In a contemporary society not only are there a range of different family types / structures but households have changed as well, it used to be the extended family living in one household and now there are a number of different ways in which people live, some people live with their families, some cohabit and some choose to live alone.
Increasing numbers of households do not conform to conventional norms. Cohabitation in Great Britain for women under the age of 60 has increased from 13% in 1986 to 25% in 1998-99. Over the same time period for unmarried men under the age of 60 it has gone from 11% to 26%. Although it has been argued that for most people cohabitation is apart of the marriage process and is not a substitute. Cohabiting has now become more socially acceptable so people can live together without ever getting married and it is also considered ok to raise children in this arrangement. The New Right criticise cohabitation by saying that it is less stable than a marriage and therefore not the ideal arrangement for a family institution.
Not only have cohabitation households increased, so have single person households. One reason behind the increase may be due to the increase in divorce rates and the fact that people are choosing to get married later in life. Peter Stein interviewed single individuals in the age range of 25-45. They recognised that being single allowed them to concentrate on their career and its opportunities and promoted overall freedom and independence. Although they occasionally felt isolated and lonely.
Reconstituted families / step-families have also increased; this may also be a result of increasing divorce rates. In 2003 it was estimated that 726000 children were living in this family structure / type. De’Ath and Slater’s study of step parenting presented problems with this arrangement. They argued that children might find themselves being pulled in two directions especially if the relationship between the two biological parents is strained. It was also argued that conflict was often found around / about the extent to which the child accepted their step-parent, another problem occurred if their biological parent and their new partner had another child, this could lead to the existing children becoming envious.
Single parent families are also on the rise. There are approximately 1.75 million lone parent families in Britain making up about 25% of all families. A great majority of single parents are working class women. Some characteristics of the single parent families are that many of them live in poverty; in 1986 63% of single parents were receiving income support as the major source of income. It has been suggested that government policy is much more favourable to the widowed parent rather than the divorced parent. Another characteristic is that single mothers / parents are less likely to work and if they do work it is only likely to be part time, this is because of the lack of free nursery care institutions. 70% of single mothers live in rented accommodation, which is likely to be in unpopular areas, and 40% of homeless people living in bed and breakfasts are single mothers.
New Right thinkers disapprove of single parent families and they link children’s educational underachievement and delinquency to them being a part of a single parent family. The New Right have been criticised as they tend to ignore factors such as domestic violence in relationships and also the fact that most single parent families raise their children successfully. Feminists sociologists argue that the real problem comes from the nuclear family itself, they state that this leads to the negative labelling of one-parent families from teachers, social workers, housing departments, and police. It is argued that single parents / families may be being used as scapegoats for inner-city crime and educational underachievement which are actually the result of factors such as unemployment and poverty.
There are many different types of family structures and they are constantly changing, some may believe one type is better than another but there is no evidence that proves entirely that there is a particular family type that is better. Each structure / type has its advantages and disadvantages.