home Warm floor Describe the family as a social institution. Basic functions of the family and their characteristics

Describe the family as a social institution. Basic functions of the family and their characteristics

A family is a primary community of people connected by marriage or blood relationship, within which the upbringing of children is ensured and other socially significant needs are satisfied. For sociologists, the family is, first of all, a social institution that regulates human reproduction through a special system of roles, norms and organizational forms.

The original basis family relations amounts to Marriage is a socially determined form of relationship between a woman and a man, through which society regulates and sanctions their sexual relations, and also establishes marital and kinship roles. Marriage is considered the only acceptable, socially approved and legally established form of sexual relations between spouses. It includes in its structure both norms and a set of customs regulating marital relations between a man and a woman (betrothal, wedding ceremony, Honeymoon and etc.).

Currently, in Western societies, marriage is associated with monogamy, when one man can be married to no more than one woman at a time. At the same time, monogamy is not the most common form of marriage on a global scale. American anthropologist George Murdoch, who conducted a comparative study of 565 different societies, found that polygamy(that is, a form of marriage in which a man or woman can have more than one spouse) is allowed in 80% of them. There are two types of polygamy: polygyny, in which a man can be married to more than one woman at the same time; and less common polyandry, in which a woman is simultaneously in two or more marital unions with different men(as a rule, this form of marriage gives rise to a situation where the biological father of a child born in such a marriage is unknown).

From the point of view of the scope of choosing a spouse, marriages are divided into endogamous(prisoners within their own community) and exogamous(concluded between representatives of different groups). This results in two types of family: socially homogeneous (homogeneous), in which spouses and their parents belong to the same social groups, strata and classes, and socially heterogeneous (diverse).

The categories “marriage” and “family” are closely interrelated, although they also have many differences. Unlike marriage, which is only a relationship between spouses, the family is also a social organization that affects both marital and parental relationships. Individuals who get married become relatives to each other, while their marriage obligations are bound by family ties

a much wider circle of people (blood relatives of one side become relatives of the opposite side).

The family structure includes the following groups of relationships, which together create the family as a special social phenomenon:

natural-biological, that is, sexual (sexual) and consanguineous;
economic, based on housekeeping, organization of everyday life and family property;
spiritual-psychological and moral-aesthetic, associated with feelings of marital and parental love, with raising children, with caring for elderly parents, with moral standards of behavior.

Today, according to a number of researchers, several main functions of the family can be distinguished:

- reproductive, i.e. biological reproduction of the population on a social level and meeting the needs for children on a personal level;
- educational - socialization of the younger generation, maintaining the cultural reproduction of society;
- economic - obtaining material resources from some family members for others, economic support for minors and disabled members of society;
- the sphere of primary social control is the moral regulation of the behavior of family members in various fields life activities, as well as regulation of responsibilities and obligations in relations between spouses, parents and children, representatives of the older generation;
- social status - providing a certain social status to family members, reproduction of the social structure;
- leisure - organization of rational leisure for all family members;
- emotional - receiving psychological protection, emotional support, emotional stabilization of individuals;

There are two main forms of family organization:

related("or extended) family, characteristic of traditional societies, based not only on the marital relationship of two people, but also on the blood relationship of a large number of relatives (in fact, a clan of relatives along with spouses and children).
nuclear (from lat. nucleus- core,) or married family, characteristic of modern societies (where children have the opportunity to live separately from their parents after marriage); the basis of such a family is a couple of people connected by marriage (husband and wife), as well as their children, forming

who are the biological, social and economic center of the family, all other relatives belong to the periphery of the family;

Family life, its historical types and structure depend on the general trends in the socio-economic development of society. During the transition from a traditional society to a modern one, the family changes significantly. As the household ceases to be the primary productive unit, there is a separation of home and work, and there is a transition from the extended family, consisting of several generations with dominance of the elders, to decentralized nuclear families in which marriage ties are placed above kin. A one-child family is replacing a large family.

In relation to the individual, families are divided into parental and reproductive. TO parent families include those in which a person is born, to reproductive - those that a person forms when he becomes an adult, and within which he raises a new generation of children. At the same time, depending on the place of residence, families are distinguished matrilocal(when the spouses live with the wife’s parents), patrilocal(when a married couple moves in with the husband's parents), or separate(when spouses live separately from the parents of the wife and husband and run a separate household).

There is a transition from a family based on sociocultural prescriptions to interpersonal preferences. In turn, the family influences all aspects of society. It is a kind of micromodel of society, all its social connections.

In modern Westernized post-industrial society, “non-traditional family” model, based on same-sex marriage. The most important role in its legalization was played by the UN Cairo Conference on Population and Development in 1994, which enshrined, in principle, 9 Programs of Action for Population Regulation, equality and equivalence different types sexual unions, including same-sex unions. Currently, same-sex marriage (as well as same-sex partnerships) is legalized in a number of EU countries, Canada, some US states and South Africa.

The complex nature of the family as a social entity requires different methodological approaches to its sociological analysis. Modern sociology views the family, first of all, as a system of social and gender roles.

Gender roles represent one type of social role, a set of expected behavior patterns (or norms) for men and women. Role in social psychology defined as a set of norms that determine how people in a given social position should behave. Each person performs a number of different roles, for example, wife, mother, student, daughter, girlfriend, etc. Sometimes these roles do not combine, which leads to role conflict (for example, between the role of a businesswoman and the role of a spouse).

In industrial society, there was a so-called “patriarchal” hierarchy of gender system roles, based on a gender contract "housewives"(English - housewife) for a woman and a “breadwinner” (English - breadwinner)- sponsor family life for a man.

In post-industrial society, the gender contract of the “housewife” is being replaced contracts of “equal status”(English - equal status), according to which the hierarchy of patriarchy is replaced by equalization of the position, rights and opportunities of men and women both in the public (politics, education, career, cultural life) and in the private sphere (housekeeping, raising children, sexuality, etc. .). Changes in gender contracts are due to transformations that occurred in late modern society: the emergence of the welfare state, mass consumer society, the feminization of men and the masculinization of women influenced a radical change in the traditional gender order.

The problem of divorce is closely related to the change in the type of relationships in the modern family: new family models give rise to their own forms of breaking these relationships. In a traditional marriage, divorce is understood as a break in relations in legal, economic, and psychological terms, while the modern form of family relationships brings the psychological problems of separation to the fore. Partners, most often, do not find common ground in personal interaction; and in this case, psychological peace becomes more preferable for them than, for example, economic difficulties.

Among the main factors predetermining divorce today are the following:

- industrialization;
- urbanization;
- population migration;
- emancipation of women.

These factors reduce the level of social control, make people's lives largely autonomous and anonymous, and the sense of responsibility, affection, and mutual care is greatly reduced.

The most common causes of immediate divorce between spouses are:

1. Domestic problems (housing instability, financial insecurity, etc.)
2. Interpersonal conflicts (loss of love, respect, affection; jealousy of one of the spouses; different views on life in economic, social, spiritual terms)
3. External factors (betrayal, interference in the relationship of third parties, for example, parents of spouses, the beginning of a new relationship, etc.)

“Marriage today has ceased to be a connection aimed at transferring property and status to another generation. As women gain economic independence, marriage is less and less a consequence of the need for economic partnership... In all likelihood, the increase in the number of divorces is not associated with deep disappointment in marriage as such, but with an increasing desire to turn it into a full-blooded union that brings satisfaction.”

