Family as a social institution, family typology. Family as a social institution: types, functions. Stages of family development

One of the most important social institutions of culture is the institution of family. Traditionally, a family is an association of people based on marriage and consanguinity, bound by a common life and mutual responsibility. Initially, the basis of family relationships is marriage.
Marriage is a historically changing social form of relations between a woman and a man, through which society orders and sanctions them sex life and establishes their conjugal and kinship rights and obligations.
But the family, as a rule, represents a more complex system of relationships than marriage, since it can unite not only spouses, but also their children, as well as other relatives. Therefore, the family should be considered not just as a marriage group, but also as a social cultural institution, that is, a system of connections, interactions and relationships of individuals that perform the functions of reproduction of the human race and regulate all connections, interactions and relationships based on certain values and norms subject to extensive social control through a system of positive and negative sanctions.
The family as a social cultural institution goes through a number of stages (family cycle or family life cycle) 1) marriage - formation of a family; 2) the beginning of childbearing - the birth of the 1st child; 3) the end of childbearing - the birth of the last child; 4) “empty nest” - marriage and separation of the last child from the family; 5) cessation of the existence of a family - the death of one of the spouses. At each stage, the family has specific social and economic characteristics.
The family as a social institution in various cultures accepts various shapes. Types of family organization. Depending on the form of marriage, monogamous and polygamous families are distinguished. A monogamous family provides for the existence of a married couple - husband and wife, while a polygamous family - either the husband or wife has the right to have several wives or husbands. (Depending on the structure of kinship ties, a simple, nuclear, or complex, extended type of family is distinguished. A nuclear family is a married couple with unmarried children. If some of the children are married, then an extended or complex family is formed, including two or more generations.
The family as a social cultural institution arose with the formation of society. The process of family formation and functioning is determined by value-normative regulators. Such, for example, as courtship, choosing a marriage partner, sexual standards of behavior, norms that guide husband and wife, parents and children, etc., as well as sanctions for non-compliance. These values, norms and sanctions represent the historically changing form of relations between a man and a woman accepted in a given society, through which they regulate and sanction their sexual lives and establish their marital, parental and other kinship rights and responsibilities.
At the first stages of the development of society, relations between men and women, older and younger generations were regulated by tribal and clan customs, which were syncretic norms and patterns of behavior based on religious and moral ideas. With the emergence of the state, regulation family life has acquired a legal character. Legal registration of marriage imposed certain obligations not only on the spouses, but also on the state sanctioning their union. From now on, social control and sanctions were carried out not only by public opinion, but also by government agencies.
F-ii. Main family f reproductive, i.e. biological reproduction of the population on a social level and satisfying the need for children on a personal level.
social functions:
a) educational - socialization of the younger generation, maintaining the cultural reproduction of society;
b) household services - maintaining the physical health of members of society, caring for children and elderly family members,
c) economic - obtaining material resources from some family members for others, economic support for minors and disabled members of society;
d) the sphere of primary social control - moral regulation of the behavior of family members in various spheres of life, as well as regulation of responsibilities and obligations in relations between spouses, parents and children, representatives of the older and middle generations;
e) spiritual communication - personal development of family members, spiritual mutual enrichment;
f) social status - providing a certain social status to family members, reproduction social structure;
g) leisure - organization of rational leisure, mutual enrichment of interests;
h) emotional - receiving psychological protection, emotional support, emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychological therapy.
In modern society, there is a process of weakening of the family as a social institution, a change in its social functions, and non-role family relationships. The family is losing its leading position in the socialization of individuals, in organizing leisure time and other important functions. Traditional roles, in which the woman ran the household, gave birth and raised children, and the husband was the owner, often the sole owner of the property, and ensured the economic independence of the family, have been replaced by role ones, in which the overwhelming majority of women in countries with Christian and Buddhist cultures began to participate in industrial, political activities, economic support for the family and take equal, and sometimes leading, participation in family decision-making. This significantly changed the nature of family functioning and entailed a number of positive and negative consequences for society of consequences. On the one hand, it contributed to the growth of women’s self-awareness and equality in marital relations; on the other hand, it aggravated the conflict situation and affected demographic behavior, leading to a decrease in the birth rate and an increase in the mortality rate.
The family is analyzed as an institution when it is especially important to find out the compliance (or non-compliance) of the family’s lifestyle and its functions with modern social needs. The model of the family as a social institution is very important for predicting changes in the family and trends in its development. When analyzing the family as a social institution, researchers are primarily interested in patterns of family behavior, family roles, features of formal and informal norms and sanctions in the sphere of marriage and family relations.
The family is considered as a small social group when the relationships between individuals in the family are studied. This approach successfully explores the motives for marriage, the causes of divorce, the dynamics and nature of marital relationships and the relationship between parents and children. Although it must be taken into account that group behavior is influenced by socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions.
Currently, there are sufficient prerequisites for raising the question of integrating institutional and group approaches for the sociological study of the family as a social system (M.S. Matskovsky). The legitimacy of this approach is due to the fact that the logic of a systems approach can be applied to family research, i.e. identification of components of external and internal connections, operational goals, functions.
Theoretical and practical problems Family research is related to the effectiveness of its functioning as a system. Among these problems:
- discrepancy between family functioning and social needs
- contradiction between male and female roles in the family, between professional and family roles, low cohesion of the family group
- decline in the prestige of traditional marriage.
The family is considered as a system that also has a certain structure and properties (Olifirovich N.I., Zinkevich-Kuzemkina T.A., Velenta T.F.) Like any system, it is characterized by the following series of features:
interdependence: mutual influence of individual elements of the system;
holism: individual elements of the system, combining into a whole, acquire new properties that differ from the original individual characteristics;
structural organization, the main parameters of which are: hierarchy, or subordination of structure elements; the presence of boundaries describing intra-family relationships and family relationships and environment; cohesion; family role structure;
specificity of intrasystem processes (circular, spiral; intermittent, continuous);
dynamism, or the ability to develop;
the ability to self-organize: the presence of intra-family forces that allow the family to remain an integral, balanced system and not collapse;
dialectics of homeostasis and development.

The complexity of analyzing the family as a system lies in the need to take into account the fact that any system is part of other, more large systems and is in direct interaction and mutual influence with them. Despite the fact that in this manual the focus of analysis is the nuclear family, in order to form the most complete ideas about its life activity, necessary to determine the most adequate strategy for psychological assistance, in our opinion, it is necessary to take into account the different levels of functioning of the family system. Researchers have identified four levels of family functioning - individual, microsystem, macrosystem, megasystem - taking into account which allows for multiple perspectives when working with families.

Characteristic families How social institute And How systems. One of the most important social institutions culture is institute families. Traditionally family it is an association of people based on marriage and blood kinship...

Characteristic families How social institute And How systems. One of the most important social institutions culture is institute families. Traditionally

Characteristic families How social institute And How systems.
Russia has adhered to patriarchal marriage for a very long time and will be one of the first to come to spiritual marriage. But today, alas, we are like everyone else.

Characteristic families How social institute And How systems. One of the most important social institutions culture is institute families. Traditionally family This is the main... more ».

Socially oriented education... Characteristic families How social institute And How systems... Consumer behavior and decision-making model for purchasing services ...

Upbringing How social institute includes: 1) the totality of family, social, religious, correctional and dissocial education; 2) set social roles: pupils, professional educators and volunteers, members families...

Functions and basic characteristics social institutions.
1) needs for reproduction of the species ( institute families); 2) needs for security and order (state)

Word " system characteristics social institutions. Social institutions

Functions and basic characteristics social institutions.
3) institutions kinship (marriage and family) are associated with the regulation of childbirth, relations between spouses and children, and the socialization of youth

Word " system" comes from the Greek "systema", which means "whole, composed." Functions and basic characteristics social institutions. Social institutions perform the following functions or tasks in public life

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Family - This social institution and at the same time small social group , which has a historically defined organization, the members of which are connected by marriage or kinship relationships, a common way of life and mutual moral responsibility, the social necessity of which is determined by the need of society for the physical and spiritual reproduction of the population.

According to the American sociologist N. Smelser, family – this is an association of people based on consanguinity, marriage, adoption, common life and mutual responsibility for raising children.

The essence of the family is expressed through such concepts as family functions, its structure and the role behavior of its members.

