Family structures are becoming more diverse. what evidence is there to support the trends - Essay Example

Changing Family Structure This paper will observe the fact that family structures are becoming more diverse as it examines evidence to support this trend. There is a tendency for a shift in family structure towards blended families or binuclear families that consist of divorced spouses remarrying new spouses who already have children and single-parent families. These diverse family structures are referred to as ‘postmodern families.’ To examine how different these are in structure to more traditional families let us first examine the conservative definition of a family.

According to MacIver and Page a family is “a definite and long term group defined by sexual relationships that reproduce and bring up children… formed by the living together of man, woman and their children.” (Dubey p. 123) So the structure of the nuclear family consisted of the husband wife and children. In other words family structure was based on 1)The relationship between husband and wife. 2) The procreation of children 3)Common residence. But if we examine the reality of today’s growing rates of divorce, single parent families as well as the trend towards gay or ‘same sex marriages’ then we can conclude that there is an increased trend towards blended families, binuclear families and single parent families.

This has led the Sociologists William J. Goode to state that the institution of the family as we know it is vanishing altogether; while others state that the term nuclear family is inadequate in explaining the different contemporary household arrangements. Hence the new term ‘postmodern family’ is used to refer to the different forms of family structure including couples minus children as well as single-parent families and blended families. This diversity could be due to the following prevailing trends:Trend 1: There is a growing tendency amongst couples to live together rather than get married.

The majorities of such couples have sexual relationships but do not choose to have offspring due to work and other pressures.Trend 2: There is a trend to divorce. This has resulted in children being granted living custody with either their father or mother. As a result the child moves between the homes of the two separated parents so the third element of a families structure, based on residence has also changed. Ogburn and Nimkoff’s give a more modern definition of a family by seeing the family “…as an association formed by the sex relations of husband and wife, with or without children.

”Trend 3: There is a growing trend for couples to choose to remain childless. This is why the population of most European countries has fallen and governments of countries like Sweden have to offer incentive packets to motivate couples to have children.Trend 4: There is a growing trend for gay marriages. This means that same sex couples live together but cannot have children. Trend 5: There is an increasing tendency for the husband or wife to migrate to another area or city in search of a job and this results in a single family using multiple residences.

Industrialization has also had far flung implications on the family which is now no longer a unit of production as it use to be in Agrarian times. This means that the husband and wife now go to different places to work.Trend 6: There is a growing trend amongst women to choose careers over and above marriage and kids. When such career women do get married their homes and children end up feeling neglected. The growing economic independence of working woman has also made them less tolerant of an erring husband and so she is more likely to seek divorce then earlier.

Trend 7: There is a trend towards welfare taking over many of the functions of a family and this has made the family redundant. In ‘Human Society’ Kingsley Davis states that, “ The modern urban family is beset by an unusual amount of conflict between parents and their offspring. The conflict is due essentially to the competition of other agencies in dealing with the child.”(Davis K. p 428) These agencies include social workers, schools and so on that are taking on more and more family functions like socialization and health care.

In 2007 the number of people getting married in the UK as well as Wales had reached a record low. Andrea McLaren, who is the head of matrimonial practice for chartered accountants, London(2007) feels that the falling marriage rate may possibly be due to ‘the recent spate of high-payout divorce cases and the fact that “More second marriages are ending in divorce - one in five men and women divorcing in 2006 had had previous divorces. This was twice the proportion compared with 25 years ago.

” We can therefore conclude that family structures are becoming more diverse as there is enough evidence to support this trend. 797 words ReferencesDubey; S.M.& Sharma D.1990, Sociology an Introduction, NCERT DelhiDivorce rate lowest for 22 years (August 2007) Available from: [18 March 2009].Kingsley; D, (1981)Human Society, Delhi, Macmillan Publishing Company UK