Family Diversity

Family Diversity – another common question, so here’s a quick-ish run through.

There is a definitional issue in this topic – are we talking about households or families.  You could, for example, argue that extended families are still very common in the UK, given that most of us have several generations of our family surviving, but we just don’t happen to live with them.

Maybe that sounds a bit pedantic, but given that its important how concepts are defined and operationalised – and thus measured - it’s worth considering.

Another frequent angle of consideration you’ll find in many of the textbooks, is the distinction between households and the whole population.  For example, if you check the statistics for the percentage of nuclear family households in the UK, and then compare it with the percentage of the population who live in a nuclear household, you will find the latter percentage is larger.  Important? Well, the point is that if statistics are used selectively, you can paint significantly different pictures of family structure in the UK.

How can the various statistical findings be summed up coherently? Well, one solution is to point out that while there certainly are a lot of nuclear family households in the UK, there is still considerable variety. You can for example refer to and explain the following:
• Single Parent Families/Reconstituted Family
• Families of Choice
• Beanpole Families
• Vertically Extended Families
• Ethnic diversity – ethnic minority groups may have distinctive family structures and practices

You can reference all the classic studies – Goode, Eversley and Bonnerjea, the Rapoports and Ballard and Driver.  But also try to use some more recent studies – Brannen (beanpole family) , Castells (individualisation) and Luscher (talks about increasing ambiguity as to what counts as a family).

What some sociologists are pointing to in contemporary society is the growing individualisation of family life- the household unit has shrunk – people in the UK are having fewer children, and there are more single people living alone at both ends of the age spectrum. This is because for many young people, getting qualified and getting established in a career is taking longer than it did for previous generations. Obviously social class is relevant here, but for these people, marriage and starting a family is being delayed.  At the other end of the age spectrum, people are living longer, but many people divorce or separate.  We therefore find and ageing, and increasing number of single people, living on their own.  There’s also an economic aspect to that- and it is part of the reasons why we have a housing shortage.

I think its also worth pointing out that families change – over time generally – families now are different to family structures back in the 1950s. They also change for us as individuals over the life course; we will all live in different households and family structures at different periods in our lives. Finally on the issue of time, family experiences can vary for particular ‘cohorts’, e.g. the people starting a family in the wake of the credit crunch in 2008/9, or the generation of ‘baby boomers’ born in the 1960s.  Family structures and family diversity meshes with cultural and economic change. 

I’d put it this way; yes, its easy to get sucked into the idea that the nuclear family, and the nuclear family predominates in British society.  But closer examination of the statistics shows that there is significant variety .  We need to look at the whole picture, not just part of the picture.  Remember therefore to discuss the key methodological concept – validity.

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