Classification of types of families in Russia. Family in modern Russian society Structure and types of modern family in the Russian Federation

ESSAY


Subject: social science


On the topic "Modern family and modern law"


Completed by a student

Maria Soyuzova


Velikiye Luki


PLAN


INTRODUCTION 3


ESSENCE, STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS

MODERN FAMILY 4


PROBLEMS OF THE MODERN FAMILY 7


FAMILY LAW 9


CONCLUSION 10


REFERENCES 11


INTRODUCTION


The family is a cell of society, therefore, its functioning is influenced by all socio-economic and cultural processes.

Family - a group of related marriages or kinship, which provides for the upbringing of children, and to satisfy other socially significant needs.

The separation of the institution of the family from other institutions of society and its careful study are not accidental.

The family is one of the most ancient social institutions: it arose in the depths of primitive society before classes. The social value of the family is due to its "production and reproduction" of life, the upbringing of children.

Great importance in the family is attached to the role of a woman, since it is on her actions that the moral and social strength, which is the basic foundation of the family, depends.

In most cases, children are part of the family. And this forms another group of relationships in the family.


1. ESSENCE, STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE MODERN FAMILY


At present, there are 40 million families in Russia. Approximately 69% consist of spouses with children. Approximately 300,000 children are left without a father every year.

In essence, the family is a system of relations between husband and wife, parents and children, which has a historically defined organization.

Its main features:

a) marriage or blood relations between all its members;

b) living together in the same room;

c) the total family budget.

The legal side, legal registration is not an indispensable condition here. And other signs are not so clear: how much time you need to live together, how much of the personal budget of each of the family members includes the entire family budget, etc. And this despite the fact that such signs, it would seem, are the most fixed. What then can be said about that subtle system of relationships that turns the family into a special spiritual education.

Paradoxical as it may seem, but it is precisely all this, not so much comprehended by the mind as perceived intuitively, that makes up the core of the family.

A good family is one of the most important components of human happiness. Society is interested in a good, strong family. Although the formation of a family, marriage is 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 obligations in relation to each other, their children, their offspring, and parents. In other words, marriage is a traditional means of family formation and social control.

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

The requirement of 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 manifested in the clash of various interests and opinions depends.

Of particular importance is the moral obligation to educate children. The fulfillment by the family of the function of raising children can be successfully carried out if an atmosphere of friendship, mutual respect, mutual assistance, reasonable demands on children, and respect for work are established in the family.

Only a healthy, prosperous family, the creation of which requires considerable effort and certain personality traits, has a beneficial effect on a person. Unfavorable, however, rather exacerbates, worsens his situation. Many neuroses and other mental illnesses and anomalies have their sources precisely in the family, in relationships between spouses. The family as a social institution goes through a series of stages, the sequence of which develops into a family cycle or family life cycle.

Researchers identify a different number of phases of this cycle, but the main among them are the following:

Marriage - the formation of a family;

The beginning of childbearing is the birth of the first child;

End of childbearing - the birth of the last child;

- "empty nest" - marriage and separation of the last child from the family;

Termination of the existence of the family - the death of one of the spouses.

At each stage, the family has specific social and economic characteristics.

What type of family exists in modern society? In modern conditions, the family is characterized, firstly, by a social class attribute - the family of a worker, an agricultural worker, a representative of intellectual labor, etc.; secondly, urban, rural (by type of population); thirdly, single-ethnic, inter-ethnic (on a national basis); fourthly, by the time of existence (a newlywed family, a young family, a family expecting a child, a family of middle marital age, a family of older marital age, elderly married families, etc.); by the number of family members (childless families, small families, large families, etc.).

As well as incomplete families (in which only one parent with children is represented); separate, simple (or nuclear - from the word nucleus - core); families - spouses with or without children, living separately from their parents and other relatives, they have complete independence and therefore organize their lives as they want (more often - as it happens); complex families (extended) - consisting of representatives of several generations; large families - consisting of three or more married couples. One of the types of family is a family in which the leadership is carried out by one of the spouses - authoritarian or jointly equal - egalitarian. The functions of the family are ways of manifesting its activity; life of the whole family and its individual members. In all societies, the family performed the main functions:

Reproduction of the population (physical and spiritual and moral reproduction of a person in the family);

The educational function is the socialization of the younger generation, maintaining the cultural reproduction of society;

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

Economic - obtaining material resources of 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 responsibility and obligations in relations between spouses, parents and children of older and middle generations;

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

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

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

Emotional - obtaining psychological protection, emotional support, emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychological therapy.

It is known that the baby enters the big world as a biological organism and his main concern at this moment is his own physical comfort. After some time, the child becomes a human being with a set of attitudes and values, with likes and dislikes, goals and intentions, patterns of behavior and responsibility, as well as with a uniquely individual repetition of the world. A person achieves this state through a process called socialization. During this process, the individual becomes a human person. Socialization is the process by which an individual establishes the norms of his group in such a way that through the formation of his own Self, the uniqueness of this individual as a person is manifested. Socialization is a process of unorganized and organized influence of society on an individual with the aim of forming a personality that meets the needs of this society. Each of us knows the feeling when, after an absurd incident, a person with embarrassment imagines how he looks in the eyes of others. He puts himself in their place and imagines what they think of him.

This awareness of the "generalized other" is developed through the processes of "role-taking" and "role-playing". Role taking is an attempt to assume the behavior of a person in a different situation or in a different role. Playing a role is an action associated with actual role behavior, while taking on a role claims to be a game.

In the process of accepting the role of a child, an important point is the presence of a family. The family is one of the most important agents of socialization. In the family, the initial formation of personality takes place. The isolation of the individual, first from the physical world, and then from the social one, is a rather complex process that continues throughout life. The child learns to distinguish between other people by their names. He realizes that the man is the father, the woman is the mother. Thus, gradually, his consciousness moves from names that characterize statuses (for example, the status of a man) to specific names that designate individual individuals, including himself. At the age of about one and a half years, the child begins to use the concept of "I", while realizing that he becomes a separate human being. Continuing to accumulate social experience, the child forms images of various personalities, including the image of his own I. All further formation of a person as a person is the construction of his own I on the basis of constant comparison of himself with other personalities. Thus, the gradual creation of a personality with unique internal qualities and at the same time with perceived qualities common to its social environment, which are comprehended through group communication, is carried out. If a child in childhood was deprived of a human environment and was brought up in an animal environment, then, as the study showed, the perception of such individuals as a separate being in the world around them, they do not have their own I. They completely lack the idea of ​​themselves as a separate, separate being in a number of other similar beings. Moreover, such individuals cannot perceive their difference and similarity with other individuals. In this case, a human being cannot be considered a person.

