Describe and Account the Diversity Present in the British Family Today

Describe and account the diversity present in the British family today

Despite the changing lifestyles and ever-increasing personal mobility that characterize modern society, the family remains the central element of contemporary life. Families offer companionship, security, and a measure of protection against an often uncaring world. The family must overcome all these problems that they may face. One of the most striking changes in family structure over the last twenty years has been the increase of single parent families. In this family there is only one parent in the household raising the children, this may be because there are higher divorce rates and adults choosing not to marry. More than half of all children will spend some of their lives in a single-parent family. Currently, 88 percent of these families are headed by women.   Families are very different and can do different things in certain ways that best suit them and the family. There are many different views on families, for example perspectives such as functionalism and new right take a modern view upon the family and think about family life as it is today. They see that modern society is a very fixed, predictable structure. They believe in one family structure and that is the nuclear family. Talcott Parsons sees that there is a functional fit between nowadays society and modern family.
Family diversity means that there are many different types of family in society today not just nuclear, cereal packet families. Many families live differently, and may sociologists have different views upon family and how to live it. Firstly there is the nuclear family which consists of parents and children and is much more common within families today. In addition, there are families like the extended family which also consists of grandparents as well as parents and children. This isn’t as common, nevertheless it still occurs within families. Despite the changing lifestyles and ever-increasing personal mobility...