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Family Patterns - Coggle Diagram
Family Patterns
Relationship Types
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Same-sex Relationships - they were legalised in 2014 and 6,932 marriages in 2017.
One Person Household - 2.9 million loan parent families, this has been fixed for 10 years.
Lone Households - People who live on their own.
. 8.2 million live alone, with a growth in men aged 45-64 years old. Higher proportion of men than women never marry. Partnership dissolution
Living Apart Together - LAT's many couple are together but are not married not cohabiting for 2 reasons; 1) cost of cohabitation and marriage 2) Timing in the relationship/ wearing to keep own home.
Ethnic Difference
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More black and mixed children live in a one parent household than white and Asian people.
. Asian - 8.2%
. Black - 24.3%
. Mixed - 19.1%
. White - 10.2%
Children
Decline in childbearing
Education - more people are staying on to higher education.
Relationship expectations - delay in marriage and partnership formation
Changes in the position of women - wanting to have a longer working career before a family
cost - unemployment/ employment uncertainty
Lone Parents
Make up 22.3% of families with dependents in the UK
. Renvoize (1985) professional women can raise children without a father.
. Cashmore (1985) welfare has allowed women to escape abusive relationships by providing support.
.Murry (1984)
. generous welfare benefits incentives irresponsible behaviour
. Single mothers are over-dependent on welfare benefits
. abolish welfare benefits
- Evaluations
. Number of lone parent families have been fixed for 10 years(15%)
. Lone parent women earn less than men
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Divorce
- Increase in divorce rates
. Average marriage lasts 12 years (2019)
. 18% increase for opposite se couples (2019)
. 428 - 822 divorces of same sex couples (2019)
- Sociologists put forward 7 reasons why divorce has increased:
Changes in the law
1857 - Women had no right to divorce but men did
1923 - Grounds for divorce were equalised
1937 - Grounds extended to included to desertion
1969 - ''irretrievable breakdown'' (behaviour, adultery, desertion, separation)
1996 - Family Law Act (following a period of reflection)
2004 - Civil Partnership Act
2014 - Same sex marriage Act
Changing attitudes
Mitchell and Goody (1997)
- Divorce no longer has a negative label
- Stigma declined in the 1960s
- People turn to divorce to resolve their problems
Secularisation
- Declining influence of religion in society
. 49 countries studied (60% of global population)
. 43/49 had become less religious 2007 - 2020
. Decline of belief amongst the young in UK - 38% do not believe in God compared to 25% who do
- Traditional oppositions to divorce now carry less weight
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Feminist Explanations
- Married women suffer from the dual burden
. They have to take on paid work and domesti labour
. Marriage remains patriarchal
- Sigle-Rushton (2007): dual buden women are more likely to seek divorce
- Hochschild (1997) - Women feel valused at work more than the home
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Marriage
Declining Stigma - Cohabitation, remaining single or having children outside of marriage are now seen as acceptable so that pregnancy no longer leads to a 'shotgun wedding'. In 1989, 70% believed that couples who want children should get married but by 2012 only 42% thought this.
Secularisation - churches are in favour of marriage, but as their influence declines, people feel freer to choose not to marry.
For example, according to the 2021 census, only 3% of young people with no religion were married, as against up to 17% of those with a religion.
Changing in the position of women - with their being better education and career prospects, women are now less economically dependent on men. Giving women greater freedom not to get married. Feminists view marriage as an oppressive patriarchal institution that may also put some women off getting married.
Fear of divorce - with the rising divorce rates, some people may put off getting marriage because they see the increased likelihood of the marriage ending in divorce.
The expenses of marriage - the average cost of a wedding in the UK is £27,000
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