Demography - Changing family patterns (Edexcel A-Level Sociology): Revision Notes

Demography - Changing family patterns

Childbearing

• The number of children being born out of wedlock is rising

Reason:

Rise in cohabitation, more cohabiting couples having children, perhaps due to a decline in stigma and increased secularisation

• The number of children a woman has is falling
• Children are now an economic liability This has led to a rise in child-centeredness as parents would prefer to spend more on fewer children, in order to give them a better quality of life

Lone-parent families

• Make up 24% of all families. 90% of these are lone mothers

Reasons:

Increase in divorce

Decline in stigma around births outside of marriage, perhaps influenced by secularisation

Analysis:

Argued that a child living with a lone parent is twice as likely to live in poverty, do poorly in education, and increase crime rates among young males

Step-families

Reasons for more step-families

• Rise in divorce leading to rise in lone-parents leading to more step-families Implications of stepfamilies:

At a greater risk of poverty.

• When step-families come together, children generally live with the mother, mum is likely to have already been relying on state benefits due to being a single parent.
• The stepdad would likely have been previously living alone, so only had to provide for himself. He may have been earning less so money now becomes stretched over a family.
• The father also may already have to pay maintenance for other children from previous relationships, more financial strain. As a result, they may struggle to provide school resources for their child, which links to material deprivation.

Ethnic differences in family patterns

Immigration into the UK has increased ethnic diversity, leading to more ethnic diversity within families

Black families:

A higher proportion of lone-parent families, primarily female-headed (by mothers). This may lead to poverty

Evaluation:

Reynolds: Statistics are misleading, many are in stable non-cohabiting relationships e.g. LATS

Asian families:

Many Asian families tend to be larger e.g. Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian

Asian culture values family highly

Evaluation:

Recently, families have gotten smaller, but still live relatively close to each other

The extended family

New family types are taking over and the extended family is disappearing

Evaluation:

Willmott – it may have declined but not entirely disappeared. Now the 'dispersed extended family' exists where relatives no longer live together but still maintain frequent contact

Extended family still plays an important role. E.g. helping with childcare, providing financial support

Beanpole families

Extended vertically

Caused by:

• Increased life expectancy, people living longer so grandparents are around
• Smaller family sizes, more lone-parent families and single-parent families. E.g. Grandmother, mother and daughter living together