Family Patterns

Family Patterns

1. Divorce

   • Trends
     • Since the 1960's divorce has increases peaking in 1993 at 18,000
     • Fallen to 10.5 per thousand married couple -2009
     • 7/10 petitions for divorce come from women
     • Those who are more likely to divorce
       • those who marry young
       • those who have a child before marriage
       • those who cohabit
   • Reasons for trends
     • Decline in stigma
       • Socially acceptable
     • Secularisation
       • less people are religious
     • Rising expectations of marriage
     • Changes in position of women
     • Changes in the law
       • Legal aid
       • Equalised grounds for divorce
   • Alternatives
     • Desertion
       • One partner leaves
         • Stay married
     • Legal separation
       • financial and legal affairs of a couple are separated
         • remain married
     • Empty Shell marriage
       • A couple live together but don't love each other
   • Perspectives
     • New Right
       • Divorce is bad
         • Cause single mothers to depend on benefits
     • Feminists
       • divorce is good
         • Shows women escaping patriarchy
     • Functionalists
       • Divorce doesnt threaten marriage
     • Interactionalists
       • impossible to genrealise
         • people have different experiences

2. Parents and children

   • Reconstituted
     • Make up 10% of dependent familes with children
     • Children usually come from the woman's previous relationship
     • Ferri + Smith
       • more likely to live in poverty
         • more children are supported
           • Stepfather may be paying to support their ex's children as well as the children in his new family
     • Allan + Crowe
       • say reconstituted families face problems like
         • divided loyalty
         • no clear norms and values
         • contact with non-resident paretns
   • Childbearing
     • Trends
       • More births outside of marriage
         • 4/10
           • less stigma attached to pre-marital sex
             • potential of cohabitation
       • more cohabitation
         • most children born to cohabiting couples
     • Reasons
       • Women having children later
         • or not having any
         • or having less children
       • focusing on careers first
   • Lone parent families
     • Biggest group
       • women who haven't married
         • More pre-marital sex
     • New Right argue
       • increased due to
         • availability of benefits which are too generous
       • Criticised as
         • many lone parents live in poverty

3. Partnerships

   • Marriage
     • Trends
       • Less people are marrying overall
         • Decline in 1st marriages
           • 426,000 in 1940
           • 146,200 in 2006
         • More remarriages
           • 57,000 in 1961
           • 98,580 in 2005
         • People are marrying later
         • Less church weddings
       • Reasons
         • Less pressure to marry
           • fear of divorce
           • change in women's positions
           • less stigma
             • secularisation
         • increase in divorce
           • creates serial monogomy
         • more people cohabiting
           • focusing on careers
         • Secularisation
   • Cohabitation
     • More people cohabiting
       • 2 million couples
         • Less stigma
         • secularisation
         • more acceptable among young
         • change in position of women
     • Chester argues it's a trial run before marriage
     • Bejin argues it is just an alternative to marriage
   • Same sex relationships
     • Roughly 5-7% of the population
     • Laws give gays more rights
     • Weston argues gay couples want normal relationship norms
     • Cheal argues that some people prefer to be different
   • One person households
     • Increased due to divorce and separation
       • Marrying later
     • 50% occupied by pensioners
     • Creative Singlehood
     • LAT

4. Ethnic Differences

   • Black families
     • higher proportion of lone parent families
       • Slavery- couples sold separately
     • high unemployment
       • causes
         • desertion
         • marital breakdown
   • Asian families
     • most are nuclear
     • higher proportion of extended families than any other ethnic groups
     • more asian's in childbearing age
       • 15-44 than any other ethnicity

5. Extended family today

   • Types
     • Vertically extended
       • 3 or more generations
     • horizontally extended
       • Nuclear family + extended family
     • Classical extended
       • Live with/near extended family
     • Modified
       • live apart but stay in touch
   • Parsons
     • classical extended family was dominant in pre-industrial scoiety
       • disappeared in modern society
         • replaced by nuclear family
   • Studies
     • Charles'
       • Swansea
         • found the classical extended
           • was extinct apart from in Bangladeshi communitites
         • Bell
           • both MC+WC fams
             • stayed in touch with kin and relied on them for support
               • MC
                 • Support was mainly financial
                   • father to son
               • WC
                 • Support was more domestic
                   • mother to daughter
     • Wilmott
       • CEF is extinct
         • replaced by MEF
     • Carribean fams.
       • dispersed
         • still supportive
     • More expectations on women to help fam members
       • most peoplse still feel obligations to their extended fam.
         • 90% of the families studied had given/received financial help from relatives