Family functions can be considered in two aspects: a) in relation to society, b) in relation to the individual. These functions cannot be divided into main and secondary, all family functions – the main ones, however, the need to point out among them those special ones that make it possible to distinguish the family from other institutions has led to the identification of specific and non-specific functions of the family. The specific functions of the family follow from the essence of the family and reflect its characteristics as a social phenomenon, while non-specific functions – these are those which the family has been forced or adapted to perform under certain specific circumstances.

In various spheres of public life, the functions of the family are manifested as follows:

· Sphere of reproductive (reproductive) activity :

a) biological reproduction of the population;

b) satisfying the need for children.

To ensure that the population in Russia does not decline in 15-20 years, each family must have at least two, and preferably three, children.

· Scope of educational activities :

a) socialization of the younger generation, maintaining the cultural continuity of society;

b) satisfaction of the need for parenthood, contact with children, their upbringing, self-realization in children.

Sociologists have identified several fairly stable stereotypes of family education:

1) child-centrism, i.e. an all-forgiving attitude towards children, a falsely understood love for them. In such families, children, as a rule, grow up spoiled, insensitive to reasonable prohibitions and responsibilities, without an educated sense of duty to their parents;

2) professionalism, i.e. the tendency for parents to refuse to raise their children, under the pretext that this should be done by teachers and educators – professionals in kindergartens and schools;

3) pragmatism, i.e. education, the purpose of which is – Developing “practicality” in children, the ability to “deftly manage their affairs”, focusing primarily on obtaining immediate material benefits.

The family not only raises children, but also has a huge impact on the development of the personality of each of its members, expanding or, conversely, limiting the space for self-realization for both children and adults.

· Household sector :

a) maintaining the physical health of members of society, looking after children;

b) distribution of household labor, receipt of household services by some family members from others;

c) support and care for the elderly and disabled.

· Economic sphere :

a) organization of family consumption;

b) economic support for minors and disabled members of society;

c) receipt of material resources by some family members from others (in case of incapacity for work or in exchange for services).

· Scope of sexual activity:

a) sexual control;

b) satisfaction of sexual needs.

· Sphere of social and status activity:

a) giving family members a certain social status, reproduction of the social structure;

b) satisfying the need for social advancement.

· Sphere of emotional and psychological recreation:

a) emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychotherapy;

b) individuals receive psychological protection, emotional support in the family, satisfaction of the need for personal happiness and love;

c) organization of family leisure and recreation.

Recreational aspects of family life are closely connected with the culture of family relations, which affects the life of the family in general, its stability and, ultimately, the existence of a married couple. Therefore, family changes are most noticeable when comparing nonspecific functions that are associated with the accumulation and transfer of property, status, etc.

Currently, the economic sphere is moving to the forefront. During the Soviet period, the main sphere was the sphere of emotional and psychological activity.

The following are accepted in sociology general principles identifying types of seed organization and families. Depending on the form of marriage, types of family organization are distinguished (monogamy and polygamy), depending on the structure of family ties – Various types families.

Polygamy means multiple spouses and includes polyandry(one wife and several husbands), polygyny(one husband and several wives), group marriage(several wives and several husbands).

Endogamy involves marriage within one's group, but prohibits marriage between close relatives. Exogamy means choosing a spouse outside one’s group, etc.

Family structure – it is a set of family, spiritual, power, and role relationships. Depending on the aspect of consideration, the following family structures are distinguished.

According to the family structure, there can be:

a) simple or nuclear(married couple with children);

b) expanded, or complex(married couple with children and other relatives, for example, the husband’s parents).

Based on the number of spouses forming the nucleus of the family, there are:

a) full(the family includes both parents);

b) incomplete(one of the spouses is absent).

According to the principles of patri- or matrilocalization of family groups:

a) patrilineal, or paternal(inheritance of surname, property, social status is traced to the father);

b) matrilineal, or maternal(inheritance of the listed factors through the mother).

According to the structure of distribution of power, families are divided into:

a) patriarchal(traditional) – the main decisions are made by the father;

c) egalitarian– situational distribution of power between father and mother prevails, most decisions are made jointly by spouses.

According to the social status of spouses or parents of spouses:

a) homogeneous– spouses from approximately the same social stratum;

b) heterogeneous– spouses come from different social groups, castes, classes.

According to spatial and territorial localization, families are divided into:

a) patrilocal– the newlyweds go to live in the house of the husband’s father;

b) matrilocal– the daughter and her husband remain to live with the wife’s parents;

c) neolocal– families who have the opportunity to live separately from their parents in a house independent from their relatives.

Based on the number of children, the following families are distinguished:

a) large families;

b) middle-aged;

c) small children;

d) childless.

Based on the nature of the distribution of household responsibilities, families are divided into:

a) traditional(duties are mainly performed by women);

b) collectivist(joint performance of duties or taking turns).

The current situation in Russia (economic crisis, interethnic conflicts, growing material and social polarization of society, etc.) has aggravated the situation of the family. For millions of families, conditions for the implementation of social functions - reproductive, existential maintenance and primary socialization of children - have sharply deteriorated. The problems of the Russian family are becoming more relevant and noticeable not only to specialists. A fall in the birth rate, an increase in mortality, a decrease in the number of marriages and an increase in the number of divorces, an increase in the frequency of premarital, including early, relationships, as well as out-of-wedlock births, a preference for so-called alternative forms of marriage and family life, including single-parent families, an increase in family deviation (alcohol abuse and drugs, family violence, etc.) have become characteristic problems not only for our country, but also for most developed Western countries.

Legal relations that regulate the mutual rights and obligations of spouses, parents and children to each other, enshrined in legal norms, are important in modern marriage and family unions.

The main role relationships in the family are characterized by relationships that differ significantly in traditional and modern families. Traditional roles, according to which the woman ran the house, farm, gave birth and raised children, and the husband was the owner, often the sole owner of land and property, and ensured the economic independence of the family, were replaced by roles according to which the vast majority of women in some countries and a significant part of them in others began to participate in production activities, economic support for the family, and therefore, take equal part in family decisions. This influenced the functioning of the family and marital relations, contributed to the liberation and development of the personality of the woman-mother, the equality of marital relations, but at the same time it affected demographic behavior, reducing the birth rate and increasing the number of divorces, mothers abandoning their children, and street children.

Average modern family- This is usually a nuclear, egalitarian, small, collectivist family.

Nowadays, the importance of family is gradually increasing. Society, due to the crisis it is experiencing, shifts many of its responsibilities to the family; on the other hand, the individual strives to protect himself in the family from everyday adversity, to find various types of support in it. Due to the special importance of the family institution for society, the state has been implementing a special family policy in recent years.

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Introduction

1. Family as a social institution

2. Trends in the development of the modern family

3. The role of family in society

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

A family is a small group and a special social institution that regulates interpersonal relationships between spouses, parents, children and other relatives connected by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance.

In our country, the family is the object of attention of various specialists. The family is the most important attribute of social life; it is a source of happiness and fullness of life for a person.

In family life, a person is required to have very different knowledge and skills, as well as skills that are formed throughout life, starting from the parental family.

The family is a complex social phenomenon in which diverse forms are intertwined public relations and processes and which has numerous social functions. It is difficult to find another social group in which so many diverse human and social needs are satisfied, in which the basic processes of human life unfold and which is so connected with the life of each individual that it leaves an imprint on his entire development.

The constant change in socio-economic relations in the country entails changes in the structure of many families as small groups. These intragroup changes affect the increase in the parameters of internal family conflict, as well as a decrease in the birth rate and an increase in the number of disintegrating families. This circumstance determines the relevance of studying factors influencing the psychological climate of the family, which is necessary for psychological support for the family.

1 . Family as a social institution

The family as a social institution arose with the formation of society. The process of family formation and functioning is determined by value-normative regulators. Such, for example, as courtship, choosing a marriage partner, sexual standards of behavior, norms that guide the wife and husband, parents and their children, etc., as well as sanctions for non-compliance. These values, norms and sanctions represent the historically changing form of relations between a man and a woman accepted in a given society, through which they regulate and sanction their sexual lives and establish their marital, parental and other kinship rights and responsibilities.

At the first stages of the development of society, relations between men and women, older and younger generations were regulated by tribal and clan customs, which were syncretic norms and patterns of behavior based on religious and moral ideas.

With the emergence of the state, the regulation of family life acquired a legal character. Legal registration of marriage imposed certain obligations not only on the spouses, but also on the state sanctioning their union. From now on, social control and sanctions were carried out not only by public opinion, but also by government agencies.

