Lone parenting

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 494.

A BBC poll suggests that three-quarters of Britons are optimistic about their family's future - a much higher figure than when people were asked more than 40 years ago.

How much is family life changing?

Family life is changing in the UK - but not in the way we might expect.

When the BBC commissioned its survey of families in Britain, I think our expectation was that we would be measuring the extent to which people's closest relationships were suffering as a result of the decline in traditional family structures. When the results came in, we had a surprise.

Compared with historical polling, people are more optimistic about their family's future, more people describe their family as close and they are more likely to say their parents did their best for them.

Despite all the changes, we remain remarkable happy with family life - 93% of us describing it as fairly or very happy.

The results don't seem to make sense when we look at academic data which links looser family structures to poorer health and happiness.

Marriage levels in Britain are at an all-time low. For every three weddings there are now two divorces - the highest rate in Europe.

Cohabitation has risen 64% in a decade, with almost half of children now born outside wedlock.

We also have by far the highest proportion of lone parents in Europe - a quarter of children now live with a single mum.

Academic studies consistently find that such children do less well at school and at work than the offspring of cohabiting or married couples.

So how does one explain this apparent contradiction?

It may be that our expectations of family life have changed, that we are content with arrangements that would have dissatisfied our forebears.

Perhaps our optimism reflects contemporary affluence and stability rather than a confidence in the strength of family structures.

After all, increasing numbers of people - now seven out of 10 - believe that family life is generally becoming less successful, even if they are optimistic about their own.