Family Life and Procreation
Family life and procreation looks at why religious believers value the family, what different family structures exist in the UK today, and what teachings shape ideas about having and raising children. It considers religious and non-religious views on parenting, alongside the more contested question of what makes a family, including differing views on same-sex parenting.
Before you start
No specific prerequisites - this is a good place to start.
Method
- Learn the key vocabulary: family, procreation, nuclear family, extended family, blended family, cohabitation.
- Learn at least one religious teaching, with its source, about the purpose of having children.
- Learn at least one religious teaching, with its source, about parental responsibilities.
- Identify contrasting religious and non-religious views on family structure, including same-sex parenting.
- Practise linking a source of wisdom and authority accurately to the point it supports.
- Practise building a balanced evaluation that uses religious teaching on both sides of a debate before reaching a conclusion.
Worked example
Explain one religious teaching about the use of contraception within marriage.
- Identify a teaching: some believers, particularly within Catholic teaching, hold that artificial contraception is not permitted within marriage.
- Explain the reasoning: marriage is seen as needing to stay open to the possibility of having children.
- Give an accepted alternative: natural family planning, which works with the body's fertility cycle rather than preventing conception artificially, is seen by some believers as acceptable for spacing out children.
- Note the effect: this teaching shapes the choices some religious couples make about family planning.
- Final answer: this teaching leads some believers to use natural family planning rather than artificial contraception when deciding whether and when to have children.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Religious Studies exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two reasons why some religious believers are cautious about the use of artificial contraception within marriage. Refer to a source of wisdom and authority in your answer.
A survey found that 42% of children in a particular town live in a family type other than a two-parent nuclear family. If the town has 45,000 children in total, calculate how many children this represents. Then give one reason religious teaching about the family might still apply to children in these other family types.
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