Contemporary Family Related Issues (AQA GCSE Sociology)

The quality of parenting

• The quality of parenting is one of the main factors affecting children's wellbeing

• Children's educational achievements depend on the quality of the child-parent relationship

  • Parental involvement in with school is linked to children's achievement

  • Reading ability is linked to the environment around them, such as:

    • having access to reading material in the family home

    • parents making time to read with their children

    • how often children see parents themselves reading

• Children's social skills and relationships with peers depend on the quality of the child-parent relationship

  • Parental warmth is important in developing children's social skills as a caring parent offers a model of empathy and helping behaviours that children may emulate

  • The development of children's social skills is largely dependent on the absence of conflict and control. This is because democratic parenting fosters the growth of self-control, initiative, motivation, and high self-esteem in children

Relationships between teenagers and adults

• Some parents cannot control their teenage children: delinquent teens are likely to have been inadequately socialised into society's norms and values by their parents

• Another concern is that some teenagers are parents themselves and may be unready to be parents

• In dual-earner families, both parents may be engaged in full-time work, leaving less time for direct interaction with their teenage children, leading to strained relationships

• Teenagers are increasingly spending more time social networking and online gaming, which parents may find difficult to regulate and set boundaries for

• Parents often experience conflicting expectations as they are encouraged to foster independence in their children but they are also expected to protect and monitor them, leading to a rise in helicopter parenting

Care of disabled & elderly people

• Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS, 2014) shows that life expectancy for men is 79.3 years and for women is 83 years

• Life expectancy has increased in the UK due to:

  • NHS provision

  • advances in healthcare

  • improvements in nutrition

  • improvements in living and working conditions

• As a result, the UK has an ageing population, with an increasing percentage of older people and a declining percentage of children and young people

• Women in beanpole families are likely to be under pressure as they may have the burden of caring for family members from different generations

  • The women are part of the sandwich generation because they are sandwiched between caring for younger and older generations

• Class, gender and ethnicity affect an older person's independence, well-being and social life

  • These factors are linked to the availability of resources like savings, good health and access to care in their own home

Arranged marriage

• An arranged marriage is one in which parents or other family members choose a partner they believe will be suitable for their children

  • It is based on consent and the individuals' right to choose whether to accept the partner

• A forced marriage is not the same, as this is where one or both partners do not give their consent but the wedding goes ahead against their will

  • Forced marriages are illegal in Britain and forcing someone to marry carries a maximum prison sentence of 7 years