Changes in Family Structures

How has the structure of families has changed over time?

We will look at how fertility trends have changed and the reasons behind the new patterns. Then we will discuss the structural changes that have taken place in reconstituted and lone-parent families, among others.

Changes in family structure in sociology

We have mentioned the diverse forms of families that exist in the UK, such as reconstituted families, lone-parent families and nuclear families. Since the 1970s, there have been structural changes within all these family forms. There have also been changes in fertility trends over time.

Changes in fertility trends

According to statistics, there has been a decline in fertility rates in the UK in the past 30 years. In 2020 fertility rates decreased across all age groups and the total fertility rate reached a record low, 1.58 children per woman.

Families tend to have fewer children than before in the UK. Pixabay

Women, in the UK and in most Western countries, have fewer children and have them later in life. The average age of mothers at childbirth has been increasing gradually since 1973 and was 30.7 years in 2020.

Reasons for the changing patterns in fertility

We will go through some reasons for the changing patterns in fertility.

Economic factors

In the 19th century, lower-class parents had larger families and sent their children to work as soon as it was possible because they needed their wages to make ends meet. Since factory regulations and the Education Act of 1918 came into place, parents benefit very little financially from having children. On the contrary, raising children became rather expensive.

Statistics estimated a total of £3,760 per year for what parents, on average, in the UK spend on the essentials of one child only. By the time the child is 18 the amount is no less than £67,680. As a result, couples might decide to have fewer children.

Labour market uncertainty

In times of employment uncertainty, people might delay having children.

Changes in marriage trends

People tend to get married later in life, which often delays having children, too.

Women’s higher participation in higher education and employment

Being a mother and a housewife is no longer the only option for women. As more and more women decide to study and have a career, they have less time to have children, and they often decide to have only one or two instead of more like previously.

Improvements in contraception and the legalisation of abortion

Women have greater control over their fertility, and they might choose not to have a child. Secularisation has resulted in a declining stigma around contraception and abortion.

Examples of social change in family

Let us look at the different patterns of childbearing and childrearing in different types of families.

Percentage of dependent children by family type

This table, adapted from ONS (2015), can help us identify patterns over the course of 10 years.

As you can see, there has been a rise in children raised by cohabiting couples, meanwhile the number of children raised by lone-parent families has not seen many changes.

Changes in family structures and roles

The roles of men and women in the family are not as separated as they used to be. This has significantly affected the structural build of families.

Reconstituted families

Remarriages and recoupling can result in reconstituted families. According to ONS, 85% of reconstituted families in 2014 were the union of a lone mother, her children and a step-father. 11% of reconstituted families were the union of a lone father, his children and a step-mother and 4% were the unions of two lone parents and the children from both sides.

According to further statistics, the number of reconstituted families in England and Wales declined from 2001 to 2011. This could be because women have children later in life with partners from whom they are less likely to split. Another reason could be that there are more living apart together (LAT) relationships, which wouldn’t count as reconstituted families in the statistics.

Dual-worker families

There has been an increase in dual-career families, due to women’s higher involvement in paid employment. This means that both parents have careers and earn money for the family.

There has been a rise in dual-career families in the UK. Pixabay

Lone-parent families

Lone-parent families can formulate as a result of a separation or divorce, as a result of the decease of one parent, or as a result of a single woman deciding to have a child on her own.

After a divorce, children are more likely to stay with their mothers, so most lone-parent families are lone-mother families.

Jewson (1994) found that lone-parenthood (lone-motherhood specifically) is more common among African-Caribbean than the average, while there are much fewer lone-parent families with Asian heritage than the average rate. However, more recently, Williams (2008) has found a fall in the number of Black lone-parent families and Qureshi et al. (2015) claim that lone-parenthood among British Asian families is on the rise.

The number of children living with one parent only has increased since the 1970s in the UK. In 2015 23% of dependent British children lived in lone-parent families.

Changes in family structures and value systems

We will look at how value systems have changed in families, affecting their structure. Specifically, we will look at reasons for the increase in the number of lone-parent families.

Increase in the number of divorces

Most lone-parent families appear after a separation or divorce. A lone-parent often aspires to remarry or recouple, which means the replacement of lone-parent families with reconstituted families.

Changes in social attitudes towards lone-parenthood

Lone parenthood and lone motherhood are more socially acceptable than previously. Earlier, there was a stigma on lone mothers and fatherless children, even in developed countries. Women today are freer to make decisions on the type of family they want to raise and live in. Family members and the wider community are less judgemental about 'alternative' family forms, such as a lone-parent family.

Technological developments in childbearing

Single women have more options to conceive children without a partner. Single women might decide to turn to insemination and use a sperm donor to have a child that they would raise alone. Adoption is also possible for single parents in certain cases.

Moral decline

Sociologists of the New Right perspectives, such as Charles Murray, claim that due to society’s moral decline more and more men leave their families and more and more teenage girls get pregnant, both of which results in what he calls ‘an underclass’ of welfare dependent single mothers.

Freedom of choice in family formation

Marriage and the family are less important in contemporary society. People are freer to make individual personal choices regarding the type of relationships they want to engage in.