In the family, the child, in addition, learns behavior patterns. A girl, looking at her mother, learns the behavior of her mother and family member. The girl plays "daughter-mother" and fulfills various roles. The role of a mother, the role of a wife, the role of a family member. Games work out the images of the game "in life". The boy in the family learns, respectively, the role of father, husband. Parents usually try to ensure that only positive qualities are present in the child. Based on this, they carefully (if this is a prosperous family) ensure that the child clearly forms at the initial stage of development the concepts of what is good and what is bad.

Consequently, if a child is deprived of a family, if a child grows up in an orphanage, the child does not develop appropriate behavior patterns. This child is under supervision, but not sufficient for the correct perception of generally accepted rules. Usually for such children, morality and morality practically do not exist as principles to guide their actions. During the period when the child asks a lot of questions, no one can answer them. There are many children in the orphanage, but few teachers. Among the questions that a child asks, more and more often there are also questions: who am I? And why am I needed in this world? In the absence of answers to these questions, the child believes that since no one needs him, no one notices him, which means that everything he does will remain unpunished. The little pranks of such children become a habit, and when the child grows up, he already has clear ideas about what needs to be done in order to deceive, steal, spoil with impunity. These children assert themselves through deviant behavior. From reaching the transitional age, orphans are often attracted by the police. And then sooner or later they get a term in places of detention. But not all children go through this path of development. A child can reach the age of majority without being held criminally liable. He will get an education, and when he reaches twenty or twenty-five years old, he will try to start his own family. But since in childhood the child did not learn the behavior of the parents, difficulties arise in family life. The girl does not know for sure, she has not worked out on an unconscious level how a wife, mother, relative should behave. The same difficulties appear in the young man. The percentage of well-to-do families of this composition is very small.


2. PROBLEMS OF THE MODERN FAMILY


The problems of the modern family are among the most important and urgent. 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. It is no coincidence that when characterizing a family, we increasingly hear the expressions “demographic catastrophe”, “the family will die soon”, calls “save the family”. True, there are also calming judgments: they say that nothing dangerous is happening in the sphere of family relations. There is simply a gradual transition from the outdated family model to a new one that meets the requirements of the modern lifestyle. This is supposedly a normal development of events and there is no reason to worry about this.
Still, there is more than enough reason to worry about the family. The family is indeed in crisis. And the cause of this crisis, if considered in a broad sense, is the general global social changes, the growth of population mobility, urbanization, secularization and others, which lead to the loosening of "family foundations". These and a number of other factors led to the fall of the family as a social institution of society, a change in its place in value orientations. It is known that during the years of Soviet power, the social status of the family was relatively low, although the state had a significant impact on family relations.
During the reform years there was a sharp decline in this status. The economic, social, and moral foundations of the family turned out to be undermined, which accelerated the process of devaluation of the family lifestyle, lifelong marriage, small families, the growth of the prestige of single-bachelor independence, etc.
Over the past one and a half to two decades, there has been a serious reduction in the number of marriages. Many young men marry at a later age.

Attention is drawn to the decline in the birth rate, the growth of small and single-parent families. For a simple replacement of a generation of parents by their children, it is necessary that this coefficient be 2.15 -2.17. The reduction in the birth rate leads to a small number of families. Experts' forecasts show that in the coming decades, the current trend of population decline in Russia will continue.
According to studies, the reproductive choice of spouses is primarily influenced by such factors as intra-family relations, material opportunities, housing conditions, national traditions, and the health of spouses.
Speaking about the reduction in the birth rate, one cannot but say that this process is accompanied by an increase in extramarital births. In rural areas, the proportion of out-of-wedlock births has already exceeded this figure. The number of children born sick has sharply increased in the republic.
The large number of divorces cannot but disturb the public. It is no exaggeration to say that there is a catastrophic increase in divorce rates. The main reasons for divorces are alcohol abuse, domestic disorder of the spouses, adultery, the problem of distribution of household duties, psychological incompatibility. The increase in divorces has led to a significant increase in the number of children left without a parent.

The role of parents in education is weakened. This happens due to employment, congestion with everyday problems, loss of moral guidelines, reassessment of values, and often inability and unwillingness to deal with children, especially fathers.
Over the past decade, the problems of social orphanhood have become even more aggravated, the number of children abandoned by their parents or taken from them by law has increased. There is a growing number of children running away from families due to abuse or lack of understanding. More and more juvenile homeless people, vagrants, beggars appear, juvenile and child crime is growing and feminized.
One cannot but be alarmed by the negative trends in the socio-cultural sphere, the system of education, which have emerged in the last decade and a half. Ideals and moral values ​​are eroded, the production of domestic children's literature and works of art is drastically reduced, television and cinema screens are filled with foreign films, often promoting cruelty, violence, pornography, the number of children's libraries, out-of-school aesthetic institutions is decreasing, many of them operate on a paid basis.
The priority measures facing those who deal with the problems of family relations are the following: firstly, the study of the position of the family in modern society, its functions, lifestyle and the development of specific recommendations for helping the family, improving family relations in general; to ensure the implementation of the federal law of the Russian Federation "On Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation", to seek the implementation by the government of the Russian Federation and local authorities of the legislation, federal and local programs aimed at providing assistance to the family, protecting the rights and interests of children; to achieve full budget financing at the federal and regional local levels of the entire social infrastructure of childhood: education, health care, culture and recreation.


3. FAMILY LAW


The state takes care of the family by taking various state measures to preserve and strengthen the family, its social support, and ensuring the family rights of citizens. The state creates and improves the work of children's institutions; develops a system of social services to help families; establishes benefits for large and low-income families; families raising children with disabilities; foster families; single mothers; pays benefits to citizens with children, and takes other measures for the social protection of the family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood.

