Notes · SociologyUK · A-Levels

Families and Households (optional topic)

This Paper 2 option studies the family in relation to society and social change: the competing perspectives on what the family does, the growth of family diversity, changing patterns of marriage, divorce and cohabitation, the domestic division of labour and power, the social construction of childhood, and the demographic trends reshaping households. It is examined through 10- and 20-mark items that reward perspective-based evaluation reaching a judgement.

6 sections~24 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 5 · Advanced 1

T·0666 / 15

Exam profile

AO1 · Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of perspectives on the family, diversity, roles, childhood and demographyAO2 · Apply this material to the Item and to changing patterns of family life and policyAO3 · Analyse and evaluate perspectives (functionalist, Marxist, feminist, New Right, personal life), reaching a judgement

Operators:outline and explainapplying material from the Item, analyseevaluateassessdiscuss

basic level

AS-Level expects the main perspectives on the family, the growth of diversity and the key demographic trends.

higher level

The full A-Level requires sustained evaluation across perspectives, precise use of studies, and the integration of diversity, roles, childhood and demography in a judgement.

Depth

Text

Contents · 6 sections

Families and Households (optional topic)

Perspectives on the family and its functions#

StandardAQA 7192/2 Families and HouseholdsDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Perspectives on the family

Fig. 1Functionalism sees the family meeting society's needs; Marxism and feminism see it serving capitalism and patriarchy - all agree it reproduces society.

Functionalists analyse the family by the functions it performs for society. Murdock, from a comparative survey, argued the family is universal because it meets four essential needs - sexual, reproductive, economic and educational (socialisation) - more efficiently than any alternative. Parsons developed a more historical account: in modern industrial society the family has lost many functions to other institutions but retains two 'basic and irreducible' ones, the primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities (the family as a place of emotional support, the 'warm bath' that steadies adults for the pressures of work). For functionalists the nuclear family is well suited to the needs of modern society, an argument tied to the functional-fit thesis in the next section.

Marxists reinterpret the family as an institution serving capitalism, not society as a whole. Engels linked the monogamous nuclear family historically to the emergence of private property and the need to identify legitimate heirs, so that the family exists to secure the orderly inheritance of wealth. Zaretsky argued that the family provides capitalism with a compliant workforce and a unit of consumption, and offers workers an illusory private refuge that compensates for, and so reconciles them to, alienating work. The family also performs the unpaid labour of reproducing labour power. For Marxists, then, the family reproduces class inequality and capitalist ideology across generations.

Feminists analyse the family as an institution of patriarchy that oppresses women, though they differ on the roots and remedy. Liberal feminists see progress towards greater equality through changing attitudes and law. Marxist feminists tie women's domestic oppression to capitalism, arguing that unpaid housework benefits capital and that women serve as a reserve army of labour. Radical feminists see the family as the central site of patriarchal control, through domestic labour, sexuality and violence, and some advocate alternatives to the conventional family. Oakley's critique of the conventional family and her demonstration that the 'symmetrical family' is a myth are foundational feminist contributions.

The New Right and the personal life perspective complete the range and sharpen evaluation. The New Right champions the traditional married nuclear family as the bedrock of social order and self-reliance, blaming family breakdown and lone parenthood - especially Murray's 'underclass' thesis - for social problems, and criticising welfare and permissiveness for undermining it. The personal life perspective (Smart) rejects the top-down assumptions of the older theories, arguing that sociologists should start from the meanings people themselves give to their relationships, which extend beyond blood and marriage to friends, fictive kin and even pets. Evaluating the family therefore means playing consensus against conflict, structure against meaning, and asking whether the family serves society, capitalism, men, or the diverse purposes of the people who live in it.

Worked example

Model essay plan: the role of the family

Plan a 20-mark answer evaluating the functionalist view of the role of the family.

Set up the debate
Functionalists say the family meets society's needs; conflict and personal-life theorists disagree. Signal a judgement. Hook to the Item.
Develop functionalism
Murdock's four functions; Parsons's primary socialisation and stabilisation of adult personalities; the nuclear family as functionally suited to modern society.
Evaluate with conflict views
Marxism: the family serves capitalism (Engels, Zaretsky). Feminism: it serves patriarchy through unpaid labour and control (Oakley) - functionalism ignores the darker side (conflict, violence).
Add personal life and diversity
Smart's personal life perspective and the reality of family diversity challenge the functionalist focus on one 'ideal' nuclear form.
Judgement
Conclude that the family does perform socialisation and support functions but functionalism idealises it, ignoring inequality, conflict and diversity - so conflict and personal-life critiques are needed for a full account.

