Families And Households Flashcards

Question

Boomerang family definition?

Answer 1

This family contains at least one young adult who returns to their parents’ house (the empty nest) often after finishing university, then leaves again when (if) they can finally afford their own accommodation. This situation is becoming much more common, with affordable accommodation hard to find for young people.

Answer 2

Recent research suggests that this can cause considerable stress for women (the ‘sandwich generation’) who are still providing a home for their young adult children while also helping care for grandchildren, and their elderly parents and in-laws.

Answer 3

this refers to couples who are Living Apart Together. The couple are in an intimate relationship, but choose not to live in the same home. This is becoming more common in 21st century Britain, and is a fast-growing trend in New York.

Answer 4

men and women in the UK are only allowed to have one marriage partner at a time. It is against the law to re-marry if you are still married to someone else. When an individual moves from one marriage partner to another after divorce, this is known as serial monogamy.

Answer 5

the custom of one man legally marrying more than one woman at a time. This is common in some traditional societies e.g. in northern Africa.

Answer 6

the custom of a woman marrying more than one man at the same time. This is very rare, but happens in some areas of Nepal.

Answer 7

This is the norm in many countries in the Global South. The parents choose a marriage partner for their child in consultation with the other set of parents. Marriages are usually arranged between families of similar caste, or social & economic status. Arranged marriages also take place in some communities within the UK, e.g. those of South Asian heritage, but the children are more likely to have some input into the decision these days.

Answer 8

Due to the population crisis, the Chinese government introduced the one-child policy in 1979 to slow down population growth. Married couples received positive sanctions (financial rewards) for having only one child, but were penalised with harsh negative sanctions for having more than one child. Many women were forced to terminate pregnancies, particularly if they were carrying a girl. As a result, many young men in China have not been able to find a girl to marry, as there are not enough girls in the population. The Chinese Government has recently introduced a policy to encourage families to have two or three children to address the gender imbalance within the population, and decrease the dependency ratio.

Answer 9

Robert and Rhona Rapoport argued in 1982 that there was now a wider range of family types, and this family diversity is even greater today than it was when they carried out their research 40 years ago.

Answer 10

Organisational diversity, Cultural diversity, Social class diversity, Life cycle diversity, Cohort diversity

Answer 11

there are now many more different family types e.g. same-sex, lone parent, reconstituted, etc.

Answer 12

families from different cultural and religious backgrounds may have different family structures. For example, the Roman Catholic Church teaches against contraception and abortion, so Roman Catholics often had larger families, although this is changing with the growth of secularisation.

Answer 13

The Rapoports discussed variations in family structures, attitudes and conjugal roles between different social classes. For example, working-class women have always worked outside the home, whereas middle-class women were more likely to be traditional housewives in the 1950s.

Answer 14

Family structures can differ depending on events in the wider world e.g. after World War One, there was a huge shortage of young men available for young women to marry. The Rapoports concluded in 1982 that fundamental changes were taking place in family life in Britain. However, Robert Chester argued that the main change was the rise of the neo-conventional family where wage- earning and home-making are no longer tied to gender roles.

Answer 15

Families move through different stages and have different priorities at different times. For example, a young heterosexual female teacher may be single when she starts her full-time teaching career at 22 years old, go part-time when she has young children, go full-time again when the children are all in primary school; then go part-time again in the final years of her teaching career when she takes on some responsibility for the care of her grandchildren and elderly parents and in-laws.

Answer 16

led to major changes in family structures and patterns over the last 60 years.

Answer 17

Individuals were now able to leave an unhappy marriage without having to prove that a matrimonial offence like adultery had taken place.

Answer 18

most people no longer feel that it is ‘sinful’ to get divorced, and there is no longer stigma attached to divorce.

Answer 19

The UK government also began to provide state benefits to lone parents to support them, and this made it easier for women to divorce and raise children in a lone-parent household, if they chose to.

Answer 20

that about 42% of marriages in England & Wales ended in divorce

Answer 21

led to an increase in lone- parent families. The percentage of lone-parent families has tripled since 1971 Around a quarter of all families and dependent children were living in a lone-parent family in 2017. Nine out of ten lone-parent families are headed by women.

Answer 22

These changes in society are all linked to the impact of feminism, secularisation and changes to the economy which have led to changing social norms, and changes in the law.

