sociology family

• Matrifocal lone parent family


  A family where the lone parent is the mother of the child/children
• The most common lone-parent family is the matrifocal one
• Reasons for matrifocal lone parent families


  • Women giving birth (and therefore being the present parent if they are not in a relationship)
  • Courts tending to prefer mothers in child custody cases, following divorces
• New Right sociologists, such as Charles Murray criticise lone parent families suggesting that the lack of a male role model can cause deviant behaviour and socialise children with deviant values, leading to the creation of an underclass
• Patrifocal lone parent family


  A family headed by a single father
• Reconstituted family


  A family where two nuclear families that have split up merge (or blend) to form a new family (with step-parents and step-brothers or sisters)
• Because of both increased divorce and the decrease in marriage, there are many more reconstituted or blended familes in the UK today than there were 100 years ago
• Same-sex couple family structures


  • Couples living without children
  • Families where there are children (either naturally the children of one or other parent or adopted)
• Living apart together (LAT) family


  A couple who choose not to cohabitate (or are not currently cohabitating)
• Living apart together accounts for approximately 10% of UK adults
• Grandparenting


  When children are brought up by their grandparents rather than their parents
• Grandparenting refers to a more formal, permanent or semi-permanent arrangement than just grandparents assisting with childcare
• Singledom


  People living on their own
• Flatmates/housemates


  Households with multiple occupancy, such as university students or people who do not know each other prior to taking up residence
• Traditional nuclear family


  A married couple with their own children (2 or 3 of them) where the husband goes out to work and the wife looks after most of the domestic duties, with clear segregated roles
• Symmetrical family


  Families where women were increasingly going out to work and men were doing more of the housework
• Nuclear family with house husband or "new man"


  A family where the female adult is the breadwinner and the husband does most of the domestic work
• Extended family


  Family members who are outside the "nucleus": aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, etc.
• Types of extended family households


  • Vertical (multiple generations living together)
  • Horizontal (a household made up of aunts, uncles and cousins)
• Extended family households were uncommon in the 20th century, but had arguably been a feature of pre-industrial and early industrial households
• Life expectancy would suggest that at the time would have been more likely to be horizontal extended families, whereas today-with an ageing population-the likelihood of vertical extended families has increased
• Beanpole family


  A vertical extended family with no (or few) "branches", characterised by each generation having few siblings
• As the fertility rate has reduced, the beanpole family becomes a more common family form
• Empty nest family


  A household where there is a couple who had children but they have now left the family home
• Because people are living longer, there are more empty nest households and they remain that way for longer
• Boomerang family


  A family where children who have left the family home have come back again, e.g. people graduating from university and then returning to the family home
• The cost and scarcity of housing has made boomerang families more common
• Polygamy


  Living with more than one partner (not married), or having other spouses in other countries (not recognised by UK law)
• Polygamy is illegal in the UK, but in some cultures it is seen as a better option than infidelity and is therefore encouraged