To understand the family as a social institution, the analysis of role relationships in the family is of great importance.

Family role is one of the types of social roles of a person in society.

Family roles are determined by the place and functions of the individual in the family group and are divided primarily into:

marital (wife, husband),

parental (mother, father),

children's (son, daughter, brother, sister),

intergenerational and intragenerational (grandfather, grandmother, elder, younger), etc.

The fulfillment of a family role depends on the fulfillment of a number of conditions, first of all, on correct formation role image. An individual must clearly understand what it means to be a husband or wife, the eldest in the family or the youngest, what behavior is expected of him, what rules and norms are expected of him, what rules and norms this or that behavior dictates to him.

In order to formulate the image of his behavior, the individual must accurately determine his place and the place of others in the role structure of the family. For example, can he play the role of the head of the family, in general, or, in particular, the main manager of the family’s material wealth.

In this regard, the consistency of a particular role with the personality of the performer is of no small importance. A person with weak volitional qualities, although the eldest in age in the family or even in role status, for example, a husband, is far from suitable for the role of head of the family in modern conditions.

The successful fulfillment of its functions by a family largely depends, on the one hand, on how conscientiously each family member occupying a certain position fulfills his social role, and on the other hand, how much “role behavior” corresponds to the “role expectations” of family members in relation to to each other.

For the successful formation of a family, sensitivity to the situational demands of the family role and the associated flexibility of role behavior, which is manifested in the ability to leave one role without much difficulty and enter a new one as soon as the situation requires, is also of no small importance. For example, one or another rich family member played the role of financial patron of its other members, but he financial position has changed, and a change in the situation immediately requires a change in his role.

Role relationships in the family, formed when performing certain functions, can be characterized by role agreement or role conflict. Sociologists note that role conflict most often manifests itself as:

conflict of role models, which is associated with their incorrect formation in one or more family members;

inter-role conflict, in which the contradiction lies in the opposition of role expectations emanating from different roles. Conflicts of this kind are often observed in multi-generational families, where second-generation spouses are both children and parents and must accordingly combine opposing roles;

intra-role conflict, in which one role includes conflicting demands. In a modern family, problems of this kind are most often inherent in the female role. This applies to cases where the role of a woman involves a combination of the traditional female role in the family (housewife, child teacher, etc.) with modern role, which presupposes equal participation of spouses in providing the family with material resources.

The conflict can deepen if the wife occupies a higher status in the social or professional sphere and transfers the role functions of her status into intrafamily relationships. In such cases, the ability of spouses to flexibly switch roles is very important. Special place Among the prerequisites for role conflict are difficulties with the psychological development of the role associated with such characteristics of the personalities of the spouses as insufficient moral and emotional maturity, unpreparedness for the performance of marital and, in particular, parental roles. For example, a girl, having gotten married, does not want to shift the family’s economic concerns onto her shoulders or give birth to a child, she tries to lead her old lifestyle, not subject to the restrictions that the role of a mother imposes on her, etc.

In modern society, there is a process of weakening of the family as a social institution, a change in its social functions, and non-role family relationships. The family is losing its leading position in the socialization of individuals, in organizing leisure time and in other important functions.

It can be argued that both in society and in the family, women are still subject to discrimination. Often this is facilitated by women themselves, who place demands on their daughters to help around the house, while their sons lead an idle lifestyle. With such attitudes, society (represented by men and women themselves) seems to perpetuate further discrimination against the female sex. If we analyze sociological data, the most obvious form of discrimination is the nature of the distribution of housework in the family. Although studies over the past three years have documented a more equal distribution of household responsibilities, the problem still remains open.

However, traditional roles, in which the woman ran the household, gave birth and raised children, and the husband was the owner, often the sole owner of property, and ensured the economic independence of the family, were replaced by role ones, in which the vast majority of women in countries with Christian and Buddhist cultures began to participate in production, political activity, economic support for the family and take equal and sometimes leading participation in family decision-making.

This significantly changed the nature of family functioning and entailed a number of positive and negative consequences for society. On the one hand, it contributed to the growth of women’s self-awareness, equality in marital relations, on the other hand, it aggravated the conflict situation, influenced demographic behavior, leading to a decrease in the birth rate and increased the mortality rate.

The family, in the process of socialization, prepares children to fulfill family roles. I. S. Kon writes that the concept of social role is central in the analysis of social interactions. The study of social roles in the family makes it possible to identify the social changes occurring in it, to clarify the question of the functions of the family and the social conflicts associated with them.

The concept of a social institution is widely used both here and abroad. In relation to the family, it is used, first of all, as a complex system of actions and relationships that performs certain social functions. Or, the concept of a social institution is viewed as an interconnected system of social roles and norms that is created and operates to satisfy important social needs and functions. Social roles and norms included in a social institution determine appropriate and expected behavior that is aimed at satisfying specific social needs.

The family is analyzed as an institution when it is especially important to find out the compliance (or non-compliance) of the family’s lifestyle and its functions with modern social needs. The model of the family as a social institution is very important for predicting changes in the family and trends in its development. When analyzing the family as a social institution, researchers are primarily interested in patterns of family behavior, family roles, features of formal and informal norms and sanctions in the sphere of marriage and family relations.

The family is considered as a small social group when the relationships between individuals in the family are studied. This approach successfully explores the motives for marriage, the causes of divorce, the dynamics and nature of marital relationships and the relationship between parents and children. Although it must be taken into account that group behavior is influenced by socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions. Families are a more complex system than marriage, since, as a rule, it unites not only spouses, but also their children, as well as other relatives and loved ones. In addition, the family acts as a socio-economic unit of society, thus representing a very close “original” model of the entire society in which it functions.

A family is a social group in which certain processes take place and which carries out certain functions and develops historically.

2 . Trends in the development of the modern family

The development trends of the modern family can be traced based on changes in its functions, since the functions of the family change over the course of history, just as the family itself changes.

There is a significant intertwining of the functions of family and society, and the latter takes on a significant part of the functions of the family.

1. Economic functions. In any society, the family plays the main economic role. In peasant, agricultural and handicraft production, the family is a joint cooperative labor association. Responsibilities are distributed according to the age and gender of family members. Among the enormous changes brought about by the emergence industrial production, this cooperative system of production was destroyed. Workers began to work outside the home and the economic role of the family was reduced to only spending the money earned by the family breadwinner.

2. Transfer of status. In industrial society, there were various customs and laws that more or less automatically secured the status occupied by families from different strata of society. The hereditary monarchy was a striking example of such a custom. Aristocrats who owned land and titles could pass on their high status to their children. Among the representatives lower class there were systems of guilds and training in crafts; thus, professions could be passed on from one generation to the next.

3. The revolutions that took place in the 19th and 20th centuries were carried out with the aim of destroying the privileges of certain groups. Among these privileges was the right to pass on title, status and wealth to the next generation. In some countries, including the United States, the inheritance of aristocratic titles is outlawed. Progressive taxes, as well as taxes on insurance and death, also limit the ability to preserve wealth and pass it on to inheritance. However, wealthy, high-ranking families still have an advantage when it comes to passing on wealth and status to their children. But this is carried out rather not on the basis of inheritance, but in the form of preparing children to receive such an education and such work that ensures high status. Members of the upper class are able to pay for elite education and maintain “acquaintances” that contribute to high status. But these advantages have largely lost their significance, becoming less stable and reliable than before.

4. Social welfare. In traditional peasant and artisan societies, the family performs many functions to maintain the “well-being” of the people, such as caring for sick and elderly family members. But these functions changed radically during the emergence and development of society. Doctors and medical institutions have almost completely replaced the family in caring for people's health, although family members still decide whether there is a need to seek medical help. Life insurance, unemployment benefits, and social security funds have completely eliminated the need for the family to take upon itself the assistance of its members in times of economic hardship. Likewise, welfare benefits, hospitals, and retirement homes have eased the burden of caring for the elderly on families.

5. Socialization. The family is the main agent of socialization in all societies. It is here that children acquire the basic knowledge necessary to perform the roles of adults. But industrialization and associated social changes have to some extent deprived the family of this function.

In a nuclear family, the problem of raising children becomes much more complicated. This is due to the fact that, firstly, in a large family, all family members took part in raising children. Maternal responsibilities in such a family were shared by the sisters of the father and mother, paternal responsibilities - with the brothers of the father and mother; Grandparents and older brothers and sisters played a prominent role. Now all these influences have been minimized, and having few children even eliminates the educational influence of older brothers and sisters.