Answer 23

women are more likely to start their career after studying at university, and delay having their first child until they are about 30 years old. They may also delay marriage until after the birth of their child(ren) and this trend did not start to become normalised until the 1990s. By delaying their first child, this enables young women to get a foothold in the labour market.

Answer 24

it is still not easy for women to return full-time to some occupations when they have small children. There is also a chronic lack of affordable childcare in the UK at the moment, and both main political parties are being forced to address this issue before the next General Election.

Answer 25

the Motherhood Penalty is driving many women out of the workforce, and there are high levels of economic inactivity – mostly mothers of young children who wish to work outside the home, but who cannot afford to do so.

Answer 26

by a rise in secularisation.

Answer 27

means religion plays much less of a role in people’s lives

Answer 28

In the recent Census in 2021, over half of the people in Norwich and Brighton ticked a box saying they had ‘No Religion’. (These people are known as The Nones.) Individuals are now much more able to make choices based on their personal wishes rather than, for example, the teachings of the Bible

Answer 29

Far more people now choose to: have several sexual partners before settling down; to co-habit; to have children outside marriage; to have a same-sex partner; to use contraception or have an abortion; get divorced, etc. without worrying that ‘the church’ would consider their behaviour sinful and shameful. The decline in stigma attached to such personal choices has had a huge impact on the behaviour of individuals and couples in the 21st century.

Answer 30

some members of traditional religious groups, including Roman Catholics and Muslims, still choose to follow the teachings of their religion

Answer 31

The 2021 Census shows that young Muslims in the UK are the most likely group under 35 to identify closely with their religion.

Answer 32

a huge number of laws have been passed which impact on the family.

Answer 33

due to pressure from feminists to improve the quality of life for women, and push for greater equality.

Answer 34

enabled women to legally seek termination of a pregnancy before 24 weeks with the consent of two medical practitioners.

Answer 35

women started to gain some control over their fertility. This has enabled many women (especially middle-class women) to delay having their first child until the age of about 30, and start their career first.

Answer 36

controversial amongst Roman Catholics, and evangelical Protestant Christians within the UK.

Answer 37

employers were obliged to pay women the same rate as men for work of the same value.

Answer 38

women’s wages did go up, and they started to achieve more financial independence. This benefited not only women, but their husbands who saw an increase in the family income.

Answer 39

women are still more likely than men to work part-time, and women are hit by the ‘motherhood penalty’ when they have children, as men in their age group are promoted ahead of them.

Answer 40

As more men still attain the senior roles in organisations, it is clear that a glass ceiling is still in place, and there is still a gender pay gap in the UK.

Answer 41

an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities.

Answer 42

Intersectional feminists argue that women are not a homogenous group, and some women have benefited more than others from the Equal Pay Act. Working-class Bangladeshi women are the lowest paid women in the UK, while some middle-class graduates – e.g. White British and Indian – are much more highly paid. Some Black feminists in the UK have argued that the nuclear family can provide support for Black women who are experiencing racial oppression outside the home.

Answer 43

Employers were no longer allowed to discriminate against women in the workplace. All jobs had to be advertised to both women and men, unless there was a very good reason not to. Women could take sexist employers to court.

Answer 44

started campaigning for changes that would improve the quality of life of women within families, and help them achieve greater equality with men.

Answer 45

acknowledge that there is inequality between men and women, but choose to work within the structures of society to change the law, and change social norms. Liberal feminists have worked with male allies to change laws affecting women within the family: e.g. the Equal Pay Act and the Divorce Reform Act, and the law outlawing marital rape in 1991. However, other feminists would argue that the family is still a site of oppression for many women.

Answer 46

Marxist feminists argue that the nuclear family supports the capitalist system, but it also works in the interests of men. They argue that women – especially working-class women - often work outside the home, but also carry a dual burden of unpaid work inside the home too.

Answer 47

When children are born, women have to take time out of the labour market, and often take part-time roles when they return to work, in order to ‘fit around the children’. Marxist feminists also believe that women are used as a reserve pool of labour.

Answer 48

Marxist feminists campaign for universal childcare

Answer 49

believe that the nuclear family is a patriarchal institution which serves to empower men.

