Reasons for the Increase in Lone-Parent and Beanpole Families
May/June 2014/Paper 11
(a) What is meant by the term beanpole family?
A multi-generation extended family, in a pattern which is long and thin, with few aunts and uncles, reflecting fewer children being born in each generation, but people living longer.
(b) Two reasons for the increase in the number of lone-parent families.
Firstly, the increasing number of single women choosing to bear or adopt and raise children alone. Technological developments allowing insemination without inter-course contribute to women's choices in this regard. Women choosing to conceive children in this manner include lesbians, who may raise their children as a single parent and heterosexual women who are in their thirties, single, and want children before they are past childbearing age (Burns and Scott 1994).
Next, the reason for the increase in the number of single parent households is the increase in divorce, which leaves more parents raising children without a partner. This increase in marital breakdown may be explained in terms of an increasing acceptance of diversity and choice in family life. Besides, legal changes have made filing for a divorce more accessible to people of all social classes.
(c) Explain why more individuals may choose to live alone in modern industrial societies than in the past.
Firstly, the rise stems from the cultural change that Émile Durkheim, a founding figure in sociology in the late 19th century, called the cult of the individual. According to Durkheim, this cult grew out of the transition from traditional rural communities to modern industrial cities. Now the cult of the individual has intensified far beyond what Durkheim envisioned. Not long ago, someone who was dissatisfied with their spouse and wanted a divorce had to justify that decision. 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.
Next, another driving force is the communications
(a) What is meant by the term beanpole family?
A multi-generation extended family, in a pattern which is long and thin, with few aunts and uncles, reflecting fewer children being born in each generation, but people living longer.
(b) Two reasons for the increase in the number of lone-parent families.
Firstly, the increasing number of single women choosing to bear or adopt and raise children alone. Technological developments allowing insemination without inter-course contribute to women's choices in this regard. Women choosing to conceive children in this manner include lesbians, who may raise their children as a single parent and heterosexual women who are in their thirties, single, and want children before they are past childbearing age (Burns and Scott 1994).
Next, the reason for the increase in the number of single parent households is the increase in divorce, which leaves more parents raising children without a partner. This increase in marital breakdown may be explained in terms of an increasing acceptance of diversity and choice in family life. Besides, legal changes have made filing for a divorce more accessible to people of all social classes.
(c) Explain why more individuals may choose to live alone in modern industrial societies than in the past.
Firstly, the rise stems from the cultural change that Émile Durkheim, a founding figure in sociology in the late 19th century, called the cult of the individual. According to Durkheim, this cult grew out of the transition from traditional rural communities to modern industrial cities. Now the cult of the individual has intensified far beyond what Durkheim envisioned. Not long ago, someone who was dissatisfied with their spouse and wanted a divorce had to justify that decision. 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.
Next, another driving force is the communications