Component 1 Section B (Families and households): family diversity (the Rapoports' five types), changing patterns of marriage, divorce, cohabitation and lone-parent and reconstituted families, and the debate between the New Right and postmodernists over diversity.

What this dot point is asking

This statement is about family diversity and the changing patterns of family life: the Rapoports' five types of diversity, the trends in marriage, divorce, cohabitation, lone-parent and reconstituted families, the reasons behind them, and the debate between the New Right (who see diversity as decline) and postmodernists (who welcome it as choice). It tests whether you can read social trends and explain them, the core skill of this option.

The answer

The Rapoports' five types of diversity

The Rapoports' typology is a reliable way to structure an answer on diversity, because it shows the variation runs along several dimensions at once, not just one.

The changing patterns

The key trends you should be able to describe and explain are:

• Marriage has declined and happens later; first marriages fell and the average age at marriage rose. Remarriage is common, creating reconstituted (step) families.
• Cohabitation has risen sharply, sometimes as a step before marriage and sometimes as a long-term alternative.
• The divorce rate rose dramatically from the late 1960s, then stabilised, so divorce is now a normal life event for many.
• Lone-parent families have grown, the great majority headed by women, often following divorce or births outside marriage.
• Same-sex couples and families have gained legal recognition (civil partnership, then marriage), adding to diversity.

The reasons and the debate

The reasons for these changes overlap:

• Legal changes: reforms made divorce easier and cheaper and gave women equal rights to divorce; equalising marriage law extended it to same-sex couples.
• Secularisation: religion has less influence, so the religious objection to divorce and cohabitation carries less weight.
• Changing attitudes: divorce and cohabitation carry less stigma, and individuals expect personal fulfilment from relationships (rising expectations of marriage mean more disappointment).
• Women's independence: greater access to education, paid work and welfare means women are less economically dependent on marriage.

The interpretation is contested:

• The New Right sees diversity, especially lone-parent and cohabiting families, as a breakdown of the nuclear family that produces inadequately socialised children, welfare dependency and social problems.
• Postmodernists such as Stacey and the Rapoports welcome diversity as greater choice and freedom: the family now reflects individual needs rather than one imposed model, and people actively shape their own family lives.

Most sociologists conclude that diversity reflects genuine social change and greater choice, but that the outcomes depend on resources and support rather than family form alone.

Examples in context

A strong answer uses the Rapoports' types to organise the diversity, supports the trends with named reasons, and frames the evaluation as New Right versus postmodernist.

Try this

Q1. Explain what the Rapoports meant by family diversity. [6 marks]

• What the marker wants. A definition (AO1): the existence of many family types, illustrated with at least two of the five Rapoport types (organisational, cultural, social class, life-stage, generational), with the point that diversity runs along several dimensions.

Q2. Analyse two reasons for the increase in cohabitation. [12 marks]

• Cue. Two developed points: secularisation and changing attitudes mean cohabitation carries less stigma, and people increasingly see it as a trial or alternative to marriage as expectations of relationships change, each explained and linked to the wider rise in family diversity.