Over the last 30yrs there has been rapid changes in the structure of family life in Britain, arising from increasing divorce, remarriage, lone parenthood, cohabitation and numbers of elderly people. Nevertheless, it remains the case that the majority people live in the `traditional' family of a married couple with dependent children.

One change in the patterns of marriage over the last 30yrs is that there are more lone parent families now than there was 20yrs ago. Today the majority are created by divorce. There were 1.3 million lone parent families in Britain in 1992, double the number than in the 1980s. Following the Divorce Reform Act of 1969, where the legal requirements for divorce were relaxed, and the principle of `irretrievable breakdown' was introduced, there was an upsurge in the number of petitions for divorce. Similarly the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 had an immediate effect, allowing couples to file for...