Family Diversity

The Divorce Rate

The number of divorces each year per thousand married people in the population

Functionalists on Divorce

Some Functionalists argue that divorce rate has risen because people (especially women) have a higher expectation of their relationships than previous generations. They are looking for fulfilment

Functionalists - Positives of Divorce

They try to out a positive spin on increasing divorce rates - higher divorce rates mean that there are a higher number of happier marriages amongst those who remain married. Also, there are high numbers of second marriages - people are still looking for perfect love / nuclear family.

Secularization - Divorce

The decline in religious beliefs means that people no longer see marriage in the same way. The church now takes a much less rigid view of divorce

Goode (1971) and Gibson (1994) - Marriage

They argue marriage has become less sacred and spiritual, more about personal fulfilment

AO3 of Secularization

There are still religions which see divorce as unacceptable / to be frowned upon.

Individualization - Divorce

Postmodern (or late modern) theorists such as Beck and Beck-Gernstein (1995) see divorce as a product of growing individualization. People now have greater individual choice / less happy to put up with being unhappy / or inequalities in a relationship

Giddens (1993) - Suggests confluent love / personal fulfilment

All these things mean that divorce is now more acceptable and less stigmatized

Contraception - Divorce

It removes the traditional constraints on fidelity so it has made it easier for people to have sex outside of marriage which leads to greater instability in relationships

The Growth of the Privatised Nuclear Family - Divorce

Functionalists argue that the isolation of the nuclear family from extended kin and the community in contemporary society have meant it is no longer easy to seek advice from family / elders etc. or seek some temporary to escape during a row - more pressure. There is also less social control or fear of disapproval from relations - less constraints.

Parsons - The Reduced Functions of The Family

Parsons argues that a number of traditional functions of the family have been transferred to other social institutions - marriage is less of a practical necessity which means fewer bonds, therefore less reasons to stay together

Increasing Life Expectancy - Divorce

Extends the number of years that couples would have to stay together - more time to go wrong / less desire to want to put up with being in an unhappy relationship

Varying Divorce Rates

Highest rate among men and women in their late 20s
Teenage marriages most likely to end in divorce
High incidence in the first five to seven years OR after the children have grown up and left home
Working class rates of divorce are higher than middle class
Childless couples or couples from different social or religious backgrounds also have a higher rate of divorce.

Important Divorce Laws

The Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act of 1984 - couples could petition for divorce after only 1 year of marriage, whereas before this it was 3. This led to a record increase in the number of divorces in 1984 and 1985.
The Family Law Act 1996 - increased the amount of time a couple had to be married for to 18 months. It introduced compulsory marriage counselling for a period of reflection, and children's wishes were now involved in the final consideration. These compulsory sessions were quickly abandoned, as they were more likely to encourage people to want to get a divorce.

Cohabitation

Cohabitation is rapidly becoming the norm, and can have different meanings to different couples.
A fairly temporary, informal arrangement, spending a lot of time together and sharing accommodation, but within what is seen as a fairly temporary and casual relationship
An alternative or substitute to marriage - as a long term stable and committed partnership, without legal commitments, or the patriarchal dimensions feminists identify, associated with marriage. For some devout Catholics, who regard divorce as a sin, such an arrangement allows them to form a new relationship without divorcing.
A preparation for/or trial marriage - For most couples, cohabitation is a trial run, and about 80% of first time marriages have been preceded by a period of cohabitation

Reasons for Increasing Cohabitation - The Changing Role of Women

Their growing economic independence has given them more freedom to choose their relationships. This a very important explanation for the decline of marriage. Women are now more successful than men in education, and this is gradually being reflected in the labour market, as women seek to pursue their own careers. Woman's expectations of life and marriage have risen - less likely to do housewife-mother role - feminists would say this still dominates the woman's workload in marriage - cohabiting relationships are more likely to be symmetrical.

Reasons for Increasing Cohabitation - The Reduced Functions of The Family

Some functionalist writers argue that, in contemporary society, a number of family functions have either been transferred to or shared with other social institutions. This has perhaps meant that marriage has become less of a practical necessity.

Reasons for Increasing Cohabitation - Changing Social Attitudes and Reduced Social Stigma

Young people are more likely to cohabit than older people. This may in part reflect the evidence that older people, compared to young people, are more likely to think that living together outside of marriage is 'wrong' - this reveals more easygoing attitudes to cohabitation among the young, showing the reduced social stigma attached to it. This links to secularization.

