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Distinguish reconstituted and extended ties, map care across households and evaluate residence-based categories. Use fictional examples. You do not need to disclose personal experiences.
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Recall and connect
Retrieve the previous lesson, then record a view you can revisit.
Missed the preparation? Read the recap
Why does one co-resident parent not mean no wider support? Other parents, relatives, friends and services can provide care across addresses. Why is a family category not a complete biography? It describes an arrangement at a point in time rather than every route and transition. What does a structural explanation add to a description of choice? It examines how resources and institutions make options easier or harder to realise.
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Other parents, relatives, friends and services can provide care across addresses.
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It describes an arrangement at a point in time rather than every route and transition.
Two dimensions can overlap
Reconstitution concerns relationships formed through repartnering involving children from an earlier relationship. Extension concerns kin beyond a parent-child unit. They are different dimensions, so one family can have both step relationships and important grandparent ties. Neither requires all meaningful members to share an address. ONS categories serve a statistical purpose and use explicit rules; personal definitions may include additional ties. Explain the rule being used before deciding who belongs to a category.
Open the vocabulary reference
- Reconstituted family
- A family formed through repartnering where at least one partner has a child from an earlier relationship.
- Extended family
- Kin beyond a parent-child unit, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.
- Step-parent tie
- A relationship between a parent's partner and that parent's child, distinct from parenthood by birth or adoption.
- Kinship
- Socially recognised connections through descent, partnership or other acknowledged family ties.
- Co-residence
- Living at the same address; it does not establish every meaningful relationship.
- Dispersed kin
- Relatives connected across separate households rather than all living together.
- Negotiated obligation
- A responsibility whose meaning and allocation are worked through by those involved.
- Reciprocity
- Giving and receiving support, which need not occur equally or at the same time.
- Care network
- The people and relationships through which care is organised.
- Boundary
- A line used to define who or what is included in a category or arrangement.
- Life-course diversity
- Variation in arrangements within people's lives as circumstances change.
- Family practice
- An activity through which family ties are maintained.
- Multi-generational household
- A household combining generations beyond a single parent-child pair, under a stated definition.
- Cross-household tie
- A relationship connecting people who live at different addresses.
- Resource constraint
- A limit arising from available time, money, housing or other means.
- Qualified judgement
- A conclusion that identifies the conditions and limits of its claim.
Check an explanation after your attempt
Reconstitution concerns repartnering involving children from earlier relationships; extension concerns kin beyond a parent-child unit. The dimensions can overlap.
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A child lives with a parent and step-parent while a grandparent in another home provides care. Reconstitution and extended kin describe different features.
Map care across addresses
Care can move through visits, transport, money, messages and shared decisions. A step-parent may take on some responsibilities while another parent remains involved elsewhere. Grandparents and other kin may offer support or receive it, with roles changing across the life course. Personal-life concepts from Smart and Finch help examine connectedness and how family is displayed to others. Obligations are not automatically agreed or equal: working hours, distance, housing and power affect what people can do and how responsibilities are negotiated.
Open the vocabulary reference
- Reconstituted family
- A family formed through repartnering where at least one partner has a child from an earlier relationship.
- Extended family
- Kin beyond a parent-child unit, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.
- Step-parent tie
- A relationship between a parent's partner and that parent's child, distinct from parenthood by birth or adoption.
- Kinship
- Socially recognised connections through descent, partnership or other acknowledged family ties.
- Co-residence
- Living at the same address; it does not establish every meaningful relationship.
- Dispersed kin
- Relatives connected across separate households rather than all living together.
- Negotiated obligation
- A responsibility whose meaning and allocation are worked through by those involved.
- Reciprocity
- Giving and receiving support, which need not occur equally or at the same time.
- Care network
- The people and relationships through which care is organised.
- Boundary
- A line used to define who or what is included in a category or arrangement.
- Life-course diversity
- Variation in arrangements within people's lives as circumstances change.
- Family practice
- An activity through which family ties are maintained.
- Multi-generational household
- A household combining generations beyond a single parent-child pair, under a stated definition.
- Cross-household tie
- A relationship connecting people who live at different addresses.
- Resource constraint
- A limit arising from available time, money, housing or other means.
- Qualified judgement
- A conclusion that identifies the conditions and limits of its claim.
Check an explanation after your attempt
People can have different expectations, resources and existing responsibilities. The category alone does not determine who should provide each form of care.
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Long travel may limit practical help while emotional contact or financial support continues. Different kinds of support can move through the same relationship.
Use statistics without losing relationships
ONS Census 2021 analysis reports that 8.8% of dependent children in England and Wales lived in step-families. The denominator is dependent children, not all families. Its step-family rules can include lone step-parents, so the statistical category is broader than a simple repartnered-couple example. A usual-residence measure cannot map every cross-household tie or tell us how care is experienced. Combine a clear population measure with appropriately designed accounts of practices, without treating a selected fictional network as evidence of prevalence.
