Eduqas A-Level Sociology Component 1 Section B: Families and households, a complete overview

Families and households is one of the two options in Component 1, Section B of Eduqas A-Level Sociology (the other is Youth cultures), worth 50 marks. You study one. It develops the Section A theme of socialisation and culture through the institution of the family. This page maps the five dot points, the perspectives that run through them, and how the option is assessed.

What this option covers

• Functionalist views of the family. Murdock's four functions, Parsons's functional fit and the two irreducible functions (primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities), the New Right defence of the nuclear family, and the criticisms.
• Marxist and feminist views of the family. The Marxist view (Engels on private property, the family as a unit of consumption and transmitter of ideology) and the four feminist strands (liberal, Marxist, radical and difference) as conflict critiques.
• Family diversity and changing patterns. The Rapoports' five types of diversity, the trends in marriage, divorce, cohabitation, lone-parent and reconstituted families, the reasons behind them, and the New Right versus postmodernist debate.
• Domestic roles and power. Segregated and joint conjugal roles, the symmetrical family debate, the dual burden and triple shift, decision-making, money management and domestic violence.
• The changing position of children. Childhood as a social construction (Aries), the march of progress versus conflict views, age patriarchy and the toxic childhood thesis, and the "is childhood disappearing?" debate.

The perspectives that run through the option

• Functionalism sees the family meeting society's needs through its functions (Murdock, Parsons).
• The New Right defends the traditional nuclear family as best for children and worries about diversity.
• Marxism sees the family serving capitalism (reproduction, consumption, ideology).
• Feminism (in four strands) sees the family reproducing patriarchy and male power.
• Postmodernism welcomes diversity and choice and debates the future of childhood.

How the paper is assessed

Component 1 is a 2 hour 30 minute paper worth 120 marks and 40 per cent of the A-level. Section B (50 marks) is one optional substantive topic. The assessment objectives are weighted AO1 45 per cent, AO2 35 per cent and AO3 20 per cent. Eduqas uses the command words Explain, Analyse and Evaluate, and the longer Evaluate essays are marked by levels of response, so a two-sided argument with named theorists and a supported judgement is essential.

How to revise Families and households

1. Build a perspectives grid. Map functionalist, New Right, Marxist and the four feminist views against their thinkers (Murdock, Parsons, Engels, Zaretsky, Oakley, Delphy and Leonard, Benston).
2. Pair every trend with a reason. Divorce, cohabitation and lone parenthood each need a cause (legal change, secularisation, women's independence).
3. Distinguish the close concepts. Murdock's four functions versus Parsons's two; the dual burden versus the triple shift; segregated versus joint roles.
4. Treat childhood as constructed. Use Aries and cross-cultural evidence, and balance the march of progress against age patriarchy and the toxic childhood thesis.
5. Use Eduqas papers. Rehearse with the board's own past papers and mark schemes, because the command words and levels-of-response descriptors are board-specific.