SOCIOLOGY-DIVERSITY
“No love is greater than that of a father for His son.”― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons
O Level
PAPER 2
FAMILY
ASSIGNMENT 2
Total marks: 20
Each question is of 4 marks:
1. Describe three demographic trends that affect family life.
Possible answers:
• the birth rate has fallen in MIS’s – families are smaller and parents are likely to
be more child-centred;
• there is a falling fertility rate – mothers are having fewer children;
• beanpole families are on the increase – families typically have few people within
each generation;
• one child families are becoming more normalised – many children now grow up
without siblings and without large extended families;
• in China DINK families are increasingly common (dual income no
• kids) – often linked to career women and dual worker families;
• births outside marriage are increasingly common – less stigma and
secularisation;
• falling death rate – this can be linked to drops in the infant mortality rate as well
as an ageing population. So, families are likely to have fewer children and
grandparents playing an active role in family life or becoming a burden for their
relatives – pivot generation;
• people are choosing to have children later on in life – often due to careers and
financial worries;
• any other reasonable response.
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2. Describe three ways families may not be symmetrical.
Possible answers:
• feminism – the family is a patriarchal institution that benefits men;
• domestic division of labour – the main responsibility for childcare and
housework falls typically to women;
• hours worked – even when men and women work the same hours in
employment, women do more work at home than men;
• tasks completed – the tasks men and women perform in the family are different.
Female tasks tend to be dull and repetitive whereas male tasks are more active
and fun; • dual/triple burden – expectations for family roles and responsibilities
are still associated with females, regardless of whether they work outside the
home or not;
• domestic violence – perpetrators are typically males and victims female;
• single parent families – these are typically headed by females who take
responsibility for the raising of children even when the father is still involved
with the children;
• age – adults typically have more power in the family than children;
• other reasonable response.
3. Describe three roles grandparents can play in the family in modern
industrial societies.
Possible answers:
• economic – giving and lending money and gifts to kin;
• practical support – e.g. looking after children for working parents;
• emotional and moral support – listening, talking and giving advice to other
family members;
• shared role – sharing accommodation with wider kin to reduce costs and
domestic work and responsibilities;
• as a burden – where grandparents are in need of care and support from their
wider family;
• partial role – with modified extended families grandparents may not live close to
family and thus have a limited role in day-to-day family life;
• active role – with the ageing population and better health care, grandparents
may play the role of active, pleasure seeking and fun;
• any other reasonable response.
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4. Describe three functions of the family in traditional societies.
Possible answers:
• reproduction – societies must produce generations of children in order to
survive – marriage and family life encourages this;
• socialisation – through primary socialisation children learn the norms and values
of their society. This allows the transmission of culture from one generation to
the next;
• social control – controlling the behaviour of children through sanctions so that
they conform to expected norms;
• care of children/the elderly/the ill – children need to be fed and clothed, the ill
nurtured and the elderly sheltered;
• status – families provide status for children by involving them in different social
networks and interpersonal relationships;
• regulation of sexual behaviour – family life encourages sexually approved
relationships;
• other reasonable response.
5. Describe three ways the size of a family may affect family life.
Possible answers:
• larger families such as extended families may mean there is less quality time for
children with parents
• small, nuclear families claim to be child-centred and ideal for nurturing children
• small single parent families may mean a close bond between the parent and the
child/children
• extended larger families are likely to contain a diverse range of family members
who can all contribute to a child’s socialization
• smaller nuclear families may be stifling for its members and lead to issues such
as the dark side of family life (feminism, Leach)
• larger families may struggle to provide financially for their members;
• small single parent families only have one provider who is likely to need to go
out to work and so there may be negative factors such as financial hardship
and/or lack of time together for the parent and child/children
• Charles Murray says small single parent families may inadequately socialise their
children leading to delinquency and unemployment
• other reasonable response.
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