Reasons for Increasing Cohabitation - Growing Secularization

This has meant that the influence of religiously based morality regarding the importance of marriage and the condemnation of cohabitation has declined. Marriage and cohabitation are now more about individual and practical choices than sacred, spiritual unions. Evidence for this lies in the fact that less than 1/3 of marriages today involves a religious ceremony - but this could be because of the rising number of remarriages, as most has arisen from divorce, and many churches won't marry divorced people

Reasons for Increasing Cohabitation - The Rising Divorce Rate

This may deter couples from what they see as risk involved in marriages not lasting. On the other hand, the high number of second marriages (remarriages) for one or both partners is itself due to the increased number of first marriages ending in divorce, so people are giving marriage another go

Reasons for Increasing Cohabitation - Reducing Risk

Beck (1992) suggests we are living in what he calls a 'risk society'. Individuals are less controlled by traditional structures and institutions like the family, and there is less loyalty and commitment demanded by the social norms of marriage and family life. A whole range of socially acceptable alternatives to the traditional nuclear family are now available. In this situation, individuals face more risks, as they are constantly forced to reflect on their lives, weigh up choices and make decisions, such as whether to get married or cohabit or live alone. In this situation, more people may simply be choosing to avoid the risk involved in long-term legal commitments such as marriage.

Levin (2004) - LATs

He identified what she regards as a new family form called Living Apart Together or LAT relationships: the individuals concerned are in a long-term committed, intimate relationship, define themselves as a couple and are seen as such by others, yet do not share a common home and choose to live in separate households from their 'apartners' (couples who choose to live apart)

The Growth of LATs

Levin sees the growth of LATs arising from similar social changes and changing norms to those identified for the rise in divorce, the decline of marriage and the increase in cohabitation.

Duncan and Phillips (2010) - LATs

They found that LATs are increasingly understood and accepted by the wider public as an approved alternative to marriage and cohabitation

Haskey (2005)

They estimated there were 2 million couples in 2002-3 in Britain in LATs - around 30% of all men and women aged from 16 to 59 who were not married or cohabitating, and it is reasonable to assume this has grown substantially over the past 16 years.

Levin - The Growth of LATs

Divorce and separation rates have continued to increase, and the LAT relationship has become a more common and socially acceptable way of dealing with the fall out from previously broken relationships.
With growing individualisation and choice in relationships, and as people live longer and healthier lives, they may become more prone to seeking out new partners.
Changes in the labour market have meant it is more difficult for partners to find or retain their existing jobs and incomes in other areas.
Modern technology, like video links, mobiles and emails, easier and faster travel, mean close contact can be maintained between 'apartners'. The internet can also create LATs as people may form virtual relationships which may turn into long distance LATs

The Meaning of LATS - The Pure Relationship

Levin suggests LATS enable couples to both pursue the intimacy of being in a couple and at the same time preserve their individual autonomy and identity, although Duncan and Phillips found LATs are subject to the same expectations about commitment and fidelity as marriage or cohabitation.

Why People Choose LATs - Responsibility and care

The couple have existing responsibilities for other people, such as children living at home or older parents, and they do not want a new relationship to get in the way or threaten existing relationships

Why People Choose LATs - Practical Reasons

Apartners working or studying in different places, and LATs avoid conflicts for them, in terms both of finding new jobs and possibly the costs of housing and perhaps losing welfare benefits. Older people may fear losing memories attached to their former homes if they were to move in with their apartner

Why People Choose LATs - Risk

Apartners do not want to repeat the same mistake twice, and seek to avoid the risk of recreating the same conditions that led to the break up of former marriages or cohabitations. In a study among mid-to-later life couples, Funk and Kobayashi (2014) found LATs were seen as means for apartners to protect their personal independence, personal space (their own home), their own routines, habits and decision making and an independent identity. LATs enabled each partner to pursue their own interests, while reducing the sacrifices and compromises involved with living with a partner, and the risks associated with marriage or cohabitation, such as abuse, emotional hurt and dependency. Funk and Kobayashi suggested that LAts were rooted in mutual satisfaction and exchanges of emotional support, and conformed to what Giddens (1993) described as the pure relationship. Such relationships are unburdened by structural commitments, like shared resources and other practical, financial and legal entitlements, that make ending and getting out of married or cohabiting relationships so difficult and traumatic.

The Changes in Childbearing

The pattern of childbearing has changed in Britain over the last hundred years. Families have been getting smaller, as the number of births has been dropping, with women having fewer children - and delaying having them until later in life - and more children choosing to remain childless.

Reasons for Changes in Childbearing

There are several reasons for these changes. They include the changing role of women, who now give more priority to their jobs and careers. Couples may decide to delay having children, or choose to have none at all, because of the rising cost of raising a family. Hirsch (2014) estimated each child cost a couple nearly £154,000 to the age of 18, and potential parents may be weighing these costs of having children and future life opportunities lost, such as careers and leisure, against the benefits of becoming parents.

Beck-Gernsheim (2002) - Changes to Childbearing

She believes there is greater social acceptability of and desire for a childfree lifestyle, reflecting her belief of the growing individualisation of contemporary life, in which people now have and want more space for personal action and choice. Couples may simply not wish to trade their choices of future life course options for the lifetime commitment of having children.

Births Outside Marriage

Nearly half the births (47%) in 2013, in England and Wales were outside of marriage and civil partnership - about 5 times more than the proportion in 1971 - and this is a trend found in most European countries. This changing pattern clearly supports Lewis, who believes sex, marriage and parenthood are no longer linked.

Births Outside Marriage - A Stable Household

Despite the record numbers of children being born outside marriage/civil partnership, nearly nine out of 10 of those births in 2011 were registered jointly by the parents. Both parents in three out of four of these cases gave the same address. This suggests the parents were cohabiting and that children are still being born into a stable couple relationship, even if the partners are not legally married or in a civil partnership

Explanations for Births Outside Marriage

They are very similar to those for the increase in the divorce rate, the decline in the marriage rate and the increase in cohabitation. These include a reduction in the social stigma attached to births outside marriage and the changing position of women.

The Growth of The Lone Parent

The percentage of lone parent families has tripled since 1971, and Britain has one of the highest proportions of lone parent families in Europe. Around one in four of all families with dependent children were lone parents families in 2014 - nine out of ten of them headed by women. 23% of dependent children now live in such families, compared to just 7% of children in 1972. Most lone parents are women. This is because women are more likely to be awarded custody of children by the courts when divorces occur, reflecting the cultural norm that women are expected to bring up the children. A further explanation is that fathers may have abandoned the mother before the birth of the child.

The Increase in Lone Parents - The Greater Economic Independence of Women

Women have greater economic independence today, both through more job opportunities and through support from the welfare state. This means marriage, and support by a husband, is less of an economic necessity today, compared to the past.

The Increase in Lone Parents - Improved Contraception, Changing Male Attitudes and Fewer 'Shotgun Weddings'

With the wider availability and approval of safe and effective contraception, and easier access to safe and legal abortion, men may feel less responsibility to marry or cohabit with women and support them should they unintentionally become pregnant and women may feel under less pressure to marry or cohabit with the future father. There are therefore fewer 'shotgun weddings' (where reluctant couples are forced into marriage by the father of the pregnant woman wielding an imaginary shotgun to ensure that the man marries his daughter).

The Increase in Lone Parents - Reproductive Technologies

This enables women to bear children without a male partner, through surrogate motherhood and fertility treatments like IVF (in vitro fertilization).

The Increase in Lone Parents - Changing Social Attitudes

There is less social stigma, social disapproval and condemnation attached to lone parenthood today. Women are therefore less afraid of the social consequences of becoming lone parents

Lone Parents VS The New Right

Those with New Right views particularly blame the generosity of the welfare state for the growth in lone parenthood. Writers such as Charles Murray (1990) argue that generous welfare benefits encourage women to have children they could not otherwise afford to support. This is often linked to his idea of the underclass.

The Growth of Lone Parents - The New Right

The Growth in Lone Parenthood has been seen by the New Right as one of the major signs of the decline of conventional family life and marriage. Lone Parent families - and particularly never-married mothers - have been portrayed by some of the media and Conservative politicians of the New Right as promiscuous parasites, blamed for everything from a decline in the importance of family life, and juvenile crime, through to housing shortages, rising drug abuse, educational failure of children and the general breakdown of society. The problems created by lone parenthood, particularly for boys, are usually explained by the lack of a male role model in the home, and consequently inadequate socialisation.

Lone Parenthood - Moral Panic

Lone Parenthood has therefore been presented as a major social problem, and there have been periodic moral panics about lone parenthood in the media. A moral panic is a wave of public concern about some exaggerated or imaginary threat to society, stirred up by overblown and sensationalized reporting in the media.

Remarriages

Around a third of marriages now involved a remarriage for one or both partners, mainly reflecting the increase in divorce rate. A lot more divorced men remarry than divorced women, reflecting women's greater dissatisfaction or disillusionment with marriage. This is perhaps not surprising, given the way women often have to balance the triple shift and competing demands of paid employment, domestic labour and childcare and emotional management of the family.

