AICE Sociology paper 2

Fit thesis

Another name for evolutionary theory suggesting that the family changed from extended to nuclear to provide a functional fit to the new industrial society that benefited from smaller more mobile families. Supported by functionalists such as Parsons and Goode, who claimed that pre industrial families were kinship based, economically productive and multifunctional

Parents

-Parental roles are not fixed, in the past they were mote unbalanced with men taking on housework and men being breadwinners, but it is more equal today, according to Mann, gender roles are now open to compromise and cooperation. Gershuny et al. found that women of all ages and backgrounds tend to perform more domestic labor then their husbands -Kan found that while employment decreased female housework slightly, it increased after retirement -Ramos saw that when women worked and men were unemployed the housework was more evenly distributed. -Pilcher: Older people did not negotiate housework and instead relied on traditional gender roles.

Economically productive family

-The work families did in pre-industrial society was labor intensive and thus required more workers -People couldnt move away from their family even if they wanted too because of technological limits -The elderly or infirm relied on family members to take care of them because their were no government or corporate services for such tasks.

Post-feminism

Post-feminist theory is an approach to understanding gender inequality that seeks to avoid single, over-arching explanations of the position of women. Butler: Biology is not destiny, rigid conjugal roles can not be maintained in a post industrial society.

Social Construction of childhood

Archard: Every Society has developed a concept of childhood, but their definitions differ. Aries: Studied medieval paintings and saw children depicted as mini-adults suggesting that was their role. the concept of childhood developed because of the church Pollack: Aries claims there was no childhood, but really society just had different ideas about childhood. Jenks: two main types of kids, Dionysian (feral and incapable of morality) and apollonian (angelic and innocent)

Dissapearance of childhood

Postman:Technology has made it easier for children to interact with adults and be exposed to adult content. Robertson: Children are encouraged to look at the world through the eyes of consumers O'Donnell and White: 25% of working youth in North Tyneside were under 13

The social significance of age groups

Age groups reflect cultural assumptions about how people of a certain age should act. Age groups exist because of social solidarity (durkheim) People are pressured to conform to certain age groups because they are denied activities reserved for other groups.

Single person household

An individual living alone

Grandparents

Anderson: his study of working class mothers in the 19th century found that many had a live in grandmother who took care of the children in return for shelter. Wellard: around 30% of families in the UK depend on a grandparent for childcare. Rake: as women have to spend more time away from their families for work grandparents will become more important, she also estimates around 90% of grandparents help their grandchildren economically. As grandparents help with grandchildren, their life expectancy increases because their children take care of them.

Children

Involves primary socialization (through the forms of parents) and secondary socialization (the media) Jenks: childhood is a social construct Children are denied the rights of adults (eg marriage) but can do things older groups can't like play.

Domestic violence

Jansson et el: 3% of women and 2% of men in the UK will face intimate partner violence. Around 40% of female murder victims are killed by a partner. The WHO estimates around 25% of the world's women experience sexual violence by a partner.

Social Capital

Peoples connections in a social network what putnam calls norms of reciprocity, what people do for eachother. Cohen and Prusak argue that high levels of social capital bind wealthy families together

modernisation and age stratification

age stratification relates to social change in pre-industrial societies, roles were given based on age rather than class ideas like retirement create ideas of old age

Luscher

argues that changes such as divorce and remarriage are making people less sure of their familial relationships and are thus putting geographical distance between pre-existing family members.

Ambert

family is defined by both function and kinship families should take care of other members of the family, procreate or adopt, socialize children, consume, produce and distribute goods and services and provide childcare.

Giddens

family is defined by kinship that separates families from other social groups, such as law (marriage), affinity (two adults living together) or biology (parents and children) Strength: includes many kinds of families Weak: could include some social groups not usually considered to be families.

horizantally extended family

family with aunts, uncles and cousins all living together or near by.

Peripheral functions

despite the state taking over many previous functions, some sociologists argue that these functions have not been removed, simply modified, for instance, middleclass families are still very involved with their children's education.

The new right and decreasing family size

diversity of family types is wrong and bad. Morgan: Cohabitation leads to divorce, abuse and are more likely to fracture than marriages entered at the same time Horwitz: Traditional families lead to children being taught moral values.

Consensus view of the family and the state

- Functionalists believe that the families primary function is to maintain order. The state has taken over past functions like education and welfare, and subsidized iniatives to make it easier for families to maintain order (eg. the UK's child tax credit)

Lone perosn households

-29% of british households are lone person, nearly tripling from 12% in 1961.