Answer 50

Radical feminists campaign against Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)

Answer 51

opened the first rape crisis centres for women in the 1970s

Answer 52

women are still victims of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and are murdered at a rate of about three a fortnight

Answer 53

argue that family structures are incredibly varied, and individuals have much more freedom of choice about aspects of their lives which would have been relatively ‘constrained’ in the past

Answer 54

Individuals now create their identities and lifestyles from a broad diversity of cultural options, rather than just one shared culture, as Functionalists had suggested

Answer 55

Rapid technological development has impacted hugely on society by dissolving barriers of time and space, transforming patterns of work and leisure. Postmodern feminists have therefore argued that there is no longer one dominant family type, and research should focus around the individual meanings that individuals give to their own family situations

Answer 56

have criticised postmodernism for failing to acknowledge that traditional gender roles (e.g. those linked to giving birth) still disadvantage women much more than men

Answer 57

Wilmott and Young carried out research into gender roles in the traditional working-class East End of London. Their research in Bethnal Green revealed a clear division between gender roles. They argued that segregated conjugal roles were clearly evident, with women turning to female kin (relatives) for support with their children. Meanwhile, their husbands often spent their leisure time with workmates at the pub or at sporting events.

Answer 58

Willmott and Young published ‘The Symmetrical Family’ in 1973 in which they claimed that there was a new conjugal arrangement where relationships were becoming more equal, but not identical. Both the husband and wife were more likely to work outside the house and share responsibility for earning the money: if both adults were working outside the home, they were called a dual- career family.

Answer 59

Due to geographical mobility couples had nicer houses on the new estates outside London, and spent more time together improving their home, and working on the garden. The extra money that the couple earned was more likely to be used to make the home a more attractive place to raise a family rather than being spent on the man’s leisure activities.

Answer 60

As women had often moved away from their female kinship networks (mothers and sisters), they were more reliant on their husbands. Men were more willing to do cleaning and cooking using the new labour-saving devices like vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens and washing machines / tumble dryers. The domestic division of labour (unpaid work in the home) was shared out more equally. Wilmott and Young’s 1970s research on the symmetrical family showed married women were going out to work and a ‘new man’ was emerging who was more likely to do domestic tasks.

Answer 61

argued that the role of the ‘new man’ within the home had been exaggerated by Wilmott and Young. Men were happy to ‘help out’ and do the pleasurable bits of parenting, such as taking the children to the park. But the responsibility for the children and the home still seemed to lay firmly with the wife, even if she worked outside the home as well.

Answer 62

argued that women were now doing ‘a second shift’: paid work outside the home, and unpaid work inside the home, also known as the ‘dual burden’.

Answer 63

Duncombe and Marsden in the 1990s, argued that many women were doing a triple shift: paid work outside the home, unpaid work inside the home, and all the emotion work connected with the emotional burden of micro-managing family life.

Answer 64

The ‘UK Time Use Survey’ in 2014-15 found that mothers were doing, on average, 17 hours of childcare while fathers were doing just under 8 hours.

Answer 65

Gillian Dunne (1999) found that lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because of the absence of traditional heterosexual ‘gender scripts’ which enabled them to create a more equal relationship. This supports the radical feminist view that relationships between men and women are inevitably patriarchal, and that women can only achieve equality in same-sex relationships.

Answer 66

Carol Smart (2007) argued that same-sex relationships offered greater possibilities of equality because the division of labour is open to negotiation and agreement, and not based on patriarchal tradition.

Answer 67

Whoever makes the decisions is often linked to who has the ‘power’ within a family.

Answer 68

In 1980, Stephen Edgell found that while women were more likely to be making decisions around the home such as children’s clothes and spending on food shopping, men were making the more significant decision relating to changing jobs, moving house, making financial decisions to do with banking and insurance, etc. Therefore, men were still in control of domestic decision-making.

Answer 69

Feminist sociologists Pahl and Vogler (1993) argued that there were two main types of control over family income: The Allowance System: men gave their wives an allowance out of which they had to budget for the family’s needs (often known as ‘housekeeping money’ while the men kept any surplus for themselves. The Pooling System: both partners have access to income and have joint responsibility for family expenditure – e.g. through a joint bank account. They concluded that the pooling system was on the increase in the UK.

Answer 70

Carol Smart (2007) argued that gay men and lesbians give a different meaning to the control of money, and did not see this issue as linked to equality or inequality within the relationship. She argued this was because same-sex couples do not enter their relationship with the same ‘historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings around money’. She argued it was essential to start from the ‘personal meanings’ of actors involved in the situation in order to fully understand their perspective.