Serial Monogamy

The same factors that have increased divorce and separation and that have generated more lone parenthood, have also meant there is an increasing trend towards serial monogamy, as individuals divorce and then form new married or cohabiting monogamous relationships with a series of different partners

Reconstituted Families

When these individuals getting involved in series of married or cohabiting relationships are also parents, this creates more reconstituted families (stepfamilies or blended families - as two or more different families are blended together) with stepparents, stepchildren and step-siblings arising from a previous relationship or relationships of one or both partners. Stepfathers are more common than stepmothers, since most children remain with the mother after a break-up and it is nearly always women who gain custody of children after a divorce. Official estimates from the Office for National Statistics suggest there are around 1/2 a million stepfamilies with dependent children in England and Wales - 11% of all couple families with dependent children, and around 1 in 10 dependent children lived in a stepfamily in 2011.

Allan et al. (2011) - Stepfamilies

They suggested that life in stepfamilies can be complex. The sense of unity which may be present in families with the two natural parents, such as shared family history, commitments and interests, is not necessarily so evident in stepfamilies. Children may feel greater loyalty and closer to their natural parents, both the one who is present in the stepfamily and the one who is absent, than to their stepparent. There may also be divisions between children when there are two sets of children from previous families, each identifying with their own natural parent in the new blended family. As Allan points out, within natural families disputes over things like how the household is organised, who does what and parenting and child discipline eventually arise, with the two parents sometimes taking different positions. Within natural families, the right of both parents to be involved in these things is taken for granted and rarely questioned, but the family role of the stepparent in such matters is much less clear, and may depend on their relationship with the natural parents, rather than being asserted and taken for granted as in a natural family. Allan points out that the older the child is, the less likely they are to accept discipline and control from the stepparent, and will have their reservations

The Myth Of 'Cereal Packet' Families

There is no typical family or household type in contemporary Britain, but there is a persistent myth of the 'cereal packet' family as the best, most desirable and most common form of family and household arrangement, as found in family ideology. The 'cereal packet' family is the stereotype often promoted in advertising and other parts of the media, with family-size breakfast cereals, toothpaste and a wide range of other consumer goods.

New Right / Functionalism and the Cereal Packet Family

New Right theorists and functionalist sociologists often continue to see this as the most desirable type of family in Britain. This cereal packet happy family stereotype often gives the impression that the best form of family that people can live in, and for children to be raised in, is what Allan et al. have referred to as the 'natural family', in which a married or cohabiting couple of opposite sexes are the biological parents of their children.

The Stereotype of The Cereal Packet

It portrays the ideal number of children at 2, with their natural parents as ideally tied together in first-time marriages for the both of them. In this family, the instrumental husband is the main breadwinner and responsible for family discipline, and the wife plays the expressive nurturing role, through looking after the family home through housework, taking primary responsibility for childcare and maybe doing some part time paid employment to support the family income. This family is seen as nurturing, caring and loving institution - a safe and harmonious refuge from an uncaring outside world.

Why is The Cereal Packet Misleading?

This image of the cereal packet stereotyped conventional or typical family is very misleading because there have been and continue to be changes in family patterns and there is a wide range of family types and household arrangements in contemporary Britain. This growing diversity of relationships that people live in shows that traditional family life is being eroded as people constantly develop new forms of relationship and choose to live in different ways. The meaning of 'family' and 'family life' is therefore changing for a substantial number of parents and children.

Household and Family Diversity

In 2013, only 21% of households contained a married / civil partnership or cohabiting couple with dependent children, and only 36% of people lived in such a household. Meanwhile, 29% of households consisted of one person living alone, and around 2/3 of households had no dependent children in them. 12% of people lived in lone parent families, and 11% of households were lone parent families. This shows the cereal packet is not representative.

Families with Dependent Children

In 2013, around 25% of families with dependent children were lone parent families, with 91% headed by women. Although a married/civil-partnership or cohabiting couple headed 75% of families with dependent children, that does not mean that most of these families conformed to the cereal packet image.
A number of these families involved a cohabiting rather than a married / civil-partner relationship. In 2013, around 1/6 families consisting of a couple with dependent children involved a cohabiting rather than a married / civil-partner relationship. Such arrangements do not conform to the cereal packet stereotype.
Same sex couples with dependent children do not conform to the cereal packet image.
A number of these were reconstituted families. More than 2/5 families currently taking place will end in divorce, and around 1/3 of all marriages will end in remarriage for one or both partners

Classic Extended Family

This family has largely disappeared in modern day Britain - replaced by the privatised nuclear family. It is still popular in some groups - travellers, gypsy community. It is still seen in some tradition working class classic communities with little social mobility

Classic Extended Family - CAGE

South Asian Communities - Indian, Pakistan and Bangladeshi families are still more likely to live in extended families - these families are more likely to have larger numbers of children and older generations to offer support - the family ties are strong = multigenerational extended families

Relationships - Modified Extended Families

Even nuclear families can keep in touch today through technology so relationships can be maintained as communication and transport are easier.

