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Marriage, Divorce and Cohabitation - Coggle Diagram
Marriage, Divorce and Cohabitation
Cohabitation
Involves an unmarried couple in a sexual relationship living together. Marriage rates decrease and cohabitation rates increase. Over 2mil in Britain and expected to double by 2021. For some couples, cohabitation is a step on the way to get married HOWEVER cohabitation doesn't mean the same thing to every couple
Chester
Argues that for most people cohabitation is part of a process getting married. Many see cohabitation as a 'trial marriage' and tend to marry if it goes well. Most cohabiting couples tend to marry if they have children and in some cases cohabitation is a temporary phase before marriage because one or both members of the of the couple are awaiting a divorce.
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Same Sex relationships
Stonewall
Estimates that around 5-7% of the adult population today are in same sex relationships. There's evidence of increased social acceptance. Also the age of consent for homo and hetero relationships has been equalised and social policy treats all couples more equally.
Ex. Civil Partnership Act gave same sex couples similar legal rights to married couple in terms of pensions, inheritance and property. Since 2014 gays have been able to marry.
Weeks
Argues that the increased social acceptance has led to a trend in 'chosen families', offering the same security and stability as hetero families
Living Apart Together
British Social Attitudes survey suggests that about 1 in 10 adults are LAT - that is being in a serious relationship but not married/cohabiting. Suggested that this may reflect a trend towards less formalised relationships and instead 'families of choice'. Choice and constraint play a part in whether a couple lived together - some cannot afford to whilst a minority actively choose to live apart to keep their own home. Social attitudes to LAT are favourable. A majority believe that a 'couple don't need to live together to have a strong relationship' while 20% saw LATs as their ideal relationship.
Child Bearing
Significant changes in childbearing with women choosing other options than motherhood. 4/10 children are born outside marriage, women are having children at a later age (27.3 avg), women are having fewer children or remaining childless. Many women seek to have a career before starting a family or having children at all.
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One Person Households
Fewer people today are living in couples. There's been an increase in the number of people living alone (3 in 10), 40% of on person households are over 65 and by 2033 its predicted that 30% of the adult population will be single. Increase in separation and divorce has created more one person households, especially among men under 65 and the decline in the numbers marrying and trend towards marrying later, also mean more people are remaining single.
Lone Parent Families
LPF now make up 22% of all families with children. 1/4 kids live in a lone parent family and over 90% are headed by mothers. LPF tend to be female headed because of the belief that women are by nature, suited to the expressive role, Courts usually give custody of children to mothers and men may be less willing to give up work than women.
Charles Murray
Sees the growth of LPF resulting from an over-generous welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and kids. Argues that this has created a 'perverse incentive', that is, it rewards irresponsible behaviour such as having children w/o being able to provide for them. Simple solution - Abolish welare benefits
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Step Families
Account for over 10% of all families with dependent children. Factors causing an increase in lone parents, such as divorce and separation are also responsible for the rise of step families. More children in step families are from the woman's previous relationship as children are more likely to go with mother after a break up. Step families are at a greater risk of poverty because there are often more children and stepfather may have to support children from a previous relationship.
Ethnic Differences
Asian Families
Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian households tend to be larger than other ethnic groups, sometimes containing three generations, but are most in fact nuclear. Larger households are the result of the younger profile of British Asian, since a higher proportion are in the childbearing age groups. This may reflect value placed on extended family in Asian cultures. Also, practical consideration such as the need for assistance when migrating are important.
Ballard found extended family ties provided an important source of support among Asian migrants in 50s/60s.
Black Families
Afro-Carab families have higher proportion of lone parent households. In 2012 just over half of families with dependent children, headed by a black person were lone parent families. The high rate of female headed families can be traced back to slavery but also high rates of unemployment among black males. Some argue its because black women place a high value on their independence.
Marriage trends
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More re-marriages. In 2005, 4/10 marriages were re-marriages. It has been argued there has been a trend to serial monogamy
People are marrying later, avg. age of first marriages rose by 7 years between 1971 and 2005
Couples are less likely to marry in church. In 1981, 60% of weddings were religious but this fell by 35% by 2005
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Divorce Trends
Since the 60s, great increase in divorce
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157,000 in 2001 - 6x higher than 1961
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Perspectives on divorce
New Right - undesirable, undermines traditional nuclear family and creates underclass of welfare dependent female lone mothers
Feminists - Desirable, women breaking from oppression
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Functionalists - Divorce is due to high expectations. High remarriage rates show marriage still holds importance
Interact./Personal Life - Try to understand what divorce means to individual. We can't generalise meaning of divorce. Smart argues divorce has become normalised and that family life can adapt without it disintegrating or being a major social problem.
Who divorces?
Age - Earlier marriage = likely to divorce, for women u20, when they married in late 80s, 24% had separated within 5 years compared to 8% those aged 25-29. Reasons relating to this could be pregnancy, money problems, choosing unsuited partner etc.
Social Class - Lower class husband = likely to divorce. Finance problems are seen as the main cause Kiernan and Mueller suggest that unemployment, reliance on benefits and low income relate to high divorce rates.
Other factors - Remarriages are more likely to end in divorce than first marriage and experience in parental divorce, possibly due to psychological problems and divorce being more acceptable.
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