Family Sociology Essay

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ED2017 Sociology of the Family u0944891 December 2011 ‘Choose two issues relating to families and family life and identify the key sociological debates which they raise’. 1.1 Introduction The family has long been considered by theorists and politicians as the mainstay of our social structure, forming an environment in which our children can grow, learn, socialise and develop. ‘Functionalists’ consider their definition of the family as the ideal format through which to live, providing the best setting for family and economic growth. The Functionalist view of family life that was expressed in Britain and the United States during the 1940s and 1950s was challenged by other views, including those of Marxism and feminism. In 1974, Ball (1974, cited in Muncie et al 1997) defined families as being people that lived in the same household because of marriage or through having the same parents. McRae (1993, Cited in Cheal 2002) explained how legislation both in the UK and the United States was aimed at supporting long term partners, and was based on two or more people living together, irrespective of their gender or marital status. An increase in individualism has caused either a deviation away from or indeed the break up of the traditional family. Haralambos and Holborn (2007, p.459) are persuasive when suggesting that reasons for this are; ‘Rising divorce rates, cohabitation before marriage, increasing numbers of single-parent families, single-person households and other trends’. This assignment examines two problems experienced by families, the first being the impact of marital breakdown. The second will look at recent government’s strategies of using the welfare state to reduce the amount of children in poverty and how the welfare state can make individuals become overly dependant on it. The assignment will discuss the sociological debates they
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