Assess sociological explanations of the nature and extent of family diversity today

There are several possible reasons for the decrease in the number of nuclear families, particularly in the past forty years. This includes rising cohabitation, higher divorce rates, secularisation, rising same sex relationships, more career seekers and the rise in feminism.

Families in the world are very different. They come in different shapes and sizes, it can be based on different kinds of relationship, but what all families have in common that it is made of people you love and care. Over past 20 or more years families in the world has changed the most than it has changed in all history. Of course changes in the families are different among cultures and religions. It seems that United States, Canada and Northern Europe families has changed the most, now Nuclear families are dominating there, when in Asia Extended families still takes a greater number. In the richest places in the world numbers of same sex marriages,

The family shows both continuity and changes which can be seen by looking at nuclear families and single parent families respectively. Before 1940s, marriage was considered an important part of society and thought to be a social institution essential for order. Divorce and single parent families were considered dreadful, sex outside marriage was not acceptable, it was a moral offense. The tempo of divorces was very low, but this social behavior soon ended in the post war era. By 1960s, this was no longer the case, as women started to work. They became much more independent, laws were changed and increase in divorces and cohabitation rates had shown that marriage was not compulsory in one’s life.

In 1970, 40% of couples were married with children. 2013 marked a new low as only 19% of household were married with children. A nuclear family is usually described as a heterosexual marriage with the average of 2.5 children, became synonymous with the American dream philosophy in the mid-1940s. The nuclear family standard is rapidly on the decline in the United States. These declining number have a range of causes. The causes of the decline of the nuclear family are cohabitation, childfree couples, high divorces rates, and the introduction of LGBTQ families. The effects are increased self-fulfillment, serial monogamy, childhood psychological trauma and family diversity. Gay and lesbian marriages

Talcott Parsons’ (1956, pg. 309) believed that “the nuclear family is a social system” which consists of a straight married couple and around two to five children, “can be distinguished, and does function as a significant group” (1956, pg.308). Parsons believed that the family benefitted society in ways such as the teachings of gender roles and the overall structure of society: the male going to work and being the breadwinner, while the wife stays at home and cooks and nurtures the children. After the Second World War, the nuclear family was the most common type of family making the structure easily “distinguishable”. However, when we look at the postmodern society, we can see that there are many different types of families nowadays such

Diversity in British households has significantly changed over the years. To understand the full extent of the changes in British household diversity, examination of the family life in the 1950s era is essential. Furthermore then to discuss the types of diversity which now exist in families today. Lone-parenting is defined as a mother or father living without a partner who then has responsibility of a dependent child and is one diversity which will be discussed in great depth. Deliberating on the size of family sizes today is necessary to see the diversity in British households.

Item A makes clear that different sociologists ‘are divided over both the extent of family diversity and its importance’. The Functionalists and the New Rights view increased family diversity as ‘a serious threat’; whilst Robert Chester argues in recent years there has been a ‘shift from the conventional to the neo-conventional

There are many different laws and policies that the government put in place which will affect various social issues; in this case the family. Some sociologists believe that this social policy the government enforces can make the family far more diverse; whilst others disagree. An example of this social policy can be in China there is a ‘one-child policy’, which limits families from having more than one child and in the instance that they do have more the government can inflict a series of penalties, this policy is in place to control the population of China; ‘For a prosperous, powerful nation and a happy family, please use birth planning’. In the following item I intend to discuss how social policies and laws in the UK may have affect the

Rapoport and Rapoport agreed that there are five types of diversity in a contemporary family, these are: Organisational, Cultural (ethnic), Class, Cohort and Life Course. Organisational diversity refers to kinship patterns and the domestic division of labour, adding to this it is also the structure of the family-whether it is reconstituted or

In the UK, the family lives in a very less strict life, compared with other different societies such as China. Laws and social policies in Britain today are more likely to encourage or discourage certain types of families, rather than actually forcing them like China’s one child policy. Government agencies and institutions only seem to take important roles such as on policies areas of family life when things are supposed to have gone wrong, such as sorting out the fair share of possessions following the breakdown of a marriage.

In the past 40 years the family structure within the UK has changed quite dramatically for example the number of traditional nuclear families has been steadily declining and in their place the single parent and reconstituted family type have increased in number, also people are living much longer lives so people are able to

One of the main reasons of changes in family size is that divorce rates have increased dramatically. This can be seen by figures showing that in 1950, there were 40,000 divorces across England and Wales and in 2005 there 153,399 across the same area. The increase in divorce has led to more reconstituted families, singlehood and single parenthood, therefore the family size has generally decreased apart from in cases where reconstituted families have been formed. This increase in divorce is due

Recent Changes in British Society and Greater Diversity of Family Types Recent changes in British society have led to a greater diversity of family types, "Some writers have argued that traditional family life is disappearing in Britain" Moore, 1987, Sociology alive. Most people seem to view the traditional family as a married male and female with dependant children, however family types today may include one parent families, same sex families, unmarried parents who co habit and most popularly families who have step relations. I intend to research and discuss these different types of family, and the factors and changes in British society, which have influenced them, to provide a well-researched and

In chapter 11, of Seeing Sociology by Joan Ferrante, the different types of family structures are thoroughly explained and analyzed. Although the term family has grown to be more and more complex it is basically a social foundation connecting humans by having the norms, blood, or through marriage. Until I read this chapter, I never really thought about all the different norms of society that play into the types of family. For my own family, the “norms” would consist of monogamy, romantic, egalitarian, bilateral, and a nuclear living arrangement. Because I firmly believe that a child has the best chance of a nourishing childhood with one man and woman raising them, I prefer the social norm of monogamy for my family. Children are fragile and should be taught certain things from both a man and a woman. I also have a deep respect for any single parent that is having to do the job of two parents. Additionally, I find the idea of living in a multi-generational household interesting, but ultimately it would be much too difficult to properly function. It can further be confusing for some children that are taking advice/discipline from so many different adults. Of course, any grandparents in

Through this change a number of obvious changes have become apparent, a major one of which is the changing shape of the family and the extinction of traditional family life with it. In a study entitled Social Structure, Murdock3 examined the institution of the family in a wide range of societies and deemed that as such the family is universal. There are many types of family structure: