AS Sociology

Families & Households

Studyguide 10

Changing Patterns in Family Life (4)

The effects of divorce and serial monogamy on

family and household diversity

EFFECT 1:One-parent families

In 1961, only 2 per cent of all UK households were made up of one-

parent (sometimes called single-parent) households. However, by
2012, the ONS estimated that there were approximately 2 million such
families with dependent children in Britain, making up about a quarter
of all families in the UK. About 24 per cent of people under the age of
19 lived in a one-parent family in 2012, i.e. approximately 3 million
children.

Kiernan and Holmes (2010) found that rates of lone parenthood vary
according to ethnicity. Their research found that lone parenthood was
most common among Black and mixed race mothers, particularly in
deprived urban areas in the major cities of the UK.

91 per cent of single-parent families in 2012 were headed by women.

49 per cent of single mothers had had their children within marriage
but were separated, divorced or widowed. It is culturally expected in
the UK because of familial ideology (which is often reinforced by family
courts) that women should take on the main caring responsibilities for
any children when relationships break down. This is reflected in the
average age of single mothers which is 38.1 years.

Haskey (2002) identified a fast growing group of female single parents

made up of those who have never married or cohabited. Contrary to
popular belief, this group is not composed of teenagers who actually
only make up less than 2 per cent of single parents. Instead, Haskey
notes that an increasing number of middle-class career women are
electing to have children in their late 30s and early 40s and such
women are choosing to bring these children up alone.

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However, New Right sociologists claim that there is a large group of

single mothers who have never married or cohabited who are long-
term unemployed and less-educated and attracted to lone motherhood
by the ‘perverse incentive’ of being able to claim welfare benefits.
Certainly 2013 statistics suggest that approximately 650,000 single
parents are currently not in work and are therefore dependent on state
financial support.

The New Right and single-parent families

New Right sociologists typically see the lone parent family as an

inherently second-rate and imperfect ‘broken’ or ‘fractured’ family
type. They argue that such families are caused by adults who put their
own selfish needs before those of their children and by the state’s
willingness to pay out billions of pounds in benefits to people who live
in this type of family.

They are particularly critical of families headed by lone mothers

because they argue that children from such families lack self-discipline
and can be emotionally disturbed because of the lack of a firm father
figure in their lives. The Fatherhood Institute (2012) suggests that by
the time they are 16 years old, one sixth of all children do not see
their father at all. The Centre for Social Justice Report ‘Fractured
Families’ (2013) reported that a child being brought up in a lone-
mother led single-parent family is ‘more likely to:

 Grow up in poorer housing;

 Experience behavioural problems at school
 Perform less well in school and gain fewer educational qualifications;
 Need more medical treatment;
 Leave school and home when young;
 Become sexually active, pregnant or a parent at an early age; and
 Report more depressive symptoms and higher levels of smoking, drinking
and other drug use during adolescence and adulthood’ (p53).

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New Right writers argue that children from lone-parent families or

‘fractured families’ as the CSJ calls them are also more likely to turn
out to be anti-social, delinquent and criminal. Some studies suggest
that the absence of a father may be leading young black boys to look
for adult role models who have ‘street credibility’ and this may result
in their involvement in territorial street gangs. Finally, a very
important problem experienced by lone parents and their children is
poverty. Finally, the CSJ is particularly concerned about the cost of
such families to the State in terms of benefit pay-outs.

Build connections – to crime and deviance

Tony Sewell identifies the quality of African-Caribbean family life as a risk factor which is
partly responsible for the relatively high levels of crime amongst African-Caribbean boys. He
notes that many African-Caribbean boys come from families in which the father is absent. The
absence of an alpha male in their lives means that boundaries are not set for disciplined
behaviour. He acknowledges that mothers cope well in a difficult situation but argues that
such boys often go through a period of crisis in their teens as a direct result of their father’s
absence or lack of contact.

The critique of the New Right stance on single-parent

families

A number of crucial weaknesses can be observed with regard to the

New Right perspective on one-parent families.

 A survey of single parents conducted by Peacey et al (2008)

found that 71 per cent of residential parents reported that their
child had direct contact with the other parent whilst only 20 per
cent reported no contact which is significantly lower than the CSJ
figure of 30 per cent.