E. Giddens "Sociology"

The nature of the connections between people who marry has changed over the past few decades. Political, economic, social changes in the modern world have contributed to the fact that public opinion has become more tolerant of different models family life. And yet, the situation of divorce is a critically acute experience in the life of an individual, which does not have a one-time nature, but develops over a long time.

The beginning of the 20th century - the period is not only revolutionary activities, active modernization, feminization, numerous social changes in public life, but also a stage of dramatic changes in marriage and family relations. Changes in family structure throughout the world in the twentieth century allow us to talk about the transition to an era of small children, an increase in divorces and a fall in the number of registered marriages, the alienation of the individual and his autonomy.

Gradually, there is a transition to a specific model of marriage: late marriage - either after achieving economic independence from parents, or after completing education and acquiring a profession.

The crisis of the modern family is largely due to significant changes in social life as a whole. What are the manifestations of crises in the family? First of all, its instability. In large cities, over 50% of marriages break up (in some places the divorce rate reaches 70%). Moreover, for more than a third of disintegrating families, their life together lasted from several weeks to 4 years, i.e. not very long. Family instability leads to the growth of single-parent families, reduces parental authority, and affects the possibilities of forming new families and the health of adults and children.

To the instability of the family one should add its disorganization, i.e. an increase in the number of so-called conflict families, where raising children in an atmosphere of quarrels and scandals leaves much to be desired. This has a very negative impact on both adults and children. It is in such families that the sources of alcoholism, drug addiction, neuroses and delinquency are discovered.

The difficult economic and social situation requires modern man serious tension, which often causes stress and depression, which have already become an integral part of our daily lives. That is why today there is a particularly acute need for a “safe haven”, a place of spiritual comfort, a similar place should be a family - stability against the backdrop of widespread variability. However, despite such a clear need, the institution of the family is currently experiencing sufficient acute crisis: Its very existence, which has been unchanged for many centuries, is under threat.

“In world science, there are various points of view on the state of the family in modern society, which can be ordered on a continuum that resembles a battlefield. On one front there is a position asserting that the family is deteriorating, experiencing a deep crisis, the causes of which lie in social cataclysms, ideological or moral and ethical transformations, and this destruction of the family harms both society and the individual. On the other there is a diametrically opposite point of view. The social changes that have taken place over the past two hundred years (and in our context also the rapid changes of the last decades) have exposed the fact that the family as an institution is outdated and, in such an old-fashioned form as it exists now, must either disappear or undergo a radical remodeling. ...Between these radical points of view, there is a more moderate position, shared perhaps by the majority of scientists, that the family, although in a state of crisis, turns out to be a very adaptive and strong entity that can withstand the blows of fate. As we have already mentioned, this is a kind of battlefield for the monopoly of social control over the individual. Need I say that the spearheads of all three divisions are directed against each other, at the enemy’s known vulnerable spots? The balance of the ammunition, as well as the tempting, apparent accessibility of the object of their claims, convinces us that the end of the battle is still far away.”

Yarskaya-Smirnova E.R. “Sociocultural analysis of non-typicality”

Murdock G. (1949) Social Structure. New York: The Mac Millan Company.
See, for example, Antonov A.I. Sociology of the family M., 2010; Zritnsva E.I. Sociology of the family M., 2006; Chernyak E.M. Sociology of the family M., 2004, etc.
See: Zritneva E.I. Sociology of the family. M: Humanitarian. Ed. VLADOS Center, 2006.

June 12, 2012

A social institution in most cases is understood as a stable form social organization, conditioned by the presence of normative and value roles, the main purpose of which is the guaranteed realization of social needs. Simply put, social institutions regulate relationships within a group in order to improve its functionality as a whole and satisfy the needs of each of its members. Currently, most sociologists name 5 fundamental types of social institutions, among them:

economy;
policy;
education;
family;
religion.

A person’s entry into each of the social institutions imposes certain responsibilities on him and is accompanied by the emergence of needs characteristic of a particular institution.

The family is a classic example of a social institution, with all the appropriate constituent elements. The functions, needs, goals and stages of family formation are highlighted. This article will examine in more detail the functions of the family as a social institution.

The Institute of Family and its Functions

The family as a social institution has a number of functional features that need to be considered in detail.

Reproductive. The main function of the family, on a personal level, satisfies the desire and need to have children; on a social level, it is the need of society for the continuation of the species.
Educational. Within the framework of the family, the personality of a person, a future member of society, is laid and nurtured. The success of family functions directly affects the formation of a mature and responsible personality.
Household function implies care (primarily material) and care for family members who, due to age, are not able to take care of themselves on their own. We are talking about providing shelter, food, etc.
Social control. The essence of this function is that the family is responsible for the behavior of each of its members in society, for their compliance with moral standards and adherence to values.
Sexual-erotic The function of the family is to satisfy individual needs for affection and sex, while at the same time realizing society's need for biological reproduction.
Function of spiritual communication. Satisfies the need of each family member for close communication and spiritual development.
Emotional: desire for family acceptance, support and psychological protection.

Over time, family functions tend to change, abolish or expand due to the emergence of new ones. It is not only about the functions within the family unit, but also about the functions of the family as an abstract concept: tolerance for violation of some social roles increases, while others become increasingly powerful. Some family functions fade into the background, while others turn out to be more important. Perhaps, in modern society, as before, one of the prerogative functions of the family is educational And emotional. Undoubtedly, the role of the family in the formation of a child’s personality is one of the dominant ones, due to the fact that most of the skills of communicative interaction, habits of behavior and response are laid within the framework of family relationships, which place great responsibility on parents for the development of a full-fledged and adequate person.

The contribution of the family in the formation of personality

The functions of the family, being to a greater extent only a model of healthy family relationships, reflect and accommodate the needs that each family member may experience. The child learns the principles of upbringing, emotional and spiritual contact, laid down among relatives, focusing on them further in adult life. The thing is that young children are most susceptible to new information: the habits and behavior of parents and significant adults are appropriated by them through imitation. Therefore, it is important that adult family members, while performing their functions responsibly, are aware that the personality of their child is in their hands.

Source: fb.ru

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Sociology of the family as a special branch of sociological knowledge originates in large-scale empirical studies European statisticians Reels and Le Play. In the middle of the 19th century. They independently made an attempt to study the influence of such social factors as industrialization, urbanization, education, religion on the forms of family living, family structure, and economic relations in it. Since then, the problems of family and family and marital relations have been constantly in the focus of sociology, since the family is a specific, in many ways unique entity: a small group and a social institution at the same time. Behind each of these phenomena there is its own reality and a set of concepts that reflect this reality. The family acts as an object of sociological research and is engaged in it separate industry sociology - family sociology, studying the formation, development and functioning of the family, marriage and family relations in specific cultural and socio-economic conditions.

A family is an association of people based on marriage and consanguinity, connected by a common life and mutual responsibility.

Essentially, the family is a system of relations between husband and wife, parents and children, which has a historically determined organization.

There are the following main characteristics of a family:

a) marital or consanguineous ties between all its members;
b) living together in the same premises;
c) total family budget.

Legal registration of relations is not an indispensable condition.

A good family is one of the most important components of human happiness. Society is interested in a good, strong family. Although family formation and marriage are regulated by law, the leading place in it belongs to morality. Many aspects of marriage are controlled only by the conscience of the people entering into it.

Marriage is a historically conditioned, sanctioned and regulated by society form of relations between the sexes, between a man and a woman, establishing their rights and responsibilities in relation to each other, to their children, their offspring, and parents. In other words, marriage is a traditional means of family formation and social control.