Secondly, the non-family work of parents forces them to increasingly entrust the care and upbringing of children, even at a very early age, to public institutions: nurseries, kindergartens, schools, etc. In this regard, the nuclear family becomes extremely open, and the social impact on the nature of family relationships is becoming increasingly significant.

Third, the relative isolation of the nuclear family from older relatives makes it difficult to assimilate the social values, worldly wisdom and moral wealth accumulated by previous generations.

Fourthly, the separation of work from family complicates the problem of labor education. Previously, a child was raised by work, by example and under the supervision of older family members. He knew that his work was needed by the family. He had responsibilities that he could not shift to anyone. Social forms of labor education have not yet been able to compensate for the lack of labor family education. They are more of labor training than education.

Fifthly, the lack of family professional guidance and the inability to inherit one’s specialty to children makes the process of education itself more universal, but at the same time more contradictory. Parents cannot unambiguously determine which moral qualities to give preference to: what skills for children in future activities V to the greatest extent will be needed.

Sixthly, the inclusion of younger generations in broad social life and work is moving away. A long period of life comes down only to preparation for work and social activities. The gain that society receives in the development of personality is largely devalued by the delay in the social development of the younger generation, the development of socio-psychological infantilism among some young people, and the artificial restraint of the energy of young people, which sometimes finds an outlet in antisocial behavior. Moral values oriented toward a deferred future are perceived by young people as empty, abstract sermons.

The family performs primarily a reproductive function - the reproduction of people. Now the average family in Russia consists of 2-3 people. This indicator differs significantly across regions of the former USSR. The highest indicator is the population of Tajikistan and Azerbaijan (the average number of children is 5-6 people), and the lowest indicator is the population of the Baltic countries and Belarus. Here, a significant share is occupied by a family with 1 child. Having one child is typical for most urban families.

And although the number of such families decreased in the 90s, even simple reproduction is under threat. Until this process is stopped, it remains completely real opportunity depopulation of the population in a number of regions of the country.

And in this sense, in almost all industrial countries there is a tendency towards a reduction in population size (as a result of a decrease in the birth rate).

One of the important factors influencing this function is the employment of married women in the production sector. Since World War II, the proportion of women working in manufacturing has increased significantly. Statistics show an inverse correlation between a woman’s level of professional employment and the birth rate.

Women's employment has a profound impact on families with young children. However, the number of families with babies and children preschool age where women work is increasing. According to statistics, almost half of women plan to return to work when their youngest children turn 6 years old or earlier.

The reproductive function of the family is negatively affected by divorce, so society cannot be indifferent to this phenomenon. The attitude towards divorce has changed; it ceases to be exceptional and becomes a common, ordinary phenomenon. The number of divorces has increased over the past 30 years. For many centuries, divorce was allowed in extremely rare cases. The following reasons for divorce can be identified: firstly, in most cases, marriage has ceased to be associated with the transfer of property and status from generation to generation, with the exception of a small proportion of rich people. Secondly, due to the growth of a woman’s economic independence, she becomes less and less economically independent from her husband. Thirdly, marriage has acquired a significant emotional connotation and has increasingly come to be seen as a way for a married couple to obtain pleasure.

The rapid increase in divorce rates has contributed to the creation of many non-traditional families. The single-parent family represents a significant deviation and greatly encroaches on the almost complete monopoly of the traditional two-parent family.

Several other alternatives to family life have emerged in recent decades. Among them, the main ones are living together without marriage (cohabitation) and creating a commune.

Living together (cohabitation) means that couples live together and have sexual relations with each other, but are not married.

This phenomenon is widespread in Western countries. In Sweden, Germany and other countries, cohabitation has become the norm and is seen as a “trial” marriage for a couple about to enter into a legal marriage.

Most married couples do not have children. However, they challenge the family's monopoly on regulating intimate relationships between adults. The legal aspect of these relationships is of particular concern, since there is no law controlling the behavior of the partners.

Two partners living together is not an alternative to marriage, although in some countries the law recognizes that people living together but not married have the same rights as a married couple.

3 . The role of family in society

family conflict reproduction education

Statements about the withering away of the family, or at least its impending decline, seem greatly exaggerated. While the obituary is being written for the family, it continues to exist and, according to many, even flourishes. Some experts argue that “families are back in fashion,” while other sociologists believe that the family is a timeless social unit rooted in human social and biological nature. However, society is constantly changing, and the family must also change, adapting to social changes. From the perspective of family reorganization, marriage and family simply change to reflect personal life styles observed in modern society. The family is not just a flexible social institution; it is one of the constant factors of human experience.

Scientists who regret the modern state of the family assume that in other times the family was more stable and harmonious than it is now. However, despite extensive research, historians have been unable to discover the “golden age of the family.” For example, a hundred or two hundred years ago, marriages were based on family and property needs, and not on love. Often they were destroyed due to the death of one of the spouses or due to the fact that the husband left his wife. Loveless marriages, tyranny of husbands, high mortality rates, and child abuse added to this grim picture. In general, anxiety about the state of the family has a long history. Even in the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment, the best minds expressed concern about the decline of family relationships. In general, it can be noted that the “family question,” despite its many formulations, is far from new.

The family can be considered the initial form of group life for people, since it is here that the ability to live in society is laid and formed. Compared to other social groups, the family occupies a very special position in many respects. All other social groups can be considered “inventions” of culture, the sphere of their existence is public life; The sphere of the family is, first and foremost, personal life.

One of the most important branches of sociology is the study of family and marriage. Family sociology is a branch of sociology that studies the patterns of the emergence, functioning and development of the family (family and marital relations) as a social phenomenon in specific cultural and socio-economic conditions, combining the features of a social institution and a small social group.

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

Kinship - this term means the totality social relations based on certain factors. These primarily include biological ties, marriage, sexual norms and rules regarding adoption, guardianship, etc. In the general kinship system, there are two types of family structure: nuclear family and extended family.

Marriage can be defined as a socially recognized and approved union of the sexes between two adult individuals. When two people get married, they become related. Marriage is a historically changing form of relationship between a man and a woman. Monogamous and polygamous marriages are known.

Monogamy is a type of marriage in which a man and woman are in only one marriage.

Polygamy is when a man and a woman can be in several marriages at the same time. Here we distinguish between polygyny, in which a man can be married to more than one woman, and polyandry, in which a woman can have several husbands at the same time. Most societies favor polygyny. George Murdoch examined many societies and found that 145 of them had polygyny; in 40 monogamy prevailed and only in 2 polyandry. The remaining societies did not fit into any of these categories. Since most societies have a male to female ratio of approximately 1:1, polygyny is not widely practiced even in societies where it is considered preferable. Otherwise, the number of unmarried men would significantly exceed the number of men with several wives. In fact, most men in polygonic society had one wife. The right to have several wives was usually given to a man of the upper class.

In many traditional societies, the following forms of preferred partnership prevailed. In exogamous (inter-clan, inter-tribal) marriage, the taboo applied only to members of one’s own clan, and sexual intercourse was limited only to blood relatives; This did not apply to representatives of other clans and tribes. In other cultures, on the contrary, marriages were concluded only between individuals belonging to the same clan. This form of marriage is called endogamy.

Regarding the rules for choosing a place of residence, societies have different rules. Neolocal residence means that newlyweds live separately from their parents. In societies where patrilocal residence is the norm, the newlywed leaves her family and lives with her husband's family or near his parents' home. In societies where matrilocal residence is the norm, newlyweds must live with or near the bride's parents.

Neolocal residence, considered the norm in the West, is rare in the rest of the world. In only 17 of the 250 societies studied by Murdoch, newlyweds moved to a new place of residence. Patrilocal residence became widespread in societies where polygyny, slavery, and frequent wars existed; members of these societies usually engaged in hunting and gathering plants. Matrilocal residence was considered the norm, where women enjoyed land ownership rights. Neolocal residence is associated with monogamy, a tendency toward individualism, and equal economic status for men and women.

In terms of ancestry and property inheritance, there are three types of systems for determining ancestry and property inheritance rules. The most common pedigree is through the male line. Although the wife maintains relations with her relatives and her child inherits her genes, the children become members of the husband's family.