In the theory of family law, the family (in the legal sense) is defined as a circle of persons bound by mutual rights and obligations arising from marriage, kinship, adoption or other form of adoption of children for upbringing.

In family law, rights and obligations arise between the following family members: spouses, parents and children, brothers and sisters, grandfather (grandmother) and grandchildren, stepfather (stepmother) and stepsons (stepdaughters), as well as between persons who have adopted children (adoptive parents, guardians (custodians), foster parents, de facto educators), and children adopted by their family. The corresponding rights and obligations arise under the conditions specified in the UK and, as a rule, do not depend on cohabitation or dependency (unlike other branches of law - housing, social security law, etc.). A special place in this case has always been occupied by legal norms and, above all, the law. The dominant position among the legal norms designed to protect the family are the norms of family legislation aimed at strengthening it, establishing such relations in the family in which the interests of the individual would be fully satisfied and the necessary conditions were created to ensure a decent life and free development of each family member. , parenting.

The norms of family law are also designed to ensure the unimpeded exercise of their rights by family members and the protection of these rights in case of their violation, to prevent, in accordance with Art. 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (on the right of citizens to privacy, personal and family secrets) arbitrary interference of someone in family affairs.

Family law does not contain a definition of family legal and legal capacity, but these concepts are of great importance in law enforcement practice when deciding on the admissibility of certain actions, both by citizens themselves and in relation to citizens by various bodies. Family legal capacity is the ability of a person to have family rights and obligations. It arises in a person from the moment of birth, but its volume changes with the age of the subject (for example, the right to marry, adopt a child, and others appear with the age of majority, i.e. 18 years old). Limitation of family legal capacity is possible only in cases and in the manner expressly defined by law (for example, deprivation of parental rights by the court).

Family legal capacity is the ability of a person to create family rights and obligations through his actions. Legal capacity is not a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of family legal relations. The emergence of a number of legal relations occurs regardless of the will of the person (relations between parents and young children (under 14), etc.). The law does not indicate the age at which full family legal capacity arises, since it does not always matter for the emergence of a family legal relationship, and in most cases coincides with the moment of emergence of legal capacity (for example, the possibility of matrimonial legal capacity and legal capacity arises simultaneously with the achievement of marriageable age by a citizen ). The volume of family capacity to a certain extent depends on the volume of civil capacity. So, when a person is deprived of legal capacity by a court due to a mental disorder, he also loses family capacity (for example, he does not have the right to marry, be an adoptive parent, guardian (custodian), foster parent.


CONCLUSION


The institution of the family at the present stage of human development is undergoing major changes. Due to the uncertainty about the future or the financial and economic situation that has not yet been strengthened, the number of actual marriages that are not sealed by official ties is growing. The single-parent family is of particular concern; the number of such families is growing under the influence of a high divorce rate of 30 to 50 to the number of marriages. It is impossible not to pay attention to the creation of same-sex quasi-families, whose civil rights are recognized in a number of states.

For each person, the family performs emotional and recreational functions that protect a person from stressful and extreme situations. The comfort and warmth of a home, the fulfillment of a person's need for trusting and emotional communication, sympathy, empathy, support - all this allows a person to be more resistant to the conditions of modern hectic life.


BIBLIOGRAPHY


L.N. Bogolyubova, A.Yu. Lazebnikov "Man and Society"

Moscow, Publishing House "Prosveshchenie", 1996.

The variety of social problems accompanying the transformations in society today has affected the family to a greater extent, often destabilizing its vital functions and reducing its ability to adapt to new conditions. Society is experiencing an increased need to predict the ways of development of the Russian family, which is destined to live in a new socio-economic situation. In conditions of exacerbation of social problems, the socio-pedagogical problems of the family were clearly exposed. Difficult to solve problems of housing, material prosperity, employment create in the family a feeling of unpredictability of the prospects for their development, lack of awareness in the issues of raising children and socio-pedagogical discomfort. According to the State Statistics Committee, up to 85% of families daily feel the pressure of one or another urgent problem. Assistance to certain categories of families does not solve the problem of the nation today, since the number of problems for the other, larger part of the population, not included in the sphere of privileged categories, is growing faster than their own educational potential.

In an environment of dynamism of emerging socio-pedagogical problems in the family, the measures taken for its social support are late, and often remain unfulfilled due to the fact that the goals of the activities of specialists in various fields are not always focused on effective support for the family, and their implementation is hindered by organizational and personnel insecurity . The implementation of various problems of families in difficult life situations depends on the effectiveness of the current system of measures of social and pedagogical support, which is focused not only on solving these problems, but also on strengthening and developing the internal potential of families to perform their own socially significant functions.

Social and pedagogical support as a type of activity is aimed at helping a family in a difficult life situation, based on the activation of its social participation. However, the positive possibilities of socio-pedagogical support are used too little. Until now, the theoretical and methodological foundations of the socio-pedagogical support of the family have not been sufficiently developed, there are discrepancies in determining its essence and content.

Socio-psychological model of family relations reflects the typology) of families, the structure, forms, styles of education, as well as the problems of the modern family. Researchers define it as a historically specific system of relationships between spouses, between parents and children; as a small group whose members are connected by marriage or kinship, common life and mutual moral responsibility; as a social necessity, which is due to the need of society for the physical and spiritual reproduction of the population.

Family relations are governed by the norms of morality and law. They are based on marriage - a legitimate recognition of the relationship between a man and a woman, which is accompanied by the birth of children and responsibility for the physical and moral health of family members. Important conditions for the existence of a family are joint activities and a certain spatial localization - housing, house, property as the economic basis of its life, as well as a general cultural environment within the framework of the common culture of a certain people, confessions, state. Thus, the family is a community of people based on a single family-wide activity, connected by ties of matrimony - parenthood - kinship (blood and spiritual), carrying out the reproduction of the population and the continuity of family generations, as well as the socialization of children and support for family members. The forms of families are diverse, their typology depends on the subject of study. The most typical modern models of families: monogamous family, polygamous, nuclear family, extended family, patriarchal (traditional) family, incomplete, maternal families, alternative families.

