SCLY1 - Families and Households - Topic 5 - Changing family patterns (AQA AS Sociology)

Since the 1960's, there has been a great _____________ in the number of divorces in the UK.

The number of Divorces ____________ between 1961 and 1969, and ___________ again by 1972.

Divorce peaked in 1993 at _______.

Divorce has __________ since 1993, but still stood at _________ in 2001.

About __ out of ___ divorce petitions now come from women. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in the past. For example, in 1946, only 37% of petitions came from women. The commonest reason for a woman to be granted a divorce is the unreasonable behaviour of her husband.

Fill in the missing years for the changes in divorce law:
Ground for divorce equalised for men and women ( )
Grounds widened to include desertion and cruelty ( )
Divorce Law Reform Act ( )

Divorce rates have ____________ with every change in law.

Declining stigma and changing attitudes - In the past divorces and divorcees have been stigmatised. For example, churches tended to condemn and often refuse to conduct weddings involving divorcees. __________________ and ____________________ note that an important change since the 1960's has been the rapid decline in the stigma attached to divorce.

Secularisation - Religious influences in society declining and society is becoming more secular. According to the 2001 Census data, _____ of young people with no religion were cohabiting compared to only _____ of Christians, ___ of Muslims and ___ of Sikhs.

Functionalist sociologists such as _________________ argue that the higher expectations people place on marriage today are a major cause of rising divorce rates. Higher expectations make couples nowadays less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage.

Who said this " Love, personal commitment and intrinsic satisfaction are now seen as the cornerstones of marriage. The absence of these feelings, is itself justification for ending the relationship." ?

__________________ take a an optimistic view of today's high divorce rates. They point to the continuing popularity of marriage. Arguing that most adults marry and the high rate of remarriage after divorce shows that although divorcees may have become dissatisfied with a particular partner they have not rejected marriage as an institution.

________________ argue that the oppression of women within the family is the main cause of conflict and divorce, but functionalists ignore this. Although functionalists offer an explanation of rising divorce rates, they fail to explain why it is mainly women who seek divorce.

One reason for rising divorce rates and women seeking divorce more is the changes in the position of women. For example women today are much more likely to be in paid work, the proportion of women working rose from _____ in 1959 to _______ in 2005.

_______ and _________ argue that marriage is less embedded within the economic system now. There are fewer family firms and the family is no longer a unit of production, therefore spouses are no longer financially interdependent.

___________ argues that for many women, the home compares unfavourably with work. At work women feel valued. At home, mens continuing resistance to doing housework is a source of frustration and makes marriage less stable.

___________ see a high divorce rate as undesirable because it undermines the traditional nuclear family. In their view, divorce creates an underclass of welfare dependent female lone parents and leaves boys without the adult male role model that they need.

_________ see the high divorce rate as desirable because it shows that women are breaking free from the oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family.

_____________ see a high divorce rate as giving individuals the freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs. They see it as a cause of greater family diversity.

_______________ argue that a high divorce rate does not necessarily prove that marriage as a social institution is under threat. It is simply the result of peoples higher expectations of marriage today. The high rate of re-marriage shows how peoples continuing commitment to the idea of marriage.

______________ aim to understand what divorce means to the individual. Morgan (1996) argues that we cannot generalise about the meaning of divorce because every individual's interpretation of it is different . Mitchell and Goody provide an example of this. One of their interviewees described the day her father left as the best day of her life, whereas another said she had never recovered from her father deserting the family

Marriage patterns; In 2005,there were ____________ first marriages - less than half the number for 1970.

There are more remarriages than before. In 2005, __ out of every 10 marriages were remarriages. For many people this is leading to 'serial monogamy'; a pattern of marriage - divorce - remarriage.

People are marrying later; the average age of first marriage rose by seven years between 1971 and 2005, when it reached ___ for men and ___ for women.

Couples are less likely to marry in a church. In 1981, ___% of weddings were conducted with religious ceremonies, but by 2005 this had fallen to ___%

Which one of these is not a reason for the changing patterns of marriage?

According to the British Social Survey (2000) only __% of those surveyed agreed with the view that ' there is no point in getting married - it is only a piece of paper' whilst ___% disagreed.

The number of couples cohabiting continues to ____________. There are over __ million cohabiting couples in Britain.

Increased cohabitation rates reflect the decline in stigma attached to sex outside of marriage. In 1989, only ___% of people agreed that 'premarital sex is not wrong at all' but by 2000 ___% took this view.

____________ argues that for most people, cohabitation is part of the process of getting married.

_____________ 75% of cohabiting couples say they expect to marry each other and many see cohabitation as a trial marriage and intend to marry if it goes well.

____________ argues that cohabitation among some young people represents a conscious attempt to create a more personal, negotiated and equal relationship than conventional patriarchal marriages.