Family and the State

-Familial life is surrounded by both legal and moral norms. -Family is both a public institution supported by the government and a private institution for family members to work out personal matters

Changes in family functions

-While in the past the main goal of the family was to ensure survival it is now to socialize children by teaching them the norms and values of their society. -Children are socialized through individual psychological development. -Families moved from units of production to units of consumption.

Marxist feminism and conjugal roles

-Women are unpaid domestic servants -triple shift. -Women are oppressed by both patriarchal and capitalist systems -

Marxism and the state

-employers benefit from lowering the cost of child raising because those children are future employees. -The family presents the ideas of the state as normal and natural in the socialisation process (ISA) -familial relationships lock people in jobs, because they have loved ones to support -Families are governed by the state deciding who can marry and who can divorce.

Murdock (functionalist)

-the family consists of a common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction, at least two adults of both sexes and at least one kid. Strength: Are ueful from distinguishing from non-familal organizations Flaw: exclude queer or childless couples.

Vertically extended family

A family including *three generations* ie grandparents, parents, children all living either together or in close proximity.

Elderly

A special category of adulthood increased in significance because of increased life expectanies and an aging population. Because there are more elderly people there is a higher dependency ratio, meaning more old people rely on economically active young people. Mutran and Burke: The elderly see themselves as less useful than middleaged adults in some societies elders are honored for their knowledge. People see being elderly as a bad thing

The working class and extended families

According to Anderson the working class evolved to have extended families during industrialization in order to provide support for the sick and elderly, job help for those who could not read or write, etc.

Neo-Marxism and the Family

According to Bordieu some families have cultural capital, non-economic resources which can be used to benefit children. which gives children a head start in education Silva and Edwards argue upper and middleclass families give their children the knowledge and skills needed to transition to the workforce. Willis argues that working class kids tend to get working class jobs because their parents lack the time for the emotional labor to support and lack the funds for tutoring and other beneficial goods and services.

Life cycle

According to Foster, the way we experience family evolves as we age Pre-Family: according to rosenfeld this is the stage in which young adults leave their parent's they may move away and form new relationships Family: Family is another important stage involving both shifting roles and evolving statuses. Post-Family: a familial stage where children who have left the home return (boomerang children) be it because of unemployment, divorce, etc. This shows familial relationships are not linear and progressive. Westland highlights both end carers of women between 50-70 who take care of both adult children and the elderly.

Children and parents

Archard: how parents relate to children has changed Fionda: Adults in society view children in a few different ways Objects of concern that require protection FROm their parents autonomous possessors: people in their own right who are responsible for their actions and should have rights lacking moral conciouss: children do not have a moral concious and should not be expected to conform to the same rules as the adults in their lives. Aries: in pre industrial society children were considered mini-adults Robertson: in modern society children are economically worthless and emotionally priceless. Howard: children in the UK between 100,000 and 700,000 take on significant household labor. Postman: the media has caused children to become more like adults through exposure to adult things, while it has made adults more like children because of it's emphasis on youth. Robertson: as the lines between adults nd children are blurring, children are being allowed to find their own way in life, including becoming consumers. Exposure to adult media and new rights previously only granted to adults has made post-modern children more sexual and rebellious. The role of the father in postmodern societies is becoming uncertain

Age

Beamont notes that 76% of british children live in two parent households, 20% with a lone mother, 3% with a lone father and 1% in other living arrangements According to Rapoport and Rapoport couples with school aged children are more likely to be "dual income families" where both parents work. Longer life spans increase divorce, the age at which women have children and the role of grandparents

lone/single parent family

Both consist of a single adult and dependent children. Lone parenthood is usually distinguished from single parenthood on the basis of factors such as divorce or the death of a partner, rather than choice.

Gender and Childhood

Boys and Girls are socialized differently because parents assume they are biologically different Will et el: Found people treated the same baby differently when they were given different gender markers Parents subconsciously treat their children differently through toys and media etc. Martin and Ruble: Children are gender detectives who look to parents, peers and the media to discover how they should act based on their gender. People who break gender norms face negative sanctions

Beanpole Family

Brannen: As birthrates decline and life expectancies rise, the rise of multigenerational families with close bonds have resulted in "beanpole families"

Adult

Built on rights and responsibilities Individuals construct fully formed identies away from their parents Magolda: What to make of themselves in society

Reconstituted family

Children from different marriages becoming one family after their divorced parents marry each other

Modified extended family:

Coined by Gordon: families still keep in touch physically and emotionall even if they do not live in the same area or household. Wilmott: Locally extended families: two or more unrelated nuclear families who provide mutual assistance, Dispersed: families with infrequent physical contact, Attenuated: young couples gradually moving away from their families.