The following types of social and axiological orientation of the family are distinguished:

  • 1) socially progressive (support for the values ​​of society, unity of views, good interpersonal relations);
  • 2) contradictory (lack of unity of views, relationships at the level of struggle of some tendencies with others);
  • 3) antisocial (contradiction of value ideals with the ideals of society).

Distinguish also the capacity and activity of the family. The capacity of a family can be: limited (due to psychosomatic, age-related characteristics, its members are not able to independently earn a livelihood and fit into the system of social relations - pensioners, disabled people).

The psychological structure of the modern family includes the family system as a single entity with certain features of functioning and development. Structurally, any nuclear family includes four main groups of subsystems. The first consists of individuals - family members; the second is formed by the husband-wife dyad; the third - siblings (brothers, sisters); the fourth - dyads parent - child. The subsystems of each group have certain boundaries, needs and expectations. A well-balanced family system is able to meet the needs of all its subsystems. In addition, the family must interact with various elements of the supersystem - other significant persons for it: friends, neighbors, representatives of society. On fig. Figure 2 shows the interaction between the various systemic elements of the family and its external environment.

Family counselors working with a nuclear family should be able to assess the features of its structural organization. A family, as a rule, arises at the moment when two people form a marriage union (although its different variants are possible). Each person, entering into marriage, brings into it his own ideas and expectations.

Rice. 2.

about how family relationships should be built.

At first, the main reasons for the rapprochement of spouses are the feeling of comfort and satisfaction that they experience in each other's company. Gradually, a married couple forms a certain system of relationships with unique style features that give her a sense of emotional and social well-being. Even before the appearance of children in the family, spouses, as a rule, have time to realize the needs that unite them, as well as to understand the requirements that the social environment makes of them.

With the advent of a new member in the family, i.e. child, intra-family relations, forms of communication and behavior of spouses must change to a certain extent. The dyadic union turns into a triadic one, involving communication between three people, the child has his own needs and style of behavior. The flexibility that characterizes the relationship of the spouses determines their ability to adapt to the child. If his temperament and style of behavior are compatible with the corresponding characteristics of the parents, their adaptation to the child proceeds successfully. If there are pronounced differences between the temperament and behavior of the child and the corresponding characteristics and expectations of the parents, the mother and father experience mental discomfort, and problems arise in their relationship with the child. This probability is higher in cases where the relationship of the spouses is unstable and if the husband and wife are unable to resolve the problems of their relationship on their own. Then often these unresolved problems are reflected in the relationship with the child. The only form of maintaining a good relationship between spouses is the participation of both in the care of the child.

If another child appears in the family, another subsystem is formed - siblings(brothers, sisters). Sibling relationships are unlike any other relationship that characterizes other subsystems. Sometimes, when siblings compete with each other or are in very close relationships, parents can experience difficult feelings. However, if the family is distinguished by a balanced relationship between all its members, parents usually adapt quite easily to the sibling subsystem. In addition, such families use the sibling subsystem as one of their resources. In contrast to the options when parents try to interfere in the relationship of siblings, this, as a rule, upsets the balance of this subsystem. If parents do not provide siblings with the opportunity to independently resolve conflicts that arise between them or, trying to influence their relationship, give preference to one of them, when they do not take into account the seniority of one child over another and shift responsibility from the older child to the younger, all this leads to an increase in family disharmony.

Due to this, as a rule, it is possible to determine the imbalance of intra-family relations. In order to better appreciate the variety of reactions of all family members to each other, it is very important for a counseling psychologist, psychotherapist to have the opportunity to communicate with them. It is impossible to understand the causes of emotional and behavioral disorders in a child without understanding the pressure that he experiences from his brothers, sisters and parents. If the counselor, trying to influence a problem child, enters into an alliance with the parents and does not take into account the influence and role of other siblings, it is highly likely that the TS will make all the efforts of the psychologist and parents in vain.

Structural organization of the family such that the distribution of roles among its members ensures their best functioning. The nature of the distribution of roles is greatly influenced by family values ​​and norms.

Distribution of family roles largely depends on the relationship between representatives of various subsystems, it is largely determined by the conditions of education of the parents themselves. The distribution of roles is always associated with values ​​and ideas about how family members should behave. There are two ways to assign roles. In some cases, the role is assigned to a person automatically, taking into account his gender and age; it can be the role of mother, father, son or daughter. In other cases, roles are chosen based on the social position and personal characteristics of a person - this applies to the roles of a leader, follower, "scapegoat", etc. The combination of prescribed and chosen roles in a particular family forms a certain set of them and reflects the family structure. Each family member behaves in accordance with a certain system of roles and can simultaneously play several roles. Roles can both limit a person and contribute to his personal growth and development. The roles of family members fall into three main levels:

  • 1) individual roles at the family level;
  • 2) roles at the level of subsystems: for example, at the level of the parent-child subsystem, sibling subsystems, etc.;
  • 3) the roles that the family as a whole plays in society.

Family norms - generated set of installations

and expectations, regulating the behavior of spouses and significantly influencing the behavior of individual family members and the entire family system. These norms largely determine the nature of the culture of the family, as well as what behavior its members consider right or wrong, thereby performing the function of social control.

System of values consists of social, family and individual values, is the result of its cultural identification and the integration of family members' value systems, which are determined by their life experiences. Society dictates to the family what it should do, what structure it should have, how its members should behave. Family subsystems, supersystems, roles, norms and values ​​are those characteristics of the family that help to understand the features of the family structure. All of them allow the specialist to draw a portrait of the family, and thanks to this, the counseling psychologist determines the treatment strategy and ways to increase the functional capabilities of the family.

  • For more details, see § 1 of this textbook.

There are many different options for the composition, or structure, of the family:

    the "nuclear family" consists of a husband, wife and their children;

    "replenished family" - an enlarged union in its composition: a married couple and their children, plus parents of other generations, such as grandparents, uncles, aunts, living all together or in close proximity to each other and making up the structure of the family;

    a "mixed family" is a "reorganized" family formed as a result of the marriage of divorced people. A blended family includes step-parents and step-children, since children from a previous marriage merge into a new family unit;

    A “single parent family” is a household run by one parent (mother or father) due to divorce, the departure or death of a spouse, or because the marriage never took place (Levi D., 1993).