Result: A top-band plan develops the functionalist functions, evaluates them with Marxist, feminist and personal-life critiques, and judges that the family serves real functions but that functionalism's rosy, one-form picture is inadequate.

Typical mistakes

Treating 'the feminist view' or 'the Marxist view' as unified rather than as families of positions.
Describing the perspectives in separate blocks without comparing or evaluating them - juxtaposition, not analysis.

Active revision

Applying material from the Item and your knowledge, evaluate the functionalist view of the role of the family in society. (20 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for sociology (Department for Education)

Family diversity and the postmodern family#

StandardAQA 7192/2 Families and HouseholdsDfE GCE Sociology subject content

The Rapoports' five types of family diversity

Fig. 2The Rapoports identified five dimensions of family diversity, treating plurality as normal rather than deviant.

The functionalist assumption that one nuclear family form dominates and suits modern society is challenged by the growth of family diversity. The Rapoports identified five types of diversity - organisational (differences in how families divide roles and labour), cultural (differences between ethnic and religious groups), class (differences in resources and practices), life-course (differences by stage of life) and cohort (differences between generations shaped by the period they grew up in). Their point is that there is no longer a single dominant family type but a plurality of forms, and that diversity should be seen as normal rather than deviant.

Sociologists debate how far the nuclear family has really declined. Chester accepts that diversity has grown but argues that most people still live in, or pass through, a broadly nuclear family - he calls it the 'neo-conventional family', now typically dual-earner - so the change is one of degree, not the disappearance of the nuclear form. This position tempers claims of radical transformation and provides a useful evaluative counterweight to postmodern accounts, insisting that the nuclear family remains statistically and culturally central even as alternatives proliferate.

Postmodern and individualisation theorists interpret diversity as a fundamental transformation. Stacey, from research on families in Silicon Valley, celebrated new, chosen and often woman-centred family forms such as the 'divorce-extended family'. Giddens and Beck argue that tradition no longer dictates family life: relationships have become a matter of individual choice, and the 'pure relationship' - continued only so long as it satisfies both partners - has replaced obligation, producing greater instability but also greater equality and freedom. On this view, family diversity reflects a society in which individuals actively construct their own relationships and biographies.

The New Right reads the same evidence with alarm. For writers such as Murray, the decline of the married nuclear family, the rise of lone parenthood and family 'breakdown' are causes of social problems - crime, welfare dependency and inadequate socialisation - and are encouraged by an over-generous welfare state and permissive values. Critics reply that this idealises a nuclear family that was never universal, blames lone mothers for structural problems, and ignores the evidence that diverse families can socialise children successfully. Evaluating family diversity thus means weighing the New Right's anxiety and Chester's continuity thesis against the postmodern celebration of choice, and judging whether diversity represents decline, continuity or liberation.

Illustrative change in household types

Fig. 3Typical illustrative pattern (not official statistics): the share of nuclear-family households has fallen while lone-person and other households have risen.

Worked example

Evaluating the decline of the nuclear family

Assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the dominant family form.

State the transformation case
Postmodernists (Stacey, Giddens, Beck) argue choice and instability have produced diverse, self-constructed family forms, displacing the single nuclear model.
State the continuity case
Chester argues most people still live in or pass through a broadly nuclear family - the dual-earner 'neo-conventional family' - so change is of degree, not disappearance.
Weigh the evidence
Diversity has genuinely grown (Rapoports), but the nuclear form remains statistically and culturally central; both the New Right's alarm and the postmodern celebration overstate the change.
Judgement
Conclude that the nuclear family has been de-centred but not dethroned - it coexists with, rather than being replaced by, a plurality of forms.

Result: Family diversity has genuinely increased, but Chester's continuity thesis shows the nuclear family remains central; the strongest judgement is that it has been de-centred rather than replaced.

Typical mistakes

Listing family types without engaging the debate over whether the nuclear family has really declined.
Accepting the New Right decline thesis or the postmodern choice thesis uncritically, without the counter-evidence.

Active revision

Applying material from the Item, analyse two reasons for the increase in family diversity. (10 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification (AQA)

Marriage, divorce, cohabitation and personal life#

StandardAQA 7192/2 Families and HouseholdsDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Illustrative long-term divorce trend

Fig. 4Typical illustrative pattern (not official statistics): divorce rose through the twentieth century after legal and social change, levelling more recently.

Patterns of partnership have changed markedly: marriage rates have fallen and marriage is often later, cohabitation has risen and become a normal stage or alternative, divorce has become far more common than in the mid-twentieth century, and lone-parent and reconstituted (step) families have grown. Sociologists treat these as trends to be explained rather than simply lamented or celebrated, and the explanations connect the family to wider social change - secularisation, changing gender roles, legal reform and individualisation.