A kind of social guideline for the conscience of those entering into marriage are the moral norms generalized in the practice of the modern family: registration of marriage by the appropriate government agencies is not only a legal act, but also a form of acceptance of the moral obligations arising from marriage. There are hundreds of thousands of families not registered with the civil registry office. No one is forced into marriage, but everyone must obey the laws of marriage; a marriage that is concluded out of mutual love is morally justified; the decision to marry should belong only to those entering into it; it is necessary to be socially and psychologically prepared for marriage.

Not only marriage, but also divorce is morally regulated. If mutual respect, friendship, love have disappeared between the spouses and the family does not fulfill its functions, then the dissolution of the marriage is moral. Divorce only officially records what has already happened - the breakdown of the family.

In family relationships, due to their complexity, intimacy and individuality, many contradictions arise that can only be regulated with the help of morality. The moral norms governing family contradictions are simple, but capacious in content and significance. Here are the main ones: mutual love between spouses; recognition of equality; caring and sensitivity in relationships; love for children, raising and preparing them for a working, socially useful life; mutual assistance in all types of activities, including domestic work.

The requirement for mutual love, equality and mutual assistance of spouses is the basis on which the solution of numerous issues that arise daily in the family and manifest themselves in the clash of different interests and opinions depends.

Of particular importance is the moral responsibility to raise children. The family's educational function can be successfully carried out if an atmosphere of friendship, mutual respect, mutual assistance, reasonable demands on children, and respect for work is established in the family.

Only a healthy, prosperous family has a beneficial effect on a person, the creation of which requires significant effort and certain personality traits. A dysfunctional situation rather aggravates and worsens his situation. Many neuroses and others mental illness, anomalies have their sources precisely in the family, in the relationship between spouses.

The family as a social institution goes through a number of stages, the sequence of which forms the family cycle, or family life cycle. At each stage, the family has specific social and economic characteristics.

What types of families exist? In modern society, families are divided according to the following criteria:

by social class - the family of a worker, an agricultural worker, a representative of intellectual labor, etc.;
by type of population - urban, rural;
by nationality - single-national, inter-ethnic;
by time of existence - a newlywed family, a young family, a family expecting a child, a family of middle married age, a family of older married age, elderly married families, etc.;
by the number of family members - childless families, small families, large families, etc.

There are also single-parent families in which there is only one parent with children; separate, simple, or nuclear (from the word “nuclea” - nucleus); families - spouses with or without children, living separately from parents and other relatives, they have complete independence and therefore organize their lives the way they want (more often - as it turns out); complex families (extended), consisting of representatives of several generations; large families - consisting of three or more married couples.

Based on the special conditions of family life, a number of other types of families are distinguished:

Student families (now approximately every third

in a marriage, one of the spouses is a student);

distate families (families that are legally registered, but in fact there are none. There are about 5% of such families);
families of sailors, polar explorers, geologists, etc.

There are many types of family relationships based on the quality of relationships, but no clear distinction has been established between them. In particular, families are distinguished: prosperous, happy, stable, problem, conflict, socially disadvantaged, etc.

As already indicated, the modern family is built mainly on marital relations. Sociologists study the motives for entering into and the reasons for ending a marriage, the whole gamut of marital relations between representatives of different socio-demographic groups.

Marriage is understood as a historically conditioned form of relationship between a man and a woman, through which society regulates their relationship both legally and morally and ethically.

Marriage relations represent a complex range of relationships between people: from natural biological to economic, legal, ethical, socio-psychological, aesthetic, etc. The need for their regulation by society is determined by the fact that population growth, the education of the younger generation, and therefore the future of society and the state itself depend on the state of marriage relations.

The more developed the society, the greater the role in marital relations played by socio-psychological, ethical, aesthetic and, of course, sexual aspects. This can be judged by such indicators as the motives for young people to get married.

Motives for marriage. Sociologists identify three motives: marriage for love, marriage of convenience and marriage according to a pattern. The motive of love attraction in marriage does not need comment. A marriage according to a pattern takes place when the reasoning is triggered: “All my peers are starting families, so as not to be late for me.” In such cases, the dominant role is played by the not fully realized sexual desire and the desire to have children. Sometimes a person believes that the underlying motives are love. In fact, such love comes down to the fact that from several candidates he or she chooses the more preferable one: prettier, smarter, or, on the contrary, not very pretty - no one will take me away, they will treat me better, value me more.

Note that smart and beautiful women often remain lonely. Also a mystery for a sociologist. At the level of a working hypothesis, it can be assumed that, firstly, many men do not want their wife to be smarter or stronger than him, and, secondly, beautiful women often believe that they have made their companion happy with beauty and charm: “I gave you your youth." Typically feminine logic. A man, at least a strong, self-confident man, often cannot stand such a demonstration.

There is reason to consider a marriage of convenience to be one in which the age difference between the spouses is very large. In 1977 in the USSR, not a single woman under 25 years old married a man over 50 years old. Between the ages of 45 and 49, there were 500 marriages where the wife was 25 years younger. Survey data show that from 72 to 86% marry for love, 9-23 - according to a pattern and 5-9% - according to convenience. This is according to the respondents. However, even in anonymous surveys, people try to appear better, as if adapting to generally accepted attitudes of public opinion.

Marriages for love turn out to be the most durable. Pattern marriages can develop into love marriages. Conversely, in love marriages, idealization gradually gives way to real views.

In recent years, there has been a downward trend in the average age of people getting married. True, among early marriages, up to half are so-called forced ones. It has been observed that early marriage increases the likelihood of divorce. Half of all marriages where the bride is under 18 years of age end in divorce.

According to American sociologists, among women who got married at the age of 17-18, they consider their marriage successful only

18% of respondents, and among women who got married at 28 years of age and older, 58% are satisfied with their marriage. Among men who got married at 18-21 years old, 28% of respondents considered their marriage satisfactory, and of those who got married at 28-30 years old, 61% were satisfied with their marriage.

Level of education influences attitudes toward premarital affairs. For men, this relationship looks like this: the higher the level of education, the less frequent premarital sexual relations. For women, on the contrary, the higher the level of education, the more free they are in their sexual behavior. 30% of women who graduated had premarital sex primary school, 47% - high school and 60% - college.

Of course, all these processes are quite dynamic. For example, the Russian or Slavic culture of intimate relationships and sexual behavior is undergoing significant changes under the influence primarily of means mass media. In the early 1960s. American sociologist B. Morse published the book “Sexual Revolution,” which provided examples of the influence of the tabloid press on the cultivation of primitive patterns of sexuality. According to him, some Los Angeles newspapers published advertisements offering marriage couples a temporary exchange of partners. Three decades later, in the Moscow newspaper “Private Life” you can find not only similar proposals, but also something else. If two or three decades ago girls aged 13-15 asked the question whether it was permissible to kiss boys on the first date, now morals have become much freer...

Extramarital unions are actual unions; they are created by the law itself by fixing the boundaries of marriage. The law fundamentally denies extramarital unions recognition of the nature of legal relations and thereby deprives them legal protection. Meanwhile, the law regulates the relationship between illegitimate parents and their children. And he does this regardless of whether these laws are favorable to such marriages and children or not. By doing this, the law enters into the realm of extramarital unions and recognizes that their operation has important consequences.