A.I. Antonov and V.M. Medkov is distinguished by composition:

    nuclear families, which are currently the most common and consist of parents and their children, that is, from two generations. In a nuclear family, there are no more than three nuclear positions (father-husband, mother-wife, son-brother, or daughter-sister);

    extended families are a family that unites two or more nuclear families with a common household and consists of three or more generations - grandparents, parents and children (grandchildren).

A.E. Lichko (Lichko A.E., 1979) developed the following classification of families:

    Structural composition:

    complete family (there is a mother and father);

    incomplete family (there is only a mother or father);

    a distorted or deformed family (the presence of a stepfather instead of a father or a stepmother instead of a mother).

Functional features:

  • harmonious family;

    disharmonious family.

The family, like any system, implements a number of functions in a hierarchy that reflects both the specifics of it, the family, cultural and historical development, and the originality of the stages of its life cycle:

    economic (material and production), household. In pre-industrial society, the family was the primary production group, providing for itself all the basic material conditions of existence or creating products for exchange. At present, the economic function of the family is determined by the pooling of the incomes of its members and the distribution of these incomes for consumption in accordance with the needs of each family member. The household function is realized in the form of organizing the life of the family and the personal life of each of its members. The distribution of household duties and their content are determined by the historical era, living conditions, family composition and the stage of its life cycle;

    reproductive(childbirth and reproduction of the population). A.G. Kharchev considers this function the most important social function of the family, which ensures the reproduction of the country's population. The importance of the reproductive function of the family was recognized by society as early as ancient Rome, where, under the reign of Emperor Augustus, laws were issued that stimulated the birth of children in the families of Roman citizens [Zatsepin, 1991]. Solving the problems of fertility planning and population reproduction is an important function of state policy in almost all countries, regardless of whether they are faced with the problem of a fertility crisis and a “deficit” of human productive resources or, on the contrary, the need to limit the birth rate;

    child-rearing function. The family acts as an institution for the primary socialization of the child. It ensures the continuity of the development of society, the continuation of the human race, the connection of times. It is known that upbringing in the family, emotionally positive full-fledged communication of the child with a close adult determines the harmonious development of the child in the early years. With the age of the child, the educational function of the family does not lose its significance, but only the tasks, means, tactics of education, forms of cooperation and cooperation with parents change. At present, it is the upbringing of children that is regarded as the most important social function of the family;

    sexual and erotic. Only selective, stable sexual relations with a permanent partner, acting as a unique and inimitable personality, create the conditions for achieving the most complete sexual harmony of partners;

    function of spiritual communication, assuming spiritual mutual enrichment of family members; information exchange; discussion of the most significant problems for the individual in socio-political, professional, public life; communication in the context of the perception of literary and artistic works of art, music; creation of conditions for personal and intellectual growth of family members;

    function of emotional support and acceptance, providing a sense of security and belonging to a group, emotional understanding and empathy, or the so-called psychotherapeutic function. In the modern family, another aspect of this function is the formation of a person's need for self-expression and self-actualization;

    recreational (restorative)- the function of providing conditions for the restoration of neuropsychic health and mental stability of family members;

    the function of social regulation, control and guardianship(in relation to minors and incompetent family members) [Zatsepin, 1991; Eidemiller, Justickis, 1999].

Topic of my essay - "Family and marriage. Essence, structure, functions, problems of the modern family”.

In my essay, I will talk about what a family is, about the types of family organization, family law, consider the types of family relationships, family functions and the current difficult demographic situation in Russia, and present the results of my sociological research.

The object of my research is young people - residents of the city of Polevskoy.

As a result of my work, I plan to draw the following conclusions:

1. Reasons why young people get married

2. Reasons for frequent divorce among young families.


Introduction

A family. How many debates are being held about it today on the pages of newspapers and magazines, what different, sometimes directly opposite opinions are expressed ...

Speaking in the language of a sociologist or demographer, a family is a small group of people united by kinship and marital ties, a common budget, and, as a rule, common housing. But this is only a theoretical scheme. In reality, each family is closely connected with the society in which it lives, with its economy, politics, culture, landmarks, and the mood of people.

The family acts as an object of sociological research and is dealt with by a separate branch of sociology - the sociology of the family, which studies the formation, development and functioning of the family, marriage and family relations in specific cultural and socio-economic conditions.

Family as an object of sociological research

The family is a more complex system of relations than marriage, since, as a rule, it unites not only spouses, but also their children, as well as other relatives or just those close to spouses and the people they need.

Marriage is a historically conditioned, sanctioned and regulated by society form of relations between a man and a woman, establishing their rights and obligations in relation to each other, their children, their offspring, and parents.

In other words marriage is the traditional means of family formation and social control. Only a healthy, prosperous family, the creation of which requires considerable effort and certain personality traits, has a beneficial effect on a person. A family is an alloy of three loves: marital, parental and childish. Love is inseparable from duty, fidelity, self-discipline, community of interests and goals, responsibility, mutual respect. There are the following general principles for distinguishing types of family organization and families. Depending on the form of marriage, monogamy and polygamy are distinguished. A monogamous family is one where there is one wife for one man, in contrast to polygamy, which is interpreted as polygamy. Depending on the structure of family ties, different types of families are distinguished. The most common type is a simple (nuclear) family, which is a married couple with unmarried children. At present, simple families with or without children predominate in our country. Complicated families, consisting of two or more married couples, make up 4.3% of all families in the CIS countries. The family as a social institution goes through a number of stages, the sequence of which develops into a family cycle or family life cycle. Researchers identify a different number of phases of this cycle, but the main ones are the following: 1) marriage - the formation of a family; 2) the beginning of childbearing - the birth of the first child; 3) the end of childbearing - the birth of the last child; 4) marriage and separation from family of the last child; 5) termination of the existence of the family - the death of one of the spouses. The type of family is determined by the following criteria: on a national basis (single-ethnic, multinational); - by the time of existence; - by the number of family members; In addition, family types are distinguished according to special conditions of family life, for example, a student family, a family of artists, etc. The union of a man and a woman must satisfy not only biological needs, but also emotional, moral and intellectual needs. The best age for marriage is considered to be between 20 and 24 years old. t. Before entering into marriage, you need to assess the community of vital interests, the level of development, the seriousness of intentions and the depth of respect and love for each other. It is necessary to begin to develop the qualities of a caring attitude towards each other even before marriage, during the period of acquaintance. Only on this basis can a normal family life be built. Marriage is concluded in the civil registry offices.
The main document of family law is the Family Code of the Russian Federation. Family law establishes the conditions and procedure for marriage, termination of marriage and its invalidation, regulates personal non-property and property relations between family members: spouses, parents and children, between other relatives and other persons, and also determines the forms and procedure for placing children left without parental care in a family. Family relations Family relationships are of great importance for people's health. A favorable moral and psychological climate of the family has a positive effect on the health of its members. Statistics show that in such families people get sick less and live longer. In general, in order to ensure compatibility with other people, a person must have three main qualities of character: the ability to be critical of oneself, tolerance and trust in others. Family functions and their relationship The family performs a number of functions, both social and
individual character. I will call them:

