Family Patterns

Divorce
1. Trends
  1. Since the 1960's divorce has increases peaking in 1993 at 18,000
  2. Fallen to 10.5 per thousand married couple -2009
  3. 7/10 petitions for divorce come from women
  4. Those who are more likely to divorce
    1. those who marry young
    2. those who have a child before marriage
    3. those who cohabit
2. Reasons for trends
  1. Decline in stigma
    1. Socially acceptable
  2. Secularisation
    1. less people are religious
  3. Rising expectations of marriage
  4. Changes in position of women
  5. Changes in the law
    1. Legal aid
    2. Equalised grounds for divorce
3. Alternatives
  1. Desertion
    1. One partner leaves
      1. Stay married
  2. Legal separation
    1. financial and legal affairs of a couple are separated
      1. remain married
  3. Empty Shell marriage
    1. A couple live together but don't love each other
4. Perspectives
  1. New Right
    1. Divorce is bad
      1. Cause single mothers to depend on benefits
  2. Feminists
    1. divorce is good
      1. Shows women escaping patriarchy
  3. Functionalists
    1. Divorce doesnt threaten marriage
  4. Interactionalists
    1. impossible to genrealise
      1. people have different experiences
Parents and children
1. Reconstituted
  1. Make up 10% of dependent familes with children
  2. Children usually come from the woman's previous relationship
  3. Ferri + Smith
    1. more likely to live in poverty
      1. more children are supported
        Stepfather may be paying to support their ex's children as well as the children in his new family
  4. Allan + Crowe
    1. say reconstituted families face problems like
      1. divided loyalty
      2. no clear norms and values
      3. contact with non-resident paretns
2. Childbearing
  1. Trends
    1. More births outside of marriage
      1. 4/10
        less stigma attached to pre-marital sex
        potential of cohabitation
    2. more cohabitation
      1. most children born to cohabiting couples
  2. Reasons
    1. Women having children later
      1. or not having any
      2. or having less children
    2. focusing on careers first
3. Lone parent families
  1. Biggest group
    1. women who haven't married
      1. More pre-marital sex
  2. New Right argue
    1. increased due to
      1. availability of benefits which are too generous
    2. Criticised as
      1. many lone parents live in poverty
Partnerships
1. Marriage
  1. Trends
    1. Less people are marrying overall
      1. Decline in 1st marriages
        426,000 in 1940
        146,200 in 2006
      2. More remarriages
        57,000 in 1961
        98,580 in 2005
      3. People are marrying later
      4. Less church weddings
    2. Reasons
      1. Less pressure to marry
        fear of divorce
        change in women's positions
        less stigma
        secularisation
      2. increase in divorce
        creates serial monogomy
      3. more people cohabiting
        focusing on careers
      4. Secularisation
2. Cohabitation
  1. More people cohabiting
    1. 2 million couples
      1. Less stigma
      2. secularisation
      3. more acceptable among young
      4. change in position of women
  2. Chester argues it's a trial run before marriage
  3. Bejin argues it is just an alternative to marriage
3. Same sex relationships
  1. Roughly 5-7% of the population
  2. Laws give gays more rights
  3. Weston argues gay couples want normal relationship norms
  4. Cheal argues that some people prefer to be different
4. One person households
  1. Increased due to divorce and separation
    1. Marrying later
  2. 50% occupied by pensioners
  3. Creative Singlehood
  4. LAT
Ethnic Differences
1. Black families
  1. higher proportion of lone parent families
    1. Slavery- couples sold separately
  2. high unemployment
    1. causes
      1. desertion
      2. marital breakdown
2. Asian families
  1. most are nuclear
  2. higher proportion of extended families than any other ethnic groups
  3. more asian's in childbearing age
    1. 15-44 than any other ethnicity
Extended family today
1. Types
  1. Vertically extended
    1. 3 or more generations
  2. horizontally extended
    1. Nuclear family + extended family
  3. Classical extended
    1. Live with/near extended family
  4. Modified
    1. live apart but stay in touch
2. Parsons
  1. classical extended family was dominant in pre-industrial scoiety
    1. disappeared in modern society
      1. replaced by nuclear family
3. Studies
  1. Charles'
    1. Swansea
      1. found the classical extended
        was extinct apart from in Bangladeshi communitites
      2. 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
  2. Wilmott
    1. CEF is extinct
      1. replaced by MEF
  3. Carribean fams.
    1. dispersed
      1. still supportive
  4. More expectations on women to help fam members
    1. most peoplse still feel obligations to their extended fam.
      1. 90% of the families studied had given/received financial help from relatives

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Family Patterns

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