Families and households topic-sociology

What is a family?

A group of people related by blood, marriage, cohabitation or adoption who may share emotional, economic and/or caring relationships.

What is a household?

One person or a group of people living in the same accommodation.

What is the difference between a family and a household?

A family is based on relationships such as kinship or marriage, whereas a household is based on people living together; therefore not all households are families.

What is a nuclear family?

A family consisting of two parents and their dependent children.

What is an extended family?

A family that includes relatives beyond the nuclear family, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.

What is a lone-parent family?

A family in which one parent lives with dependent children.

What is a reconstituted family?

A family formed when partners with children from previous relationships form a new family.

What is a same-sex family?

A family in which a same-sex couple are partners or parents.

What is a beanpole family?

A multigenerational family with several generations alive at the same time but relatively few members in each generation.

What is a symmetrical family?

A family in which partners share domestic tasks and leisure more equally.

What is serial monogamy?

Having a succession of monogamous relationships, usually following relationship breakdown.

What is a living-apart-together relationship?

A relationship in which partners are in a committed relationship but maintain separate homes.

What is the functionalist view of the family?

The family performs essential functions for individuals and society and contributes to social stability.

What are Murdock's four functions of the family?

Sexual regulation, reproduction, socialisation of the young and economic support.

What is Parsons' functionalist view of the family?

The nuclear family performs primary socialisation of children and stabilisation of adult personalities.

What is primary socialisation?

The process through which children learn the basic norms and values of their society, mainly within the family.

What is stabilisation of adult personalities?

The family's role in providing emotional security and relieving stress for adults.

What is the New Right view of the family?

The conventional nuclear family is the best family structure for meeting society's needs, especially socialising children and providing stable relationships.

What does Murray argue about lone-parent families?

Dependence on welfare can create a culture of dependency and reduce incentives for employment and stable family relationships.

What is the Marxist view of the family?

The family supports capitalism by reproducing labour power, consuming goods and transmitting ruling-class ideology.

How does the family reproduce labour power according to Marxists?

It produces and raises future workers and maintains current workers by providing care and support.

What is Zaretsky's view of the family?

The family provides a private refuge from capitalism but also helps capitalism by reproducing labour power and encouraging consumption.

What is the feminist view of the family?

The family can reproduce gender inequality through women's unpaid domestic labour, unequal power and gender socialisation.

What does Oakley argue about the family?

Women are expected to perform housework and childcare, and the idea of the symmetrical family exaggerates the extent of equality.

What is the postmodernist view of the family?

There is increasing diversity and choice, so no single family type can be treated as the norm.

What is the personal life perspective?

It focuses on the meanings individuals give to relationships and recognises that people may construct their personal lives in diverse ways.

What does Smart argue about personal life?

Relationships and identities cannot be understood simply through traditional categories of family; wider networks and personal relationships are also important.

What does Stacey argue about family diversity?

Family life has become more diverse and flexible, with individuals creating arrangements that suit their circumstances.

What does Weeks argue about personal relationships?

People have greater freedom to construct relationships and identities, producing greater diversity in personal life.

How does the family relate to the economy?

Families provide and consume labour, goods and services and are affected by employment, wages, housing and economic change.

How can state policies affect families?

Policies concerning divorce, marriage, adoption, childcare, housing, education, welfare and retirement can influence family structures and relationships.

How can the economy affect family life?

Changes in employment, income, housing costs and economic insecurity can influence marriage, fertility, cohabitation and household structures.

How has marriage changed in the UK?

Marriage has become less common, people generally marry later, and cohabitation and relationship breakdown have become more common.

Why has marriage become less common?

Factors include secularisation, changing attitudes, greater acceptance of cohabitation, increased female independence and changing expectations of relationships.

What is cohabitation?

A couple living together in a relationship without being married to each other.

Why has cohabitation increased?

It has become more socially acceptable and can provide an alternative to marriage or a stage before marriage.

How has divorce changed in the UK?

Divorce became much more common during the twentieth century and remains a significant feature of family life.

What factors contributed to rising divorce rates?

Changes in divorce law, declining stigma, secularisation, greater expectations of marriage, women's increased financial independence and easier access to divorce.

How can divorce affect family structures?

It can increase lone-parent and reconstituted families and contribute to serial monogamy.

What is childbearing?

The process of having children.

What has happened to fertility and family size in the UK?

Fertility and average family size have generally declined over the twentieth century, while childbearing has increasingly occurred at older ages.

Why has family size declined?

Factors include contraception, later marriage and childbearing, women's employment, changing attitudes to children and the economic cost of raising children.

What is the life course?

The stages and transitions people experience throughout their lives, such as childhood, adulthood, parenthood and old age.

How has the life course become more diverse?

People increasingly follow different pathways through education, work, relationships, parenthood and living arrangements.

What is family diversity?

The existence of a wide variety of family and household structures and relationship patterns.

What is Rapoport and Rapoport's idea of family diversity?

Family diversity can be understood through variations such as organisational, cultural, class, life-course and cohort differences.

What is organisational diversity?

Differences in family organisation, such as whether families are nuclear, extended or lone-parent.

What is cultural diversity?

Differences in family patterns associated with cultural and ethnic groups.

What is class diversity?

Differences in family life associated with social class and economic circumstances.

What is life-course diversity?

Differences in family structures associated with people's different stages of life.

What is cohort diversity?

Differences between generations because people born at different times experience different social conditions.