Sphere of family activity public functions Individual Functions
reproductive Biological reproduction of society Satisfying the needs of children
Educational Socialization of the younger generation Satisfying parenting needs.
Household Maintaining the physical health of members of society, caring for children Obtaining 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
The scope of primary social control Moral regulation of the behavior of family members in various areas, responsibility and obligations of parents to children Formation and maintenance of legal and moral sanctions for violation of social norms in public life and family relations
The sphere of spiritual communication Personal development of family members Spiritual mutual enrichment of family members
Social status Granting social status to family members. Reproduction of social structure Satisfying the need for social promotion
Leisure Organization of rational leisure. Social control in leisure Satisfying needs for joint leisure activities
emotional Emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychological therapy Individuals receive psychological protection, emotional support in the family. Satisfying the need for personal happiness and love
Sexy sexual control Satisfaction of sexual needs
In a full-fledged normal family, all these functions are interconnected. The current demographic situation. family crisis The demographic situation is the most acute problem of modern Russia. It is no coincidence that this problem was given considerable attention in his
Address to the Federal Assembly Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. “On average, the number of inhabitants of our country is decreasing by 700 thousand people every year”, - he said. To solve this problem, the following has been proposed: 1) reducing mortality due to - strengthening control of road safety; - suppressing the import of surrogate alcoholic products into the country; - identifying, preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases; 2) implementing an effective migration policy due to: - attracting from - abroad of our compatriots, it is better if they are qualified, educated and law-abiding citizens; 3) an increase in the birth rate due to: - an increase in the amount of cash benefits to mothers until the child reaches the age of one and a half years, and the amount of the allowance increases with an increase in the number of children; - compensation for costs for preschool education, and, just as in the first case, the amount of compensation increases with an increase in the number of children; - material support for families taking care of orphans; - an increase in the cost of birth certificates; - payment of a one-time allowance to mothers in the amount of 250 thousand rubles. implementation of all of the above it will take a lot of work and a lot of money. In modern conditions, the crisis of the family as a social institution of society is becoming more and more noticeable, the way out of which is still unclear. The crisis is expressed in the fact that the family is worse and worse in realizing its main functions: the organization of married life, the birth and upbringing of children, the reproduction of the population and labor force. The reasons for such a crisis are common to all industrial states, they are a product of industrial civilization. The family is especially sensitive to all kinds of reformatory changes on a national scale, for example, unemployment, rising prices, etc. In addition to the decline in the birth rate, there is also such a negative: as an increase in the number of divorces. The negative consequences of divorces are considered: the deterioration of the upbringing of children, the increase in the incidence of their mental illness, the alcoholism of parents, the destruction of blood ties, the deterioration of the financial situation, disharmony in the reproduction of the population.
Practical part Sociologists point out that in today's society, most young people get married without considering their decision as seriously as the issue requires. Many people think that having received a passport, they can consider themselves adults and live according to their own rules and principles, regardless of their parents. Not only do some of them marry before reaching the age of majority, but without the consent of their parents. After living for some time, young families get divorced. The practical part of my work consisted in conducting a sociological study on the topic of marriage and family. In the process of research, I had to solve the following tasks: 1. Find out the main reason for marriage; 2. Investigate the specifics of attitudes towards marriage on the part of girls and boys; 3. Find out the reasons for the dissolution of marriages. The object of my research was students of the 11th grade of school No. 4 and the 10th grade of school No. 13 in Polevskoy, selected at random. The total number of respondents was 60 people. The subject of my research was the attitude of high school students to marriage. I developed a questionnaire with possible answers. A sample questionnaire, as well as the results of the analysis of the sociological study, for ease of perception, designed in the form of diagrams, are presented in the appendix. So, survey results showed that the number of those who have a positive attitude towards marriage is 90% of all respondents. The remaining 10% have not thought about it yet. A good result is that there were no negative attitudes towards marriage among the respondents, a number of conclusions can be drawn about this. When asked about the attitude towards marriage with partners of other nationalities, the opinion was divided as follows: 37% of the respondents answered that they were not interested , and 55% answered that this is not the main thing for them. The rest of the respondents (namely 8%) found it difficult to answer. The reason, in my opinion, is that many have not yet thought about and talked with their parents on this topic. 81% of respondents consider love to be the main reason for marriage. I received a very interesting answer to the 12th question: “When did you meet your first love ". At the same time, 42% answered that at school, 45% of respondents had not yet met their love. A small part of the first love met in kindergarten (13%). None of the respondents is married. This does not mean that they did not find a suitable candidate, but simply that the majority consider it necessary to first complete their studies at school, then continue their education further, and only then marry. This sociological study shows that the marriageable age suitable for the majority of respondents is 20- 30 years old, 83% of girls and 87% of boys answered this way, but there was an exception - 13.3% of boys answered - from 30 years and older. this issue is treated differently, the social status is not of interest to only 30% of the girls surveyed; 50% of the girls answered that it might be better, but not at all. None of the girls answered that the social status of the boys matters to them; in contrast to young men, of whom 27% answered this way. The head of the family, according to the girls, should be both, 67% of the respondents answered this way, the young men have a different point of view - they believe that the husband should be the head of the family, 67% answered this way. Note that none of the respondents believe that a woman should be the head of the family. The main reason for divorce, according to the respondents, is treason, 42% of respondents answered this way. According to girls, both should earn money, 83% think so. Young men (60%) are of the opinion that a man should earn money. Note that none of the respondents believes that a woman should earn money. Among the respondents, 89% believe that the most acceptable age for marriage is 20-30 years, and only a small part (8%) consider the age of 30 years to be the most acceptable. and older. It is positive that only 3% indicated for this age from 16-20 years. Young people have different attitudes towards marriage at an early age: 29% believe that this is normal, 23% believe that early marriages are not long-term, 28% have a negative attitude, the rest (20%) found it difficult to answer.
conclusions The main objective of my research was to find out the reasons why young people get married at an early age, and why young people believe that divorces occur frequently. Of the students surveyed, the majority take marriage very seriously. Almost all respondents unanimously named the main reason for frequent divorces - treason. Divorce data is confirmed by official statistics provided by the registry office of the city of Polevsky. According to the data for the first quarter of 2006, compared to the same period of 2005, 122 couples got married in our city
(in 2005 - 125 couples) and divorced 77 (in 2005 - 81) In conclusion, I would like to say why I chose this topic of the essay. Family and marriage is an eternal theme, as well as the theme of the relationship between Man and Woman, as well as the theme of Love. The concept of family is relevant at all times. And whoever says something there that you can do without a family - I do not agree with this statement. A family is needed. For happiness, moral and physical health of a person. The family is associated with dear and close to the heart concepts such as Good, Comfort, Home, Mother. The family gives support to feelings, dreams, hopes, helps to implement life plans. It prepares a person for life in society, teaches you to work, create, love your work, bring your plans to the end. The family is necessary not only for a person, but also for society. It contributes to the improvement of social relations, education of the younger generation.

