Sociology Practice Exam: Youth and Family

This set covers key concepts, statistics, and figures from the lecture notes concerning the sociology of youth and the changing nature of family in Australia and China.

Queer young people (18-24 years old)

A demographic found to be 85 per cent more likely to feel pessimistic about working a meaningful job than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts.

Monash University research findings (2021)

Studies showing queer youth are 21 per cent less likely to feel they belong at school and 33 per cent more likely to experience stress interacting with other students.

Australian 2021 census (exclusion)

An example of exclusion where participants could indicate gender as non-binary, but statistics were still broken down into male or female categories.

Lucas Walsh

Report co-author who argues queer young people's concerns are not being heard by the Australian Government and recommends queer-inclusive workplace and classroom training.

Social category

A collection of people who occupy a similar status and share a particular characteristic, such as the queer community discussed in Representation One.

Homogenous thinking

The assumption that a group, such as youth or adolescence, is uniform or all the same, often overlooking diverse experiences based on sexuality or gender identity.

Sociological concept of youth

The idea of youth as a socially constructed stage of life between childhood and adulthood, which varies between cultures and over time.

Adolescence

The biological stage of development between the onset of puberty and adulthood.

Cally Fan

A Chinese single mother who built a marriage counselling service on the platform Red after sharing her divorce experience on social media.

Family scandal

A term used by Cally Fan's mother to describe divorce in Chinese tradition, categorizing it as a private matter that cannot be shared with outsiders.

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs data

Statistics showing over 3 million couples divorced in the first nine months of 2022, a rise of about 200,000 compared to the previous year.

1950 Chinese Marriage Law

The first marriage law introduced by the Chinese Communist Party government that clarified and legislated the right of women to divorce.

Cultural Revolution (Divorce)

A period in China where divorce was seen as the embodiment of capitalist decadence and used as a political instrument.

Cooling-off period

A Chinese government policy requiring divorcing couples to wait 30 days before proceeding with their separations, announced after record high rates in 2019.

Heteronormative family

In the eyes of the Chinese state, a married heterosexual couple with children who are viewed as fundamental for social stability.

Dr. Zhou Yun

Assistant professor of social demography and family sociology who notes that the state incentivizes the heteronormative family for social stability.

IUI treatment

A fertility process sometimes called 'turkey basting' which involves squirting sperm into the person.

VARTA's 2021 report

A report stating that single women are the largest group using donor sperm (53 per cent), followed by women in same-sex relationships (34 per cent).

Medically infertile

The specific eligibility requirement for an LGTBQIA+ person to receive a Medicare rebate for fertility treatment.

Unpaid gestational surrogacy

A practice in Victorian fertility clinics where the surrogate's egg is not used in conception and no payment is provided to the surrogate.

Medicare rebate (IVF)

A government assistance program that refunded less than half of the $14,000$ cost for one round of IVF for Belinda and Astrid.