The long-term rise in divorce is explained by several converging factors. Legal changes made divorce easier and cheaper to obtain; secularisation weakened the religious stigma attaching to it; the changing position of women - rising employment and financial independence - made it possible for more women to leave unsatisfactory marriages, and feminists note that women initiate the majority of divorces; and rising expectations of marriage as a source of personal fulfilment (Giddens's 'pure relationship') mean couples are less willing to endure an unhappy relationship. Higher divorce does not necessarily indicate that marriage is less valued - high remarriage rates suggest people reject particular partners rather than the institution itself.

The meaning of these changes is contested across perspectives. The New Right sees rising divorce and cohabitation and falling marriage as symptoms of moral decline and a threat to the socialisation of children. Feminists read the same trends more positively, as evidence that women are escaping patriarchal marriages and constructing relationships on more equal terms. Postmodernists and individualisation theorists see them as the natural result of a society in which relationships are chosen and provisional rather than obligatory, producing both greater freedom and greater instability.

The personal life perspective (Smart) offers a distinctive lens on all these changes. Rather than judging partnership patterns against an ideal family form, it starts from the meanings and connections people themselves value, which may include ex-partners, step-kin, close friends and 'fictive kin' as well as blood and marriage relatives. This approach captures the fluidity and variety of contemporary intimate life better than the top-down perspectives, though critics argue it risks losing sight of the structural forces - class, gender, the economy - that still shape people's relationship options. Evaluating partnership change therefore means combining an explanation of the trends with a judgement about whether they represent decline, liberation or simply the diversification of intimate life.

Worked example

Analysing two reasons for rising divorce

Applying material from the Item, analyse two reasons for the long-term increase in the divorce rate.

Select reason one from the Item
Hook to a reference to law or attitudes and develop legal and secular change: easier, cheaper divorce and the decline of religious stigma removed barriers to divorcing.
Develop and link
Explain the causal chain (fewer legal and moral barriers -> more couples able to divorce) and connect to secularisation.
Select reason two from the Item
Hook to a reference to women or work and develop women's changing position: rising employment and independence let more women leave unsatisfactory marriages, which they mostly initiate.
Develop and link
Connect to feminism and to Giddens's rising expectations of marriage as personal fulfilment, so couples tolerate less.

Result: A full-mark 10-marker develops exactly two reasons for rising divorce, each hooked to the Item with a clear causal chain, rather than listing every possible factor.

Typical mistakes

Assuming rising divorce means marriage is rejected - high remarriage rates suggest otherwise.
Explaining trends without interpreting their meaning across perspectives (decline versus liberation).

Active revision

Applying material from the Item, analyse two reasons for the long-term increase in the divorce rate. (10 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for sociology (Department for Education)

The domestic division of labour and power#

AdvancedAQA 7192/2 Families and HouseholdsDfE GCE Sociology subject content

March of progress versus feminist views of domestic labour

Fig. 5The march-of-progress view sees roles converging on symmetry; feminists see a persistent dual burden despite women's rising employment.

A central question in the sociology of the family is whether roles within the household have become more equal. Young and Willmott, from a 'march of progress' standpoint, argued that the family was becoming 'symmetrical' - with spouses increasingly sharing paid work, housework and leisure - as a result of women's employment, smaller families and better housing. This optimistic thesis holds that the modern family is steadily moving towards equality between partners, and it provides the position that feminist research sets out to test and, largely, to refute.

Oakley's research directly challenged the symmetrical-family thesis, arguing that Young and Willmott exaggerated men's contribution by counting even minimal help as sharing. Her own study found that housework and childcare remained overwhelmingly the wife's responsibility, and that the 'housewife role' had become the dominant one for married women. Feminists argue that the domestic division of labour remains deeply unequal: women perform a disproportionate share of housework and childcare even when in paid employment, producing the 'dual burden' or 'triple shift' (paid work, domestic work and the emotional work of managing feelings). This is a structural feature of patriarchy, not merely individual preference.

Power within the household extends beyond the division of tasks to money, decision-making and violence. Sociologists study how far couples pool resources or control them unequally, who makes the major decisions, and the reality of domestic violence, which feminists analyse not as isolated incidents but as an expression of patriarchal power that is patterned by gender and often hidden. The commercialisation of housework - the argument that labour-saving goods and paid domestic services have reduced the domestic burden - is debated, with critics noting that such solutions are available mainly to the better-off and do not dissolve the gendered responsibility for the home.

