Family Diversity Blended or reconstituted families Lone parent

Family Diversity • Blended or reconstituted families • Lone parent • Same sex • Ethnic diversity • Cohabitation • Singlehood

Reconstituted or Blended Families • One form of family diversity which moves away from traditional notions of the family is the step-family now more commonly known as the reconstituted or blended family. • Allan & Crow (2001) research found ‘seven out of ten families with dependent children may be described as married-couple families these do not all conform to the stereotype of the ‘normal’ family as some are step-families or reconstituted families. Step-families with dependent children account for 7% of all families and there is evidence of an increase in the proportion of step-families in recent years’ (p 289).

Reconstituted or Blended Families • Carol Smart, co-author of The Changing Experience of Childhood, has conducted research with many children whose families have broken up • Smart found, ‘it was impossible for the step-parent to become a substitute mother or father. They tended to assume instead a nonauthoritarian, non-disciplinarian, companionship role. A new etiquette is emerging

Reconstituted or Blended Families • Dorit Braun of Parentline Plus says that blended families often take 10 years to bed down. • But it’s certainly true that the step role – sometimes a sort of uncle, father, big brother – is shifting and uncertain with discipline being the most fraught and visible example of the unease. • As one of the interviewees said, ‘It’s all tied up with will they like you or not? ’ The advice (for what it’s worth, when children are being really infuriating) is to let the biological parent do the disciplining and, if she’s not there, to say, ‘I don’t think your mother would like you to do that. ’

Reconstituted or Blended Families • Bedell 2002 also found there are plenty of other difficulties that intact families don’t have: • How do you handle birthdays? • What do you all do at Christmas? • When there are competing rituals at Christmas – stockings or pillowcases – whose do you jettison? • How is everyone going to react when there’s a new baby arrives, who really is a child of this family?

Reconstituted or Blended Families • Fact file on blended/reconstituted family’s • 10% of all British children lives with one birth parent and a step parent • Over 50% of children who live in two different households take a positive view of their ‘divided lives’ • 6% of all families with children are step families • Two fifths of all marriages are re-marriages • 25% of children have experienced their parents’ divorce. Over 50% of them will find themselves members of a stepfamily when their mothers and fathers go on to find new partners.

Lone parent families • ‘One-parent families’ only appeared in official documentation in the 1960 s. • Of course, arrangements whereby one parent brings up a child have always existed but historically it was a phenomenon known by different stigmatised names • e. g. ‘unmarried mother’, ‘fatherless family’ and regarded from different perspectives (e. g. as pathological).

Lone parent families • Due to this social-shift an official definition of a lone-parent family exists to offset any social stigma: • “A mother or father living without a partner (either married or cohabiting), with their dependent children. The child must be under 19 and in full-time education. ”

Lone parent families • However, the experience of lone parenthood remains ‘full of ambiguities’ • Hardey & Crow’s research found lone parenting is associated with tough economic circumstances and social marginalisation • For example single parent households are the most likely to be in arrears on one or more household bills, mortgage or nonmortgage borrowing commitment 31% (Gingerbread, 2013).

Lone parent families • Nevertheless the following official statistics (January 2012, Office for National Statistics) show the extent to which Britain’s seen an increasing rise in the number of single-parent families: • In 1971 just 8 per cent of families with children were single parent families • In 1998 24 per cent of families with children were single parent families • In 2011 26 per cent of families with children were single parent families

Lone parent families • For New Right politicians lone parents remain a problem • Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP in 2004 blamed the rise of lone parent families : • He said: “In the fourth largest economy in the world, too many people lived in dysfunctional homes, trapped on benefits. Too many children were leaving school with no qualifications or skills to enable them to work and prosper. ”

Lone parent families • The reasons for the increase in lone-parenthood are varied. • Allan and Crow (2001) have identified three factors: • 1. is an increase in marital breakdown. • 2. a rise in births to unmarried mothers • 3. society’s acceptance of family diversity.

Lone parent families • Other sociologists have identified other causes of lone parenthood by separating the different causes between married and non-married individuals. • For married couples the causes of lone parenthood tends to fall into three main categories: 1 - divorce; 2 – separation; 3 - death of a spouse • While the cause of lone parenthood for individuals who have never been married tends to be due to: 1 - may have been living with the parent of the child when the child was born, but then their relationship terminated 2 - a relationship was formed after the birth of the child, but the relationship terminated a period of time later

Same Sex Families • There has been a relatively small but gradually increasing number of children brought up in same sex families (gay and lesbian families). However the number of children brought up in same sex families is very small. • The Office of National Statistics noted that less than 1% of dependent children lived in civil partnership or same sex cohabiting couple families in 2012

Same Sex Families • In 2009 Stonewalls research found: • Many children of gay parents see their families as special and different because all families are special and different, though some feel that their families are a lot closer than other people’s families • Some children feel that their family is a bit different if they have lesbian or gay parents but this is something to celebrate, not worry about • Other children do recognise that children with gay parents are less common than other sorts of families, but don’t feel this means that their families are any different to other people’s families because of it.