Answer 71

Esther Dermott studied father and childcare in 2003 and found that many fathers wanted to be involved with childcare and spend time with their children, for example playing, taking them out or helping them with homework. Dermott’s research revealed the desire on the part of the men she interviewed to have a relationship with their children based on emotional openness and communication, which Dermott called ‘intimate fathering’. However, Dermott also argued that there was not necessarily a link between ‘intimacy’ and ‘time’.

Answer 72

Since the UK Government introduced the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) policy in 2015, only a small number of fathers have been able to take time off work after the birth of their child. Critics have argued that the SPL policy will only be beneficial to families if a ‘use it or lose it’ clause is included, as it is in Sweden, where non-transferable leave is available to fathers, and does not transfer to the mothers if the fathers don’t take it up. This means there’s a lack of time available to many men to spend with their child.

Answer 73

The media can also both reflect and influence changes in attitudes. Men are now more likely to be shown on TV taking an active role in parenting and housework.

Answer 74

As women are increasingly choosing to control their fertility and have children later, the average number of children is now around two. As a result, parents have more money to spend on a smaller number of children, e.g. to pay for extra-curricular activities, phones, private tuition and educational trips.

Answer 75

Functionalists believe that the nuclear family serves the needs of society, and helps create social solidarity.

Answer 76

He argued that the nuclear family was universal, all families fulfil four vital functions

Answer 77

Sexual regulation, education, reproductive, economic

Answer 78

Sex within marriage creates a powerful bond between husband and wife, and encourages stability within the family and society.

Answer 79

Society requires new members to maintain society. The biological production of children generally occurs within a nuclear family context where the children can best be supported by two parents playing the instrumental and expressive roles.

Answer 80

the family transmits the norms and values of the culture to the next generation through primary socialisation: children learn to talk, take turns, learn manners, follow rules, etc.

Answer 81

adult parents provide shelter, food and clothes for their children. When families buy things for their children, this helps maintain the economy.

Answer 82

Talcott Parsons developed the Functional Fit Theory. In pre-industrial society, families used to be extended, but families became more nuclear after industrialisation as they fitted industrial society better. For example, nuclear families were more geographically mobile, and could move to the cities to find work within the industrial capitalist economy.

Answer 83

Gender role socialisation Stabilisation of adult personalities

Answer 84

Parsons argued that mothers within the nuclear family played the major role in the process of primary socialisation: nurturing and socialising children into their gender roles. Parsons believed that women were biologically suited to this expressive (caring) role. He also believed men were biologically suited to the instrumental (breadwinner) role. Therefore, the role of the nuclear family, particularly mothers, was to socialise children into these gendered roles.

Answer 85

Parsons argued that the second specialised function of the family is to provide emotional security, and relieve the stresses of modern- day living – particularly those experienced by the husband. In his ‘warm bath theory’, Parsons argued that the wife provided a warm loving home where husbands could relax at the end of each day, and this prevented men from becoming disruptive and dysfunctional (revolutionary) in times of stress. Parsons focused on husbands returning home after a stressful day at the office or the factory, meeting deadlines and targets, seeking promotions and pay rises, etc - the men would take their stress out on the women which meant women were the takers of shit. Parsons appeared to have little understanding of the stress that many women experienced while maintaining a home and caring for small children

Answer 86

She argued that women were ‘takers of shit’, absorbing men’s frustrations and protecting the ruling class from revolution.

Answer 87

Radical feminists argue that Functionalists completely ignore ‘the dark side of family life’ which includes domestic and sexual abuse, coercive control and intimate partner violence (IPV).

Answer 88

Dobash and Dobash interviewed women who had been victims of domestic violence. They found that men were likely to commit violent abuse when they felt that their wives were not performing their role properly – either in relation to domestic labour, emotional support or sex. 80% of the abusing men acted as if nothing had happened after the incident, and showed little remorse, usually blaming the victim. Dobash and Dobash also concluded that the police did not take such ‘domestic incidents’ very seriously.

Answer 89

This study was carried out in 1980, and did not take into account cases of domestic violence where men were the victims, or when the abuse took place within same-sex couples. As domestic abuse is often not reported, it is extremely hard to get accurate statistics on Intimate Partner Violence.

Answer 90

children within families are recognised not just as witnesses, but as victims of abuse.