Evaluating the domestic division of labour means weighing the march-of-progress optimism against feminist evidence of persistent inequality, while recognising genuine change. There has been real movement - men do more domestic work than in the past, dual-earner households are the norm, and attitudes to sharing have shifted - but the evidence suggests that responsibility for the home remains gendered and that a full symmetry has not arrived. The strongest answers hold these together: acknowledging change without accepting the symmetrical-family thesis, and identifying the persistence of the dual burden and unequal power as evidence that the family remains a site of gender inequality even as it modernises.

Worked example

Model essay plan: has domestic labour become more equal?

Plan a 20-mark answer evaluating the view that the domestic division of labour has become more equal.

Set up the debate
March-of-progress theorists claim growing equality; feminists claim persistent inequality. Signal a judgement. Hook to the Item.
The 'more equal' case
Young & Willmott's symmetrical family; dual-earner households; men's increased contribution and changing attitudes to sharing.
The feminist critique
Oakley's evidence that housework remains women's; the dual burden and triple shift; unequal power over money, decisions and the reality of domestic violence.
Acknowledge change
Genuine movement has occurred - men do more than before - but responsibility for the home remains gendered; commercialisation helps mainly the better-off.
Judgement
Conclude that roles are more equal than in the past but full symmetry has not arrived; the dual burden shows the family remains a site of gender inequality.

Result: A top-band plan credits real change, uses Oakley and the dual burden to refute the symmetrical-family thesis, extends to power and violence, and judges that inequality persists despite modernisation - an evaluative, not one-sided, conclusion.

Typical mistakes

Accepting the symmetrical-family thesis at face value, ignoring Oakley's critique and the dual burden.
Reducing household power to who does the housework, ignoring money, decision-making and violence.

Active revision

Applying material from the Item and your knowledge, evaluate the view that the domestic division of labour has become more equal. (20 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification (AQA)

Childhood and its social construction#

StandardAQA 7192/2 Families and HouseholdsDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Childhood as a social construction

Fig. 6Childhood is socially constructed - the modern 'protected' childhood is a historical product, read as progress by some and as control by others.

Sociologists argue that childhood is socially constructed - that the meaning, status and experience of being a child vary across societies and history rather than being fixed by biology. In modern Western societies childhood is treated as a distinct, protected and privileged phase, separate from the adult world, in which children are seen as innocent, vulnerable and in need of nurture. Comparative and historical evidence shows this to be a particular cultural construction: in other times and places children have worked, married and taken on adult responsibilities far earlier, and the sharp boundary between child and adult that we take for granted is a modern development.

Aries argued that in medieval Europe the modern idea of childhood did not exist - children were treated as 'little adults' once past infancy - and that the separate, cherished status of childhood emerged only gradually with changes in the family, education and attitudes. Whether or not every detail of his account holds, the underlying claim is widely accepted: childhood as we know it is a historical product. The 'march of progress' view builds on this to argue that the position of children has steadily improved, with children today better cared for, educated and protected than ever before, thanks to laws, welfare and changing attitudes.

Conflict sociologists challenge this optimistic picture. Feminists and others point to the inequalities that persist among children - by class, gender and ethnicity - so that not all children share the same experience of childhood. Child-liberationists argue that the 'protection' of childhood is also a form of control and even oppression: children are subject to adult authority over their time, bodies, movement and decisions to a degree adults would not accept, so that the separate status of childhood is a form of age patriarchy rather than simply care. This reframes the cherished modern childhood as a relationship of power as well as protection.

The future of childhood is debated between opposed theses. Some argue childhood is 'disappearing' as the boundaries between child and adult blur - children gaining access, especially through the media and the internet, to information and experiences once reserved for adults. Others, such as Palmer's account of a 'toxic childhood', argue that rapid technological and cultural change is damaging children's development and well-being. Evaluating childhood therefore means combining the core insight of social construction with a judgement about whether the modern childhood represents progress, control or a phase now under threat - and recognising that children's own experiences are patterned by the wider inequalities the course documents.

Worked example

Evaluating the march-of-progress view of childhood

Assess the view that the position of children has improved.

State the progress case
Children today are better cared for, educated and legally protected than in the past - the march-of-progress view.
Add the construction point
This modern, protected childhood is itself a social construction (Aries), not a natural or universal state.
Apply the conflict critique
Inequalities persist among children by class, gender and ethnicity, and child-liberationists argue protection is also control - age patriarchy over children's time and bodies.
Add the future-of-childhood debate
Some see childhood disappearing as boundaries blur; Palmer sees a toxic childhood harming well-being - both complicate simple progress.
Judgement
Conclude that children's position has improved in important respects but the progress view overstates the case, ignoring inequality, control and new threats.