Demographers associate the main trends characterizing the type of modern family that has dominated Europe and the United States since the mid-1960s with changes in the value system, primarily with the growth of individualism and rationalism. This is manifested in a decrease in the number of marriages, the spread of cohabitation, a decline in the birth rate and its “aging”, the predominance of small families, as well as an increase in the number of illegitimate children and the spread of voluntary childlessness.

If the classical family (father-breadwinner and mother-housewife who lived in marriage from youth to old age and raised several children) determined the fate of a person, then the modern family is one of the projects that a person carries out throughout his life. According to the famous English sociologist E. Giddens, this is associated with the changing role of tradition in the life of a modern person, and in the sphere of intimate life it is expressed by a change in the ideal of love. The romantic ideal, which assumed the preservation of marital relations throughout life and the economic dependence of a woman on a man, is gradually being replaced by the ideal of a “pure relationship”. In them, the value of intimacy comes first, which implies emotional openness to each other and an equal “exchange” of emotions. “Pure relationships”, unlike romantic ones, are not, in principle, built for the purpose of marriage or even cohabitation. A life together based on such relationships continues only as long as there is mutual, emotional satisfaction, openness and trust in each other.

The modern family is characterized by the uncertainty of gender and parent-child relationships. The central point of contradictions in it (sometimes such a family is called post-modern) is the presence of strong centrifugal tendencies. Each member of the family strives to meet their individual goals, while blurring the norms that hold relationships together that were clearly spelled out in the traditional family. Such norms determined that the economic contribution of the male father was the basis of his family headship and that the duty of the female mother was to run the household and look after the children. In the modern family, on the contrary, everything is an object of discussion: parenthood, sexuality, the distribution of household work and finances. This makes the relationship more fragile and conflict. As men, women, and children are no longer guided by patriarchal subordination, their emotional needs and individual aspirations come to the fore.

Most researchers agree that today there is no single, normative family model. In Russia, in the last one and a half to two decades, the Soviet family model (“working mother”), which was more or less uniform for all segments of the population, has been replaced by the choice of family models. The results of sociological studies reveal an increase in the age at first marriage, postponement of marriage, and an increase in unregistered cohabitations. Someone regretfully states that the family in Russia is going through a deep crisis. Someone enthusiastically announces that we are moving towards a civilized Western society. One thing is certain: the family is changing and these changes are so significant that it is impossible not to notice them.

In its development, the family is rapidly moving from having many children and having medium-sized children to having few children. The birth rate has fallen sharply, especially in recent years. In many regions of Russia, the death rate exceeded the birth rate. Now we have a one-child family. Having one child often negatively affects the character of the child, his personal qualities and, in general, child-parent relations, especially when there are grandparents in the family. The new structure of the family is determined by a clearly manifested process of its nuclearization. From 50 to 70% of young spouses want to live separately from their parents, which entails both positive and negative aspects. On the one hand, a young family acquires independence and responsibility earlier, and the process of adaptation of young spouses to each other is easier. But, on the other hand, a young family is often deprived of the systematic help of parents, which they need, especially during the birth of a child.

In the family, there is an active process of egalitarianization and democratization of intra-family relations. In an egalitarian family, relations between spouses, parents and children are most often built on the basis of partnership, as well as the recognition of each family member, including the child, not only duties, but also the right to autonomy, initiative and freedom. In a modern family, spouses make more serious demands on each other in moral and psychological terms compared to a traditional family. Both husband and wife need understanding, respect, attention, care, support and tolerance in relation to each other, which is associated with the need to satisfy the emotional needs of the individual. The family becomes biarchal, i.e. such a family, which is based on the fair equality of two.

The democratization of relations in the family first of all changes the system of role relations between husband and wife. There is a transition from the complementarity of husband and wife, when certain duties and functions are rigidly assigned to each of them, to interchangeability, when everything is built on the principle of help and support. There is a redistribution of power in the family. The democratization of marital relations is faster in young families where the spouses are less than 40 years old. In families with a long family history, most often the relationship between spouses remains patriarchal. More and more difficult is the process of democratization of relations between generations. Many more parents adhere to authoritarian methods of education, using orders, categorical demands and prohibitions without much explanation, as well as physical punishment.