Answer 91

Marxist theory argues that the nuclear family benefits the ruling class by serving the interests of capitalism.

Answer 92

Marxists view the family within the framework of a capitalist society, based on private property, and driven by profit. Marxists focus on the conflict between the ruling middle class (bourgeoisie) and subordinate working class (proletariat).

Answer 93

Families are seen as ‘consumer units’ – they buy the products that maintain the economy. Capitalists need consumers to buy their products so that the ruling class (the bourgeoisie) can make high profits.

Answer 94

The process of primary socialisation within the family reproduces the social class inequalities of the capitalist system. Children are socialised to accept their ‘place’ within the social class system.

Answer 95

Families support capitalism by reproducing the labour force, and providing unpaid labour. Women produce children, care for them, and help socialise the next generation of workers. This domestic labour is unpaid.

Answer 96

Frederich Engels argued that the nuclear family had a clear economic function for capitalism by ensuring that wealth remained in the hands of the bourgeoisie. The conventional nuclear family structure enabled married men to pass down their property to their oldest legitimate child who inherits the wealth, and maintains that wealth within the family.

Answer 97

Zaretsky (Marxist) provides an interesting variation on Parsons’ Warm Bath theory. Zaretsky argues that the family actually cushions the pressures of capitalism by providing a ‘safe haven’ and allowing working men to relieve their frustrations within the family. The husband had a domestic space to control, in which he was ‘the boss’ – or the Head of the Household. As a result, working class men did not rise up and start a revolution against capitalism.

Answer 98

Zaretsky’s theory is outdated, as it fails to take into account that many women, particularly working-class women, also work outside the house for money, and often for a low wage.

Answer 99

argue that it is men rather than capitalism that benefit most from the exploitation of women within the family. They claim that the family is structured in such a way that men dominate the family; men make the important decisions; women end up doing the triple shift.

Answer 100

The family has lost many of its traditional functions so the views of Functionalists and Marxists now seem outdated. There is a much wider range of family types on offer in addition to the nuclear family, with many women, for example, choosing to remain single and / or childfree. Those couples who do opt for a nuclear family set-up have chosen this from a range of options that were not available or socially acceptable to their grandparents.

Answer 101

Sociologists and thinkers from the New Right see the conventional nuclear family as essential for the stability of society.

Answer 102

they argue that government policies in contemporary society have undermined the conventional nuclear family.

Answer 103

Charles Murray argued that the welfare state had provided ‘perverse incentives’ for women to form lone-parent families – e.g. receiving state benefits. This had led to children growing up in ‘workless’ households, and forming an underclass in society.

Answer 104

Murray’s views are considered both outdated and offensive to many sociologists, not least because substantial numbers of families experiencing poverty in the UK are families containing at least one adult who is working.

Answer 105

1. Children are physically and psychologically immature compared to adults. 2. Young children are dependent on adults for a range of biological and emotional needs. Children need a lengthy process of socialisation which takes several years. 3. In contrast to adults, children are not competent to run their own lives and cannot be held responsible for their actions

Answer 106

one of the defining characteristics of adulthood is that adults are biologically mature, are competent to run their own lives and are fully responsible for their actions.

Answer 107

what people mean by childhood and the position children occupy is not fixed but differs across times, places and cultures. There is considerable variation in what people in different societies think about the place of children in society, about what children should and shouldn’t be doing at certain ages, about how children should be socialised, and about the age at which they should be regarded as adults.

Answer 108

sociologists say that childhood is socially constructed. This means that childhood is something created and defined by society

Answer 109

Jane Pilcher (1995) argued that childhood is seen as a ‘separate’ and distinct life stage where children occupy a different status than adults, and it can be characterised as a ‘golden time’.

Answer 110

1. There are ‘child specific’ places where only children and ‘trusted adults’ are supposed to go, and thus children are relatively sheltered from adult life – although the internet and social media have hugely impacted on this in recent years. 2. Laws: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world. The 54 articles of the Convention cover all aspects of a child’s life, and set out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all children everywhere are entitled to. 3. There are products designed specifically for children which adults are not supposed to play with and products which children are not supposed to access to

Answer 111

Ruth Benedict (1934) argued that children in traditional, non-industrial societies (the majority world of the Global South) are generally treated differently from children in modern western societies (the minority world of the Global North). In many ‘majority world’ cultures, children are expected to engage in both paid and unpaid work.