Cohabitation does not mean the same thing to every couple. __________ argues that the covers a diverse range of partnerships, and that the relationship between marriage and cohabitation is a complex and variable one.

____________ argues that increased social acceptance may explain a trend in recent years towards same sex cohabitation and stable relationships that resemble those found in among heterosexuals. _____ sees gays as creating families based on the idea of friendships become a type of kinship network. He describes these as 'chosen families' and argues that they offer the same security and stability as heterosexual families.

_____________ notes that, while many same sex couples welcome the opportunity to have their partnership legally recognised, others fear that it may limit the flexibility and negotiability of relationships. Rather than adopt what they see as heterosexual relationship norms, they wish to retain a status of difference.

There has been a big rise in the number of people living alone. In 2006, almost ___ in 10 households contained only one person - nearly 3x the figure for 1961.

The increase in ____________ has created more one-person households, especially among men under 65.

__________ argues that a growing number of people are opting for 'creative singlehood'- the deliberate choice to live alone.

Duncan and Phillips found that both _______ and ________ played a part in whether couples live together. For example, some said they could not afford to. However a minority actively chose to live apart, for example because they wanted to keep their own home.

Over __ in every 10 children are now born outside of marriage: five times more than in 1971. However, nearly all these births are jointly registered by both parents. In most cases, the parents are cohabiting.

Women are having fewer children than in the 20th century, though the number increased slightly in the early 21st century. The average number of children per woman fell from a peak of 2.95 in 1964 to a record low of ___ in 2001, rising somewhat to 1.84 by 2006.

Lone-parent families now make up _____% of all families. Over ___% of these families are headed by a women. Until the early 1990's, divorced women were the biggest group of lone mothers. From the early 1990's, single (never married) women became the biggest group of lone mothers.

Lone parent families tend to be female headed for several reasons. These include the widespread belief that women are by nature suited to an expressive or nurturing role (_____________); to mothers and the fact that men may be less willing than women to give up work to care for children.

___________ found that some working class mothers with less earning power chose to live on welfare benefits without a partner, often because they had experienced abuse.

Which New Right thinker sees the growth of lone-parent families as resulting from an over-generous welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and their children.

According to Murray (1984) The welfare state creates what in which people assume that the state will support them and their children?

Critics of the New Right view argue that welfare benefits are far from generous and lone-parent families are much more likely to be in poverty. Which of these is NOT a reason why lone-parent families are more likely to be in poverty?

Step families account for over ___% of all families with dependent children in the Britain. In ___% of stepfamilies, at least one child is from the woman's previous relationship, whereas in 11% there is at least one child from the mans previous relationship. In __% of stepfamilies there are children from both partners previous relationships

__________ found that stepfamilies are very similar to first families in all major respects, and that the involvement of stepparents in childcare and childrearing is a positive one. However they found that in general stepfamilies are at a greater risk of poverty.

____________ argue that step families may face particular problems of divided loyalties and issues such as contact with the non-resident parent can cause tensions.

_____________ concludes that there is diversity among step families and that some have few tensions, while for those that do the tensions are not so different from those 'intact' families.

In 2001 ___ of the British population were White. The main immigrant groups were Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi (3.6%), mixed ethnicity (1.2%) Black Carribean (1%) and others.

Black Caribbean and Black African people have a higher proportion of _______ households. In 2002 just over half of families with dependent children headed by a black person were _____ families. This is compared to 1 in 11 Indian families and just under a 1/4 of the population as a whole.

The high rate of female-headed, lone-parent black families has sometimes been seen as evidence of family disorganisation that is related to high rates of unemployment among black males. _________ argues that the higher rate of lone-parent families among Black people is not the result of disorganisation, but rather reflects the high value that black women place on independence.

_______ argues that statistics on black lone parent families are misleading. Argues that many apparently 'lone' parents are in fact in stable, supportive but non-cohabiting relationships.

Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian households tend to be bigger than those of other ethnic groups, 4.5, 4.1, and 3.3 persons per household respectively, compared with __ for both Black Caribbean and White British households and 2.4 for the population as a whole.

____________ found that extended family ties provided an important source of support among Asian migrants during the 1950's and 1960's

________________ found in their study of Swansea that the classic 3 generation family all living under one roof is now all but extinct. The only exceptions were among the city's Bangladeshi community.

______________ argues that the extended family has not disappeared and continues to exist as a 'dispersed extended family', where relatives are geographically separated but maintain frequent contact through visits and phone calls.

There is some variability in what is expected of different relatives. For example ________ and _________ found that more is expected of females than males. However, people do not continue to feel some obligation towards their extended kin - ______ and _______ found that over 90% had given or received financial help and about half had cared for a sick relative.