The regulation of extramarital relations by law follows the following main directions:

The law regulates the relations of children born out of wedlock,

with their illegitimate parents;

the law clarifies some issues of personal and property interests, as well as the relationship of extramarital partners;
Without attempting to make extramarital unions impossible in principle, the law imposes prohibitions in cases where an extramarital union may have harmful biological and social consequences.

Sociologists distinguish two main groups of these consequences:

1) prohibitions related to the partner’s personality, i.e. with his age, relationship or physical and mental condition;
2) prohibitions regarding the nature of the occurrence of an extramarital union.

Extramarital unions can be classified on various grounds. Yugoslav sociologist M. Bosanz provides a fairly detailed classification of extramarital families.

1. According to the subjective characteristics of the partner: a) age - an extramarital union can be organized by two adults; b) civil status - none of the partners is married; both partners are married, but not to each other; one of the partners is married to a third party and the other is not married;
2. Based on publicity Extramarital families can be divided into anonymous and non-anonymous. Anonymous are those extramarital families that, for various reasons, are hidden by extramarital partners from the public environment. From a social point of view, such unions are most undesirable. Non-anonymous extramarital families are those in which the man and woman do not hide their entry into this relationship before the public;
3. By duration: casual, short-term relationships; temporary extramarital families and concubinage. Casual short-term relationships are not in the full sense an extramarital family, because they do not perform a number of functions that belong to the family. These connections are most often anonymous and are often unforeseen and unexpected sources of out-of-wedlock births. For society, these connections are extremely undesirable. Temporary extramarital families are those unions that last for some time and, as a rule, are not anonymous. Sometimes they are limited to promises of marriage, and sometimes they end with its conclusion. This is a phase of premarital sexual activity that is increasingly common in modern society.

Concubinage (the name has existed since Roman law) is a long-term relationship or a long-term extramarital family in which the man and woman do not intend to formally consummate the marriage. Among extramarital families, concubinage occupies a leading place. This is a legal relationship, ethically accepted and justified by a man and a woman. Concubinates are often founded in adulthood by partners who remain unmarried for various reasons. The man and woman in such a family have life experience, helping to avoid acute conflicts that often shake and destroy marital and extramarital unions of young people.

From the standpoint of public interests, it is necessary to distinguish between those extramarital families whose partners had children in another family and have children in this family.

In general, it must be taken into account that an illegitimate family is a fact real life one to be reckoned with.

The role of a woman in the family. The woman plays a key role in the family. But everything is woven from contradictions. On the one hand, the growth of education and professional career enrich the intellectual and emotional world of a woman. On the other hand, they sharply reduce the amount of time she can devote to raising children. An inverse correlation has also been noted between the level of professional employment and the birth rate.

The ability to build a family is a special gift of a woman. Surveys show that only a quarter of families do not have quarrels and conflicts. It is the woman who most often depends on the ability to create this conflict-free environment.

Most women point to their husband's rudeness as one of the reasons for family conflicts and divorces. Drunkenness comes first. In St. Petersburg, for example, 95% of women and only 4.6% of men indicated drunkenness as the reason for divorce.

True, divorces are often initiated without sufficient grounds. 14.5% of cases end in reconciliation, and 3% of those who file an application do not appear in court.

A more complete realization of the social role of the mother and teacher is hampered by the underdevelopment of the social sphere. The entire household service takes on only a fifth of household labor, washing clothes in laundries - only 3%. Social psychology also plays a negative role - the traditional division into male and female types of household work. For some reason, it turned out that society mechanized and automated those types of household labor that were traditionally performed by men. Or take advertisements for household appliances - washing machine, vacuum cleaner. It always shows a pretty woman, not a man. As a result, the woman has a double working day.

The total time spent on housekeeping in the country is estimated at billions of man hours and is comparable to the time spent throughout social production. But if a man spends an average of 1 hour a day on housework, then a woman spends 4-5 hours.

The sociology of family and marital relations examines gender or socio-cultural differences between men and women. Gender problems are related to the social aspect in the concepts of “male” and “female”. Stereotypes persistently require us to conform to the standards of “real” men and women that are accepted by society in given time. True, in interpreting the results of almost any gender research There is almost always a feminist bias. In a word, women's problems in sociology are traditional, which cannot be said about specifically male problems. Sometimes the impression of insignificance or their complete absence is created. The problem-free nature of male social existence has even become a stereotype of public consciousness.

The first studies of gender problems in St. Petersburg showed that men, more than women, consider themselves losers. Men more often resort to social mimicry due to the impossibility of being “real men”; they try to seem like one. There are twice as many men among those who do not wish their son to repeat his own fate.

The family is the oldest social institution that has accompanied humanity since its inception. Emphasizing this, the great thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that the most ancient of all societies and the only natural one is the family. The specificity of this social structure is that the family simultaneously acts as a social institution that regulates role relationships in the family, and as a primary social group, whose members are connected by three types of connections: marriage, parenthood and kinship. If there is no connection in the family group, then they speak of an incomplete family.

The foundation of a family is marriage. Marriage is a historically conditioned, sanctioned and regulated by society form of relationship between a man and a woman, established for the purpose of forming a family and procreation. By sanctioning a marriage through state registration, a church ceremony, or the conclusion of a marriage contract, society assumes certain obligations to protect the family and at the same time imposes on the people getting married responsibility for the financial support of the family and for raising children.

Marriage as a social institution has come a long way in its development. Thanks to fundamental studies of marriage and family relations by such scientists as I. Bakhoven (work “Mother’s Law”), L. Morgan (work “Ancient Society”), it was possible to trace the development of marital relations from group marriage (characterized by disordered sexual relations) to modern forms of marriage .

In modern developed countries, the main forms of marriage are monogamy(marriage of one man and one woman) and polygamy(marriage of more than two partners).

Polygamy in turn has two varieties: polygyny(polygamy), which exists in countries where the dominant religion is Islam, and polyandry(polyandry). The latter form of marriage is extremely rare in some societies of South India and Tibet and is explained by two reasons: the predominance of the male population and the right of inheritance of land only by the eldest son. In this case, all the brothers of the married man can automatically become the husbands of this woman, and children born in such a family have the same rights.

According to the method of choosing partners, marriage can be exogamous(when a marriage partner is chosen outside one's own group - race, nationality, class, religion, etc.), and endogamous(when the partner is chosen within his social group).

The functions of the family are determined by the needs of society and the needs of the family organization itself. Both factors change historically, which means that the functions of the family partially change, but many of them remain unchanged and accompany the family from its first steps. Has been and remains a unique function at all times reproductive function– reproduction of the population and continuation of oneself in children. Closely connected with it and necessary for a person function of sexual communication. A very important function is educational function. This is not only the formation by parents of the child’s personality: teaching the rules of behavior, developing his abilities and interests, improving health, etc., but also the constant influence of children on their parents and relatives. This process of mutual education goes on continuously throughout life. It is no coincidence that the family is considered by sociological science as the main agent of the socialization process. Economic and organizational function. The family creates the material basis of the family, provides economic ties between its members, supports minors, supports the disabled, instills work skills in children and, ultimately, creates a conscious need for labor activity. Protective function family is manifested in the fact that it supports and supports children, disabled, sick and elderly family members. Recreational and leisure The function of the family is aimed at the useful use of free time - organizing leisure time, restoring and strengthening the physical, emotional and spiritual strength of a person. A very important function of the family is psychological communication function: emotional support, psychological protection, etc. The family also has such a function as social status. It lies in the fact that the family transfers a certain (at least starting) status to family members. Since the modern world is open, public, and accessible, it is the family, with its constant connections and interactions, that can cultivate communicative abilities in its family members and teach communicative behavior.