Answer 112

In rural areas of Bolivia, Samantha Punch showed that even very young children were expected to work hard on the family farm – but her task-based research showed that they also engaged in play. Majority world childhoods, which quantitatively are the norm, challenge minority (western) world assumptions about what childhood is: as a time for play and school.

Answer 113

In some cultures, girls are forced into marriage at 14 or younger, taking on the duties of a wife or mother at a young age. This is well documented in e.g. Ethiopia. However, UNICEF is campaigning to change this – the law in Malawi has recently changed to raise the age of marriage to 18.

Answer 114

In conflict, typically young teenage boys may be recruited to fight, effectively taking on very serious adult responsibilities several years much younger than they would do in ‘western’ societies – e.g. in the DR Congo.

Answer 115

He argued that in the Middle Ages ‘the idea of childhood did not exist’ – children were not seen as essentially different to adults like they are today.

Answer 116

• Children were expected to work at a much earlier age • The law often made no distinction between children and adults

Answer 117

Edward Shorter (1975) argued that parental attitudes to children in the Middle Ages were very different from today:

Answer 118

• High infant mortality rates encouraged indifference and neglect towards infants • Parents often neglected to give new born babies names – referring to them as ‘it’ and it was not uncommon to eventually give a new baby a name of a dead sibling.

Answer 119

argued that it is only from the 13th century onwards that modern notions of childhood – the idea that childhood is a distinct phase of life from adulthood – begin to emerge.

Answer 120

Dr Carenza Lewis found evidence of toys from the medieval era

Answer 121

Stephen Wagg (1992) argued that there is no universal definition of childhood. It is not just biological immaturity; it is something that is experienced differently in each society and through different historical eras.

Answer 122

Children have more rights now. For example, the UNCRC was signed by UK and most other countries in 1989 clearly outlining the rights to which every child is entitled. This includes the right to play, the right to nutritious food, and the right to have a voice. Children are now able to voice their concerns about school through Student Councils and should be listened to by adult professionals.

Answer 123

Safeguarding has improved, and the ‘Every Child Matters’ initiative (following the tragic murder of Victoria Climbié) has led to a multi-agency approach. External agencies such as schools, police, social workers and health professionals now work more closely together to ensure the protection of children, and all adults who work with children are subject to DBS checks.

Answer 124

Education is more child-centred as corporal punishment was banned in England & Wales in the 1980s. Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are more likely to be understood and supported rather than punished. For example, children with neurodivergent conditions such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia are now more likely to be given a personal care plan (EHCP) to enable teachers to support their learning.

Answer 125

he curriculum has also improved in the UK, and the Government now issues statutory guidance on Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) to teach children about issues like consent and identity. Discriminatory legislation such as Section 28 of the Local Government Act have also been repealed.

Answer 126

Changes in legislation have improved children’s experience of childhood. The raising of the school leaving age to 18 has made it less likely that young people will be NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and careers guidance in schools has greatly improved. Children are also protected now by labour laws and are less likely to have to work for money to support their family. The increased availability of no-fault divorce, since the first reform of 1969, has meant that fewer children are trapped in an unhappy, possibly abusive, family home.

Answer 127

children are not a homogenous group, and there are various intersectional issues which need to be taken into account. For example, official statistics show that Young Carers and those on FSM are less likely to achieve well in school, as they are still facing multiple disadvantages which are not an issue for their more fortunate classmates.

Answer 128

Neil Postman (1994) argued that childhood is disappearing due to a decline in print culture, and a rise in TV culture. Although he conducted his research before the internet and social media were widespread, there are many research studies which suggest the dangers of exposing young children to the internet. Negative role models for children, e.g. Andrew Tate, are having a huge impact on vulnerable children. Postman also argued that in addition to the ‘adultification of children’, there is a ‘childification of adults’. Increasingly, children and adults indulge in the same pastimes.

Answer 129

both adults and children spending increased amounts of their time on their phones at the expense of face to face quality time. Research by Morris (2022) suggests that parental smartphone use during parent-child interactions affects young children’s development due to lack of parental responsiveness, direct gaze and attention. Morris calls this technoference.