The managerial state

Dean: Governments need to influence the behavior of families while still keeping up the illusion of privacy as not to be coercive. The state encourages certain behaviors like marriage and discourages others like single parenthood.

Class and Childhood

Hecht: Brazillian street children must beg and work in order to survive Wealthy children are nurtured and use social capital while poor children are nuturing and contribute to capital. Middle and Upper-class families are child centered and focused on long term sucess while workng class families must focus on instant gratification eg. leaving school asap for employment

Ethnicity and Childhood

Different cultures have different ideas about childhood Pilcher: Adults control all aspects of children's lives. The legitimate space, where children are allowed to go differs between ethnic groups, for example Katz found sudanese children were allowed to roam freely around their village unlike western european and north american children. Brannen and Oakley: found asian parents placed particular restrictions on their daughters but showed a great deal of respect towards their sons. Song: children of certain ethnicities in the Uk (chinese and italian for example) are co-opted into that families workplace.

Feminism and the family

Duncombe an Marsden: the triple shift, women work full time and perform domestic and emotional labor. Breugal: women are a reserve army of labor, called in when there is a shortage of men. Women are generally considered a marginalized workforce meaning they are forced into low paying and low status jobs.

The New Right

Eichner: "supportive state" model, the state should encourage families in their caretaking functions. Government policies should encourage "stable" relationships and discourage deviant ones. Neale: stable relationships are straight, two parent, nuclear families Single parents require govenment help, which creates a dependency culture, which creates dysfunctional children.

Stabilisation in contemporary society

Emotional stabilisation is now more important so love marriages are more common. Empty shell marriages still exist however in order to create the appearance of a more stable home, usually for the sake of children.

Consensus view on the impact of family life

Family provides companionship, security, and raises children. Fletcher: The family is a rewarding insitution catering to self realization and autonomy

Conflict theory and the family

Family's transfer ideas favorable to the ruling class, according to althusser families are an ISA and according to Zaretsky socialization involves the transmission of ruling class ideology. Families replace workers and according to Althusser, the modern family is a unit of consumption that needs to find paid employment in order to survive. According to Zaretsky families are common targets for advertisers and are thus a major source of profit. Families lck people inro capitalistic relationships because they are forced to work in order to support their family. It is a stabilising force that prevents uprisings, according to Zaretsky, the "privatised family results in individuals caring more about trivial personal issues instead of wider social problems.

post-modern families

Finch: Postmodern families are whatever you want it to be. Families are groups where people play out their personal narratives. Stacey: every family is an alternate family, this is because families are arenas to deal with personal choices and lifestyles. Elkins: Post-modern families emphasize the need to become rather than the need to belong. critics of postmodernism say that it over emphasizes the disconnect between families and certain ethnic groups clinging to traditions.

Arguments against fit thesis

Finch: found little evidence to support the idea that family members would take care of their elderly or that children aside from the eldest son received any inheritance. Carlin: The nuclear family was dominate in western europe because people rarely lived long enough to become grandparents and those who did were expected to live apart from their children. Laslett: Estimated that upperclass households were able to hold both wider kin and servant because they had more room, but the lowerclasses could only house people outside the main familial unit temporarily, estimated only around 10% of pre-industrial families were extended. Historical data shows that between 1700 and the early 1800s the population of england and wales tripled, suggesting urbanization was the result of a population boom.

Radical feminism and Genderroles

Firestone: Biology is the reason for female oppression, once technology frees women from the need to give birth they will be liberated. Stanworth: Women should embrace reproduction and traditionally feminine traits because it seperates them from men and is the groundwork for female identity Frieden: The housewife is a parasite because she is forced to rely on men to survive.

Post Modernism and the impact of family life

Focus on individual psychological stability, who we are and how we understand our place in society. Because of globalization we have more choices, but that also leads to uncertainty of who we are, families provide a strong focal point for who we are. Becker: families generate a psychic income, pleasure that comes from familial love and stability Anderson: families provide support not/no longer offered by other institutions

Cohabitation

Gillis argues cohabitation or common law marriages were a thing in the past cohabitation is not legally recorded in the UK so it is more difficult to find reliable and valid data Hughes and Church: identified an increase of 10% of couples cohabiting in 86 to 25% in 06 Smart and Stevens: Indifference to marriage, trial run for marriage, commitment issues, philosophically opposed to marriage.

