Families and
Households
Revision Factfiles
AQA A Level Sociology
, Specification Indicative content Specification Indicative content
The relationship of the family to the social structure and • Different sociological views, eg The nature of childhood, • How childhood is socially constructed.
social change, with particular reference to the economy and functionalist, feminist, Marxist, New and changes in the status of • Different sociological views on the nature and experience of
to state policies. Right and postmodernist, on the role children in the family and childhood.
of the family and its relationship to society. • How childhood is experienced differently across gender,
Murdock; Murray; Parsons; Oakley; and Zaretsky. wider social structures such as the ethnicity and social class.
economy. Aries; Donzelot; Palmer; • Cross cultural differences and how the experience of childhood
• The impact on families of Postman; and Punch. has changed historically.
government legislation (eg on
divorce, same-sex marriage, Demographic trends in the • Sociological debates about the nature, causes and significance
adoption) and policies (eg education, United Kingdom since 1900: of these changes.
housing, retirement age, childcare, birth rates, death rates, • How these changes impact on family and households, and also
housing and welfare. family size, life expectancy, wider society, including concepts such as net migration, infant
ageing population, and mortality rate and fertility rate.
Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, • An understanding of the trends in migration and globalisation.
divorce, childbearing and the life course, including the contemporary family and household
sociology of personal life, and the diversity of contemporary structures, eg symmetrical family, Blaikie; McKeown; Pilcher;
family and household structures. beanpole families, serial monogamy, Townsend; and Williams.
lone-parent families, living apart
Berthoud; Chester; Smart; Stacey; and Weeks. together, same sex couples etc.
• Different sociological explanations
for the reasons and significance of
these trends.
• Including the significance of
individual choice in personal
relationships and the significance of
relationships beyond the traditional
family structures.
Indicative
content
Gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships within • Different sociological arguments
the family in contemporary society. and evidence on this, including an
understanding of the extent of
Dobash and Dobash; Duncombe and Marsden; Gershuny; changes and also diversity of
Young and Willmott; and Pahl. experiences.
• Different aspects of relationships,
eg domestic labour, childcare,
domestic violence, finance, dual
burden, triple shift etc.