 A study of the impact of family breakdown on children’s well-

being conducted by Mooney et al (2009) suggests that parental
conflict is more important than parental separation as an

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influence in producing negative outcomes in children. They
contrasted couple families experiencing high levels of conflict
with single parent families and found that children in the former
were more likely to have emotional or behavioural problems than
children in the latter.

 Ford and Millar (1998) argue that the ‘perverse incentive’

argument is also flawed when the quality of life of lone parents is
examined. Many experience poverty, debt and material hardship
despite being paid state benefits. Ford and Millar’s survey found
many single mothers attempted to protect their children from
poverty by spending less on themselves.

 Ford and Millar also suggest that the New Right analyses
strongly imply that the poverty that single mothers experience is
the effect of ‘choosing’ this lifestyle. However, Ford and Millar
argue that the New Right have misinterpreted this relationship.
Their survey of single mothers suggests that poverty is a major
cause of single parenthood. Single women from poor socio-
economic backgrounds living on council estates with higher than
average rates of unemployment are more likely than others to
become solo mothers. Motherhood is regarded as a desired and
valued goal by these women because it is a realistic alternative
to their poor economic prospects. Surveys of such women
suggest that children are a great source of love and pride, and
most lone parents put family life at the top of things they see as
important.

 Feminist sociologists maintain that the single-parent family is

unfairly discriminated against because of familial ideology which
emphasises the nuclear family ideal. This ideal leads to the
negative labelling of one-parent families by teachers, social
workers, housing departments, police and the courts.
Consequently, housing officers may allot them a council house or
flat on a problem estate because they label such families a
problem. This may produce a self-fulfilling prophecy as their
children go to failing inner-city schools, come into contact with
children who are delinquent or criminal and are criminalised by a
police force which may label everyone who lives on a ‘problem’

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estate as potentially criminal through the use of frequent stop

and search policing. Single-parent families therefore may be
scapegoated for inner-city crime and educational
underachievement, when these problems are actually the result
of factors such as globalisation, unemployment and poverty.

 New Right sociologists rarely consider that single parenthood

may be preferable to the domestic violence that is inflicted by
some husbands on their wives and children.

 Other critics of the New Right point out that single parenthood is
rarely a permanent state. It lasts about five years on average
and most single parents remarry and form another type of
nuclear family in which a father is present – the step-family (also
known as the reconstituted or blended family). Moreover, critics
note that the New Right are dishonest in that they are not
targeting or criticising all single-parent families. The reality is
that they are focused on poor families. They rarely make the
same criticisms of the thousands of middle-class single-parent
families that exist in the UK. In this sense, the New Right’s
critique of single-parent families is ethnocentric. Finally, it is
rarely reported that the majority of one-parent families bring up
their children successfully to be relatively well-adjusted and law-
abiding citizens and workers.

EFFECT 2: Reconstituted families

Stepfamilies or reconstituted families are one of the fastest growing

types of family in the UK. The main causes of this family form are
divorce and remarriage. For example, in 2009, 19.1 per cent of
marriages involved the remarriage of one partner whilst 15.8 per cent
involved the remarriage of both partners. However, it should also be
noted that cohabiting couples may also have children from previous
relationships living with them. In 2013, the ONS estimated that 8 per
cent of families, about 540,000 in all, in England and Wales were step-
families and that one in three people in the UK are now a step-parent,
step-child, adult step-child, step-sibling or step-grandparent.

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In 2010, 78 per cent of stepfamilies consisted of a natural mother, her
offspring and a stepfather. However, 18 per cent of stepfamilies had a
natural father, his children and a stepmother whilst 4 per cent of
stepfamilies included children from both relationships.

Many couples who have remarried often choose to have more children
with their new partner. These ‘new’ children become the half-brothers
and sisters of the stepchildren. For example, in 2001, it was estimated
that 57 per cent of married couples in stepfamilies have their own
children. Some American sociologists distinguish between
reconstituted families and blended families – the former merely include
stepchildren whilst the latter contain stepchildren plus half brothers
and sisters.

Reconstituted families are unique because children are also likely to

have close ties with their other natural parent. An increasing number
of children experience co-parenting, where they spend half their week
with their mother and stepfather and spend the other half with their
father. Some family experts see co-parenting as a characteristic of bi-
nuclear families – two separate post-divorce or separation households
are really one family system as far as children are concerned.