The development of a modern family is characterized by an increase in divorces. Divorce is no longer scary. Public opinion began to perceive it as a normal phenomenon, and in some situations even as beneficial. The causes of this process are often the inability to adapt and the rudeness of the spouses, as well as alcoholism.

In the modern world, completely new types of families have appeared. If in a socialist society, according to the criterion of professional activity, there were three social types of families: workers, collective farmers and intelligentsia, then in modern realities there has been a sharp economic stratification of society. Elite families, middle-class families, poor families, etc. appeared. On the basis of empirical data, one can also speak about different forms of the family. In the XX century. Along with families consisting of spouses with and without children, a number of non-traditional family models have become widespread. alternative complete families are single-parent families. Incomplete family - result of widowhood or divorce. Moreover, if in the first half of the XX century. incomplete families were mainly the result of widowhood, then from the second half - divorce. The divorce rate in relation to marriages is increasing all the time. This trend confirms the new features of family life - the presence of children is less and less an obstacle to divorce.

Recently, families alternative to marriage have become widespread. First of all, this is extramarital cohabitation, when spouses, living together and running a common household, do not register their marriage or register it when a child may appear or has already appeared. We note another peculiar form of marriage - the so-called Godwin marriage, which involves the separation of spouses. William Godwin, an English anarcho-socialist, argued that the cohabitation of spouses is an evil that prevents their independent development due to the imperfection of people, as well as the difference in their inclinations and needs. With this model of the family, the possibility of real equality of spouses, as well as ensuring the spiritual space and everyday emancipation of women, is associated.

With the advent of the “new Russians”, another model of an alternative family became widespread, which the Serbian lawyer M. Bosanac called the “concubinage family”, meaning the ability of a man to live in an official marriage and at the same time have a parallel union with another woman who has an illegitimate marriage from him child, or, maintaining an informal relationship with the first wife, legalize marriage with a former concubine. In other words, a man has a family with a child, as well as a mistress who has a child from him.

At present, according to the famous Russian sociologist S.I. Hunger, we can say that the family in its development enters the stage of marriage. Husband and wife have always formed the basis of the family and were spouses, but their union was either economic, or reproductive, or educational, but not matrimony. matrimony it represents the personal interaction of husband and wife, regulated by moral principles and supported by values ​​immanent to him. The principles that underlie it are being implemented as a result of social changes accompanied by the individualization of men (expansion of selectivity, growth of internal responsibility and autonomy from social communities), as well as the spread of these qualities to women, which would be impossible without their economic and civil emancipation. Family-marriage contributes to personal development, which is carried out through the disclosure of the individual identity of each of the spouses. Relations between spouses are determined in it not by kinship (as in a patriarchal family) and not by the birth of children (as in a child-centric family), but by property. Husband and wife do not unconditionally subordinate their interests to the interests of children, and their relationship is based on eroticism, understood as the key moment of the new family. Within the boundaries of one family type, various relations arise between the sexes and generations, and wide opportunities are created for the self-realization of each individual.

Recently, in the family, relations between husband and wife were built on the principle of interchangeability, where there was no rigid consolidation of duties. But at the same time, there is a trend associated with the traditionalization of family roles: a man is assigned the role of a breadwinner, a breadwinner, and a woman is assigned the role of a keeper of the family hearth, a mother. This is due to two points: firstly, rich men who have appeared in society can comfortably support their families, and the wife becomes the mistress of the house; secondly, the reduction in production primarily affected women, leaving them without work. Pre-school institutions that are closing everywhere are being replaced by fully maternal care. The service sector, having become expensive, is compensated by the ever-expanding household duties for women, tying them to the family.

The economic situation in the country leads to the stratification of society, which is expressed in the appearance of rich, middle-income and poor families. Among families with a married couple and one or two children, the proportion of low-income families has greatly increased due to the insufficiently high earnings of parents (public sector), their exclusion from market economic structures, as well as paid education and health care. The economic disadvantage of the family affects primarily children, who do not receive much of what they need. From an early age, children from poor families are deprived of the opportunity to receive the necessary education and achieve a high professional level. In such families, the main task is to survive in this situation. Material problems, having become the main ones in the family, destroy its humanistic essence. This is manifested primarily in the formalization of family relations, when family life is based on the fulfillment of duties without any special mental costs, only material problems are emphasized, and there is a lack of warmth, care and attention in communication. Formalization of relations is accompanied by emotional rejection of spouses from each other, and parents from children. Sociologists, psychologists, and educators are exploring the possibilities of optimizing crisis relationships between parents and children and developing positive socialization of adolescents even in the most difficult life situations.

All-children are not only born, they are brought up. The main task of the family is the formation of moral principles in the child. It is the family that should create such an atmosphere in which the child develops the ability to regret, sympathize and empathize with another person. This is facilitated by three types of family love: marital, parental and childish. Intertwined with each other, they create a special, child-friendly atmosphere. But the psychological discomfort currently experienced by the family is deforming the relationships that are developing in it, having a negative impact on its stability and educational potential.

History has not yet given an alternative to the family. The inviolability of the institution of the family is not questioned by any researcher. Public opinion polls both in the West and in Russia show that the family is perceived as one of the main values ​​of life and as a condition for a happy life. Moreover, the stability or instability of public life, as well as the health of the nation, is directly dependent on the state of the family. A collapsing family is one of the conditions for the degradation of society.

test questions

  • 1. What are the biological prerequisites for the emergence of a family?
  • 2. What is the definition of marriage?
  • 3. What is meant by group marriage?
  • 4. What is the meaning of the concepts "exogamy" and "endogamy"?
  • 5. What is polyandry and polygyny?
  • 6. What is polygamy and monogamy?
  • 7. What are the characteristics of a pair marriage?
  • 8. What are the economic, psychological and social prerequisites for the emergence of a family?
  • 9. What is the essence of the family?
  • 10. Which family is called nuclear and which is called extended?
  • 11. What are the characteristics of a patriarchal family?
  • 12. What is a harem?
  • 13. What is feminism?
  • 14. What is the essence of an egalitarian family?
  • 15. What is a biarchy family?
  • 16. What is meant by cohabitation?
  • 17. What are the characteristics of a Godwin marriage?
  • 18. What is a concubinage family?
  • 19. What is meant by marriage?
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