Families form the foundation of society and are crucial to our health and prosperity. They have always been dynamic – changing gradually over time – but today we have better data to understand the nature of these changes, and how family processes, structures, resources, parental education and location all shape inequalities between families.
Families in the UK are becoming more diverse, fragile and complex. Couples are marrying later, parenthood is being postponed, being avoided by a growing minority, and occurring more often outside of marriage for some groups. The proportion of co-habiting parents has increased over the decades. While attitudes to marriage, divorce and separation have softened over time, “the UK is unusual amongst developed countries in the extent to which children continue to be born into homes with only one parent”.
Families can amplify inequality or mitigate it within and across generations. Relationships matter and family dissolution can have multiple consequences – on income, children’s outcomes, mental health and other areas of life. Many more children experience parental separation by the time they are 16, with the rate increasing from 9% in 1958 to around 44% now not living in a household with both their natural parents by that age. Divorce rates (which exclude separation of co-habiting unions) can be better understood over the course of a marriage, and the statistics suggest that around 20% of all marriages tend to end after their first decade – a stable trend. As people find love again after separation, step or blended families are created – and according to the 2021 Census around 1.1m dependent children in England and Wales live in a blended stepfamily. Multi-generational households with dependent children have also marginally increased over the last decade.
Differences in resources can determine how children do over their life course, and there is mounting evidence that many families in the UK are under financial strain. This is partly because of they have had to navigate turbulent changes, from the financial crisis, austerity, the pandemic, to the cost of living crisis. Typical non-pensioner household income has grown by just £1,900 between 2010 and 2023/24 (£140 per year). Partly due to growth in employment, the poorest fifth of households on average have done better than richest fifth on average. However, children in families now have the highest rate of persistent poverty after housing costs – higher than working-age adults and pensioners. There are now larger differences in home-ownership rates, and families with dependent children are more likely to live in privately rented households in 2021 (23.6%) than in 2011 (19.1%).
Major policy conference
To discuss the emerging evidence on children and families, the Policy and Partnerships Unit at Understanding Society hosted a major policy conference in October 2024 to explore the long-term challenges facing families, and how the UK could become a better place to start and grow a family. Given the diversity of families and their experiences, we decided focused on four areas:
- starting a family
- parenting and health
- economic constraints and poverty
- housing
A keynote speech from Mattias Doepke from the London School of Economics and Political Science on economic inequality and the changing nature of parenting kicked off the event, with other expert speakers presenting their research findings on each of the four areas.
The challenges for policy
The conference identified seven main areas in which family-oriented thinking is needed in policy making to alleviate some of the stresses and constraints, and minimise the long-term impacts on children.
Declining fertility rates
Fertility rates have been declining, for reasons which are wide ranging and difficult for policy makers to tackle. Daniel van Wijk’s presentation made the case that this can’t be explained by income stagnation or insecurity alone. The increasing age at which couples achieve certain economic prerequisites (such as a good job and a house) is also important. Trends towards more intensive parenting may also be playing a part. In policy terms, opinions remain divided about whether governments should only focus on the consequences of declining fertility or also try and influence the causes.
Shifts in parenting
Mattias Doepke explored how parenting styles have evolved alongside economic fluctuations and social changes. In the first half of the 20th century, when society was more rigid, and mobility was low, authoritarian parenting was the norm – because the extent to which a child’s future was at stake from the outcome of parenting was high. As social mobility increased and income levels rose, the stakes were lower, and permissive parenting became common. Since the 1980s, a rise in economic inequality has made returns from education more important, raising the stakes again. This period has seen an increase in authoritative parenting – with children expected to do well at school, but with more control exercised through rules, discussion, and reasoning.
Giacomo Vagni explored how parental investment in childcare has increased dramatically since the 1960s, particularly by mothers, but the parenting gap has widened, with significant differences by parental education.
The role of fathers
Fathers have an important role to play in supporting child development, family wellbeing and the careers of mothers. Greta Morando reported that more than a third of fathers still do not take any paternity leave. She argued that, to fulfil these important roles, paternity leave arrangements need to incentivise uptake, which will benefit father-child bonding and challenge existing social norms.
Benefit reforms
The rise in child poverty has been driven by a large increase in relative poverty among families with three or more children, so reversing the two-child limit on benefits can have a quick and cost-effective impact – with evidence also suggesting that the probability of affected families having a third or subsequent child has only reduced by 0.36%.
Susan Harkness has started to examine how family changes interact with the benefits system and how the system, including child maintenance, deals with complex families. Single parents are more dependent on welfare support, but single parenthood is a dynamic state with transitions to step or blended families common. With shared care becoming more common, the benefits system needs to catch up with the nature of step and blended families and how they live in practice.
Housing pressures
Housing pressures have contributed to overcrowding, particularly among families living in London and the West Midlands – and with Black families more likely to experience overcrowding than White families. In her presentation, Sarah Taylor set out how overcrowding is significantly associated with poor child mental wellbeing, and parents reporting that they are worried about their child’s health. Families in social housing are also more likely to be overcrowded, but many families who privately rent spend a disproportionate amount of their income to avoid overcrowding.
Wealth inequality
Wealth inequality is high and rising, and more marked than income inequality, but rarely discussed. Wealth inequality drives poverty, precarity and range of other inequalities. This is most marked at the bottom end of the wealth divide, with around a quarter of the population not in possession of any wealth. Wealth inequality represents particular longer-term concern for families who do not have access to wealth transfers and secure housing.
Mental health
Families need support with their mental health before it becomes a crisis or clinical issue. Much of the conference revealed how day-to-day stresses on many families are affecting the overall wellbeing of families, with approximately 10-15% of children in the UK living with a parent who has a mental disorder. Aja Murray set out the impact on child development when a parent (prenatal, postnatal and through childhood) experiences mental health issues. The greatest risk of negative outcomes exists in families where a parent and child are experiencing difficulties.
Whole-family interventions were argued to be more effective (and cost-effective) than engaging individuals within families, especially when it came to typical challenges such as relationship issues and parental conflict, children’s behaviour and parenting, school attendance, Special Education Needs and Disabilities, and financial worries.
Policy thinking
Overall, when it comes to policy thinking and public services, the dual private and public aspect of family life has, more often than not, contributed to families being overlooked, sometimes in favour of individually focused interventions. For instance, we know that families play a vital role in health production across the life course. As one of panel member argued, “think families first” must be a better way to remove constraints faced by families and build their capacity and mental wellbeing. It was all the way back in 2008 when the Cabinet Office published its Families in Britain: an evidence paper. This might be an opportune time to establish stronger leadership in government on family policy!
Other presentations on the day:
Ben Brindle: Who is at risk of overcrowding?
Sarah Christison: partnership and fertility in immigrants and descendants
David McCollum: working from home and inequalities
Brienna Perelli-Harris on economic strain and relationship quality during Covid
Andrew Przybylski: Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media
Find out more about the work of the Policy and Partnerships Unit at Understanding Society
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Authors
Robin Vanner
Robin is Policy & Partnership Manager at Understanding Society
Raj Patel
Raj Patel is Associate Director, Policy and Partnerships, at Understanding Society
