Lone parents, reconstituted families, ethnic differences in family patterns and the role of the extended family today

AQA Sociology A Level Families and Households

Lone parent statistics

* Lone-parent families now make up 22% of all families with children
* Over 90% of these families are headed by women
* A child living with a lone parent is twice as likely to be in poverty than a child living with 2 parents

Reasons for women being lone parents

* The widespread belief that women are ‘expressive’ and nurturing
* Divorce courts usually give custody of children to mothers
* Men may be less willing than women to give up work to care for the children

Lone parenthood, the welfare state and poverty

Charles Murray

* Growth of lone parents as a result of the welfare state and its ’perverse incentives’
* The welfare state creates a dependency culture
* Solution is to abolish welfare payments

EVAL of Murray

* Feminists- New Right are effectively encouraging women to stay in abusive relationships by removing the ability for them to leave

Reconstituted family statistics

Reconstituted families account for over 10% of families with children

Reasons for the patterns of stepfamilies

The increase of divorce and separation have resulted in more stepfamilies being formed

Black families

Black families have a higher proportion of lone-parent households

* Just over half of all families headed by a black person in 2012 were lone parent families
* The high rate of female headed lone parent black families has been seen as evidence of family disorganisation that can be traced back to slavery, or high rates of unemployment amongst black males
* Under slavery, when couples were sold separately, children stayed with the mother. It can be argued that this established a pattern of family life

Heidi Safia Mirza

The higher rate of lone parent families amongst the black population is not the result of disorganisation, but rather reflects the high value that black women place on independence

Asian families

Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian households tend to be larger

* Such households often contain 3 generations
* These may reflect the value placed on the extended family in Asian cultures

Ballard

Extended family ties provided an important source among Asian migrants during the 1950s and 1960s

* In this early period of migration, houses were often shared by extended families

The disappearance of the extended family

Willmott- The extended family continues to exist as a ‘dispersed extended family’ where relatives are geographically separated but maintain frequent contact

Beanpole families

A type of extended family which is extended vertically through 3 or more generations. It is not extended horizontally, as it doesn’t involve aunts or uncles etc

2 demographic changes that have resulted in beanpole families

* Increased life expectancy means that there are more surviving grandparents
* Smaller family sizes mean people have fewer siblings and horizontal ties

Sandwich generation

Miller

* People who care for their ageing parents whilst supporting their own children