Changes in Family Structures (AQA GCSE Sociology)

Changing trends in family structures

• There have been many changes in family and household structures since the mid-1970s, including:

  • a decrease in children living in nuclear families headed by a married couple, but this is still the most common family type

    • Married or civil-partnered couple families accounted for 66% of families in 2023 (ONS, 2024)

  • an increase in children living in families headed by a cohabiting couple

    • 16.2% of children in 2021 compared to 14.2% in 2011 lived with a cohabiting couple

  • an increase in one-person households

  • an increase in families headed by a same-sex couple

Dual-worker families

• Both parents have paid employment outside the home and they both pursue an independent career

• Also known as a neo-conventional or dual-breadwinner family with a symmetrical division of labour

• They have increased due to the increasing proportion of married or cohabiting women in employment

• Women may experience role conflict if the demands of their roles as parent and employee/employer clash

Reconstituted families

• They have decreased in England and Wales from 631,000 to 544,000 between 2001 and 2011 (ONS, 2012) because:

  • the average age of women having their first baby is increasing, so older couples are more likely to stay together, reducing the chances of incorporating step-children into the family

  • lone parents tend to have 'live apart together' relationships, which do not count as blended families in the census data

Lone-parent families

• One parent lives with their child or children

  • In 2023, 85% of lone-parent families were headed by a mother (a matriarchal family)

• They have increased since the 1970s because:

  • divorce rates are increasing as legal changes have made it easier to divorce

  • moral standards are slipping in society, causing fatherless families who depend on welfare benefits, according to the New Right

  • women are less economically dependent on men due to changes in the labour market

  • Changes in social attitudes towards family and marriage as:

    • people have more freedom to choose the type of relationship they want

    • it is more socially acceptable for single women to have children without a partner due to new technologies (IVF)

Changing trends in fertility

• Fertility refers to the average number of children that women between the ages of 15 and 44 have

• Fertility rates are declining as women born in the UK are having fewer children than 30 years ago

  • The average number of children per woman in England and Wales was:

    • 2.0 in 1920

    • 1.91 in 1967

    • 1.49 in 2022

• Additionally, women are having children later in life

  • The average age of mothers at childbirth in England and Wales was:

    • 26.7 in 1970

    • 28.5 in 2000

    • 30.9 in 2021

Explanations for changing trends in fertility

Economic factors

• During the 19th century, parents relied on their children's income so tended to have larger families

• There is no longer much financial incentive to have children - in fact, the opposite is true

• It is estimated that parents in the UK spend an average of around £3760 per child annually on essentials such as food, clothing and entertainment

Labour market uncertainty

• Due to job market uncertainty, people may delay having children during global recessions

Later marriage

• People have been marrying later since the 1970s, which has caused women to put off having children

Women's increased participation in higher education and paid employment

• Women no longer accept that having children and being a mother should be a woman's primary responsibilities

• Due to legal changes, women now have more options than they did 35 years ago in terms of education and employment

Effective birth control methods

• Women have more control over their fertility due to:

  • the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s

  • deciding whether and when to become pregnant

  • the availability of legal abortion

Contemporary factors

• More recent factors affecting fertility rates include:

  • skyrocketing childcare costs, the housing crisis, poor availability of IVF on the NHS, the cost of living crisis, poorly paid employment, and the climate crisis