Modern sociological science gives communicative function family is of particular importance. And although a number of functions of the family are increasingly taken over by other social structures (schools, welfare centers, leisure institutions), the family continues to exist and reproduce as a social institution and social community in the 21st century. Each family, throughout its existence, does not remain unchanged, moves from one state to another and, finally, ends its existence. The life cycle of a family is a sequence of significant milestone events in the existence of a family. Stable, long-term families (from marriage to the end of the spouses’ lives) have served scientists as an “ideal type” for identifying the stages of the family life cycle.

First stage from marriage to the birth of the first child is called the childlessness stage.

Second stage covers the period from the birth of the first child to the birth of the last - the stage of reproductive parenthood. This is the most fulfilling period in the development of the family, because here numerous functions of the family and all the main goals are realized.

Third stage socialization parenting - takes the period from the birth of the last child to the creation of his own family.

Fourth stage– primogeniture or the “empty nest” stage. It begins with the creation of one’s own family by the last child, is filled with the troubles of raising grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and ends with the death of both grandparents or one of them.

It is clear that this diagram of family dynamics is ideal and reflects the typical stages of family life. After all, not every family goes through all stages. Infidelity, divorce, illness, death can cut short the life of a family at any stage. Crisis states of society - wars and other social upheavals - especially complicate the survival of a family. As studies conducted by sociologists in America and Europe in the past show, the average lifespan of a family was several decades (≈50 years), and at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century this figure dropped to 9.5 years. This, of course, does not mean that remarriages will not occur and new families will arise, but this will be the life of another family.

Studying the family as a social institution, sociologists classified family types according to many indicators. Firstly, depending on the degree of type of relationship between family members, families are distinguished expanded And nuclear.

Extended a family consists not only of parents and their children, but also includes other relatives - grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc., living under the same roof and leading a common household. Such a family is also called traditional or consanguineous, because in traditional societies this type of family was dominant. At the present stage there appears new type extended family, the so-called modified. Modified extended a family is a family in which numerous relatives no longer live together, but maintain close, permanent ties. Members of such families are united by a network of shared responsibilities and exchange of services, economic assistance, advice and participation in the fate of the youth of the extended family, and a common active memory of ancestors.

Nuclear a family consists of parents and their children living together. This type of family is common in developed countries, where adult children after marriage have the opportunity to live independently. Sociology connects the emergence of this type of family with the development of industrial and post-industrial society, which provides the opportunity for active social mobility. However, according to statistics, they are still modern world The predominant family form is the extended family.

Depending on economic dominance and power relations, they distinguish patriarchal family (where main role in the family it is given to the father), matriarchal(where the mother plays the main role) and egalitarian(from the French word - equality), where there is an equal distribution of social roles between spouses. Conducted sociological research increasingly confirms that the family in developed countries is becoming more and more symmetrical. The symmetrical family of post-industrial society is characterized not only by an equal distribution of responsibilities, but also by a new type of unification of family members. Not on the basis of joint labor activity, as was the case in the past, but on the basis of common consumption.

There is a typology of families based on the number of children in the family. Distinguish childless, one child, few children And large families families. An analysis of modern families according to these parameters gives a disappointing picture. The number of childless families and families deliberately limited to one child is growing, while the number of large families is decreasing. There are also other grounds for classifying a family, for example, according to the place of residence of young spouses. Distinguish matrilocal(when a young family lives with the wife’s parents), patrilocal(with my husband's parents) neolocal(the formed family lives independently) family. Sociological science constantly studies the institution of family as the basis of society. The family arose much earlier than religion, the state, the market, and education. The family is the only irreplaceable producer of man himself, the continuation of the genus Homo sapiens. The strength and attractiveness of the family lies in the integrity that is inherent in it both as a small social group and as a social institution, in the versatility of this structure, which creates the opportunity to realize the entire set of diverse human needs - physiological, social, material. The second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the new 21st century give alarming signals about the complexities of this institution. The processes of family deformation are noticeable, as more and more divorces are occurring (every 3-4 marriages break up), marriage rates are falling, the birth rate is decreasing, homelessness is growing, etc.

Introduction

In sociology, the institution of family has a special place. In our country, many scientists are working on this topic.

The family is one of the most ancient social institutions. It arose much earlier than religion, the state, the army, education, and the market.

The role of the family in society is ambiguous and incomparable with any other social institutions, since it is the most significant in terms of the strength of its influence on the formation, development and maintenance of the social well-being of the individual.

Therefore, at present, the topic of family for science and practice is relevant and significant.

Relevance of the topic test work due to the alarming state of the modern Russian family, the complexity of the demographic situation in today's Russia.

The practical significance of the test work is determined by an attempt to reach the consciousness of every person that the key to a prosperous society is a happy family, that family values destined to live on the condition that they are treated with care and passed on to future generations.

The purpose of the test is to explore the topic of family as a social institution in more depth.

To achieve the given goal, the following tasks were set and solved:

Explore the essence, structure and consider the functions of the family as a social institution and small group.

2. Reveal trends in family changes. Basic forms of a modern family.

Study the problems of marriage and family in modern Russian society.

Theoretical basis were inspired by theories and concepts formed in the works of very famous sociologists: Kravchenko A.I., Efendieva A.G., Volkova Yu.G. and others.

1. The essence, structure and functions of the family as a social institution and small group

In sociology, a family is a social association whose members are connected by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance, i.e. a family consists of people and their relationships.

The family is determined by various cultural factors, the method of production of material goods and the nature of the economic system. Each economic formation objectively corresponds to a specific family.

The family is a specific social phenomenon, therefore it occupies a special place in the social structure of society.

The specifics of the family are as follows:

The stability of the family as a social institution is ensured by the presence of such strong ties as kinship and marriage.

The family represents a universal form of social life.

The family develops in accordance with general, specific and private general laws. At the same time, the family is a relatively independent social institution, which, reflecting “in miniature all the contradictions of society,” is endowed with its own internal contradictions, and, consequently, internal sources of development.

The family as a social institution occupies a subordinate position among large social communities.

The family is a historical, dynamic social phenomenon.

The family contributes not only to the formation of personality, but also to the self-affirmation of a person both within the family and outside it, stimulates his social, productive and creative activity, contributes to the preservation and strengthening of the physical and psychological well-being of members of society, the revelation of their individuality (it should be recognized that this applies only to wealthy families).

The social essence of the family is that it is considered as important subsystem society, which, being itself a social institution, is interconnected with other social institutions and with society as a whole. At the same time, the family is a source of social belonging. The family constantly carries out a continuous process of transferring experience and traditions from one generation to another.

Family as a social institution it is, first of all, a specific organization that ensures the physical and social reproduction of new generations in society. Primarily for this purpose human society in the process of its evolution, it developed a set of social norms and sanctioned a system of relationships and interactions that led to the emergence of the most ancient social institution - family and marriage. Consequently, at the level of a small social group, a family can be called any entity that is potentially capable of carrying out such reproduction at certain stages of its development, and the core of the family can be considered an actual married couple, regardless of its legal status.

Thus, family as a small group it is the subject of physical and social reproduction of generations. Therefore, the definition of the concept of “family” should reflect the noted characteristics of the family as a small social group while simultaneously indicating the institutional nature of this phenomenon. Based on this, A.G.’s definition seems most satisfactory. Kharchev, according to which the family is a historically specific system of relationships and interactions between spouses, parents and children in a small social group, the members of which are connected by marriage or kinship relationships, a common life and mutual moral responsibility, and the social need for which is determined by the need of society for physical and spiritual reproduction population.

