What you'll learn
Families are social groups linked by kinship, marriage or shared living, and sociologists study them because they are the first and most powerful agency of socialisation. In AQA GCSE Sociology (8192), Families is one of the two topics on Paper 1 (1 hour 45 minutes, 100 marks, 50% of the GCSE), alongside Education and research methods. This guide covers the functions of families, family forms in the UK and around the world, conjugal role relationships, how relationships within families have changed, criticisms of families, and divorce since 1945. It also gives you the key ideas of every sociologist the specification names for this topic: Parsons, the Rapoports, Oakley, Young and Willmott, Zaretsky, and Delphy and Leonard, and shows how to compare functionalist, Marxist and feminist views.
Key terms and definitions
Family — A group of people related by kinship, marriage, civil partnership or adoption, who may or may not live together.
Household — One person living alone, or a group of people who live at the same address and share facilities. Not every household is a family.
Nuclear family — Two generations: parents and their dependent children living together.
Extended family — A family that includes relatives beyond the nuclear unit. A vertically extended (beanpole) family spans three or more generations; a horizontally extended family includes aunts, uncles or cousins of the same generation.
Reconstituted family — A family in which at least one adult has children from a previous relationship; also called a blended or step-family.
Lone-parent family — One parent living with dependent children.
Same-sex family — A family headed by a same-sex couple, with or without children. Same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales in 2014.
Conjugal roles — The domestic roles of partners in a marriage or cohabiting relationship. Segregated roles are clearly separated (for example, a male breadwinner and female housewife); joint roles are shared.
Kinship — Relationships based on blood, marriage or adoption.
Divorce — The legal ending of a marriage.
Secularisation — The process by which religion loses its influence in society.
Core concepts
Functions of families
Functionalists see the family as performing essential tasks for society. A common list identifies four functions: sexual (regulating sexual relationships), reproductive (producing the next generation), economic (providing food, shelter and financial support) and educational (socialising children).
Talcott Parsons, a functionalist, argued that as industrial society developed, the family lost many functions to other institutions such as schools and the welfare state, but kept two "basic and irreducible" functions. The first is the primary socialisation of children, teaching them society's norms and values. The second is the stabilisation of adult personalities: the family is an emotional refuge where adults relieve the stresses of working life, sometimes called the "warm bath" idea. Parsons also argued that the isolated nuclear family suited industrial society because it was geographically mobile.
Marxists argue that the family serves capitalism, not society as a whole: it reproduces the next generation of workers, socialises children to accept hierarchy, and acts as a unit of consumption. Feminists argue that the family serves men, relying on women's unpaid domestic and emotional labour.
Family forms and diversity
The UK now has a wide range of family types: nuclear, extended, reconstituted, lone-parent and same-sex families, along with cohabiting couples and people living alone. Globally, forms vary further, for example polygamy (more than one spouse) is legal in some countries, and extended households are more common in many societies than in the UK.
Robert and Rhona Rapoport studied family diversity in Britain and argued that the nuclear family was no longer the norm. They identified five types of diversity: organisational (how roles are arranged, such as dual-earner families), cultural (differences between ethnic and religious groups), class (differences in resources and child-rearing between classes), life-course (families change as members age) and cohort (the period in which a family passes through life stages). Their work challenges the functionalist idea of a single, "normal" family type.
Conjugal role relationships
Conjugal roles cover decision-making, managing money, dual-career households, child-rearing and leisure. In a dual-career household both partners have paid work, yet research repeatedly finds that women still do more housework and childcare: the so-called dual burden or "double shift".
Ann Oakley, a feminist, studied housewives in London in the early 1970s. She found that housework was monotonous, isolating and undervalued, and that most husbands did relatively little. She argued that the idea of the conventional family (a married couple in which the husband is the breadwinner and the wife the homemaker) is presented as natural and desirable, when in fact it is a social expectation that disadvantages women. She also criticised claims that roles had become equal, pointing out that studies counted a husband as "helping" even if he did very little.
Changing relationships within families
Families have changed in three broad periods. In the pre-industrial period the family was often a unit of production, working together on the land. During industrialisation many families were extended, with strong ties between mothers and married daughters. In the contemporary period, families are smaller and more home-centred, children are seen as central, and there is more concern with the quality of parenting. Relationships between teenagers and parents have become more equal and child-centred; there is debate about who should care for elderly and disabled relatives; and arranged marriages continue in some communities, often with more choice for the couple than in the past.
Peter Willmott and Michael Young, from a functionalist perspective, described the rise of the symmetrical family. They argued that the family passed through stages, and by the 1970s the typical family was nuclear, home-centred and symmetrical: husbands and wives had similar, though not identical, roles, sharing more housework, childcare and leisure. They explained the spread of these changes through the principle of stratified diffusion: new patterns of family life start among the middle classes and gradually filter down the class structure. Oakley and other feminists questioned how symmetrical families really were.
