Family Diversity Flashcards
(22 cards)
What are the different types of families?
Nuclear, lone parent, cohabiting, same sex, empty nest, household, beanpole etc.
Who are the DINKs and LATs?
Dual income no kids - married couple in employment with no children.
Living apart together - do not live together.
What is the family life cycle?
Refers to a person’s stages of life and the different types of families he lives in each stage.
Why is cohabitation increasing?
Change in social attitudes - decline in
stigma
Increased career opp for women - freed w from financial support from a man.
Secularisation - decrease in religion
Gender equality.
Why are same sex families increasing?
Changes in law - homosexuality legal.
Changes in social attitudes - society has become more liberal + accepting.
Medical advances - IVF.
Why is singlehood increasing?
Increase in divorce.
Increased edu + career opp
Marrying at a later age.
Why are lone parent families increasing?
Greater economic independence of W.
Improved reproductive tech - IVF
Changing social attitudes.
Increase in divorce
Which family is the most common family structure in Britain?
Nuclear Family
The needs of the economy - needs family to be geographically mobile.
Increased social mobility
Welfare state
What is the evaluation for Increasing and decreasing of family types?
These trends in family structures do not apply to everyone as a person’s class background and ethnicity affect the type of family they live in.
What is the influence of ethnicity on black and Asian people?
Black - tend to live in lone parent families. Can be linked to slavery as couples were sold separately.
Asian - Nuclear families or extended, linked to migration patterns.
What is the influence of class?
M/c - tend to form isolated nuclear families.
W/c - Tend to form extended families as less likely to pursue higher edu so stay living near extended kin.
Also lone parent families as they experience high divorce rates due to economic problems.
Theories FD
What is the functionalist theory?
Parsons - NF is the ideal type because it has a functional fit.
What is the view of the New Right theory on FD?
They are opposed to family diversity.
NF - normal, natural family type.
Because it is based on biological diff.
FD - damaging for society - causes social problems such as anti-social behaviour, crime + edu failure.
Lone parent families - harmful to society + children. Burden on welfare state, single mothers lack control over children, absence of father means a lack of male role model.
Marriage essential for stability while divorce undermines it.
What does Chester argue?
NF - most typical family type. Even though there is some FD, its extent has been exaggerated. Statistics on family structure are snapshots - show us the type of family people live in at one given time.
The most important change in family life is the move from the dominance of the traditional NF to neo-conventional (dual workers where both partners work in paid employment)
What do the post-modernist’s R&R argue?
NF no longer main family type but a range exist.
Increasing FD - freedom of choice + widespread acceptance of diff cultures. 5 types of diversity -
Organisational, cultural, social, life stage and generational.
What does PM Stacey argue?
Changes in the family encouraged by w as they have taken advantage of increased equality with m and pursued edu + career.
W have also arranged their family type to suit them.
What do the individualisation thesis argue?
Giddens + Beck - importance of individual choice on family.
This theory suggests in the past family life + roles within the family were influenced by social factors such as class + gender.
Today we have greater freedom of choice + people can choose how they organise their life.
We have become disembedded or freed from trad roles.
What does Giddens argue?
Family has been transformed by greater choice and equality between m + w.
This is a result of :
Contraception , w have greater equality with m due to fem movement + edu and job opp. These enable a couple to choose their own family structure based on needs + wants and stay together as long as they are being met, rather then due to tradition. Giddens call this a pure relationship.
FD leads to freedom of choice + greater instability.
What does Giddens say about same sex couples?
Same sex couples as leading the way towards new family types and creating a more democratic + equal relationship.
Because they are much less influenced by tradition. Backed up by Watson - same sex couples create supportive families and these function the same as trad kinship/
What does PM Beck argue?
We live in a risk society, in which people have more choice, but also face more risks. FD caused by : greater gender equality, greater individualism. Changes have led to new family types like the negotiated family - based on gender equality + wishes of the couple.
As we face more risks we turn to family for security, but family is not guaranteed and can easily end > zombie - appears to be alive but is dead as it cant provide security and is unstable.
What do PLP Smart and May argue?
Agree with P, that FD is happening but not their explanation. +C PM :
Individualisation thesis exaggerates how much choice individual have in relation to family life.
IT wrong to see individuals as disembedded + free to make choices independently from the influence of wider social norms.
IT fails to take into account the extent to which social factors eg class, gender, ethnicity can limit the choices individuals have.
What explanation do Smart and May offer for the increase in family diversity?
Connectedness thesis.
Smart - People are social beings who make their decisions within a web of connectedness. This is because we live within networks of existing relationships which can influence our choices.