The upperclass

Gomm suggests that upperclass families have been a mix of nuclear and extended because they had the means to keep multiple familie under one roof comfortably.

Universal Dominance:

Goode argues that the nuclear family best fits the needs of the industrial world because it is small, flexible and self contained. This argument is flawed for a few reasons _gordon argues tat the inflexible extended family has little sociological or historical basis. Litwak argues all familial units are based around a modified nuclear family and we should no longer discuss truly extended or nuclear families. Nuclear families were caused by capitalism as it solved the issue of paternity for inheritances, Stacey also suggests that the nuclear family is political rather than biological and serves the interests of men, by enhancing social inequalities and maintaining class via the transfer of capital

Neo-Functionalism and the family

Horowitz argues the family is like a mini-society before children are introduced to the real world. The family is a superior learning site because families have an emotional closeness, rules are more likely to be taught and learnt because of deep bonds, children can easily mimic the adults in their lives.

Particularistic values

How people such as family members or work colleagues treat others differently based on the value of their particular relationship

Child Abuse

Humphrey and Thiara: there are strong ties between domestic abuse and child abuse. around 80 children are murdered by a parent each year In 1996 the home office found a 1/4 of all recordered rape victims were children. Rooney and Devis: the vast majority of homicide victims are infants murdered by a family member.

Childbearing

In the Uk The age women have children has increased, family size has shrunk, the amount of live births has decreased and births outside of marriage account for nearly half of all births. India has seen a rise in birthrates, Rapoport and Rapoport: the rise of dual career families and single career women means many women are waiting later in life or not having kids at all in order to focus on their careers. It is becoming more expensive to have kids. Tiffen and Gittens: Women are now less likely to conform to traditional gender roles like mother,

Stabilisation in pre industrial society

In the past love-marriages were rare, for the upperclasses marriages were a way to ensure wealth be consolidated or grown through marriage and for the lower classes, more adults in the family meant more people to help out around the house. Marriage was a stabilising force economically.

Youth

Includes preteens to young adults Hine: in the UK teenagers did not exist until the fifties when they became a viable market and education was extended. Parsons: Youth is a transition between childhood and adulthood

Parsons and loss of functions

Industrialization took on many of the previous functions of the family, so the family largely focused on socialization and the stabilization of adult personalities

Feminism and the state

Liberal Feminists: see the state and a road towards equality such as equal pay and anti discrimination laws and as a way to balance the role of a mother and worker through things like paid maternity leave and daycares at work. Finch: Managerial states mean that families must conform to a certain idealogical structure. -the poor and the powerless are often subject to more government intervention

Childhood across cultures

Malinowski: studied the Trobriand islanders of Papua New Guinea and found that children were given more rights and responsibilities and were allowed to explore their sexuality In western society the family is child centered in other cultures like the Mundugumor of Papua New Guinea the relationship between parent and child is looser because they are not the child's primary caretaker.

Cohort

Marshall: an age structure based on roles and statuses. -age is a group rather than an individual experience -Zhou (1997) suggests that 'age is a basis for acquiring roles, status, and deference from others in society. When people become old, they exit roles as workers and take on roles as retirees'. -In addition, Riley (1994) argues that people born into the same cohort have similar 'experiences in time and may share meanings, ideologies, orientations, attitudes and values'. The roles and responsibilities of age groups evolve

Liberal feminism and family roles

Men and women should be able to choose which roles they do and do not want to take on.

Neo-functionalism and conjugal roles

Men take on instrumental or "provider" roles while women take on expressive, caretaker roles. Swenson: In modern societies these roles can be fluid, with parents taking on either or both roles.

The middleclass

Middle Class families tended to be nuclear, the importnace of education and it's high cost meant that families had to be kept small.

Theories about the elderly

Modernisation theories say that the elderly are lower class citizens because they are a distinct social group. Cowgill: The elderly are disconnected from their families and not trained in the lastest technology cutting them off from society The elderly are not treated with respect because they no longer contribute to the economy and no longer control as much resources. Townsend argues the lack of resources comes from their 'progressive removal from the workplace'. Postmodernists believe that declining social roles are not inevitable and behavior is more fluid. Grusky: concepts of age no longer have a priveleged position.

types of familial organization

Monogamy: two partners Polygamy: multiple partners Polygyny: one man, many women Polyandry: one woman many men.

