Sociology

Sociology Mr Farren practice essay
Examine the changes in patterns of childbearing and childrearing in the UK since the 1970’s
Since the 1970s, many of the traditional idea on how children should be made and brought up have changed into new concepts
INTRODUCTION

Childbearing is the circumstances that a child is born in. Over 4 out of   10 children are born outside of marriage, this is 5 times more than in 1971. This is due to a decline in stigma the reason being the fact that we Are now leaving in a seculisation society and an increase in births to cohabiting couples rather than women living alone. Women are also having children later and since 1971 the average age of women pregnant with their first child had increased by 3 years (2005). Not only are women having children later but they also are having fewer children and in some cases no child at all. This all comes down to the fact that women now more have more options than just motherhood,   and many women like to focus on their carer before settling down to start a family.
Childrearing is the circumstances in which a child is brought up. The lack of definite family structure may affect the children and the way they see society as a whole. Similar to a cohabiting couple that have children are not tie by the same concept as married couple, therefore they end up being lone parent, which is one of the biggest changes in childrearing.
Lone families now make up 24% of all families. One out of four children live in a lone-parent family. Sociologists suggest that a child living with a lone parent is twice as more likely to be in poverty than if they were living with 2 parents. The number of lone parent families has increased due to divorce becoming more widely accessible and also a decline in stigma which shows that people are less bothered about marriage in the first place so instead cohabit or remain single therefore having a impact of the way their child is reared.   Since the 1990’s single women   who had never...