Different family types - same-sex, one-person households, living apart together

Same-sex relationships - causes of the trend

• Stonewall 2012

  • 5-7% of population in SS relationships

• 1967 - male homosexual acts decriminalised for consenting adults over 21

• 2000 - age of consent equalised to 16

• 2002 - cohabiting couples equal adoption rights

• 2004 - Civil Partnership Act gave SS couples similar rights to married hetero couples

• 2014 - SS marriage

Same-sex relationships - impact on family patterns

• Increase in same-sex marriages and parenthood

• Weston (1992) - SS cohabitation is quasi-marriage

  • Contrasted to gay cuture of 1970s which rejected monogamy and family life

• Weeks (1999) families of choice

Same-sex relationships - wider consequences

• More adoption

• More divorce

• Social policy

One-person households - causes of trend

• Decline in marriage

• Delay in marriage

• Increased separation and divorce, especially in men under 65

  • Following divorce, children are more likely to live with their mother and their father is more likely to leave the family home

    • Impact on childhood

• Lack of partners in age group

• Ageing population - 1 in 8 households are single pensioners

One-person households - impact on family patterns

• Creative singlehood by choice, self-partnering and individualisation

• 2019 - 3 in 10 households were single-person households (up 1/3 from 1999)

• Half of all OPH are over 65 (x2 since 1961)

One-person households - wider consequences

• By 2033, over 30% of the population is expected to be single (alone and never married)

  • Has a long-term impact on household structures

• Social policy - trade-downs/housing shortages for families

LATs - causes of trend

Significant relationship that is neither married or cohabiting

• Individualisatipon

  • Active choice

• Majority of public believe couple don’t need to live together to have a strong relationship

• Globalisation

• Boomerang generation

• Cost

• Previous troubled relationships

• ‘Too early’ to cohabit

LATs - impact on family patterns

• 2013 BSA, Duncan and Philips

  • 1 in 10 adults are in LATs - shows trend towards families of choice

  • No longer seen as abnormal but doesn’t amount to rejection of trad relationships

• 20% (more than cohabitation) see LATs as their ideal relationship

• Later marriage/cohabitation