In some cases, for example among the inhabitants of the Trobyand Islands, kinship is determined through the female line, i.e. according to the woman's ancestry. As is customary in the Trobiand Islands, young wives live in the village with their husbands, but property and daily assistance come through the wife. The mother's property becomes the property of the daughter, and the main support for the young family is provided by the wife's brother.

In our society, a family system based on two-way pedigree has become widespread. It is common in 40% of the world's cultures. In such systems, when determining kinship, blood relatives on the father's and mother's sides are taken into account equally. However, problems may arise with such a system. Numerous responsibilities to many relatives, such as the need to visit them, give gifts on special occasions and borrow money, can become burdensome. Of course, this is quite suitable for children who like to receive gifts from relatives.

The functions of the family are the ways in which its activity is manifested; life activity of the entire family and its individual members. In all societies, the family performed the main functions:

Population reproduction. The population reproduction function includes physical (childbirth) and spiritual and moral reproduction of a person in the family. The predominantly economic incentives of childbearing in the past are now increasingly being replaced by spiritual and moral ones: a deep-seated moral and psychological need for one’s child, the desire to have one from a loved one, the desire to reproduce oneself in children, to repeat the path of life with them, hope and confidence in the upcoming spiritual relationship with children and grandchildren, cementing the consanguineous union, family pride;

Household. The economic and household function of the family is expressed in the management of household and personal subsidiary farming, gardening and vegetable gardening, in the maintenance and self-service of family members, in maintaining proper sanitary condition and hygiene in the home, and compliance with the family budget;

Educational. The educational social function of the family determines the responsibility of parents for the spiritual, moral, political, and aesthetic education of children; folk wisdom says: “A parent is not the one who gave birth to a child, but the one who raised him”;

Mutual care of family members for each other, especially for the elderly, is aimed at increasing the responsibility of children for the well-being of their parents, their secure and peaceful old age, as well as constant and mutual moral and psychological support for members, families, ensuring the fullness of their lives, comprehensive communication and personal happiness ;

Organization and use of free time, primarily * leisure. Its goal is to help family members most fruitfully realize their abilities and talents in amateur activities, in the reasonable consumption of spiritual values, and in providing active recreation.

In modern conditions, not everyone adheres to this classification of family functions. Thus, Russian sociologists Vasily Ryasentsev and Gennady Sverdlov call the most important functions of the family: procreation, educational, economic and mutual assistance; philosopher Vladimir Klyuchnikov notes: continuation of the human race, raising children and economics; Belarusian sociologist Sergei Laptenok defines: economic and household, population reproduction, educational and leisure activities for his family members; philosopher Alexander Kharchev - population reproduction, socialization, economic, organization of consumption and leisure; Ukrainian sociologist Nikolai Yurkevich - spiritual communication, sexual, birth of children, cooperation in the process of education, obtaining the necessary funds for housekeeping, organization of leisure. But what is important is not so much a scrupulous listing of all family functions as their division, on the one hand. to satisfy predominantly material, household, and on the other hand, predominantly emotional and socio-psychological needs of people.

After all, it is known that the complete collectivization carried out in the late 20s and early 30s in Ukraine and other Commonwealth countries, even in rural areas, separated the main part of work activity from family life, helping to transform it largely into only a consumer unit. And only in the second half of the 80s did the development of individual labor activity, family contracting, rental relations etc. gradually returning productive labor to the family. Such shifts contribute significantly to an increase in the production of food and other essential goods, but also to the earlier involvement of the younger generation in labor activity. And they naturally contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the labor education of young people, in which the economic function of the family will play a significant role, which will turn into the main production and labor unit of society, but on a new basis, in a new form and with new content.

Of course, population reproduction has not only a biological, but also a social aspect associated with the upbringing and education of children. It has been established that in the upbringing and education of children, the family cannot be replaced by any public institutions. Only in the family does a child naturally and most effectively receive the first socialization of his personality and find his “I”. In modern conditions, it is rare that a family can give its child the training that society and social institutions (school, technical school, lyceum, university, etc.) can give him. But the moral and psychological potential that is instilled in the child by the family remains for many years, and maybe for a lifetime. It is in the family that the child learns the basics of life, encounters relationships with authority - official, parental and functional, based on the higher competence of parents or older brothers and sisters, their developed skills and abilities, and the success of their activities.

Reproductive and economic activity families are closely connected with the life of society and therefore the state is not indifferent to how these problems are solved. If for a long period it was believed that raising children was not so much a state matter as a purely personal matter for everyone, now raising children is both a state matter and a family matter. That is why the educational function of the family is closely related to the reproductive one, when we're talking about about the social reproduction of the population. The family teaches the child to live among people, instills in him the foundations of certain ideological and political views, worldviews, moral norms and rules. A child in a family learns and masters moral standards. Here the child develops primary skills and patterns of behavior, individual moral and psychological traits are polished, and the foundation of mental health is laid.

Education is a great thing: it decides the fate, the fate of a person. Education is carried out in the process of daily communication of the child with family members, relatives, all people with whom the family supports more or less permanent relationship. And while a child is studying at school, in a technical school, a lyceum, a higher educational institution, or while working in production, the educational function of the family does not die out, the educational impact on the younger, maturing generation does not stop. A person who grew up in a normal family, in his actions, as a rule, is guided not only by the opinion of the whole society or members of his work team, but also significantly by the opinion of his loved ones. The world exists not to be known, but to be educated in it. We are born weak - we need strength, we are born helpless - we need help, we are born senseless - we need reason. Everything that we do not have at birth and which we cannot do without when we become adults is given by upbringing. And every person realizes himself primarily in socially useful activities. Of course, every year a working person receives professional leave, sometimes, if he is very lucky, he ends up in rest homes, sanatoriums, goes to resorts and other places to restore his strength. But the main center for recuperation is still the family, in which we receive physical, material, moral, and psychological help from each other. But family relationships develop differently: both positive and negative, which affect a person in different ways. This is where the communicative function of the family plays an important role - satisfying a person’s needs for communication and privacy.

In modern conditions, communication has become more complex; a number of areas and types of communication have emerged. Forms of professional and business communication with a high degree of formalization have acquired particular importance. It’s a different matter in the home environment, where, as a rule, we treat people who are, firstly, socially and psychologically close, and secondly, where we treat everyone’s personality more delicately and respectfully. Here the need for intimate communication, mutual understanding and mutual support is satisfied. It goes without saying that such a function can only be performed healthy family, in which the moral and psychological climate is high.

Naturally, the social functions of the family reflect all aspects of the family’s life - demographic, socio-economic, educational, spiritual-emotional and moral-psychological.

Sociologists note that the spiritual and moral basis of marriage and family is the unity of love and duty, responsibility and duty. And further. What is love? Love is one of the most complex intimate feelings of a person, the unity of the natural and social connection of a man and a woman, including a natural biological need, humanized by the development of culture, as well as moral, aesthetic, physical and psychological relations between the sexes. The feeling of love is deeply intimate and is accompanied by emotions of tenderness, delight, and jealousy. It is impossible to absolutize the biological principle of love, reducing it only to the sexual instinct, identifying it with sex, just as it is wrong to deny the biological principle and interpret it as a purely spiritual feeling, as platonic love. Sociologist Nikolai Gorlach said that love is the physical, spiritual and moral unity of a man and a woman, a complex set of feelings and thoughts experienced by a loving person. Being a selective feeling, love is directed towards a specific person, who is unique in its physical and spiritual qualities for the loving person. A loving person voluntarily gives himself physically and spiritually to another and strives to mutually possess him, feels the need for comprehensive unification and rapprochement, identifies his own interests and goals with him.

Love is a biosocial phenomenon; it has two purposes - biological and social, with the determining role of the social.

Love, according to Anton Makarenko, “is the greatest feeling that generally works miracles, which creates new people, creates the greatest human values.” Love is an international feeling, but specific in each specific case.

Falling in love shows a person what he should be. Anton Chekhov said: “When you love, you discover such wealth in yourself, so much tenderness, affection - I can’t even believe that you know how to love like that...”

Teacher Vasily Sukhomlinsky noted that “love is a huge work.”

The German sociologist-hygienist Karl Hecht rightly noted that the biological basis of love is sexual desire. The social basis is the moral and ethnic side of love, issues of equality of partners, conscious choice. Intimate relationships perform two functions: they serve procreation - the conception of children, at the same time they bring with them a feeling of pleasure, happiness and love, sexual release.

