FAMILY TYPES

• Nuclear family

  the "ideal" family type

  monogamous marriage between a man and woman, plus children. all sharing same residence
• cohabitation

  couple who are not married, living together
• extended family

  family which includes 3+ generations living together
• same sex family

  two people of the same sex live together as a family
• reconstituted family

  married or cohabiting couple who, between them, have at least one child from a previous relationship
• single parent family

  a lone parent family which is a result of a divorce or separation, the death of one parent or because one has never been present
• empty nest

  older married couple with grown children who have moved out
• 63% of families include a married couple

  was 95% in 1957
• 14% of families with children involve a cohabiting couple
• 23% of families are lone parent
• changes in children

  women are having children later

  women have fewer children

  effects:

  more attention on children

  likely to be better financially

  less familial support

  strain on sandwich generation

  more beanpole families
• almost one in four children live in a lone-parent family

  85% of these families are headed by single mother
• 46% of single parents were married when they had their children

  never married single parents became the most common in the 90s
• 1 in 3 families with children is a reconstituted family

  children from a previous relationship 85% mother 11% Father and 4% Both

  57% of married couples with step children have their own children together
• Duncan and Phillips

  1 in 10 adults are living apart together

  50% classed as single are LATs
• one person households

  increased due to an increase in divorce

  fewer people marrying

  creative singlehood

  in elderly women tend to be living alone as longer life expectancy
• multigenerational households

  38% are adult children still living with parents

  11% are boomerang children who left home and then returned

  14% are older people with their children and grandchildren ( was 9% in 2016
• family obligations

  even when the extended family do not live under the same roof, many still feel obliged to help their kin
• Cheal 2002

  argues when a relative needs support a set of "rules" exist for deciding who has the greatest obligation to help

  spouse, daughter, daughter in law, son, other relatives then non relatives
• Allan and Crow

  lack of legal framework in past = same sex couples had more freedom and flexibility in their relationships

  they could negotiate their roles and commitments
• Kath Weston

  70s homosexuals rejected monogamy

  by 90s same sex cohabitation was becoming quasi marriage
• Jeffery Weeks

  homosexuals create chosen families based on friendships which offer the same security and stability of heterosexual families