What has happened to the birth rate in the UK, and why?

The birth rate has fallen over the long term because reliable contraception gives couples control over fertility, women are prioritising education and careers, children have become expensive, and infant mortality is low so fewer births are needed.

Why are women having children later than in the past?

Extended education, participation in paid work and the wish to establish a career and financial security before starting a family have all pushed the average age of child-bearing upwards, assisted by contraception and fertility treatment.

What is meant by an ageing population?

It is a population in which the average age is rising and older people make up a growing share of the total, caused by increased life expectancy combined with a falling birth rate.

OCR A-Level Sociology H580

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Topic overview Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism Subculture, high culture and popular culture Global and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridity Primary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer group Media, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisation Lifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debate Social control, sanctions and formal agencies of control Informal agencies and theories of social control The concept of identity, ethnicity and nationality Gender, class and sexual identity Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

Families and RelationshipsComponent 01

Topic overview Family types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types Nuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New Right Marxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debate Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Power, the dark side of the family and theories of partner roles The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension Parent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views

Youth SubculturesComponent 01

Topic overview Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance

MediaComponent 01

Topic overview Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze Representations of gender, social class and young people Representations of older people and theories of media representation Direct and indirect media effects models Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics

Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities

Topic overview Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivism Verstehen, qualitative data and validity Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theory Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary data Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validation Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policy Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sample Access, gatekeepers and research ethics Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observation Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism

Understanding Social Inequalities

Topic overview Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Topic overview Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence Social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communication Digital identities, the digital divide and social class Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication

Crime and DevianceComponent 03

Topic overview Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity Social construction of crime and police recorded crime The Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studies Crime patterns by social class, gender and age Crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crime Glocal organised crime and green crime Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime Right realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patterns Left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justice Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice

EducationComponent 03

Topic overview Functionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of education Social democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational education Class and ethnic patterns in educational attainment Gender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionality Inside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racism Material and cultural deprivation and cultural capital Explaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievement Types of school and education policy since 1988 Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy

Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03

Topic overview Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism Measuring religiosity and believing without belonging Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religion Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative Class and gender patterns in religiosity Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence Defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline Pro- and anti-secularisation theories Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns

Families and Relationships

Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types

3 things to know
Component 01

Overview

Recall questions on demographic change in the birth rate, family size, age at first marriage, age of childbearing and the ageing population, how class and ethnicity shape family diversity with Ballard, Weeks's families of choice, living apart together, beanpole and boomerang families, and the reasons for growing family diversity.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

How does social class shape family diversity?

Key term

Why has average family size fallen?

Key term

Why has the average age at first marriage risen?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What has happened to the birth rate in the UK, and why?
Model answer
The birth rate has fallen over the long term because reliable contraception gives couples control over fertility, women are prioritising education and careers, children have become expensive, and infant mortality is low so fewer births are needed.
2
Why has average family size fallen?
Model answer
Children are now an economic cost rather than an economic asset, contraception and abortion allow family size to be planned, and a child-centred culture encourages parents to invest heavily in fewer children.
3
Why has the average age at first marriage risen?
Model answer
Young people spend longer in education and establishing careers, cohabitation delays formal commitment, and the cost of housing means couples set up an independent household later in life.
4
Why are women having children later than in the past?
Model answer
Extended education, participation in paid work and the wish to establish a career and financial security before starting a family have all pushed the average age of child-bearing upwards, assisted by contraception and fertility treatment.
5
What is meant by an ageing population?
Model answer
It is a population in which the average age is rising and older people make up a growing share of the total, caused by increased life expectancy combined with a falling birth rate.
6
How does social class shape family diversity?
Model answer
Class differences show in the timing of childbearing, family size, the resources available to children, and how far couples can afford paid childcare and domestic help, so class shapes both the structure and the experience of family life.

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Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Families and Relationships

Youth Subcultures

Media

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AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.

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CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

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Sex refers to the biological category of male or female.

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