How have families changed?

• How have families changed:

  • Smaller (less children)
  • Marriage is less likely
  • Parents are older
  • Joint conjugal roles
  • Family diversity
  • Increase in divorce
  • Rise in reconstituted families
• Joint conjugal roles are the lack of division in household chores. Husband and wife spending time together around the house
• Parents are now less authoritarian
• Authoritarian: favouring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom
• Children are seen as important members of the family and their opinions are listened to
• Boomerang children - young adults who move back home with parents due to financial difficulties, unemployment etc.
• The rise in divorce has led to an increase in single parent households
• Why have families changed?:

  • Laws (gay rights, divorce is easier)
  • Rise of feminism
  • Diversity
  • Technology (contraception)
  • Changing norms and values
  • Secularisation
• Secularisation is the decline of religion in society
• Patterns of marriage:

  • Decline
  • Later in life
  • Civil partnership / same -sex
  • Increase in cohabitation
  • Increase in births outside of marriage
• Patterns of divorce:

  • Changes in the law
  • Changing social attitudes and values
  • Impact of secularisation
  • Changes in the status of women
  • Influence of media
• Consequences of divorce:

  • Emotional distress
  • Financial hardship
  • Remarriage