People who are connected by great love receive, thanks to sexual relations, an influx of new strength, experiencing the excitement of work. Leo Tolstoy said: “He who knows how to love knows how to live.”

Charles Darwin lived with his wife for 35 years. He wrote: “My wife is my greatest happiness... She, a person who stands immeasurably higher than me in her moral qualities, agreed to become my wife. She has been my wise advisor and bright comforter all my life."

The family as a social institution goes through a number of stages, the sequence of which forms the family cycle or family life cycle. Researchers identify a different number of phases of this cycle, but the main ones are the following:

marriage - formation of a family;

the beginning of childbearing - the birth of the first child;

the end of childbearing - the birth of the last child;

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

the cessation of the existence of a family is the death of one of the spouses.

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

In the sociology of the family, the following general principles have been adopted for identifying types of family organization. Depending on the form of marriage, monogamous and polygamous families are distinguished. A monogamous family provides for the existence of a married couple - husband and wife, while a polygamous family - either the husband or the wife has the right. Have several wives or husbands. Depending on the structure of family ties, simple, nuclear, or complex, extended family types are distinguished. A nuclear family is a married couple with unmarried children. If some of the children in the family are married, an extended, or complex, family is formed, including two or more generations.

Conclusion

The functions of the family change over the course of history, as does the family itself. So, for example, during the period when the family was distinguished by a primitive organization, its functions were not sharply separated from social ones, because a weakly technically armed and weakly protected person could not live and work only within the family. Later, the family becomes a “small society” and largely frees a person from dependence on society as a whole (patriarchal family). In the end, there is again a significant intertwining of the functions of family and society, and the latter takes on a significant part of the function of the family.

There are many different predictions about the future of the family, for example, Edward Cornish (1979) suggested several trends in the development of the future family. Among them:

preservation of the modern family;

destruction of the family;

revival of the family (by improving the dating service using computers, providing consultations);

creating “fake families” based on common interests and needs;

return to the traditional family.

What actually happens will probably not exactly match these predictions. On the other hand, the family is flexible and resilient. The prediction of “darkness and doom” reflects the anxiety of researchers rather than the real situation. In the end, the complete destruction of the family is not observed.

At the same time, we can confidently say that the traditional family is a thing of the past. As we see, the history of the family is accompanied by a gradual loss of its functions. Current trends indicate that the family's monopoly on regulating intimate relationships among adults, childbearing, and caring for young children will continue in the future. However, there will be a partial disintegration of even these relatively stable functions. The function of reproduction inherent in the family will also be carried out by unmarried women. The socialization function performed by the family will be more divided between the family and strangers (teachers at play centers). Friendly disposition and emotional support can be found not only in the family.

Thus, the family will take its place among several other social structures that govern reproduction, socialization and the regulation of intimate relationships. As the family's functions continue to change, it will lose its once-inherent sanctity, but it will certainly not disappear from society.

Bibliography

1. Bogolyubov L.N., Lazebnikova, A.Yu., Ivanova L.F.. Man and society. M., 2007.

2. James M. Marriage and love. - M, 2005.

3. Enikeev E.I. General and social psychology. M., 2001.

4. Radugin A. A. Sociology: Course of lectures. 3rd ed., supplementary and processed M.: Center, 2001. 224 p.

5. Tulina N.V. Family and society: from conflict to harmony. - M., 2004.

6. Tseluiko V.M. Fundamentals of family psychology. Volgograd, 2003.

7. Schneider D.B. Family psychology: tutorial for universities. 2nd ed. M., 2006. 768 pp.

8. Sociology. Textbook. /Ed. Kravchenko A.I. Arsoft, 2005.

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URAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC INSTITUTE (branch)

Educational institution of trade unions of higher professional education

"ACADEMY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL RELATIONS"

Faculty of Socio-Economics

Department of Economics and Finance

ABSTRACT

Discipline: Fundamentals of the welfare state

On the topic: Family as a social institution

Completed by a student

gr. No. ESZ - 101

Osipova E.A.

Supervisor:

Serebryansky S.V.

Chelyabinsk 2014

INTRODUCTION

1. MARRIAGE AS THE BASIS AND CORE OF THE FAMILY

2. FAMILY - A SOCIAL INSTITUTE

3. TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMILY AND MARRIAGE RELATIONS

CONCLUSION

LIST OF SOURCES USED

INTRODUCTION

The family is considered one of the five fundamental institutions of society, giving it stability and the ability to replenish the population in each subsequent generation. At the same time, the family acts as a small group - the most cohesive and stable unit of society. Throughout his life, a person is part of many different groups - a group of peers or friends, a school class, a work team, an interest club or a sports team, but only the family remains the group that he never leaves. Finally, the family is the most common type of social organization. The process of family formation from an institutional point of view appears as a time-extended process of assimilation of social norms, roles and standards governing courtship, choice of a marriage partner, family stabilization, sexual behavior, and relationships with spouses’ parents. family society marriage endogamy exogamy

The family as an institution, or more precisely as a set of institutions, does not apply to real people. The institution of family is associated with customs, laws and rules of behavior that consolidate kinship relationships between people. Legislation is the most important part of the family as an institution. There is family law, where the law defines what a family is, what are the rights and responsibilities of husband and wife, children and parents. The law determines the minimum age for marriage, rules for the division of property after divorce, etc.

The purpose of this work is to study the family as a social institution.

1. MARRIAGE AS THE BASIS AND CORE OF THE FAMILY

Marriage is a set of formal regulations that define the rights, duties and privileges of the husband in relation to his wife, and the two of them in relation to their children, relatives and society as a whole. In other words, marriage is a contract concluded by three parties - a man, a woman and the state. Unlike all other formal contracts existing in society, it stipulates only one date - the date of conclusion of the marriage agreement, but does not indicate the end date of the contract. This implies that marriage bonds bind people together until the end of their lives. In many societies, the state undertakes only the formalization of the marriage, and its consecration is performed by the church. Spouses take an oath of fidelity to each other and undertake the responsibility of social, economic and physical guardianship of each other. The consecration of marriage in front of the church altar is considered the most powerful form of strengthening marriage.

The institution of marriage, by the very fact of its existence, indicates that society deliberately divided all types of sexual relations into approved and disapproved, and the state into permitted and unauthorized. But it was not always so. In ancient times, marriage relationships looked completely different, and at the dawn human history there were none at all.

In any society - ancient or modern - a family is formed, as a rule, through marriage. Marriage is a socially sanctioned union of a certain duration between two or more individuals. Such a union is usually concluded through a special ceremony - inauguration, the solemn conclusion of marriage. The inauguration can take place in a strictly formal or completely informal atmosphere. Children born in a marriage union remain legitimate because society has prescribed the social roles of mother and father to each member of the union, giving them the responsibility to educate, protect their descendants, and take care of them. Children born out of wedlock are considered illegitimate. Although the mother of an illegitimate child is known, there may not be a man ready to fulfill the social role of the father.

Marriage is also a set of customs that regulate marital relations men and women. In modern European culture, such customs include dating, betrothal, exchange of rings, throwing rice or money during the wedding ceremony, honeymoon, and the bride and groom stepping over a symbolic obstacle.

Marriage ceremonies in some traditional societies are more simplified. On the Fiji Islands, the mother-in-law gave the groom her daughter’s belt, which she wore as a girl. In one of the tribes, after the ritual of the newlyweds lying on iron stocks and fanning them on all sides with a chicken, the priest hit the heads of the bride and groom three times, during which they had to manage to put nuts in each other’s mouths - thus the marriage was recognized as concluded.

For Europeans, marriage implies certain rules of behavior that have become a tradition, for example, premarital chastity, marital fidelity, monastic vows, and the obligation to support a spouse throughout his life. Finally, marriage is inseparable from the laws associated with it: registration of marriage, the right to divorce for good reasons, the right to recognize a marriage as fictitious in the event of fraud, matching the ages of the bride and groom, parental consent, lack of kinship between those entering into marriage.

All these norms, according to the definition of the American sociologist K. Davis, form a certain integral structure, which is called the institution of marriage. In society, such an institution performs a number of fundamentally important functions - reproduction of people, raising children, sexual and emotional satisfaction.

Figuratively speaking, marriage is the gateway to family life. According to the definition of E. Bogardus, marriage is an institution that admits men and women to family life.

