1. Family Diversity Has family life become more diverse in modern Britain?

2. Starter: (5 minutes) Thinking about your own family structure, how is your family similar or different to that of your friends? Explain.

3. Overview: Family/household structures are based on the idea we can identify differences in the way people relate to each other; in other words family and household structures are differentiated (or different) from each other on the basis of the different lifestyles, values and norms surrounding people’s relationships. The following examples of different family structures make this a little more understandable:

5. Children This is and has been the most common family structure in history but is now under threat, due to demand for other family structures. Contacts with wider kin (aunts and cousins, for example) are usually infrequent and more likely to involve ‘impersonal contacts’ such as texting, telephone, facebook or email. For this reason, this family structure is sometimes called an isolated nuclear(reflecting its isolation from wider kin or conjugal family – a self- contained unit whereby family members are expected to support each other socially, economically and psychologically.

7. Children The woman is a housewife and full time mother and the man is the 'breadwinner' i.e. he is the one who has to go to work to earn money.

8. Example Images of Cereal Packet Family

10. Parents

11. Children This structure comes in three basic flavours: Vertically extended consists of three or more generations (grandparents, parents and children) living in the same household or nearby. Horizontally extended involves relations such as aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. (relations of the same generation as the parents). These ‘extensions’ to the basic family group branch out within generations – a wife’s sister and her partner, for example, living with the family group. Modified-extended refers, according to Michael Gordon (The Nuclear Family in Crisis: The Search for an Alternative, 1972) to the idea that wider family members keep in regular touch with each other. This may be both in the form of spending time together and when that is not possible, using email, texting and phone conversations to remain close.

14. Full Circle… Original Question: Has family life become more diverse in modern Britain? Yes, it seems that family life has become more diverse. The multiple family structures discussed during this lesson are evidence that there is no one particular family type in Britain. This is why most sociologists believe that UK family types are becoming increasingly diverse.

15. Extend Your Learning Some useful websites to further your Sociology knowledge: www.sociology.org.uk www.educationforum.co.uk/sociology_2/famdiverse.htm http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_the_family