What is Chester's neo-conventional family?

A family that is still broadly nuclear but has been modified by greater female employment, shared roles and increased family diversity.

What does Chester argue about the nuclear family?

The nuclear family has not disappeared; many people move in and out of different arrangements but may eventually form a nuclear or neo-conventional family.

What is individualisation?

The process by which individuals have greater freedom and responsibility to make choices about their relationships and lifestyles.

How can individualisation affect families?

It can increase choice and diversity in relationships while making family arrangements less predictable and less tied to traditional norms.

What is the feminist view of domestic labour?

Women continue to perform a disproportionate share of unpaid housework and childcare despite increased female employment.

What is the domestic division of labour?

The way household tasks and responsibilities are divided between partners.

What is the dual burden?

Women performing both paid employment and a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work.

What is the triple shift?

Women performing paid work, domestic labour and emotional work.

What is emotional work?

The management of relationships and emotions within the family, such as maintaining relationships and providing emotional support.

What did Young and Willmott argue about domestic labour?

They argued that family life was becoming more symmetrical, with husbands and wives sharing domestic tasks, leisure and decision-making more equally.

What did Oakley argue against the idea of a symmetrical family?

She argued that women still performed most domestic tasks and that greater equality was overstated.

What did Gershuny find about domestic labour?

He found that women's participation in paid employment was associated with men doing more domestic work, although women still generally did more.

What is Pahl's concept of the money management system?

It describes different ways couples organise control over household money, ranging from one partner managing it to more shared arrangements.

What are Dobash and Dobash's findings on domestic violence?

They argued that domestic violence is linked to patriarchal power and that women are disproportionately victims of domestic violence.

What is patriarchy?

A system of social organisation in which men as a group have greater power and status than women.

How does patriarchy affect family power relationships?

Men may have greater control over decision-making, money and resources, while women may experience unequal power and domestic responsibilities.

Why might domestic labour remain unequal despite greater female employment?

Gender socialisation, traditional expectations, unequal power and the persistence of the idea that housework is primarily women's responsibility can maintain inequality.

What is the nature of childhood?

Childhood is a socially constructed stage of life whose meaning and experience vary between societies, historical periods and social groups.

What does it mean to say childhood is socially constructed?

It means that ideas about what children are, what they should do and how they should be treated are created by society rather than being purely biological.

What did Aries argue about childhood?

He argued that childhood as a distinct stage of life was not recognised in the same way in medieval Europe and developed historically.

What did Postman argue about childhood?

He argued that childhood is becoming less distinct as children gain greater access to adult information and culture through the media.

What is the conflict view of childhood?

It argues that childhood experiences differ according to inequalities such as social class, gender and ethnicity and that children may have limited power.

What is the New Right view of childhood?

Children need protection, socialisation and stable family environments, with parents having responsibility for their upbringing.

How does childhood differ by social class?

Children's opportunities, resources, expectations and experiences can vary according to their family's economic and social position.

How can childhood differ by gender?

Children may experience different expectations, socialisation, activities and freedoms according to gender.

How can childhood differ by ethnicity?

Cultural expectations, discrimination and different family and community experiences can influence childhood.

How does childhood differ across cultures?

Different societies have different ideas about children's responsibilities, rights, education and dependence on adults.

How has the status of children changed historically?

Children have generally gained greater legal protection, education, welfare provision and recognition of childhood as a distinct stage.

What does Donzelot argue about childhood and the family?

He argues that professionals and the state increasingly monitor and regulate families and children through surveillance and intervention.

What does Punch's research show about childhood?

Children's experiences and responsibilities can vary significantly across cultures, challenging the idea of a universal Western childhood.

What is the birth rate?

The number of live births per 1,000 people per year.

What is the fertility rate?

The average number of children women have over their reproductive lifetime.

What is the death rate?

The number of deaths per 1,000 people per year.

What is the infant mortality rate?

The number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births.

What is life expectancy?

The average number of years a person can be expected to live.

What is net migration?

The number of people entering a country minus the number leaving it.

What is an ageing population?

A population in which the proportion of older people is increasing.

What has happened to the UK birth rate since 1900?

It has generally declined over the long term, despite fluctuations and periods of temporary increase.

What has happened to the UK death rate since 1900?

It has generally fallen because of improvements in healthcare, nutrition, sanitation and living conditions.

What has happened to UK life expectancy since 1900?

It has increased substantially because of improvements in healthcare, nutrition, sanitation, housing and living standards.

What has happened to average UK family size since 1900?

It has generally declined.

What has happened to the UK population's age structure?

The proportion of older people has increased, producing an ageing population.

Why has the UK population aged?

People are living longer while fertility has generally fallen, increasing the proportion of older people.

How does an ageing population affect families?

It can increase the need for elderly care and create greater responsibilities for adult children and wider family networks.

How can demographic change affect households?

Changes in fertility, mortality, life expectancy and migration can alter household size, family structures and caring responsibilities.

How has migration affected UK families?

Migration has increased ethnic and cultural diversity and contributed to a wider range of family and household patterns.

How can globalisation affect families?

It can increase migration, cultural exchange and transnational family relationships and expose people to different family patterns.

Why did the UK death rate fall historically?

Improvements in sanitation, nutrition, housing, healthcare and living standards reduced mortality.

Why did fertility decline historically?

Factors include contraception, changing attitudes, women's employment, later marriage and childbearing, and the economic costs of children.