It is important that in the above definition:

two most important functions of the family are mentioned, reproductive and socializing (“physical and spiritual reproduction of the population”);

It is noted that the effective implementation by the family of these functions is a necessary condition the successful functioning of society itself, which determines its need for the existence of this social institution;

the historical conditionality of the family structure is emphasized;

the characteristics of the family as a social institution and as a small social group are combined and not opposed to each other.

The types of family structures are diverse and are formed depending on the nature of marriage, kinship and parenthood. Thus, family structure is the composition of the family and the number of its members in the totality of their relationships.

Analysis of the family structure makes it possible to answer the questions: how are the functions of this family implemented? How many generations does a family consist of? How are marital relationships represented? Who manages the life of the family? who is the performer? How are responsibilities and roles distributed?

Sociologists divide families into parental families, that is, families of the older generation, and procreation families, created by adult children who separated from their parents.

Based on the number of generations included, families are divided into extended (three or more generations) and nuclear (two generations).

Division according to another criterion - the presence of parents - gives the types of complete (two parents) and incomplete (one parent) families.

Based on the number of children, families are divided into three types: childless (no children); single-child (one child) and large (three or more children).

The leadership criterion differentiates families into three groups: paternal (male dominance), maternal (female dominance), egalitarian (equality of roles).

The most democratic is considered an egalitarian family, in which control is divided between husband and wife, both of them participate equally in family decisions. This does not negate the rights of the husband to make fundamental decisions (after joint discussion) in one area, for example, economic, and the right of the wife to make decisions in another, say, household. Children can also take part in making family decisions.

Speaking about the functions of the family, it should be remembered that we are talking about the societal results of the life activity of millions of families, which have generally significant consequences and characterize the role of the family as a social institution among other institutions of society.

Social functions refer to the basic needs of society and people that are satisfied by the family. The most important functions of family and marriage include:

Population reproduction. Society cannot exist if there is no established system for replacing one generation with another. The family is a guaranteed and institutionalized means of replenishing the population with new generations.

Socialization. The new generation that replaces the old one is able to learn social roles only through the process of socialization. The family is the unit of primary socialization. Parents pass on their life experience and modal attitudes to their children, instill the “positive” manners accepted in this society, teach crafts and theoretical knowledge, lay the foundations for oral and in writing, control the actions of children.

Care and protection. The family provides its members with guardianship, protection, and social security. Children not only need a roof over their heads, food and clothing, but they also need the emotional support of their father and mother at a time in their lives when no one else offers them such protection and support. The family supports those members who, due to disability, old age or youth, cannot take care of themselves.

Social self-determination. Legitimizing the birth of a person means his legal and social definition. Thanks to the family, a person receives a surname, name and patronymic, the right to dispose of inheritance and housing. He belongs to the same class, race, ethnicity and religious group to which the parental family belongs. It also determines the social status of an individual.

In addition to those listed, the most important functions of the family include: organizing everyday life, organizing personal consumption, psychological and material support for family members, etc.

The life activity of a family directly related to the satisfaction of certain needs of its members is called family function.

The main legal function of the family, as follows from the definition of A.G. Kharcheva, - reproductive, i.e. biological reproduction of the population on a social level and meeting the need for children on a personal level.

Along with its main function, the family performs a number of other important social functions:

educational - socialization of the younger generation, maintaining the cultural reproduction of society;

regenerative (“renewal”) - transfer of status, property, social status;

household - maintaining the physical health of members of society, caring for children and elderly family members;

economic - obtaining material resources from some family members for others, economic support for minors and disabled members of society;

the sphere of primary social control is the moral regulation of the behavior of family members in various spheres of life, as well as the regulation of responsibilities and obligations in relations between spouses, parents and children, representatives of the older and middle generations;

spiritual communication - personal development of family members, spiritual mutual enrichment;

sexual-erotic - satisfying the sexual needs of spouses, sexual control;

social-status - providing a certain social status to family members, reproduction of the social structure;

leisure - organization of rational leisure, mutual enrichment of interests;

emotional - receiving psychological protection, emotional support, emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychological therapy;

recreational (“restoration”) - the function of restoring psychological health, achieving psychological comfort.

Each function plays a certain role in the life of the family and is important both for society and for the individual. The social and individual significance of the functions of the modern family is reflected in Table 1.

Table 1

Social and individual significance of family functions

Sphere of family activity	Implications for society	Personal significance
Reproductive	Biological reproduction of society	Satisfying the need for children	Socialization of the younger generation. Maintaining the cultural continuity of society	Satisfying the need for parenting, contact with children, their upbringing, self-realization in children
Household	Maintaining the physical health of community members, caring for children	Receipt of household services by some family members from others
Economic	Economic support for minors and disabled members of society	Receipt of material resources by some family members from others (in case of disability or in exchange for services)
Sphere of primary social control	Moral regulation of the behavior of family members in various spheres of life, as well as responsibilities and obligations in relations between spouses, parents, children, representatives of the older and middle generations	Formation and maintenance of legal and moral sanctions
Sphere of spiritual communication	Personality development of family members	Spiritual mutual enrichment of family members. Strengthening the friendly foundations of marriage
Social status	Providing a certain social status to family members Reproduction of social structure	Satisfying the need for social advancement
Leisure	Organization of rational leisure. Social control in the leisure sector	Satisfying the need for joint leisure activities, mutual enrichment of leisure interests
Emotional	Emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychological therapy	Individuals receive psychological protection and emotional support in the family. Satisfying the need for personal happiness and love
Sexy	Sexual control	Satisfying sexual needs

The reproductive function of the family is the birth of children, the continuation of the human race. It includes elements of all other functions, since the family participates not only in quantitative, but also in qualitative reproduction of the population, which is primarily associated with introducing the new generation to the scientific and cultural achievements of mankind, maintaining its health, as well as preventing, as indicated by A.G. Kharchev and M.S. Matskovsky “reproduction of various kinds of biological anomalies in new generations.”

If earlier in Russia the type of large family was widespread, now the majority of families have one child, two, or no children at all. There are very few families with three or more children. There are several reasons for this: the spread of an urban lifestyle, the massive employment of women in the manufacturing sector, the growth of people’s culture, an increase in needs, a sharp deterioration in the material way of life of the bulk of the population in the 90s, difficulties with housing conditions.

As the birth rate declines, the structure of families also changes. They mainly consist of two generations: parents and children. Currently, there are very few families that unite three or four generations. There is also a historical explanation for this: large families live in places and times where it is difficult for a “small” family (husband, wife and children) to survive alone, without relying on numerous relatives. The reduction in average family size leads to a weakening of family ties and acts as an objective factor in the destabilization of family relationships.

With the birth of a child, the family begins to perform an educational function, and both adults and children are raised in the family. The influence of the family on the younger generation is especially important. One cannot but agree with the American sociologist J. Bossard that family relationships include not only what parents pass on to their children and children to each other, but also what children pass on to their parents. These “gifts” of children include: enriching intrafamily ties; in expanding the range of family interests; in emotional satisfaction that lasts throughout life; in the possibility of returning to past stages of life; in a deeper understanding of life processes and the “true meaning of life.”

