Examine the reasons for the increase in family and household diversity in the last 40 years
(24 marks, 10 A01, 14 A02)
Family and household diversity is the change in patterns among the various family and household types that exist because of factors such as secularisation, changes to legislation, changes in women's position, changing attitudes
In the past 40 years the family structure within the UK has changed quite dramatically for example the number of traditional nuclear families has been steadily declining and in their place the single parent and reconstituted family type have increased in number, also people are living much longer lives so people are able to make more life changing decisions than they could do in previous years. More than 24% of the UK’s entire family population belongs to single parent families, with 1 in 4 children living in a single parent family that the mother heads 90% of. This essay aims to explore some of the reasons and factors behind the change in family structure and the factors that have contributed to greater family diversity.
One reason why families have become more diverse is secularisation; this is where religion has less influence on the way people make decisions within society. In the 21st century there has been a decline in the role that religion plays when choosing the way we structure our families, this is because we now have the freedom in a post modern society to make our own decisions and not ones that religion would have once dictated to us, therefore family types other than the nuclear family have been allowed to flourish and prosper these primarily include, the reconstituted, one person households and same sex family types. In previous generations, these family types would have been frowned upon by the wider society because they were not seen as the ‘norm’. This increase in secularisation has also been shown by the fact that there not