evaluating family diversity

What type of sociologist is Robert Chester (1985)?

Functionalist

What did Robert Chester argue about changes in family life?

Acknowledged that family life had changed, argued that most families were still nuclear families but just not traditional nuclear families

What is a neo-conventional family?

Describes families where there were two adults with children in a household, children don’t have to be biological offspring or that the adults that were married/first partners, male not breadwinner and female expressive leader

Who coined the term neo-conventional family?

Robert Chester 1985

What are some examples of diverse family types are considered nuclear after the neo-nuclear criteria?

Symmetrical, reconstituted, same sex, traditional nuclear families

Is there many lone parent families?

Increased in number but they were still a minority bc most aspire to be in nuclear families

2017 stats show which family type was most common?

Married of civil partner couple (also neo-conventional)

2017 stats show which family type was the fastest growing?

Cohabiting couple (also neo-conventional)

Has the cohabiting couple family overtaken the lone parent family?

Yes