Ageing Population - Modified Extended Family

An ageing population means that people are living longer and often into their 80s. Older generations are often involved with childcare.

Brannen - The Beanpole Family

Brannen argues that this is creating a new type of family called The Beanpole Family. This means less children, less brothers and sisters, less cousins, uncles and aunties but more generations. In one household / family there could be the great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and children

Singlehood

About one in three households today contains only one person, compared to two-thirds in 1971. This means there is a growth in the number of young people living alone

Reasons for Single Person Households

This trend can be explained by the decline in marriage, the rise in divorce and separation and the fact that people are delaying marriage or cohabitation until they are older, or rejecting this choice altogether and perhaps choosing a LAT relationship. It might also be related to more insecurity in the labour market, with more short-term and temporary contracts.

Individualization - Single Person Households

It might also be related to a growing lifestyle choice, as people welcome the autonomy and freedom of living alone with the growing individualization of life that Beck-Gernsheim (2002) has referred to.

Social Stigma - Single Person Households

There is also less social stigma attached to living alone now, as opposed to the idea of the 'left-on-the-shelf' unwanted solitary individual that once prevailed. Women now often choose singlehood as they wish to pursue careers, and this may frequently involve the demand for geographical mobility and this is easier if not bogged down by a partners job.

Life Expectancy - Single Person Households

There are nearly twice as many men as women living alone in the 25-44 age group, but there are over twice as many women as men aged 65 and over, because women tend to live longer than men. Longer lives, particularly for women, explain the increase in the number of pensioner one-person households.

Why are People Living Alone? - Wealth

The Wealth generated by economic growth and the social security provided by the modern welfare state - the basic thesis is that the rise of single living is basically just a reflection of increasing wealth. When we can afford to live alone, more of us choose to do so. We especially see this where Scandinavia is concerned and nearly half of the adult population live alone.

Why are People Living Alone? - The Communications Revolution

For those who want to live alone, the internet allows us to stay connected. An important part of this thesis is that just because we are increasingly living alone, that does not mean we are becoming a 'society of loners'

Why are People Living Alone? -Mass Urbanization

Klinenberg suggests that subcultures thrive in cities, which tend to attract nonconformists who are able to find others like themselves in the dense variety of urban life. In short, it is easier to connect with other singles where people live closer together

Why are People Living Alone - Increased Longevity

Because people are living longer than ever and because women often outlive their spouses by decades rather than years - aging alone has become an increasingly common experience.

Ballard - South Asian Families

High rates of South Asians living in extended family. In their culture, family is important and they are more involved in their children's lives. 3/4 British Asian families include children, only 1/3 of white families do.

Berthoud (2000) - South Asian Families

3/4 Pakistani + Bangladeshi women married by 25 - compared to only half of white women. Arranged marriages are still used and divorce rates are low,

Characteristics of Caribbean Families

Higher number of single parent families headed by mother - matriarchal. The father is less likely to pay money for the child / can be due to low income

Reasons for Absent Fathers - Caribbean Families

A legacy of the slave trade where families were split and children stayed with the mother.

High rates of black unemployment linked with male underachievement.

Berthoud (2000) - Carribbean Families

He found that Black British women are the least likely to marry,
Divorce rates are high and there are high rates of mixed ethnicity marriages

Heath (2004) - Kippers

He suggests children are less likely to follow the traditional life course of living at home, leaving school, getting a job and then settling down. There has been an increase in those living at home with their parents. Men are more likely to live at home than women. Rising property prices have meant that many cannot afford to leave home. Some people often return home to live with their parents after university.

Impact of Kippers

They have less independence, which therefore means many start their own families later and it also impacts on their parents finances and own freedom, as they still have a responsibility of their child while they are in their home.

What sociologist is attached to the idea of the neo-conventional family?

Robert Chester

Robert Chester - Neo-Conventional Family

He suggests there has been increased family diversity but not as significant as others make out. The extent and importance of family diversity is exaggerated. The Neo-Conventional Family = A nuclear family but with a division of labour between the male and female. They are a dual-earner family. The nuclear family is still the family most people aspire to and due to our life cycle, most people will still be part of a nuclear family at some point in their lives