The success of fulfilling the educational function depends on the educational potential of the family - a whole complex of conditions and means that determine its pedagogical capabilities. Family education is characterized by primacy, continuity and duration, stability and emotionality.

The family has the most active influence on the development of spiritual culture, the social orientation of the individual, and motives of behavior. Being a micromodel of society for a child, the family turns out to be the most important factor in developing a system of social attitudes and forming life plans.

If a family has several children, then natural conditions appear for the formation of a full-fledged family team. This enriches the life of each family member and creates a favorable environment for the family to successfully perform its educational function.

The influence of the economic function on relationships in the family community itself can be twofold: a fair distribution of household responsibilities in the family between spouses, older and younger generations, as a rule, favors the strengthening of marital relations and the moral and labor education of children.

Currently, the function of the family in organizing leisure and recreation is noticeably increasing, since free time is one of the most important social values, an indispensable means of restoring a person’s physical and spiritual strength, and the comprehensive development of the individual.

Family life is multifaceted. This test paper briefly discusses only its purposes and main functions. But this analysis also shows that the family satisfies the diverse individual needs of the individual and the most important needs of society.

Just as society influences the family, creating a certain type of family, the family has a significant influence on the development and way of life of society. The family plays an important role in accelerating the economic and social development of society, in educating the younger generation, and in achieving happiness for every person.

Based on the above, we can conclude that the family is one of the fundamental institutions of society, giving it stability and the ability to replenish the population in each next generation. At the same time, the family acts as a small group - the most cohesive and stable unit of society. Throughout life, a person becomes part of many different groups, but only the family remains the group that he never leaves.

family marriage social institution

2. Trends in family changes. Basic forms of modern family

Currently, there are concerns about the stability of the institution of family and marriage. Scientists are trying to predict what awaits the family in the 21st century; will it remain in its traditional form or take on new forms?

There is no clear answer to these questions.

Within the framework of the scientific debate about the state of the modern family, two conceptually opposite approaches are distinguished - the paradigm of the “institutional crisis of the family” and the “progressive” theory.

Among progressive sociologists (A.G. Vishnevsky, A.G. Volkov, S.I. Golod, etc.) the ongoing changes are considered as processes associated with the democratic revolution of social relations.

In contrast to the modernist position, supporters of the crisis approach (A.I. Antonov, V.A. Borisov, V.M. Medkov, A.B. Sinelnikov, etc.) believe that the family is in deep decline, which must be assessed as a value-based institutional crisis. “Crisis workers” elevate the problem to the category of global civilizational ones; they believe that, with insufficient efforts to resolve it, it can lead to catastrophic consequences. Proponents of the crisis paradigm are extremely strict in their definition of family. While defending the traditional family and the traditional in the family, they insist that it is unlawful to consider a full-fledged family and its fragmented forms to be equivalent. “Crisis workers” deny expanded interpretations of the family, believing that this leads to the leveling of the specifics of this social and to the “oblivion” of its social essence.

As a trend emphasizing the “narrowing” of the object, there has been an increase in recent decades in the number of families consisting of only two people: single-parent families, maternal families, “empty nests” (spouses whose children left the parental family). In an incomplete family resulting from divorce, children are raised by one of the spouses (usually the mother). A maternal (illegitimate) family differs from an incomplete family in that the mother was not married to the father of her child. Domestic statistics indicate an increase in “out-of-wedlock” birth rates: at the beginning of the millennium, every fourth child in Russia was born to an unmarried mother.

Despite disagreements in assessing the degree of anxiety of the problem under discussion, none of the authors can dismiss the obvious common features of destruction (or “growing pains”) of family and marital relations:

falling birth rates;

increase in the number of unregistered marriages;

an increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births;

transformation of the moral foundations of the family;

increasing contradictions between the individual and the family;

transformation of the economic function (reduction of the economic role of men in the family);

strengthening of stereotypical problems that impede a strong marriage (lack of housing, decent income, insufficient socio-psychological readiness for marriage, psychological overload of partners);

decreased effectiveness of interaction between generations in the family.

The range of types, forms and categories of the modern family is quite diverse. Different types (categories) of families function differently in certain areas of family relations. They react differently to the influence of various factors of modern life. Family typologies are determined by different approaches to identifying the subject of study. Modern families differ from each other in various ways (Table No. 2).

table 2

Forms of a modern family

Signs of a family	Forms of a modern family
by number of children	childless, or infertile, family, one child, small family, large family;
by composition	single-parent family, separate, simple or nuclear, complex (multi-generation family), extended family, maternal family, remarried family;
by structure	with one married couple with or without children; with one of the spouses’ parents and other relatives; with two or more married couples with or without children, with or without one of the spouses’ parents and other relatives; with mother (father) and children;
by type of leadership in the family
according to family life, way of life	family is an “outlet”; child-centric family; a family such as a sports team or debate club; a family that puts comfort, health, order first;	socially homogeneous homogeneous) and heterogeneous (heterogeneous) families;
according to family history	newlyweds, a young family expecting a child, a family of middle and older married age, elderly couples;
by the quality of relationships and atmosphere in the family	prosperous, stable, pedagogically weak, unstable, disorganized;
geographically	urban, rural, remote (regions of the Far North);
by type of consumer behavior	families with a “physiological” or “naive consumer” type of consumption (mainly food-oriented); families with an “intellectual” type of consumption, i.e. with a high level of expenditure on the purchase of books, magazines, entertainment events, etc., families with an intermediate type of consumption;
according to family life conditions	student family, “distant” family, “non-marital family”;
by the nature of leisure time	open or closed;
on social mobility	reactive families, moderately active families and active families;
by the degree of cooperation in joint activities	traditional, collectivist and individualistic;
for mental health reasons	healthy family, neurotic family, victimogenic family.

Each of the categories of families is characterized by the socio-psychological phenomena and processes occurring in it, its inherent marital and family relations, including the psychological aspects of objective and practical activity, the circle of communication and its content, the characteristics of emotional contacts of family members, the socio-psychological goals of the family and individual psychological needs of its members.

Marriage and family relations are formed and developed in the family as a reflection of diverse and multivariate interpersonal contacts, and in general the entire system of values and expectations of the socio-psychological aspect.

To a large extent, the success of future family relationships is determined by the motives for marriage.

To date, various forms of marriage and family relations have developed, the most common of which are the following:

Marriage and family relations based on a fair contract system. Both spouses have a clear idea of what they want from the marriage and expect certain material benefits. The terms of the contract themselves cement and help solve vital problems. Emotional attachment, which can hardly be called love, but which nevertheless exists in such a union, as a rule, intensifies over time (“they will live to see love,” as I. S. Turgenev put it). Although, if the family exists only as an economic unit, the feeling of emotional takeoff is completely lost. People entering into such a marriage have the most powerful practical support from their partner in all practical endeavors - since both the wife and husband pursue their own economic gain. In such marital and family relations, the degree of freedom of each spouse is maximum, and personal involvement is minimal: fulfilled the terms of the contract - you are free to do what you want.

Marriage and family relations based on an unfair contract. A man and a woman try to extract one-sided benefits from marriage and thereby harm their partner. There is no need to talk about love here either, although often in this version of marriage and family relations it is one-sided (in the name of which the spouse, realizing that he is being deceived and exploited, endures everything).

