Views on Family Diversity (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

The nuclear family is declining

• Family diversity in contemporary society is growing, with a wide range of family forms now prevalent

• This has led to some sociologists arguing that the nuclear family is in decline

The Rapoports: Five types of family diversity

• Rapoport and Rapoport (1982) argue that the nuclear family is no longer dominant, and society now features five types of diversity:

  • Organisational diversity: Variations in roles and structures, e.g., dual-career families

  • Cultural diversity: Ethnic groups often have different norms, e.g., extended families in Asian families

  • Class diversity: Income and class shape parenting and lifestyles

  • Life-stage diversity: Family structures change over the life course, e.g., newlyweds vs. retired couples

  • Generational diversity: Older and younger generations have contrasting attitudes toward marriage, cohabitation, and family life

Postmodernism

• Postmodernists go much further than the Rapoports

• Cheal (1993) argues that we no longer live in modern world with its predictable, orderly structures, such as the nuclear family

• Society has entered a new, chaotic, postmodern stage where there is no single, dominant, stable family structure

• People have more choice over their lifestyles, relationships, and family arrangements

• Greater diversity provides greater freedom and self-expression, but also instability, as relationships are more likely to end

Stacey: postmodern families

• Stacey (1998) argues that greater choice has benefited women, letting them escape patriarchy and build families that suit them.

• She identifies the 'divorce-extended family', i.e., kin networks linked by divorce rather than marriage (often female-led, including ex-in-laws)

• Morgan (2011) argues we can't make generalisations about 'the family' like functionalists do; instead, sociologists should focus their attention on how people create their own diverse family lives

Late modernity: The individuation thesis

• Late modern theorists, like Giddens and Beck, have been influenced by postmodernist ideas on the family

• They argue that we are still in a modern society but have entered a 'later' or 'advanced' stage of modernity

• Giddens and Beck explore the effects of increasing individual choice upon families and relationships

• Now, people are freed from fixed, traditional roles but face more uncertainty and risk in relationships

Giddens (1992): Choice and equality

• Feminism and female economic independence have transformed intimate relationships

• Individuals are now free to form 'pure relationships':

  • Based on love, happiness, and emotional satisfaction rather than tradition, religion or duty

  • Relationships are maintained only if they meet individual needs

  • Individuals are free to choose to end and leave relationships as they see fit

  • This produces greater family diversity by creating more lone-parent families, one-person households, stepfamilies, etc.

Beck: The negotiated family

• Traditional patriarchal families offered stability, but were oppressive

• Now, families negotiate roles based on personal choice rather than tradition

• The result is more fragility as people leave if their needs aren’t met

• This leads to greater family diversity by creating more lone-parent families, one-person households, stepfamilies, etc.

Evaluation of the individualisation thesis

• The individualisation thesis exaggerates choice

• However, it also ignores the constraints of class, gender and culture, which limit and shape our relationship choices

• This means that individual choice is not as free as suggested

New Right perspective

• They believe the nuclear family should be the norm, but claim it is declining:

  • Marriage decline & increase in divorce – Increasing cohabitation, liberal attitudes, and secularism are seen as eroding the value of lifelong commitment

  • Welfare dependency – State benefits are thought to encourage a 'dependency culture', discouraging marriage and male responsibility

  • State interference – Policies like sex education, free contraception, and support for same-sex couples are viewed as undermining traditional family values

  • Changing gender roles – Legislation promoting equality (e.g., Equal Pay Act) is seen as weakening the breadwinner/homemaker model

  • Same-sex marriage & individual rights – Legal changes (e.g., Marriage Act 2013) are believed to challenge the traditional nuclear family as society’s cornerstone

The nuclear family is not declining

• These perspectives argue that talk of decline is exaggerated: the nuclear family either remains dominant or reappears across the life course

Functionalist view

• Parsons argues that the nuclear family best fits modern industrial society because it:

  • Primary socialises children into shared norms and values.

  • Stabilises adult personalities by providing emotional support.

• Its geographical and social mobility (opens in a new tab) suits a changing economy

• Other family forms are seen as less efficient, implying the nuclear family is still the key family form

The neo-conventional family

• Chester (1985) argues that family diversity is overstated

• The nuclear family has simply evolved into the neo-conventional family – a dual-earner household where both partners play an instrumental (breadwinner) role

• Most people still aspire to the nuclear family, even if they experience alternative family forms at different stages of their lives

Feminism

• Radical feminists: The patriarchal nuclear family—where women’s labour is exploited—still dominates

• Some advocate for women-only households to escape this

• Marxist feminists: The nuclear family persists because capitalism needs it to reproduce and maintain a disciplined workforce cheaply

• Both strands of feminism assume the nuclear family is still central, even if they criticise it

Life cycle approach and family diversity

• The life cycle approach argues that most people will live in a traditional nuclear family at some stage in their lives

• While family diversity has increased, this perspective suggests that the nuclear family remains central

Different stages of life involve different family forms

• People often begin in a nuclear family as children with both parents

• During early adulthood, they may live in shared households or alone

• Later, they may form their own nuclear or reconstituted families when they marry or have children

• In old age, some may live in modified extended families or become part of a single-person household after a partner dies

Family change is not permanent

• Family structures change throughout the life course (e.g., marriage, divorce, remarriage), but the nuclear family pattern often reappears

• For example, after a divorce (lone-parent phase), individuals frequently remarry and form reconstituted nuclear families

Nuclear family as a key reference point

• Even when people live in different arrangements, the nuclear family remains the normative ideal or 'reference model' that people aspire to at certain life stages.

Exaggeration of family decline

• Sociologists like Chester argue that claims about the decline of the nuclear family are overstated

• The life cycle approach shows that rather than disappearing, the nuclear family simply evolves or is experienced at different times in people’s lives