What does a modern family look like? Little children, late marriages and the money factor

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Sociological research on the topic of Russian and world metamorphoses in the basic “cell of society”.

Children experience the greatest discomfort in single mothers. Social democracy helps to increase the birth rate. The more children there are in the family, the lower their IQ. Life expectancy affects the variety of types of cohabitation. Sociologist Tatiana Gurko analyzes approaches to the study of the modern family.

Doctor of Sociological Sciences Tatyana Gurko wrote the book "Theoretical Approaches to the Study of the Family" (published by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2016). In it, the researcher gives the main theoretical approaches to the study of the family, adopted in the West and in Russia. Here are short excerpts from the book that show how the family is changing today.

Money matters, not family composition

In Russia, there are no studies on the influence of family structure on child development based on representative all-Russian samples. One can only cite an example of a repeated “trend” study of families with adolescent children, conducted in 1994-1995 and in 2010-2011 on samples of more than 1000 adolescents in the Central Federal District. It was found that the influence of the structure of the family unit: normative, consolidated, with one parent (maternal) is insignificant in terms of measurable psychological and social characteristics of adolescents in comparison with the material well-being of the family. The exception was step families (this group also included cells in which the stepfather was the mother's cohabitant), in which girls more often than others "experienced discomfort at home", more often had sexual contacts, boys studied worse and drank beer more often than other adolescents. The development of boys in maternal families did not differ in any of the measured indicators in comparison with boys from standard families; girls from maternal families only rated their health lower.

At the same time, adolescents from families differing in material and housing provision differed in eleven indicators, i.e. the material security of the family turned out to be more significant than the structure of the family. Moreover, the dependencies have changed, i.e. family structure began to influence the development of adolescents even less after 16 years (1995-2011), and the factor of material security became more significant, which is explained by further social differentiation among adolescent families and, at the same time, the importance for adolescents of the material status of their family in the consumer society.

Children experience the greatest discomfort in single mothers

Based on the data of a study of 600 mothers with a child from 3 to 7 years old, it was found that more boys in complete combined family units have low social competence compared to boys from normative and maternal families. Among families with one parent (maternal), there are more friendly children in divorced families in comparison with children who are raised by “single mothers” or in cases where paternity is established by joint application, but the parents do not live together.

Thus, somewhat more often negative practices of dealing with children were recorded among families of “single mothers” and in step families (this type of families also included cohabitation of mothers not with the biological father of the child) 1. That is, the accepted dichotomy “complete” - “incomplete” family structures is no longer constructive from the point of view of analyzing the development of children, the quality of parenting is important, i.e. practices of motherhood and fatherhood.

In the American study of fragile families, i.e. cohabitants with a child, the structure was highlighted in which children actually live with their grandparents (grandparent family). It was found that in terms of indicators of academic performance and social and emotional well-being, children in grandparent families were somewhat less successful, albeit insignificantly, in comparison with “fragile” families of cohabiting mothers.

It can be argued that as new family structures (family units with minor children) spread, for example, step-families, cohabitating, grandparent families with grandchildren ("skipped generation families"), guardians - at least on a certain life path of children, these families are for some time "dysfunctional" in terms of child development. A negative influence can be the child's reaction to a change in the usual way of life. And also due to the negative stereotypical attitude of the closest social environment to such families. Obviously, divorce itself or the death of a father / mother as abnormal stressors negatively affects children, at least in the short term.

Social democracy promotes fertility

In the United States and European countries, wives work almost on an equal footing with their husbands, with the exception of a short period of childcare. One of the hypotheses that follows from the functionalist approach is that as the family becomes nuclearized and marital functions are universalized, the number of children in families will decrease. Judging by a number of indicators in developed countries, this is what happens, but in different ways in countries with different social regimes.

Father's Care for First Child Increases Chances of Second Child

Against the background of the restructuring of matrimonial roles, in countries, at least with social democratic regimes, the birth rate is not declining. For example, in a study of German couples with one child in families where wives earned more than husbands, they used two options as “alternatives” for childcare. Either the husband did the housework and childcare, or the market services of nannies and au pair were used. Moreover, it turned out that it is the father's participation in the household and caring for the first child associated with the likelihood that the couple will have a second child.

The more children there are in the family, the lower their IQ

The more a mother works before the child enters school, the less she works with the child and the less the child's social capital and, accordingly, his / her human capital. The social capital of the child is less if there are many brothers and sisters in the family, because it is distributed among the children; children, as it were, “diffuse” the attention of their parents. “This is supported by the results of the study on academic success and the IQ test, which show that the test scores are lower for those children who have siblings, even in cases where the family structure (complete-incomplete), and the results of children on the test is lower the more children there are in the family"

Life expectancy affects the variety of types of cohabitation

The increase in life expectancy led to serial monogamy, that is, several marriages during life and the formation of step families. The spread of long-term cohabitations, the use of reproductive technologies, including surrogacy, voluntary fictitious kinship, the spread of homosexual marriages, unions and cohabitations, various practices of adopting children into families - all this is not only the result of liberalization, but also an increase in people's life expectancy.

Increasing requirements for a spouse

In a number of universities in Moscow and Cheboksary, student research was carried out. It turned out that not only age matters for the willingness to marry. Before marriage, both girls and boys find it necessary to achieve a lot. Of the options proposed, the most frequently noted were: to complete their education (76% and 72%, respectively), to have their own housing (62% and 71%), to find a job where they will pay well (54% and 58%), and the response ranks were the same for Moscow and the region. In the other column the girls wrote - “to be independent and able to provide for oneself”, “to complete my education abroad”, “to decide what I need in life”, “to travel the world”.

As for the expectations from the future spouse, the girls most often noted: he must find a job where he will pay well, have his own place and complete his education. For the young men, the most important thing was that the future wife had an education, a good job in her specialty.

A fifth of the girls (22%) attached great importance to serving in the army of their future husband. When discussing this issue in a focus group, the girls said that after serving in the army, young men become more disciplined, they are better treated by employers. True, the young men themselves argued, arguing that the army was "wasted time that can be used to make money" (only 8% of young men expected to serve in the army).

Grandparents are no longer educators

Among educated groups in the United States, both marriage and childbirth are delayed and the number of children in such marriages is less. Among less educated groups, children are born early, often out of wedlock, and often grow up without both biological parents. In such social groups, the absence of a second parent is often compensated for by the help of the grandparents, who formalize guardianship. Some children whose parents are deprived of custody of them end up in institutions (usually teenagers), but mostly they are adopted. As a result of the decline in the birth rate, the “generational pyramid” has changed - the number of grandparents is greater than the number of their children and much more than the number of grandchildren. In addition, due to the postponement of the birth of children, grandparents are waiting for their grandchildren for a long time and are independent during this period. And when the grandchildren appear, they themselves already need help from the children.