Result: Children's welfare has improved, but the march-of-progress view idealises a socially constructed childhood, overlooking inequalities among children, the control exercised over them, and contemporary threats to well-being.

Typical mistakes

Treating childhood as a natural, biological stage rather than a social construction that varies across time and place.
Accepting the march-of-progress view uncritically, ignoring inequalities among children and the control dimension.

Active revision

Outline and explain two ways in which the position of children has changed in modern society. (10 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for sociology (Department for Education)

Demography and family change#

StandardAQA 7192/2 Families and HouseholdsDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Demographic change and the family

Fig. 7Falling fertility and rising longevity produce an ageing population and the multi-generational beanpole family.

Demography - the study of populations - underpins family change, and the specification requires knowledge of trends in the UK since 1900 in birth rates, death rates, family size, life expectancy, the age structure of the population, and migration. Over the century the birth rate and death rate have both fallen substantially, average family size has declined, and life expectancy has risen, producing a population that is both smaller in its families and older in its structure. These trends are interconnected and each has consequences for family life, so they must be explained and their effects traced, not merely listed.

The long-term fall in the birth rate is explained by the changing position of women (education, employment and control over fertility through contraception), the declining economic value and rising cost of children as they moved from being economic assets to dependants, falling infant mortality (so families need fewer births to achieve their desired family size), and changing norms about ideal family size. The fall in the death rate and rise in life expectancy reflect improved nutrition, housing, public health, medicine and living standards. Together, lower fertility and greater longevity have produced an ageing population - a rising share of older people - which is one of the most consequential demographic changes.

These trends reshape families and households. Smaller families and longer lives have produced the 'beanpole family' - a multi-generational family that is long and thin, with more surviving generations but fewer members in each - and have increased the importance of grandparents and of care for the elderly. An ageing population raises questions about the 'sandwich generation' caring for both children and elderly parents, about pensions and health care, and about the growth of one-person pensioner households. Migration and greater ethnic diversity have added further variety to family forms and practices, contributing to the cultural diversity the Rapoports identified.

Demographic change also connects the family topic to wider debates and to policy. An ageing population and changing family forms raise policy questions about welfare, care and the balance between state, family and market provision that link directly to perspectives on the family - the New Right emphasising family responsibility, others emphasising state support. Evaluating demography means not only explaining the trends accurately but tracing their consequences for family structure, gender roles and intergenerational relationships, and recognising that demographic change both reflects and drives the transformations in family life examined throughout the topic. Care should be taken to present demographic figures as broad, well-established trends rather than precise official statistics.

Worked example

Analysing two effects of an ageing population

Applying material from the Item, analyse two effects of an ageing population on family life.

Select effect one from the Item
Hook to a reference to older relatives and develop the care burden: families, especially the 'sandwich generation', increasingly care for elderly parents as well as children.
Develop and link
Trace the causal chain (more elderly people living longer -> greater need for family care -> pressure on the middle generation, often women) and connect to gender roles.
Select effect two from the Item
Hook to a reference to household structure and develop the beanpole family and pensioner households: more surviving generations but fewer members, and more one-person older households.
Develop and link
Explain the growing role of grandparents and the policy questions about care and welfare this raises.

Result: A full-mark 10-marker develops exactly two effects of an ageing population, each hooked to the Item with a clear causal chain and a link to gender or policy, rather than listing every consequence.

Typical mistakes

Listing demographic trends without explaining their causes or tracing their consequences for family life.
Citing precise 'statistics' from memory - present demography as broad, well-established trends, not exact figures.

Active revision

Applying material from the Item, analyse two effects of an ageing population on family life. (10 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for sociology

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification

Families and Households (optional topic)

6 sections~24 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 5 · Advanced 1

Families and Households (optional topic)

Key points

Model essay plan: the role of the family

Key points

Evaluating the decline of the nuclear family

Key points

Analysing two reasons for rising divorce

Key points

Model essay plan: has domestic labour become more equal?

Key points

Evaluating the march-of-progress view of childhood

Key points

Analysing two effects of an ageing population

Sources

Families and Households (optional topic)

Key points

Model essay plan: the role of the family

Key points

Evaluating the decline of the nuclear family

Key points

Analysing two reasons for rising divorce

Key points

Model essay plan: has domestic labour become more equal?

Key points

Evaluating the march-of-progress view of childhood

Key points

Analysing two effects of an ageing population

Sources