Demographic Change

• Reasons for demographic change

  Careers - Independence of women

  Attitudes - Less stigma towards diversity

  Benefits - Financial cost

  Laws - Changes in the law

  Expectations - What people expect from a relationship

  Secularisation - Decline in religion
• Types of marital breakdown

  • Separation - Couples agree to live apart
  • Empty shell marriage - Remain legally married but in name only. There may no longer be any love or intimacy
  • Divorce - The legal ending of a marriage
• Why do careers have an impact on the increase of divorce

  • More women are employed reducing their financial dependence on men 
  • Wilkinson, a ‘genderquake’ meant women are more financially independent allowing them to be able to leave marriages
• Why do attitudes have an impact on the increase of divorce

  • Less stigma surrounding divorce and can be seen as a positive thing 
  • Giddens, legal changes reflect changes in society
• Why do laws have an impact on the increase of divorce

  • Divorce reform act, 1969, set irretrievable breakdown as grounds for divorce
  • The Family law act, 1996, allowed divorce without evidence of a marital breakdown
• Why do expectations have an impact on the increase of divorce

  • Individuals have been socialised into needing a ‘perfect relationship’ and will end a relationship if these standards are not met
  • Allan & Crow, marriage is focused on high expectations and fulfilment of happiness 
  • Giddens, increase in confluent love and serial monogamy find a ‘perfect relationship’
• Why does secularisation have an impact on the increase in divorce

  • Decline in importance of religions ideas of stigma around divorce 
  • Gibson, Marriage has become less of a sacred union and more of a personal commitment which can be abandoned if it fails
• What impacts do Divorce have on the family

  Increase in lone parent families 

  • Chandler, younger people are more likely to live alone, particularly men aged 25-44 as women are more likely to keep children

  Increase in reconstituted families 

  • 20% marriages are remarriages
  • De’ath & Slater, children will find themselves pulled in two separate directions especially if parents’ relationship is strained & may have tense relations with step parents
• Why does careers have an impact on the decrease of marriages

  • Wilkinson, ‘genderquake’, women can provide for themselves and aren’t dependent
  • Sue Sharpe, girls’ priorities in the 1970s were love & families compared to girls in the 1990s prioritised careers
• Why do changing attitudes have an impact on the decrease of marriages 


  • Smart & Stevens, couples use cohabitation as a test of their commitments
  • Chandler, people are choosing cohabitation as a long-term alternative to marriage
• Why do financial reasons have an impact on the decrease in marriages

  • O’Connell, influence of celebrity culture have made weddings seem more expensive
• How does secularisation have an impact on the increase in cohabitation

  • Living & having sex out of marriage is no longer stigmatised 
  • Allan & Crow, became more popular as increased sexual expression, availability of contraception & making it easier to leave a relationship
• How does changing attitudes have an impact on the increase in cohabitation

  • Chandler, seen as a long term alternative to marriage & no longer need to legitimise pregnancies 
  • Morgan, cohabitation represents increase in partner change & are more likely to split up than married couples
• How does laws have an impact on the increase of single person households

  Chandler, younger men are more likely to live alone as women are more likely to take children in a divorce
• How do changing attitudes have an impact on the increase of single person households

  • 62% of men have never married 
  • Giddens (postmodernist), says this is because people can choose their living situations
• How does the independence of women have an impact on the increase of single person households

  Women finding financial independence & choosing singlehood
• How does increased life expectancy have an impact on the increase of single person households

  • Allan & Crow, elderly population has become fitter & more self-reliant allowing them to live alone 
  • Ross, increase in life expectancy causing extended families can help support each other & look after children if needed (grandparents speak positively of their role)
  • Increase in beanpole families (less likely to have horizontally extended families due to increasing female independence)
  • Increase in sandwich generations
  • Poverty, ageing population more likely to live in poverty if they live alone
• How do extended families provide support to one another

  • Accommodation, living with parents 
  • Economic support, parental loans, gifts etc
  • Practical & emotional support, through help with childcare & wellbeing
  • Personal Care, children caring for their elderly parents
• How do improved standards of living have an impact on the decline in birth rates

  Women no longer feel they need a large number of children to combat the infant mortality rate as children are living longer
• How does changing attitudes have an impact on the decline in birth rates

  • McAllister & Clarke, women choose to remain childless, it’s a low status occupation 
  • Contraception has become more widely available to use (NHS Family Planning act)
• How does the independence of women have an impact on the decreasing birth rates

  • Sharpe, women prioritising their careers over developing a family 
  • Hantrais, age of first births for women are at an age of 30, limiting their timespan to have children
• How do financial issues have an impact on the decline of birth rates

  • Banning of children to work makes them economically dependent on parents 
  • Williams, childcare costs has risen to nearly a quarter of the average household income
• The Neo-conventional Family - Chester

  Statistics that support family diversity are often misleading & the nuclear family is still dominant 

  • Households contain a wide variety of types as the family goes through a life cycle e.g. marriage, children, leaving home, partner dies
  • Amount of nuclear families appears to have decreased as the number of single person households has increased