Families and Households

• 
  

  Households :

  -People who share the same accommodations.

  -May or may not be related.

  —eg: married couples + children

  — eg: students living together

  Hareven( Post - Modernist)

  -Throughout someone’s life people will live in a number of different households

  —eg:

  • grow up living with parents (nuclear family)
  • live with friends in university
  • share a house with a partner (cohabitation)

  Recently- households have changed

  eg:

  • financially better off- increased single person households/ increased divorce rates
• Traditional Nuclear Family:

  • Consists of mother , father , dependent children ( heterosexual married couple + biological/adopted children)
  • In decline:
  • ONS(1961)- Nuclear family made up 50% of all family types -1960. 2010-35%
  • Functionalists/New Right:
  • see this decline as a problem for society

  Research studies show that people see the nuclear family as the most desirable family type.
• Positive views of nuclear family :

  • Functionalists- Parsons:

  In modern society the nuclear family is seen as the best family type to bring up healthy and well-socialised children .

  • New Right-

  Most stable /desirable family type to provide structure for children and financial security for adults.
• Negative views of nuclear family:

  • Feminism: Oakley-

  ‘Cereal packet family’ - portrayed as the best by the media.

  Results in unfair gender roles (dual burden: woman are expected to do two jobs which are domestic chores and paid work).

  • Post-modernists:
  • The idea that the nuclear family is the best type of family devalues other ways of living and this makes people who choose to live in a different way feel marginalised or less important .
• Extended family


  A larger family grouping consisting of other members related by birth, marriage or adoption
• Extended families


  • Often typical of traditional working class areas
• Types of extended families


  • Vertically extended (bean pole families)
  • Horizontally extended
  • Modified extended
• Vertically extended families


  Consist of three or more generations who live together or close by
• Reasons for vertically extended families

  • Financial constraints forcing young people to live with parents
  • Increased life expectancy leading to elderly grandparents moving in with children
• Horizontally extended families

  Consist of relatives from two generations who live together or near to one another, for example the wife's brothers and sisters and their children
• Modified extended families

  Consist of extended families who do not live close to one another but who have regular contact either in person or with the help of communication technology (such as Skype or Email)
• The ONS (2003) revealed that extended family ties are maintained through technology such as email
• Wilmott & Young studied families in London in the 1950s & found working class people lived in extended families, close to their parents
• Wilmott & Young found women offered each other support in terms of caring, washing & shopping
• Davies (2000) carried out a similar study of working class families in Swansea and also found most working class people lived in extended families which were focussed on female relationships (support was received by mothers & sisters etc.)
• Lone parent families


  Families where children are brought up by one parent in a single household, with the other parent taking a lesser role
• Over 90% of single parent families are headed by females, usually mothers in their early 30s
• Lone parent families have become increasingly common in the UK, with 2.9 million lone parent families in 2020, an increase of 6% in 10 years
• Lone parent families currently make up approximately 15% of all family types in the UK
• The New Right believe the rise of lone parent families is negative

  Children grow up without role models and are more likely to claim benefits, single parents are more likely to experience poverty
• Feminists believe lone parent families can be good

  They offer women options, such as leaving relationships involving domestic abuse
• Reasons for the growth in lone parent families

  1. Legal changes (Divorce)

  2. Attitude changes

  3. Economic change
• Legal changes (Divorce)

  1969 Divorce Law Reform Act made it possible to petition for divorce on the grounds of irretrievable breakdown

  1984 Matrimonial Proceedings Act reduced the time couples had to be married before petitioning for divorce (from 3 years to 1 year)
• Attitude changes

  Less stigma to being a lone parent family today, linked to secularisation and reduced influence of religion, positive portrayal of lone parents in media
• Economic change

  Increase in female employment has given women more control over decisions in relationships, working mothers may decide not to get married as they no longer need financial support, marriage is now more for love than economic reasons
• Lone parent families are more likely than other households to be dependent on the welfare state
• Lone parent families

  Seen as problematic by the New Right
• Lone parent families

  • Cannot provide adequate socialisation, children need a male & female role model
• Many black boys grow up in lone parent families headed by women, they do not experience the discipline that a father figure can provide
• This makes them more vulnerable to peer group pressure and can explain why young black males are more likely to underachieve in school or turn to crime
• The New Right claim that lone parent families are the source of many social problems especially those with delinquent young males
• The New Right claim that too much State support is given to single parents in the way of benefits
• Children from lone parent families

  Do less well at school compared to children from two-parent families and are more likely to become delinquents
• Feminists strongly criticise the New Right's negative views of single parent families
• Feminists' view of lone parent families

  Any social problems associated with children from single parent families are more likely to be linked to poverty than the lack of a male role model (father figure)
• Feminists are often supportive of the lone parent family for the independence it provides, it allows women more freedom of choice
• Feminists support lone parent families as women may have left their partner due to domestic violence, so lone parent families are safer for mothers & children
• Many children from single parent families do well educationally & take up professional jobs
• Many single parents raise their children well & the children do not become delinquents
• One good parent is better than two bad parents