Marriage and family relations under duress. One of the spouses somewhat “besieges” the other, and either due to certain life circumstances or out of pity, he finally agrees to a compromise. In such cases, it is also difficult to talk about deep feelings: even on the part of the “besieger,” ambition, the desire to possess the object of worship, and passion are more likely to prevail. When such a marriage finally takes place, the “besieger” begins to consider the spouse his property. The feeling of freedom necessary in marriage and family as a whole is absolutely excluded here. The psychological foundations of the existence of such a family are so deformed that the compromises that family life requires are impossible.

Marriage and family relations as ritual fulfillment of social and normative guidelines. At a certain age, people come to the conclusion that everyone around them is married and that it is time to start a family. This is a marriage without love and without calculation, but only following certain social stereotypes. In such families, the prerequisites for a long family life are not often created. Most often, such marriage and family relationships develop by chance and just as accidentally break up, without leaving deep traces.

Marriage and family relationships sanctified by love. Two people connect voluntarily because they cannot imagine their lives without each other. In a love marriage, the restrictions that the spouses accept are purely voluntary: they enjoy spending their free time together, with members of their family, and enjoy doing something good friend for a friend and for the rest of the family. Marriage and family relations in this version are the highest degree of unification of people, when children are born in love, when any of the spouses retains their independence and individuality - with the full support of the other. The paradox is that by voluntarily accepting such restrictions (“I am happy if you are happy”), people become freer... The marriage-family form of such relationships is built on trust, on greater respect for the person than for generally accepted standards

3. Problems of marriage and family in modern Russian society

The problems of the modern family are among the most important and pressing. Its significance is determined by the fact that, firstly, the family is one of the main social institutions of society, the cornerstone of human life, and secondly, that this institution is currently experiencing a deep crisis.

Our sociologists, demographers, psychologists, and psychiatrists are increasingly recognizing that the main role in the emergence of all kinds of problems in family life in our country is played by reasons of a socio-psychological order: first of all, the socio-psychological culture of young spouses, their ability to achieve mutual understanding among themselves.

An analysis of the current situation shows the need for state support for the young primary cell of society. At the same time, we are not talking about supporting family dependency, we are talking about creating a favorable space for the functioning of the family, conditions for the self-realization of its interests. A law “On state support for young families in the Russian Federation” is needed. It should contain effective mechanisms that allow a young family to independently solve housing, social, financial and other problems.

The issue related to the implementation of the most important function of the family - its reproductive purpose - requires special attention and a sensitive approach. In the vast majority of countries in the world, concern for childbirth has been included in the rank of public policy. Despite the extremely low fertility rate, our state does not sufficiently stimulate this process. In a number of regions, child benefits are being abolished, large families are poorly supported, and there is no targeted preparation of young people for family life and conscious parenthood.

The Russian Federation, even by Western standards, has a uniquely low birth rate. In four of the seven most developed countries, steady natural population growth still remains: in Great Britain - 1.6, France - 3.4, Canada - 4.8, USA - 5.6 per 1000 people. In our country, there is a steady depopulation of the population not only due to low birth rates, but also due to the excess mortality of infants and men of working age. At the same time, it is known that in a normal family people live much longer and work longer.

By 2015, according to forecasts, the number of Russians entering working age will decrease by almost 2 times, and the number of people beyond working age will also exceed them by almost 2 times. How will young people feed such an army of pensioners?!

According to the forecast of the Russian State Statistics Committee, the country's population will decrease by 11.6 million people by 2016. UN demographic services predict a decrease in the population of the Russian Federation to 121 million by the middle of the 21st century. If this trend continues, the Russians simply will not be able to retain the territory of Russia. The results of the latest census show that there are a lot of foreign citizens in the country, especially in the border areas, and this does not meet the economic and geopolitical interests of Russia.

The development of the demographic situation in our country depends on:

solving key socio-economic problems and maintaining state potential that meets modern conditions;

the role that the Russian Federation plays in the consolidation of the CIS countries;

development of vast territories and larger-scale involvement in the economic circulation of natural resources and geographical advantages of the country;

maintaining the territorial integrity of the federation.

The "Concept" is aimed at solving the demographic problem demographic policy RF for the period until 2015", which basically describes the problems and talks about the need to solve them. But how to correct the situation specifically needs to be done through the adoption of appropriate laws.

The demographic crisis is a threat to Russia's national security. Overcoming this crisis requires society and the state to morally elevate the role of the family in the reproduction of life, legal regulation of this basic function and providing it with material and financial support from the state, increasing the scientific validity and feasibility in practice of the latest comprehensive scientific, technical, socio-economic, health, educational programs.

The study of the modern family also confirms that while the increasing frequency of natural disasters and anomalies urgently require greater unity and coordinated actions of peoples and states, the crisis of the “modern” family is facilitated by such negative signs of modern civilization as the severity of geopolitical contradictions in interaction modern states; local wars, increased terrorism, man-made disasters. The point here is not just the above factors, but the death of people, their children, fear for their future, damaging the integrity of the modern family, and the destruction of humanity’s hope for the humanization of civilization.

Efficiency legal regulation family relations are achieved under the following conditions: when family legislation is based on RIGHT as the essence of laws - demands from man and human society and the state for the freedom to create good by all citizens, ensuring life safety, equality and justice; when the fundamental law of the state - the Constitution - emanates from and protects the fundamental rights of man and citizen; when the Constitution and the family legislation emanating from it reflect the specific historical needs of society, the family, children for family well-being and the progress of the entire society.

A study of current aspects of the legal regulation of family disputes shows that real family relationships go far beyond the scope of current family and civil legislation and therefore require constant improvement. IN special attention Society and the state need the legal consequences of divorce, deprivation of parental rights, issues of guardianship and trusteeship and adoption.

The main features of the modern Russian family are presented in Diagram 1.

Scheme 1

A necessary condition for the improvement of the Russian family is the turn of the state, local authorities authorities to family problems, overcoming the pernicious, corrupting influence on the family.

Conclusion

The family as a unit of society is an inseparable component of society. And the life of society is characterized by the same spiritual and material processes as the life of a family. The higher the culture of the family, therefore, the higher the culture of the entire society. The family is one of the mechanisms of self-organization of society, the work of which is associated with the affirmation of a number of universal human values. Therefore, the family itself has value and is embedded in social progress. The main functions of the family in a traditional society, in addition to population reproduction, are economic, household and social status. The institution of family performs very significant functions in the life of society.

A modern young family is going through a severe crisis and has its own unique characteristics.

Objectively insufficient level of material and financial security. Today, the average per capita income in young families is 1.5 times less than the national average. At the same time, 69% of young families live below the poverty line.

Objectively increased material and financial need due to the need to organize family life: purchasing housing, organizing everyday life.

The time when spouses are forced to go through certain stages of socialization: get an education, a profession, a job.

Necessary psychological adaptation to family life. 18% of young families need psychological counseling.

Unresolved problems of young families and weak government support often lead to family conflicts that contribute to family breakdown. 70% of all divorces occur in the first 5 years of marriage.

Measurements of the state of the modern family show that both in the world and in Russia there is a process of changing the type of family. Unregistered marriage is becoming increasingly common. 43% of young people indicate lack of funds as their main problem; About 70% of young people experience fear of unemployment to one degree or another; The global problem of modern youth is dissatisfaction with a society in which there is no order and no guaranteed future. Russian legislation does not provide for a mechanism to support young families, which is why the only means of maintaining a satisfactory standard of living is the help of parents.

A necessary condition for the improvement of the Russian family is the turn of the state and local authorities to family problems, overcoming the pernicious, corrupting influence on the family.

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Describe the family as a social institution. Basic functions of the family and their characteristics

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