Changing family patterns

  • Families and households consist of men and women who are living together and forming relationships

  • There has been a big increase in divorce and a decline in the idea that marriage is a lifelong commitment

  • Women are having fewer children and having them at an older age


Smart - suggests individuals today have greater freedom of choice over their personal lives and suggests we should study changes to personal life not just families


Divorce

The 1969 Divorce Law Reform Act meant that marriage could end on the terms of irretrievable breakdown without a marital offence being committed first


Separation:

When couples agree to live apart after the breakdown of a marriage, but they stay legally married, usually due to financial issues

Empty shell marriages:

Where a husband and wife stay together in name only but there is no love or intimacy between them


Key trends:

  • 42% of marriages end in divorce

  • Mid 40’s is the most common age to divorce

  • Most divorces are jointly petitioned

  • Remarrying is becoming less popular


Divorce statistics can be misleading as 65% of UK families are married couples, showing marriage is still the most common family form


The 2022 no fault divorce law meant couples can divorce without any reason needed or if only one person wants a divorce


Explanations for changes in divorce rates

Changes in the law:

Changes in law have made it much easier and cheaper to get divorced along with giving men and women equal rights in divorce

Evidence:

Numbers of divorces doubled in 1969 immediately after the divorce reform act

Evaluation:

The family law act and changes in the law have only been introduced because of changes in societal attitudes towards divorce


Decline in stigma:

Mitchell and Goody - there has been important change since 1960 as there was a decrease in stigma towards marriage

Evidence:

There has been a rise in older people getting divorced which could be due to the removal of stigma that they may have faced when they were younger

Evaluation:

Empty shell marriages suggest that people do still care about social attitudes towards divorce as it still has stigma attached to