If marriage extends to the relationship of the spouses, then the family covers marital and parental relationships. Marriage is only a relationship, but the family is also a social organization.

There are such types of marriage as endogamy and exogamy. With endogamy, a partner is chosen only from the group to which the chooser belongs. Exogamy involves choosing a mate from an out-group. Moreover, an alien group can be not only an alien clan, tribe or clan, but also a social class, race, nation, etc. etc. Representatives of higher social strata often try not to marry their daughters and sons to people of lower social groups and classes. Belonging to another race or nation can also serve as an obstacle to marriage. Mononational and intraclass marriage should be considered a type of endogamy.

Selection criterion unequal marriage inequality of spouses appears. An unequal marriage implies that the spouses differ on some significant basis: social status, age, income. The marriage of an old man and a young woman, a rich man and a poor woman, an aristocrat and a plebeian is called unequal.

A purchased marriage involves paying a fee for the future spouse. The woman's relatives "gifted" his future spouse to the man's relatives in exchange for equal services and assistance. Later, such a form of purchased marriage appears as a ransom marriage. The wedding ceremony has become much more complicated, it has become formalized. An oral agreement between young people or parents was no longer enough; an agreement (contract) was required, which stipulated the rights and obligations of the parties, as well as the amount of the ransom. The forced marriage of young girls is called child marriage.

Early marriages are included in a special group. They are concluded between young people under 18 years of age. In order for young people to be allowed to marry legally, they must have a serious reason - pregnancy or living together. In Russia, about 84.4 thousand young citizens enter into marriage every year. As a rule, these marriages break up as quickly as they begin. People under the age of 20 are twice as likely to get divorced as those marrying after that age. Less stability of early marriages is associated with the problems of children appearing in early years, economic difficulties and the lack of a complete picture of the desired partner, which is finally formed by the age of 25 on average.

An arranged marriage is the opposite of a love marriage. It lacks the main thing - the feeling of love. The main incentive is the receipt of material benefits, various kinds of social benefits by one of the spouses at the expense of the other. International marriages can be considered a type of marriage of convenience.

Marriage relations are regulated by types of norms - legal and cultural. To legal standards usually include questions about property ownership, material obligations of spouses in relation to children and to each other, the minimum age for marriage and some others. Society also provides a set of norms governing divorce. They define legal grounds for divorce, the nature of the divorce procedure, the rights and responsibilities of former spouses related to the financial support and upbringing of children, ownership of property after divorce.

Unlike written legal laws, cultural norms are unwritten. They regulate marriage based on morals, traditions and customs. These include norms of courtship, marital choice, premarital behavior, distribution of power and responsibilities between spouses, and post-divorce behavior. Cultural norms are shaped primarily by society, but how they are used, or whether they are used at all, depends mainly on the level of education of individuals. The legal laws of the Russian Federation provide that after a divorce, property acquired by spouses during their marriage must be divided equally. Cultural norms operating in our society suggest that a man should leave an apartment, its furnishings and part of his financial savings to his wife, especially if the court has preserved her children. But how he actually behaves depends only on a man’s personal culture and upbringing.

So, marriage is a socially sanctioned sexual union of a certain duration between two or more individuals. As a rule, marriage is formalized by a special procedure (marriage), which imposes certain responsibilities on the spouses.

2. FAMILY - SOCIAL INSTITUTE

When talking about the most important social institutions - the pillars of society, the family is among the first to be named. So it is: the family is the main institution of human society. It, in turn, includes many more private institutions, namely the institution of marriage, the institution of kinship, the institution of motherhood and paternity, the institution of property, the institution of social protection of childhood and guardianship, etc.

The institution of marriage does not cover the entire sphere of family life, much less the entire variety of relationships between relatives - close and distant. It implies a set of norms and sanctions that regulate the relationship of spouses. Some norms are of a legal nature and regulated by law, others are cultural and regulated morally - by customs and traditions. These rules regulate two main phases - marriage and divorce.

The historical aspect of the institution of family is studied by historians, ethnographers and anthropologists, who have compiled typologies of marriage, family and kinship. The concepts of exogamy and endogamy, monogamy, polygyny, patriarchy, matrilineality and some others came to sociology from related disciplines. Other concepts, for example, nuclear and extended family, arranged marriage, family of origin and procreative family, single and large families, and a number of others, were invented by sociologists.

The family as an institution should be distinguished from the family as a primary group. A group consists of specific people performing specific roles, connected directly by personal relationships. Relationships between people in a group are spontaneous and intense. The family includes representatives of two generations. In the institution of the family, there are descriptions of the positions of father, mother, wife, etc. These are standards for assessing the behavior of performers, their compliance or non-compliance with positions. These positions are designated by the term "social status".

The institution of family differs in each society in its tasks, structure, and social role. But all societies have something in common. The family arose because human cubs, unlike all other animal species, have the longest childhood. A child's dependence on his parents lasts until he is 15-18 years old. During this period, he needs material and social support from adults. Preparing for adult life occurs fully only in the family, since it includes not only education, training, assimilation of knowledge (in this process the family can be replaced by a school), but also the assignment of a name, rights to inherit property or property, social status and position in society, identification with a certain line of kinship, i.e. genealogy. No one and nothing, besides the family, is capable of providing a young person with a legally recognized address - a social “registration” in a given society.

The functions of the family are the ways in which its activity is manifested, the ways of life of the entire family and its individual members. Among the various functions of the family, the most important are reproductive, educational, economic, recreational, social and status, and medical.

Reproductive function is associated with the biological reproduction of members of society. 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. The socio-demographic situation in Russia is of great concern. The birth rate is decreasing, the population is aging, the number of one-child and childless families is increasing, and the out-of-wedlock birth rate is growing. From 1992 to 2000 inclusive, the natural population decline in Russia amounted to 4.9 million people. Only in 2000 did a trend towards an increase in the birth rate emerge. According to the 2002 census, the population of the Russian Federation was about 145.5 million people. Since 1993, natural population decline has been at a consistently high level (0.7 - 0.9 million people per year).

Unfavorable socio-economic factors have given rise to a mechanism for depopulation of the country's regions, which entails deterioration age structure population and, consequently, a decrease in the working-age population. In these conditions, it is necessary to take urgent measures to overcome the negative trends in Russia's demographic development and strengthen the role of state family policy in these processes.

The educational function is associated with the socialization of the younger generation, that is, with the transfer of accumulated knowledge, experience, moral and other values of older generations. 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 to their children, instill good manners, teach crafts and theoretical knowledge, lay the foundations for speaking and writing, and control their actions.

IN Lately There has been a decline in the educational potential of the family. The educational function of the family is reduced by the following factors:

* incomplete family composition;

* insufficient level of knowledge and skills of parents in raising children;

* bad relationship between parents;

* conflicts not only on issues of education, but also on other issues;

* interference of relatives in raising children.

The economic function covers various aspects of family relations: housekeeping, drawing up and using the family budget, organizing family consumption, the problem of distributing household labor, support and care for the elderly and disabled.

The implementation of the economic function of the family is directly influenced by monetary income and social guarantees provided by the state.

In our country, where the level of mechanization in everyday life is low, the network of household services is difficult to access, everyday problems fall primarily on the shoulders of women. A woman often has to combine activities in the sphere of social production and household activities, especially in the sphere of family life. Since the state is not able to provide a choice of their preferred lifestyle, the solution to the problem of double employment of women should take place at the level of family consensus, in the order of redistributing family and household responsibilities among all family members.

The meaning of the recreational function is that the family should be a place where a person could feel more protected and always be accepted. In conditions of an accelerating pace of life, an increase in all kinds of social and psychological stress, and the number of stressful situations, the family takes on a psychotherapeutic role. It becomes an “oasis” of calm and confidence, creates a sense of security and psychological comfort that is so important for a person, provides emotional support and maintains overall vitality. The recreational function also includes spiritual and aesthetic aspects, including the organization of family leisure and recreation.

The traditional model, when a wife met her husband at the hearth, meekly enduring all the insults and irritations of her master, is becoming a thing of the past. The vast majority of women today also work and also bring a load of fatigue into their homes.

Observations show that strength is most fully restored in a family environment, in communication with loved ones and children. Recreational aspects of family life are closely related to the culture of family relations , and this, more than ever, affects the functioning of the family in general, its stability and, ultimately, the very existence of the married couple.