Open the vocabulary reference
- Reconstituted family
- A family formed through repartnering where at least one partner has a child from an earlier relationship.
- Extended family
- Kin beyond a parent-child unit, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.
- Step-parent tie
- A relationship between a parent's partner and that parent's child, distinct from parenthood by birth or adoption.
- Kinship
- Socially recognised connections through descent, partnership or other acknowledged family ties.
- Co-residence
- Living at the same address; it does not establish every meaningful relationship.
- Dispersed kin
- Relatives connected across separate households rather than all living together.
- Negotiated obligation
- A responsibility whose meaning and allocation are worked through by those involved.
- Reciprocity
- Giving and receiving support, which need not occur equally or at the same time.
- Care network
- The people and relationships through which care is organised.
- Boundary
- A line used to define who or what is included in a category or arrangement.
- Life-course diversity
- Variation in arrangements within people's lives as circumstances change.
- Family practice
- An activity through which family ties are maintained.
- Multi-generational household
- A household combining generations beyond a single parent-child pair, under a stated definition.
- Cross-household tie
- A relationship connecting people who live at different addresses.
- Resource constraint
- A limit arising from available time, money, housing or other means.
- Qualified judgement
- A conclusion that identifies the conditions and limits of its claim.
Check an explanation after your attempt
It is the share of dependent children in England and Wales living in step-families in Census 2021, under the release's definitions.
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Investigate who gives and receives which support, across what addresses and over time. Interviews, diaries or network maps can complement residence counts.
Apply the evidence
Fictional care map: Nia lives with her parent Arun and Arun's partner Beth. Beth is described as Nia's step-parent. Nia also spends time with her other parent, Lee, at a nearby address. Grandparent Asha lives separately and helps with school travel; Arun arranges Asha's shopping when needed. Beth's changing work shifts sometimes require the adults to renegotiate travel. A school form lists only people at Nia's main address. The map describes an invented network, not a representative family.
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Adults are examining materials together. The image does not establish family ties, beliefs, gender identity or the reasons for their actions. Use participant accounts or relevant contextual evidence before applying the theory.
Optional scaffold
Name the concept → select a precise case detail → explain the connection → state what the detail cannot establish. Rehearse aloud, then write independently.
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Beth's step-parent relationship illustrates reconstitution; Asha's grandparent tie illustrates extension. These connections coexist across more than one address.
Optional scaffold
Name the concept → select a precise case detail → explain the connection → state what the detail cannot establish. Rehearse aloud, then write independently.
Check an explanation after your attempt
A main-address form misses Lee and Asha's participation. Beth's changing shifts constrain travel plans, so care requires coordination rather than following automatically from a label.
Challenge and judge
Make a precise claim, connect it to evidence and state its limits.
Check an explanation after your attempt
Categories make population patterns comparable, but can miss meanings, histories and cross-address practices. Link this network to L019 trajectories or L022 support, and identify the additional evidence needed.
Optional scaffold
Name the concept → select a precise case detail → explain the connection → state what the detail cannot establish. Rehearse aloud, then write independently.
Check an explanation after your attempt
They describe different dimensions. A family formed through repartnering can also sustain extended kinship; categories should be defined before treating them as exclusive.
Prove: retrieval check
Answer without notes, then check explanations. Retry after correcting insecure ideas. This is separate from the 15-mark mini-test.
Not marked.
Prove and improve
Complete retrieval, then write independently for eight minutes.
Success criteria
Develop two distinct points. For each, identify the concept, explain how it works and use an accurate example or comparison relevant to the question. Extended writing needs teacher review. No automatic mark is given.
Prepare for Lesson 24
Read the three short passages and answer the preparation questions.
Domestic labour
Housework and care are activities needed to maintain daily life. Paid employment and unpaid domestic labour are distinct, but both use time and effort. Begin with tasks such as preparing meals, cleaning, arranging appointments and caring for others.
Tasks and responsibility
Counting who performs a task is useful, but planning and remembering can also matter. In a fictional household, one adult may cook while another decides what is needed, buys ingredients and organises the weekly schedule. Visible tasks and responsibility are related but distinct.
Compare explanations
Paid-work hours, income, social expectations and negotiation may affect how domestic work is shared. A division that looks equal by task count may be unequal in time, difficulty or responsibility. A sound explanation needs a stated measure and evidence about the process.
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Employment receives payment; domestic labour maintains the home and care without direct payment. Both can involve effort and skill.
Your progress summary
Completion records attempts, not correctness. Review your extended response with a teacher and use the feedback to choose your next practice.
Restore a backup
Resource: RFTS-AQA-AL-SOC-7192-FAM-L023 · v1.0. Original Reach for the Star learning resource. The six-mark task is a classroom bridge assessment, not an official AQA Paper 2 format. Teacher mark guidance is supplied separately.