How have patterns of marriage, divorce and family life changed?
Changing family patterns, including falling marriage rates, rising cohabitation, the rise in divorce after the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, and the ageing population, with the reasons behind the trends.
A focused answer to the Eduqas GCSE Sociology families topic, covering changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation and divorce, the ageing population, and the social reasons behind these trends.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
Jump to a section
What this dot point is asking
Eduqas wants you to know how family patterns have changed (marriage, cohabitation, divorce and the age structure of the population) and, crucially, to explain why. The reasons behind the trends are what the explain questions reward, so each change should be linked to social causes such as secularisation, changing attitudes and women's independence.
Marriage and cohabitation
The reasons are largely social. Secularisation means there is less religious pressure to marry; changing attitudes mean cohabitation and staying single are accepted; and women's greater financial independence means marriage is no longer essential for security. Together these changes have loosened the link between marriage and family life.
The rise in divorce
Other reasons reinforce the trend. Secularisation weakened the religious objection to divorce; changing attitudes made divorce more socially acceptable; and women's financial independence meant they could afford to leave unhappy marriages. The rise in divorce in turn helps explain the growth of lone-parent and reconstituted families covered elsewhere in the topic.
The ageing population
Britain also has an ageing population: people are living longer because of better healthcare, diet and living standards, while birth rates have fallen. This changes family life in several ways. There are more single-person households of older people, more "beanpole" families (with several living generations but few members in each), and a growing need to care for elderly relatives, which often falls on women. The ageing population is a clear example of how demographic change reshapes the family.
The trends also connect to each other. More divorce feeds the growth of lone-parent and reconstituted families; falling marriage and rising cohabitation reflect the same secularisation and changing attitudes; and women's independence runs through all of them. Sociologists describe the modern family as more privatised and home-centred than in the past, with couples and households turned inwards on family life rather than the wider community. A strong answer therefore treats the changes as a connected pattern driven by a small set of social causes, rather than as separate, unrelated facts.
Different perspectives on the changes
The perspectives interpret these trends differently, which the longer questions reward. The New Right view the rise in divorce, lone parenthood and cohabitation with concern, arguing they weaken the traditional nuclear family and harm children and social order. Feminists, by contrast, often welcome the same changes: easier divorce and women's independence mean women are no longer trapped in unhappy or unequal marriages, which they see as progress. Functionalists argue the family is simply adapting to a changing society while still performing its core functions. Being able to attach a perspective to each trend turns a descriptive answer into an evaluative one.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC Eduqas exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Eduqas 20194 marksExplain one reason why the divorce rate has increased in Britain.Show worked answer →
A four-mark explain item: name one reason and develop it.
One reason is changes in the law. The 1969 Divorce Reform Act made divorce easier and cheaper to obtain and allowed irretrievable breakdown as grounds, so more couples were able to divorce.
Develop the point: by removing the need to prove fault and reducing the cost, the law made divorce accessible to people who would previously have stayed married, which helped the divorce rate rise sharply. Markers reward a clearly named reason plus a developed explanation of how it raised the rate.
Eduqas 20228 marksExplain why patterns of marriage and cohabitation have changed in Britain.Show worked answer →
An eight-mark explain item: three developed reasons, no formal evaluation needed.
First, secularisation (the declining influence of religion) means there is less moral pressure to marry, so more couples cohabit instead. Second, changing attitudes mean cohabitation and remaining single are widely accepted, where once marriage was expected. Third, women's greater financial independence means they are less reliant on marriage for security, so they may delay or avoid it.
A fourth reason strengthens the answer: the rising cost of weddings and changing expectations of relationships also lead couples to cohabit. Markers reward three or more developed reasons, each tied to the change in marriage or cohabitation. The strongest answers link the trends, for example showing how secularisation and changing attitudes reinforce each other.
Related dot points
- The functions of families, including Murdock's four functions and Parsons' two basic functions (primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities), and how perspectives evaluate them.
A focused answer to the Eduqas GCSE Sociology families topic, covering the functions of the family using Murdock's four functions and Parsons' two basic and irreducible functions, with the perspectives that evaluate them.
- The different family forms (nuclear, extended, reconstituted, lone-parent, same-sex and single-person households) and the reasons family diversity has increased.
A focused answer to the Eduqas GCSE Sociology families topic, covering the different family forms (nuclear, extended, reconstituted, lone-parent, same-sex and single-person) and the reasons family diversity has grown.
- Conjugal roles (segregated and joint), the symmetrical family thesis of Willmott and Young, Oakley's critique and the dual burden, and power and decision-making in the family.
A focused answer to the Eduqas GCSE Sociology families topic, covering segregated and joint conjugal roles, the symmetrical family thesis of Willmott and Young, Ann Oakley's critique, the dual burden and power in the family.
- The functionalist, Marxist, feminist and New Right perspectives on the family, and the criticisms of family life including its dark side.
A focused answer to the Eduqas GCSE Sociology families topic, covering the functionalist, Marxist, feminist and New Right perspectives on the family and the criticisms of family life.
- Primary and secondary socialisation, the agencies of socialisation (family, education, peer group, media, religion and workplace), and how socialisation shapes identity.
A focused answer to the Eduqas GCSE Sociology socialisation topic, covering primary and secondary socialisation, the agencies of socialisation and how they shape a person's identity.
Sources & how we know this
- Eduqas GCSE Sociology (C200) specification — WJEC Eduqas (2017)