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Assess the View That the Growth of Family Diversity Has Led to the Decline of the Traditional Nuclear Family

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“Assess the view that the growth of family diversity has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family.” (24 marks)

Before 1970, cohabitation was illegal in certain countries. The law changed and now cohabitation is a common pattern among people around the world, as well as having sex before marriage and having a baby. At least 50% to 60% of couple’s cohabitate, starting from the late 1990’s. This results into the amount of traditional nuclear families decreasing as people want to live in companionship as nearly half the amount of marriages end in divorce. Also cohabiting is an easier way as it is much cheaper since there is no marriage expenses and doesn’t cause much hassle. The New Right see the decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity as negative trends in modern society. From the New Right perspective, these changes are the cause of many social problems in Britain today. In society now, there is easy access to contraception and married couples are not having children for various reasons which has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family. There has been an increase in marriage of 9.2% between 2006 and 2011. Murdock argued on the basis of his studies that the nuclear family was a universal social institution and that it existed universally because it fulfilled four basic functions for society: the sexual, reproductive, economic and education functions. However, the numbers of nuclear families have fallen due to a rise in family diversity such as singletons and same sex.
Attitudes to family may be a threat to the nuclear family as it is more accepted in society to have a divorce and it is much easier too. Divorce was legalized around the 1970’s in the world. The changes in law, declining in stigma and changes of attitudes had led people to carry out a divorce when necessary; this was seen as a ‘social

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