Same Sex Families • Macionis and Plummer show new reproductive technologies have helped to extend the variety of family relationships. It’s worth noting reproductive technologies are used by heterosexual couples as well as single and older women • Stacey (1996) argues that gay and lesbian families represent an ideal model of postmodern kinship because their conscious efforts to devise intimate relationships are freed from the constraints and the benefits of traditional patterns of family life

Ethnicity • Ethnically diverse family structures: • Asian – most Asian households are built on the nuclear model though they do tend to encourage extended family forms. Cohabitation is rare, and marrying young is normal though sometimes arranged • African-Caribbean – single parenthood is very high in this ethnic group. In 2001 48% of African-Caribbean families were headed by lone parents (women), they also have the lowest marriage rate and relative divorce rate. • Multi-cultural families – there has been an increasing number of partnerships between people from different ethnic groups. Beck. Gernsheim 2002 studies have found there can be conflict between the ethnic groups of origin yet she also found that multicultural marriages help break down social barriers

Ethncity • Bangladeshi and Pakistani family size has reduced to an average of about three children per family, still higher than other groups • Chinese fertility is particularly low, partly because one third of the Chinese population are students • is less difference in family size between ethnic groups than in past decades • People from mixed race backgrounds are the youngest ethnic group in England Wales

Cohabitation • New figures from the UK Census have revealed that more and more couples are living together without being married and/or before getting married • In 1994, the earliest date for which figures are available, 75% of couples marrying in a civil ceremony lived together before getting married. This percentage increased steadily to 88% in 2011 • The number of dependent children living in these opposite sex cohabiting couple families also increased, from 0. 9 million to 1. 8 million • The reasons are as follows:

Cohabitation • sexual relations – cohabiting is no longer associated with living in sin (social stigma) making cohabitation socially acceptable • choice – people (particularly young couples) choose to cohabit in order to ‘test’ their relationship • changing roles of women – greater economic independence has meant women are able to choose their relationships • effective contraception – from 1967 onwards reliable contraception was made available on the NHS. This meant it made it possible for couples to cohabit without worrying about becoming pregnant • parental freedom – the 1960 s saw a gradual relaxation in parents towards their children. The formal discipline of the past slowly eroded and so eventually parents ‘allowed’ their children to live together without being married

Cohabitatation • education – 1960 s saw a growth in Higher Education, this meant more children were given more freedom than ever before • building societies – started lending money to unmarried couples in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s as the social stigma waned • divorce – there’s increasingly less stigma associated with divorce, consequently marriage as a union between couples is not as socially strong • increasing divorce rates makes marriage is less of an aspiration for people which has added to the currency of cohabitation

Singlehood • According to the Office for National Statistics the 2011 Census revealed just under a third of households consisted of one person in 2011; • proportionally this has remained unchanged since 2001 although the number of people living alone has increased by 0. 6 million. • The composition of singlehood shows 2. 5 million between 45 and 64 living in their own home alone with the number of men on living on their own has increased far more than women

Singlehood • So what is driving this growth? • American sociologist Eric Kinenberg research identified the following points: • more people live alone than ever before is that they can afford to • the rise stems from the cultural change that Émile Durkheim, called the cult of the individual - according to Durkheim, this cult grew out of the transition from traditional rural communities to modern industrial cities. • divorce once justified a person’s decision to stay in an empty-shell marriage -today if someone is not fulfilled by their marriage, they have to justify staying in it, because there is cultural pressure to be good to one’s self.

Singlehood • communications revolution has allowed people to experience the pleasures of social life even when they’re living alone • young solitaires actively reframe living alone as a mark of distinction and success -they use it as a way to invest time in their personal and professional growth building up a strong network of friends and work contacts. • contemporary families are fragile, as are most jobs, and in the end each of us must be able to depend on ourselves • as divorced or separated people often say, there’s nothing lonelier than living with the wrong person- there’s a difference between being lonely and alone

Singlehood • The rise in singlehood means: • number of people living alone has pushed up demand for housing • is very expensive in terms of state benefits and health and social services care • people who live alone are more likely to need the NHS or social services