De’Ath and Slater’s (1992) study of step-parenting identified a number

of challenges facing reconstituted families:

 Children may find themselves pulled in two directions, especially

if the relationship between their natural parents continues to be
strained. They may feel they are being disloyal to their natural
parent if they are seen to like or get on with the step-parent.
Martin (2013) notes that the step-mother with good intentions
may become a target for the children’s resentment about the
amount of change in their lives and their natural mother’s
unhappiness. In the children’s minds, she is transformed into the
‘wicked’ step-mother who is the cause of all their problems.

 Strained relations between step-parents and children may

therefore be the norm in these families especially if the step-

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child is unwilling to accept the newcomer as a ‘mother’ or ‘father’
or is unwilling to accept disciplinary action from the stepparent.
Martin argues that such conflict is normal in the first few years of
step-family life.

 The step-parent may resent the children from the previous

relationship because he or she sees them as a symbol of a love
or sexual relationship with another person. This could lead to
physical abuse of such children. A significant number of children
have been killed or injured by male stepparents in the UK.

 These families may be further complicated if the new couple

decide to have children of their own, which may create the
potential for envy and conflict among existing children. Some
fathers may cut themselves off from children who are the
product of a previous relationship because they want to start
afresh with a ‘new’ family or they may attempt to compensate
for a new baby by lavishing time and money on older children
living with their mother.

EFFECT 3: Singlehood

One of the most dramatic post-war changes in Britain has been the
increase in single-person households. In 2013, 7.7 million people or 13
per cent of the UK population lived alone. This is nearly four times
higher than it was forty years ago. However, this reflects a common
trend across Europe where the average proportion of single
households is 14 per cent.

The single-person household is now the biggest category of household

in the UK in that it now makes up 30 per cent of all households in
England and Wales . This means that there are now almost twice as
many single-person households than there are traditional nuclear
families which contain two parents and dependent children.

About 4.1 million of these households are aged between 16 and 64.
The majority of these single households -58 per cent – were male

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because males are more likely than females to never marry. However,
for those aged 65 and over, the pattern is reversed because the
majority – 68 per cent – of people living alone at this age are women.
This reflects women’s superior life expectancy and the fact that
husbands are typically older than wives. The ONS estimate that there
about 1.7 million widows living alone in the UK – this is three times
higher than the number of widowers. The statistics also highlight how
trends with regard to living alone have changed between 2003 and
2013.

 The biggest change is amongst the middle-aged, i.e. those aged

between 45-64 have experienced a 28 per cent increase in living
alone which is probably due to rising divorce rates.

 Half of all one-person households are people of pensionable

age. Pensioner one-person households have doubled since
1961. The majority of these households are composed of
women because they live longer than their male partners.

 There has been a 19 per cent fall in the number of younger

people living alone. There is evidence that young people are
living in the parental home for much longer periods compared
with the past because they cannot afford to enter the housing
market. The rise in youth unemployment too has probably
contributed to the decision to stay in the family home. However,
studies also show that there has been an increase in young
professional adults who elect to share flats or houses with
others.

There are a number of explanations for the increase in single person

households among younger age-groups:

 More women are gaining financial independence and choosing

singlehood as a creative option for themselves before they elect
eventually to settle down.

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 More people than ever are now going to university. This
obviously delays the start of their careers and thus is likely to
delay ‘settling down’ tendencies.

 Trends in marriage suggest that people are marrying later and

have other priorities, such as education and careers.

However, it is also important to note that for many young people,

singlehood is only a temporary phase before they establish a couple-
relationship and eventually a nuclear family

 There are also ethnic variations in living alone. For example, 16

per cent of whites were living alone in 2011 compared with only
7 per cent of British-Indians and 4 per cent of British-Pakistanis.
The ONS speculates that these differences probably relate to
cultural, religious and economic differences. For example, the
emphasis on extended kin obligations in working-class Asian
communities may result in young people failing to consider the
possibility of leaving the family home for long periods. However,
23 per cent of African-Caribbeans and 16 per cent of mixed-race
individuals were also living alone in 2011.

 Duncan And Phillips (2008) found that about one in ten adults
are ‘living apart together’ or LATs – that is, in a significant
relationship, but not married or cohabiting. Duncan and Phillips
found that some LATS were a product of poverty – people could
not afford to live together whilst others chose this type of
relationship because they wanted to keep their own home
and/or personal space.

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