The social status function ensures the representation of a certain social status to family members and the reproduction of its social structure. Each person raised in a family receives as a legacy some statuses close to the statuses of his family members. This, first of all, applies to such important statuses for the individual as nationality, social status, place in the urban or rural way of life, etc. In class societies, a family's membership in a particular social stratum provides the child with the opportunities and rewards characteristic of that stratum, and in the vast majority of cases determines his future life. Of course, class status can change due to a person's efforts and favorable circumstances, but the beginning of the future must be sought in the family of that person. The family must necessarily carry out role preparation of the child for statuses close to the statuses of his parents and relatives, instilling in him the appropriate interests, values and shaping his way of life.

The medical function is most often preventive in nature. It consists of observing healthy image life, giving up bad habits, active recreation, learning hygienic skills, and carrying out recreational activities. Family members should have information on health issues, promptly contact medical professionals for advice and assistance, and follow their instructions.

According to medical and social risk factors, families are distinguished:

(1) dysfunctional (incomplete, large families, poor, with disabled children);

(2) sociopathic (families, alcoholics, drug addicts, as well as those where parents and children are offenders, with deviations from normal behavior).

These families have a higher percentage of chronic diseases, especially in children under three years of age. Failure to comply with the rules of hygiene, diet and leisure, lack of awareness of prevention issues, and late seeking medical help for a child’s illness are typical for such families. The listed functions determine the functioning of the family. They are closely interrelated, although their ratio and specific gravity may be different. As a small social group, a family is a community of people formed on the basis of marriage or consanguinity, the members of which are connected by a common life, mutual assistance and mutual responsibility of spouses for the health of children and their upbringing.

In defining a family as a small social group, three characteristics are significant: a common household, common children, and the presence of sexual relationships between spouses. There is a point of view according to which a small group is recognized as a family if it possesses any two of the listed characteristics. If there is only one of these signs, it is not a family. Thus, a modern family, unlike a traditional one, may not have a common household and still be a family. May not imply sexual relations between spouses and still be a family. It may be in the status of an officially registered marriage and still not be a family.

In this case, for all fragmented “fragmented” forms of family (parent without marriage, marriage without children, separation, etc.), the term “family group” is better suited. which is understood as a group of people leading a joint household or contributing any share to the family budget and united only by kinship, parenthood or marriage. The definition of a family group includes an incomplete family, where one of the parents is absent or the parent generation is not present at all for some reason (for example, when children live with their grandparents without parents). The types of family structures are diverse and are formed depending on the nature of marriage, kinship, and parenthood.

So, the family as a community of people connected by the relations of marriage, parenthood, kinship, joint household, as the main unit of society, performs the most important social functions: it plays a special role in a person’s life, his protection, personality formation, satisfaction of spiritual needs, ensuring primary socialization. The family is a unique social institution, a mediator between the individual and the state, a transmitter of fundamental values from generation to generation. It contains a powerful potential for influencing the processes of social development, reproduction of the labor force, and the formation of civil relations. The family has a consolidating value and resists social confrontation and tension.

3. TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMILY AND MARRIAGE RELATIONS

The constant increase in the number of divorces over several decades has given rise to an opinion in the United States about the crisis of the family as a social institution. The peak of such conversations occurred in the early 70s. However, in the late 70s there was a revival of family values. A so-called pro-family movement arose. Today, most American and European sociologists have stopped dramatizing the situation and moved on to a serious analysis of the situation (Fig. 1).

In Russia, the discussion of this problem occurred at a later period. In the 90s, many sociologists began to talk about the crisis of the family institution. By this was meant the inability of the family as an institution to perform the functions and roles that it was always called upon to perform and with which it had previously coped.

Figure 1 - Crisis of the family institution

About the crisis of the family institution, according to T.A. Gurko, the following facts indicate:

1) a constant increase in the proportion of mothers (and in the West, fathers) raising a child without a husband (wife);

2) an increase in the number of parents (stepfathers, stepmothers, adoptive parents) who are not related to the child being raised by biological ties. Due to the increase in divorces and out-of-wedlock births, many fathers (sometimes mothers) do not live with their children, some of them are “sporadic”, while others, without maintaining any contact with the child, remain only biological parents;

3) decrease in marriage and birth rates

4) as a result of a decrease in the birth rate, the number of one-child parents increases;

5) crisis of the father's educational role;

6) an increase in the number of divorces, abandoned children and orphans.

Some researchers, in particular A.I. Kuzmin, believe that the institution of family in modern Russian society There are not only deep-seated problems that make us talk about a serious crisis, but also undoubted positive trends:

“Formally, there is no crisis of the family in society, although there is some tension in the implementation of its life activities and communication between generations and spouses. 9/10 of the total population lives in families, the proportion of absolutely lonely people has decreased. Single young people can be presented as the potential of the family , stage of its formation. The process of divorce slowed down and, one might say, in a number of territories (especially rural) began to decrease. The marriage rate by international standards can be considered high. In addition, after fifteen years of economic reforms in the economically developed regions of Russia (with a high level prices, but also a saturated market) the family began to adapt to new forms of life and found market sources of livelihood. In the positive motivation for fertility, new intonations and the conscious desire of parents to have a child began to sound, regardless of material conditions. In the negative, phobic experiences came to the fore for the fate of the children, fear of the future... The ideal of family well-being is becoming more and more clearly a family in which the husband performs the functions of the “breadwinner”, and the wife, meanwhile, controls the intra-family and financial situation, expenses... The privatization of apartments and land plots has made legal inheritance possible living space and land for the younger generations in the family, which objectively strengthened the position of the young family as the subject of inheritance of family property... Reducing the role of state institutions for social security of the elderly and elderly, the importance of pension support in old age due to rising prices and inflation, rising prices for food, rent, expenses for clothing, medicines and funeral services increase the role of children and the younger generation as a whole as a guarantee of a prosperous old age... Children and adolescents are beginning to “regain” their status as not only a potential, but also an actual labor force, which, of course, requires their legal protection, but at the same time strengthens the motivational side of future fertility... The changes taking place in the economy today increase the role of the father and the power of men in the family. In the future, when transmitting norms of reproductive behavior to younger generations, this may strengthen filial orientation... Inclusion of Russia in global community, the opportunity to travel abroad for work and residence are the positive aspects of the collapse of the old political system influencing the family’s choice of their life path... The family received not only new freedoms of territorial movement and migration, choice of place of residence, but also access to world standards of nutrition, clothing, services, social hygiene, ecology and level of awareness about their environment." .

Despite the encouraging trends, in general the family is going through a crisis, which should be considered an institutional and cultural crisis. The main reason is the fact that in the institution of the family, the historical bonds on which it has always rested are collapsing, primarily the connections between generations, parents and children, family and ethnic ties. “The modern crisis is the result of the multiplication of unfavorable long-term changes in the institution of the family.”

Often, domestic sociologists exaggerate the peculiarities of Russia, considering what is happening in it to be unique. In fact, many patterns that are now characteristic of Russia: economic (for example, the predatory tendencies of the era of primitive accumulation), demographic and family (declining birth rate, changing patterns of marital behavior, increasing number of divorces, etc.) were inherent at one time or another all industrialized countries, but at earlier stages of development. This concerns the main argument put forward in favor of the institutional crisis of the family - the increase in divorce rates.

In Russia, in recent years there has been an increase in the divorce rate, but the number of second marriages has also increased. For example, according to sociological research, in Moscow 17% of husbands and wives were in a second marriage, in Pskov and Saratov - approximately 10%. Experts believe that "Russians are going through the same experience of marital behavior that was noted in industrialized countries: a high rate of divorce and remarriage."

CONCLUSION

In any society - ancient or modern - a family is formed, as a rule, through marriage. Marriage is a set of formal regulations that define the rights, duties and privileges of the husband in relation to his wife, and the two of them in relation to their children, relatives and society as a whole. Such a union is usually concluded through a special ceremony - inauguration, the solemn conclusion of marriage.

As a rule, family problems arise when its functions are not realized or poorly realized. Instability of marriage and family, an increase in the number of divorces, and a decrease in family reproduction are characteristic of all developed countries of the world.

The worsening economic crisis in Russia does not yet allow us to stabilize the situation and take measures to improve family relations. Nevertheless, experts believe, such a time will come, although perhaps belatedly: “the family can become a key factor in the development of a stable middle class and contribute to the revival of Russia.”

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Family as a social institution, family typology. Family as a social institution: types, functions. Stages of family development

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