The family structure is considered a traditional family support system involving two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring. However, this two- parent, nuclear family has become less prevalent, and alternative family forms have become more common. The family is created at birth and establishes ties across generations. Those generations, the extended family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, can hold significant emotional and economic roles for the nuclear family. Over time, the traditional structure has had to adapt to very influential changes, including divorce and the introduction of single- parent families, teenage pregnancy and unwed mothers, homosexuality and same-sex marriage, and increased interest in adoption.
This type is becoming more common due to the change in society where divorce is more common and accepted. Single parent families are another type that has become more common in recent years as it has become socially acceptable to have children out of wedlock. Female parentage in this instance make up over eighty percent of cases within the United Kingdom. Although bigamy is banned in this country by law, there are certain ethnicities and cultures who come here leading in polygamous lifestyles, where usually the man, can have two, three or more partners or wives. The most common two however, are the extended and the nuclear families.
The diversity of families has increased over these following years, due to the changes in society and values. New right hold the view that the there is only one correct or normal family type which is the nuclear family. Conservative government which traditionally follows the new right traditions support the nuclear family. Same as functionalist who have similar views ; parsons 1995 still recognise that there are a number of diversity families rising, nevertheless, functionalists 2000 argues that these changes are exaggerated and still sees the cereal packet nuclear family as the norm. Whereas on the other hand, feminist see the nuclear family still as the norm as they live under an oppressed government who follow the traditions of the new right where they believe in the nuclear family as the norm.
Although the modern family is the most well known, it may not be the most common family in the United States anymore. According to sociologists, present-day families have changed beyond resemblance. It is generally assumed today that the modern family has undergone significant structure transformations. The social changes have contributed to a reduction in the percentage of “typical” families, or nuclear families. Replacing these, are childless families, one-parent families, other family configurations and non-marital families (3).
His main argument was that the nuclear, or ‘cereal packet family’ is the most efficient family type for performing vital functions such as primary socialisation and emotional and economical support. Murdock’s view can be supported by several other points. Firstly, the other family types are statistically insignificant – they are in the minority, and so cannot be counted as part of his view. The Ik for example are only based in Northern Uganda, and so this family structure is not representative of all the families universally. Alternative family lifestyles can also be seen as the nuclear family ‘gone wrong’.
The gay and lesbians lifestyle is not something to be encouraged, as a lot of research shows it leads to a much lower life expectancy, psychological disorders, and other problems. “Studies show that homosexual, for variety of reasons; have life expectations of approximately 20 years less than the general population.” (< http://www.balancedpolitics.org; >) It is estimated that the number of children being raised by gay or lesbians parents is between 2 and 6 million. (Greenberg 2) There are three ways that gays and lesbians are raising children and acquiring families without the courts becoming involve. The first way, which is also most common way, is when heterosexual marriages dissolve after one parent apparently “comes out”. With this situation, as long as there isn’t a messy custody battle is court most often the child is raised by gay or lesbian parent, and is also fully aware of his or her parent’s sexual tendencies.
Change in divorce rate essay. A divorce is the legal separation of married people through the court. Divorce rate is the number of people per thousand of the married population getting divorced per year. Since the 1900s, divorce rate has been increasing for many different reasons such as secularisation, the changes in the expectations of adulthood and the changes in the laws concerning divorce, however in the last few years it’s been slowly decreasing again. One reason for changes in the divorce rate is the change in how divorce is perceived by society.
Gender roles and relationships have become more equal in modern family life? Some sociologists would argue that a number of changes have taken place in gender roles and relationships within families. On the other hand there are some sociologists that there have few if any changes in gender roles and relationships within families. In 1973 Young and Willmott carried out some research and came to the conclusion that by the 1970’s the roles of the husbands and wives in the family have become more symmetrical. During their research they found out that in 72% of cases men actually did housework other than the washing up every week.
1) Examine the changing patterns of marriage in today's society and the sociological reasons for these changes. The patterns of marriage have drastically changed in modern society in contrast to the past with the patterns or marriage rapidly decreasing with time with only 170.800 new marriages recorded in 2005 which is less than half of the number recorded in 1970, however, in recent years the number or re-marriages has been on the increase an aspect in which functionalists would say is a good thing because it not shows that people are not turning their backs on as well as the total number of alternative living styles such as LATs (living apart together), Cohabitation and one person households. this is widely due to social changes a that have occurred over the past few recent years the decrease in marriage patterns can be linked to certain key contributing factors, factors that consist of things such as; declining stigma, secularisation, changing attitudes towards marriage, change in womens positions, fear of divorce and economic standing the aforementioned reasons all have their own contributing factors resulting in their change and ultimately leading to a declining marriage rate. the decline in stigma is related to the decline in stigma attached to alternative lifestyles to marriage much like LATs and cohabitation due to this decline in the attached stigma more people think that said alternate routes are the new way forward which is an idea most commonly found and shared by the younger generations and because of this more people are seeking these lifestyles, this is because many who believe that cohabitation and LATs are the way forward and because of this decline in the stigma attached to such alternate routes more people especially the younger generations are seeking these lifestyles. this could be down to the fact that many believe that the
There is more than one type, for example: lone parents; pensioners; stepfamilies; families with/without children. There are lots of different types of households like lone parent with dependent children, a couple with dependent children, couple with no children and people living alone. The lone-parent dependent children households have grown in recent years from 2% in 1961 to 7% in 2006. The New Right is worried about the increase of family diversity because it means there is an increase in breakdown of the traditional family. The families formed by cohabiting couples, families headed by lone parents or by gay or lesbian couples are at a second best.