because people are living longer therefore could have up to 4 generations in one family.
• Grandparents increasingly helping with childcare, divorce, lone-parenthood.
• Characterised contemporary family strucutres as a Beanpole Family.