Marxism and family roles

Morgan : three family economies the political economy: who controls financial assetts and how, Pahl and Vogler found men make most financial desicions. The moral economy: women can control the family through organizing roles and resources The emotional economy: if someone loves you, they are giving you power (dallos) which can be exploited subtley (pahl) Like all instutions families have power struggles, which can result in domestic violence Kirkwood believes that many victims do not report domestic abuse because of low-self esteem, dependence on the abuser, or fear or retaliation. according to coleman around 40% of domestic violence victims will be assaulted repeatedly.

nuclear family

Mother, father and children living as a unit -contact with extended family is infrequent and impersonal. -members are expected to support eachother socially and psychologically.

Murdock's claims on the nuclear family

Murdock believed all family structures were based on the core one man one woman of the nuclear family, extended families are nuclear families with temporary extensions, polygamy is multiple nuclear families connected via marriage

Universality of the Nuclear family

Murdocks survey of 250 representative societies found that the nuclear family was universal, this theory has two main threads, structural convergence, all societies are moving towards the nuclear family and dominance thesis where the nuclear family is the main family structure in all societies

Post Industrial Society

New technologies have made it easier for extended families to stay in contact. -Divorce is now easier increasing the amount of lone parent households -Social Changes have allowed same sex couples and single parents to be more accepted -Longer life expectancies and welfare systems allow grandparents to be apart of their grandchildrens lives

Class and Family

O'neill: single parents (never married) are more likely to have working class origins. because working class women tend to have children younger beanpole families are common Middle class families are more likely to have symmetrical (coined by wilmott and young), meaning gender roles are more balanced, working class families tend to have segregated gender roles, because men have more financial power in these relationships women are more likely to face domestic violence According to Pahl and Vogler men in middle-class families tend to make more financial decisions showing that gender roles are not completely balanced. Lareau suggests middle-class parents adopt a deliberate parenting styles that foster individual talents, this results in an "emerging set of entitlement" that makes them better equipped for the workforce. Reay found that middle-class women are much more involved in their children's education.

divorce

Over the last 100 years divorce rates have increased, as has the average age for a ivorce. legal changes like the 1969 divorce reform act in the UK have made it easier to get a divorce. Economic changes aid too, in 49 financial aid was given to divorcing couples, meaning it was no longer something only the rich could do. addt. more women are financially independent making it easier for them to divorce Hughes: around 35% of marriages that end in divorce are childless making it easier for them to be dissolved. Clarke and Berlington: Young couples, people living in populations with high marriage rates and couples with short courtships are more likely to divorce

Wilmott and Young's types of marriages

Pre-industrial family: Men and women both work outside the home, but men are still head of household. Assymetrical Family: men are breadwinners women are housewives and childbearers Symmetrical: men and women have equal roles and responsibilities

Universalistic values

Rules and values that apply equally to all members of society, regardless of who they are.

Murdocks functional prerequisites

Sexual Control: Married couples do not have sex with other people Reproduction: Making new people woo Socialization: teaching children values and norms Econominc provision: families divide labor to keep eachother alive

Industrial alternatives to the nuclear family

Shakers of Boston:Early industrial commune where according to Hillebrande, every man married to every woman, no exclusive attatchments were allowed Kibbutz of Isreal: Couples were allowed to have monogamous sexual relationships, they did not live togethe. focused on communal living and child rearing. New World Black Family: Matrifocal family focused on single mother and extended older female relative, thought to be the result of slavery tearing black families apart and extreme poverty focuses fathers to move away from their children to find work.

Alternatives to the nuclear family

The Nayar of Malabar (Indian) Matrilineal families where generations of women live under one roof seperate from men (gough). Young women could have may sexual partners without fear of public scrutiny, a form of arranged marriage would result in the women taking care of the children of the household with focusing on mothers daughters and sisters. Lakker of Burma: Keesng found that the Lakker did not believe the mother and child were related, and the woman was only a vessel to carry the child. The ashanti of West africa, argues Herndon, are a matrifocal syfamilial unit where the women controls property and children legally belong to the mother nd her clan While these may disprove the universality of the Nuclear family it does not refute the dominance thesis, as all of these societies were pre industrial

social generational theory

The elderly lose relevance because their norms and values are based in the past/

Privacy and the family

The family is a fluid institution and must tiptoe between the ideas of the state and the need for privacy in the family. The govenment generally stays out of direct familial matters except in cases of abuse

Conflict theory the impact of family life.