Criticisms of families
Sociologists have made several criticisms of families: the nuclear family can be isolated from wider kin; it has lost functions to the state; ties with wider kin may be weakened (decline in kinship networks); it can lower the status of women; it can contribute to marital breakdown; and it can be dysfunctional, for example through domestic abuse or neglect, the "dark side" of family life.
Eli Zaretsky, a Marxist, argued that under capitalism the family became separated from work and was presented as a private refuge where people could find fulfilment. He saw this refuge as largely an illusion: the family cannot meet all its members' needs, it relies on women's unpaid domestic labour, and it serves capitalism by consuming the goods capitalism produces.
Christine Delphy and Diana Leonard, feminists often classed as radical or materialist feminists, argued that the family is a patriarchal and hierarchical institution. The male head of household benefits from the unpaid work of women, so the family is an economic system in which women's labour is exploited. Their work shows how the home is not a place of equal partnership.
Divorce since 1945
Divorce rose sharply in Britain after 1945, especially after the Divorce Reform Act 1969 (in force from 1971), which made "irretrievable breakdown" the single ground for divorce. Numbers peaked in the early 1990s and have since fallen, partly because fewer people marry. In 2022 no-fault divorce was introduced, so neither partner has to blame the other.
Sociologists explain the rise through four main factors: legal changes that made divorce easier and cheaper; changing social attitudes, so divorce carries less stigma; secularisation, which weakened religious opposition to divorce; and changes in the position of women, who gained more paid work and financial independence and so could leave unhappy marriages. Consequences include more lone-parent and reconstituted families, emotional and financial effects on spouses and children, and changes to relationships with extended kin such as grandparents. Functionalists may worry that divorce weakens the family, feminists may see it as women escaping patriarchal marriage, and Marxists may link marital strain to the pressures of capitalist work.
Worked examples
Example 1: Describing a key study
Question: Describe the key ideas of Parsons on the functions of the family (3 marks). Parsons was a functionalist who argued that the modern family has two basic functions: the primary socialisation of children into society's norms and values, and the stabilisation of adult personalities, where the family provides emotional support that relieves the stress of work. He believed these suited the needs of industrial society.
Example 2: Comparing perspectives
Question: Identify one difference between a functionalist and a feminist view of conjugal roles (4 marks). Young and Willmott, as functionalists, argued that roles had become more symmetrical, with husbands and wives sharing tasks. Feminists such as Oakley argued that women still carried most of the domestic burden and that claims of equality were exaggerated. The difference is whether roles are seen as becoming equal or remaining unequal.
Example 3: Using data on divorce
Suppose a table shows divorces in England and Wales rising from a low level in the 1950s to a peak in the early 1990s and falling since. A good answer would describe the pattern (rise, peak, fall), link the rise to the 1969 Act and changing attitudes, and explain the fall partly by fewer marriages and later marriage. Always describe the trend before explaining it.
Example 4: Applying a criticism
Question: Explain one criticism Marxists make of the family. Zaretsky argued that the family is presented as a private haven from work but cannot really provide fulfilment; it supports capitalism by relying on women's unpaid labour and by consuming goods, so it serves the interests of the ruling class rather than family members.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Do not confuse a family with a household: a student flat is a household but not a family.
Do not mix up Young and Willmott (functionalist, symmetrical family, stratified diffusion) with Oakley (feminist, conventional family, housework).
Do not say the Rapoports studied conjugal roles; their focus is family diversity and its five types.
Avoid saying divorce rose "because people don't care about marriage". Use the four sociological explanations: law, attitudes, secularisation and women's position.
Do not treat Delphy and Leonard as Marxists. They are feminists (radical or materialist, not Marxist) who see the family as a patriarchal economic system.
Exam technique for "Families"
Learn a two-sentence summary of each named sociologist, because "describe the key ideas of…" questions are common. For 12-mark "discuss how far" questions, set out one perspective, then challenge it with at least one other, using named sociologists as evidence, and finish with a judgement. When given a source or table, refer to it explicitly ("the data shows…") before adding your own knowledge. Use family-specific terms such as segregated conjugal roles, dual burden and reconstituted family accurately.
Quick revision summary
- Functions: sexual, reproductive, economic, educational.
- Parsons (functionalist): primary socialisation and stabilisation of adult personalities.
- Rapoports: five types of family diversity (organisational, cultural, class, life-course, cohort).
- Oakley (feminist): housework undervalued; the conventional family is a constructed ideal.
- Young and Willmott (functionalist): symmetrical family; principle of stratified diffusion.
- Zaretsky (Marxist): the family as an illusory refuge that serves capitalism.
- Delphy and Leonard (feminist): the family as a patriarchal economic system exploiting women's labour.
- Divorce rose after 1969 because of law, attitudes, secularisation and the changing position of women.
- Forms: nuclear, extended, reconstituted, lone-parent, same-sex.