Answer 130

Sue Palmer argued in her book ‘Toxic Childhood’ that rapid technological change and other cultural changes cause psychological and physical damage to children. One issue was a decline in physical outdoor play leading to a rise in obesity. She also argued childhood had become commercialised, leading to children being exploited by advertising.

Answer 131

Her research with primary school teachers suggested that children’s listening, language and communication skills had suffered due to shortened attention spans. Moreover, an obsessive focus on tests and targets within school was causing children high levels of stress and anxiety.

Answer 132

showed that children in the UK are increasingly unhappy, and anxious about their future.

Answer 133

Gittins describes the concept of age patriarchy in which adults make children helpless and dependent in order to maintain authority over them.

Answer 134

Jacques Donzelot argues that there is state surveillance of parenting: parents are controlled through social policies; the monitoring of children’s health by health visitors; legislation regarding consumption of energy drinks and smoking with children in cars, etc.

Answer 135

Sarah Womak (2007) argues that childhood is only ‘toxic’ and ‘disappearing’ for poor children. The increasing number of children who grow up in damp and mouldy social housing, or in temporary housing, often live miserable and desperate lives. However, for the children of the affluent professional middle classes, childhood is not disappearing, but expanding, with financial support from ‘the Bank of Mum and Dad’ continuing well into their 20s, with house deposits being made available for the most fortunate.

Answer 136

Perhaps the most significant economic and social change in recent decades has been globalisation: the increasing interconnectedness of the world.

Answer 137

• Economic change has caused manufacturing jobs to leave the UK, leading to a change in gender roles. This may have contributed to a crisis of masculinity for boys and men who no longer have clear (gendered) roles. • Another feature of globalisation is immigration and an increasingly diverse multicultural society. This has contributed to changes in the structure of family, and family diversity. • The globalisation of popular culture includes significant technological change, transforming the media. According to Sue Palmer, this has had an impact on childhood, contributing to toxic childhood. • Social media and other technological changes have also allowed families to keep in closer contact despite large geographical distances (including staying in touch with extended family in other countries.)

Answer 138

The Conservative Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major (1979 – 1997) were greatly influenced by New Right thinkers. In relation to families, this means they: • Preferred conventional nuclear families • Encouraged individual and parental responsibility • Encouraged mothers to remain at home • Were concerned that the welfare system might encourage non-traditional (non-nuclear) family forms leading to dependency and irresponsible behaviour

Answer 139

Margaret Thatcher described the family as ‘the building block of society’.

Answer 140

• The Children Act (1989) which outlined the rights of children • The Child Support Agency (CSA) (1993) Aimed to ensure that absent fathers paid maintenance for their children • Married Men’s Tax Allowance – This lowered taxes for those whose wives did not work, encouraging mothers to stay at home with the children • Section 28: This prohibited Local Authorities, including LEA schools, from promoting ‘pretended family relationships’ such as homosexual relationships.

Answer 141

Marxist critics argued that the real purpose of the CSA was to cut public spending on benefits, and lower taxes for the wealthy.

Answer 142

The main point of continuity with the Conservative Government (Tony Blair 1997-2010) was focused on trying to reduce public spending, e.g. by getting lone mothers into work rather than receiving benefits.

Answer 143

Working family tax credits – these replaced the married man’s tax allowance. This no longer incentivised one partner to remain at home, and instead recognised the dual earner family as the norm. This was a major change in policy. Paid paternity leave of two weeks was introduced in 2003. A range of legislation recognised the diversity of family types: The Civil Partnership Act for same-sex couples (2004) The repeal of Section 28 which destigmatised same-sex relationships (2003) The Adoption and Children’s Act (2002) allowing gay couples to adopt children: this was also a significant change.

Answer 144

Blair’s Government continued to hold the official position that marriage was the best basis for family life, and they retained the idea of the conventional nuclear family as being the ‘ideal’. They did not pass legislation allowing same- sex couples to marry. At the time, the New Labour Government felt that opposition from religious groups, including the established Church of England, would make full marriage equality too difficult and controversial. ironically, same-sex marriage had to wait until David Cameron’s Conservative Government finally passed the legislation in 2014.

Answer 145

The policies combined New Right policies with some more liberal policies.

Answer 146

Removing the so-called ‘couples penalty’. This ensured that it would never be beneficial for couples to break up in order to claim benefits.