The family is psychologically damaging, exploits women, is an abusive institution. Leach: The family is a source of psychological and social damage Cooper: The family stunts growth and restricts freedom of expression resulting in the murder of the self. Marxist feminism: women are unpaid servants in the family

disengagement theory

The view that aging makes a person's social sphere increasingly narrow, resulting in role relinquishment, withdrawal, and passivity.

Setterson

There is no clear divide on age groups, but it involves two things -Age groups provide a basic structure for social roles an interactions -Rites of passage (retirement, Bat Mitzvah) where biological reality is unimportant

Social Positions of the elderly

Victor: The status of the elderly is dependent on the nature of socialization. In nomadic societies elders are left behind or killed because they are thought to be burdens, but in stable societies they are valued for their wisdom Kagan: the elderly were still very active within their communities in Colombia The elderly are valued in some societies because they have control of social resources (knowledge) eg. Native elders Rekigion also plays a role, as those who are closer to death may be considered important. The Sherbo of Sierra Leone believe that as a person grows more senile they are communicating directly with ancestors To be old and wealthy is different than being old and poor. The elderly are considered burdens on the young in modern society.

Marriage

While marriage rates as a whole have declined, remarriage rates have doubled in the last 50 years -Marriage rates have changed because of baby booms increasing the popuation, the median age for people getting married changing, (Hughes found the average age for marriage in 77 was 23 and in 07 it was 29) as well as social changes that mean less pressure to marry and less judgement towards having children or living together before marriage. Oswald argues that increased financial independecne means many women see marriage as a lifestyle choice rather than an pbligation. Self and Zealy:rising cohabitation rates mean people are waiting longer to get married or not getting married at all. Secularisation means the importance of marriage has decreased.

Functionalism and conjugal roles

Wilmott and Young: stratifies diffusion, gender equality started in the upper classes and trickled down. Sullivan: there has been a quiet revolution of gender roles i industrial societies as men take on more housework and women explore careers.

Couple households

a couple living together this includes empty nesters couples who havent had kids yet couples who remain childless Roseneil suggests that there are also couples who live apart, be it for work or independence

Shared households

a group of unrelated people living together

Household

a person or group of people living in the same residence

Convergence

built on the idea of modernisation theory, that the evolution of society is linear. The driving force behind this development is changes in institutions, as work and education changed, so too did the family. According to Parsons, industrialization caused a loss of functions in the family. No longer having to focus on education or childcare they just had to focus on socialization and stabilization. For convergence to be valid there would need to be historical evidence showing the evolution from pre-industrial extended families to industrial nuclear ones, but research from historians Laslett and Anderson does not support that argument

Symbolic capital

the characteristics upper middle-class children develop such as sense of entitlement and self confidence which benefits them in the workplace.

Life course analysis

the examination of differences and changes over the course of an individuals lifetime. Mitchell: Social age involves thinking about life transitions

Family size

the lower the class the larger the family According to hughes the average number of children born to women born in 1937 was 2.4 by 1999 it declined to 1.7. Zambia has the highest family size with an average of 6 children per household. Because children can no longer work and education has required them to be dependent longer, children are a financial strain rather than an asset, Womack reports higher lving costs have led to may people choosing to stay child free. As women focus more on their careers they are having children later in life, and because of their career they are not interested in traditional mother and child roles, according to finch younger women waiting to be older to have children has not been offset by older women having more children, so family sizes have shrunk.

Ethnicity

the secularization of some ethnic groups has led to a rise in cohabitation before marriage, a lower marriage rate, a higher divorce rate, and a higher remarriage rate Dale et el found that black women are more likely to remain in full time employment than their whie or asian peers. Modood found that only arounf 40% of Black adults under 60 in the UK were married, Mann found Black Carribeans with children had the highest unmarried cohabitation rate, Mann notes that 45% of Black families are lone parent compared to 25% of white families. Absent fathers (fathers who remain in contact but are not part of the household) has resulted in many Black families being matrifocal. South Asian women have higher marriage rates, with Bethoud noting 65% of Indian Women and 75% of Pakistani women are married by their mid-twenties. According to Mann SA communities have low rates of divorce and pre-marital cohabitation. Self and Zealy note that arounf 5% of pakistani/bangladeshi and 10% of indian children live in lone parent househilds

activity theory

the view that satisfaction during old age is related to a person's amount and quality of activity