Family diversity

• Single parent families- Trends

  • Rate tripled since 1971
  • 1 in 4 of all families (2004)
  • Majority headed by women
  • More likely to live in poverty
• Single parent families- reasons

  • Divorce
  • Feminism
• Single parent families- Moral panic

  • Cost to the government
  • Fear of 'dependency culture'
  • Decline in traditional families
  • Effects on children e.g. poverty
• Single parent families- Myths

  • No difference between crime rates
  • Not all teenagers
  • One role model
• Reconstituted families- trends

  • Men are more likely to remarry
  • Only few involve both adults bringing in prior children
  • Children are more likely to leave school at 16
• Reconstituted families- reasons

  • Divorce rates
  • Getting remarried fits better within society
• Reconstituted families- Issues

  • Causes tension, rejection and jealousy
  • Girls are more likely to be abused by a stepfather
  • Divorce rates are higher among these families
• Cohabitation- Trends

  • Second largest family type
  • Increased from 20.6% to 24% in 10 years
• Cohabitation- Reasons

  • Marriage can be expensive/undesirable
  • Awareness of divorce
  • May want to be economically independent
• Cohabitation- Issues

  • Less legal rights when splitting up
  • Inheritance laws are different
• Lone person household- Trends

  • 29% of households consist of one person
  • 58% are men aged 35-49
  • Less than 4% are 16 to 24
• Lone person household- reasons

  • High divorce rate
  • People becoming widowed
  • Women are growing independence
  • Change in values in society
• Lone person households- Issues

  • Need a change in leisure
  • Housing market has changed
  • Work becomes central life
• Same sex family- Trends

  • 5% of the population are in same sex marriages
  • 2004- civil partnerships become legal
  • 2013- Marriage becomes legal
  • No gender scripts
• Same sex family- Reasons

  • Society has become more accepting
  • It has become legalized
• Same sex family- Issues

  • Children may be bullied
  • Challenges notion of nuclear family
  • Causes moral panic
• Cultural diversity- Trends

  • Households tend to be larger
  • Emphasis on extended families
  • Higher proportion of SPF
  • Female independence
• Cultural diversity- Reasons

  • More immigration
• Fictive kin: A relationship that is not based on biological or genetic ties, for example a parents friend.
• Support of nuclear family: Functionalism

  • Meets needs of modern society
  • See other family types as dysfunctional or deviant
  • Two functions- Primary socialization, stability of adult personalities
• Support of nuclear family: New right

  • Believe it is the only right type of family
  • Shows clear division of genders
  • Oppose family diversity, believe it is the cause of poverty
• Support of nuclear family: Chester

  • Doesn't reguard change in the family diversity as significant
  • Only change is gender roles
  • Believes everyone will end up in a nuclear family in the end
• Support of family diversity: Rapoports

  • Family diversity is a response to peoples choice and needs
  • Positive change from traditional family that once existed
• Support of family diversity: Postmodernism

  • Society is fragmented and requires more choice relating to family life
  • More choice relating to lifestyles