Answer 147

Shared Parental Leave: This allowed parental leave to be shared between both parents. But take up from fathers was low, as many did not fulfil the requirements. Critics have argued that a ‘use it or lose it’ clause needs to be introduced, to normalise the concept of fathers taking parental leave. Changing attitudes and behaviour clearly requires more than a change in legislation. Equal marriage: Nine years after the Civil Partnership Act was past, same-sex couples could finally get married. The main focus of Coalition policies was to cut government spending, and George Osborne’s austerity policies had a significant impact on family finances.

Answer 148

Married Couples’ Tax Allowance – this is similar to Thatcher’s policy in that people only get a tax break if one partner is not working full-time. But the policy no longer states which partner must stay at home – it doesn’t have to be the woman. The policy is also available to same-sex married couples. Child tax credits restricted to two children – also known as the two-child benefit cap. Families can only receive tax credits for the first two children. This was designed both to save public money, and to disincentivise low-income families from having more than two children. This policy has been highly controversial, not least because of the ‘rape clause’ that was included in the event of a child being conceived without consent. The CPAG have recently published figures showing that an increasing number of families are being pushed into poverty as a result of this policy.

Answer 149

• Secularisation: church weddings are no longer the norm • Increasing normalisation of divorce puts people off marrying in the first place • Expense of a big wedding • The search for the pure relationship – Giddens (1995) argues that people are searching for the perfect relationship, and struggle to make a commitment • People are much more likely to co-habit until their late 30s, and may actually choose not to marry their partner at all, but remain co-habiting

Answer 150

• Changes to the law from 1969 onwards • Secularisation: less stigma attached to divorce • Female emancipation supported by feminism • Child support benefits available for lone mothers • The search for the pure relationship

Answer 151

There are no statistics available on empty shell marriages where people continue to live together for the sake of the children; through fear of the consequences of separating; through religious belief, etc. So the divorce statistics may not tell the whole story...

Answer 152

Childbearing is having children (given birth)

Answer 153

childrearing is bringing the child up.

Answer 154

• Women are having children later – this links to delayed marriage and a focus on careers •Women are having fewer children, linked to the above, but also to the lack of available, affordable childcare • A higher proportion of women (currently about 25%) are not having children at all – not all from choice • More than 40% of children are now born outside marriage, as this is no longer stigmatised due to changes in norms and values • Women have more control over their fertility due to the increased availability of contraception and abortion

Answer 155

63% of families were single family households

Answer 156

The most common family type was married or civil partnered couples with dependent children (3.5 million)

Answer 157

There were 3 million lone-parent households in England & Wales

Answer 158

There were 656,000 multiple-family households

Answer 159

67,000 same-sex marriages or civil partnerships

Answer 160

from 34.6% in 2011 to 37% in 2021.

Answer 161

• Fertility rates have dropped from 2.93 children per woman in 1964, to 1.70 in 2018. • Changes in gender roles • Increased cost of child rearing • Greater geographical mobility of the family, so less access to family childcare support • Lack of other affordable childcare options • Increased control over fertility through contraception and abortion

Answer 162

1. Economic growth and improving living standards 2. Medical advances 3. Social policies

Answer 163

- better food and nutrition - children better able to resist infectious diseases, reducing the infant and child mortality rates - better quality housing - lower rates of illness as there’s better central heating & houses are less damp - smaller family sizes - as people get richer, they have fewer child, this reduces the chances of disease transmission - higher incomes - higher levels of income leads to more taxation which has meant more money for public health services

Answer 164

The child poverty action group suggests that some families are simply unable to afford to feed their children nutritious food in the current cost of living crisis - rise in obesity

Answer 165

1/5 rental properties were affected by damp, mould and condensation, leading to high levels of respiratory issues in children

Answer 166

Some families are reducing their family size due to poverty, particularly those on universal credit

Answer 167

Levels of income are failing to match inflation, adults are choosing to remain ‘economically inactive’ due to the lack of affordable and accessible childcare - impacts on death rates as ambulances fail to turn up, shortage of antibiotics etc

Answer 168

Immunisation programmes limited the spread of infectious disease such as measles Developments in the treatment on heart disease and some forms of cancer since the 1950s have improved survival rates

Answer 169

- the setting up of the NHS by the post-war Labour Government in 1948 - health and safety laws - clean drinking water, food hygiene standards and safe sweats and waste disposal - the clean air act of 1956 significantly reduced air pollution

Families And Households Flashcards

(199 cards)