Family as a social institution typology. Social institution of the family

Introduction.

1. Family as a social institution.

2. Characteristic features of the family, its structure and functions.

3. Trends in the development of family and marriage relations.

Conclusion.

Bibliographic list.

INTRODUCTION

The family is one of the five fundamental institutions of society, which gives it stability and the ability to replenish the population in each next generation. At the same time, the family acts as a small group - the most cohesive and stable unit of society. Throughout his life, a person is part of many different groups - a group of peers or friends, a school class, a work collective, a sports team - but only the family remains the group that he never leaves.

Therefore, when we talk about the most important social institutions - the pillars of society, we call the family among the first. The family is the main institution of society. In turn, the institution of the family includes many more private institutions, namely the institution of marriage, the institution of kinship, the institution of motherhood and fatherhood, the institution of property, the institution of social protection of childhood and guardianship, and others.

Family and marriage are among the phenomena, the interest in which has always been stable and massive. Despite all the ingenuity of man, a huge variety of political, economic and other organizations, in almost every society, from the most primitive tribe to the complex social system of a modern developed state, the family acted and acts as a clearly expressed social unit.

1. Family as a social institution

The family is one of the most ancient and significant social institutions, but, nevertheless, there is no reason to assert that all other social institutions originate from the family and that all relations of subordination, cooperation, solidarity are built on the model of relations between parents and children, between spouses and between relatives. How to explain the fact of the unchanging preservation of the family in society? With all the variety of initial positions, sociologists agree that the family and the need to preserve it arise from the needs for the physical and spiritual reproduction of the population.

In any society, the family has a dual character. On the one hand, it is a social institution, on the other, a small group that has its own laws of functioning and development. Hence, its dependence on the social system, existing economic, political, religious relations and at the same time - relative independence. Another social institution is closely connected with the institution of the family - the institution of marriage - a socially and personally purposeful, socially sanctioned, sustainable form of sexual relations sanctioned by society.

The family is a small group based on consanguineous relations and regulating relations between spouses, parents and children, as well as close relatives. The hallmark of a family is joint household management.

A.G. Kharchev defines a family as an association of people based on marriage and consanguinity, linked by a common life and mutual responsibility.

The initial basis of family relations 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 marital and kinship rights and obligations. But the family, as a rule, is a more complex system of relations 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 as a social institution, that is, a system of connections, interactions and relationships of individuals performing the functions of reproduction of the human race and regulating all connections, interactions and relationships based on certain values ​​and norms, confirmed by extensive social control through a system of positive and negative sanctions.

The family as a social institution goes through a number of stages, the sequence of which develops into the family cycle or the life cycle of the family.

Researchers distinguish a different number of phases of this cycle, but the main ones are the following:

1) marriage - the formation of a family;

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

3) the end of childbirth - the birth of the last child;

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

5) the termination 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 emerged with the formation of society. The process of family formation and functioning is conditioned by value-normative regulators. Such, for example, as courtship, choice of a marriage partner, sexual standards of behavior, norms that govern 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, adopted in a given society, through which they order and sanction their sexual life and establish their marital, parental and other kinship rights and obligations.

At the first stages of the development of society, relations between a man and a woman, older and younger generations, were regulated by tribal and clan customs, which were syncretic norms and patterns of behavior based on religious and moral concepts. With the rise of the state, regulation family life acquired a legal character. The legalization of marriage imposed certain obligations not only on the spouses, but also on the state that sanctioned their union. From now on, social control and sanctions were carried out not only by public opinion, but also by state bodies.

2. Characteristic features of the family, its structure and functions

Family signs

The terms marriage and family, both in everyday speech and in scientific publications, are side by side, which is really legitimate, since the realities denoted by these terms are closely interconnected. However, marriage and family are not the same thing, they are not identical, but rather intersecting concepts, because a family can exist without marriage, and marriage can exist without a family.

Marriage is a social institution, an institution, or, as sociologists say, a special social institution. This is a historically conditioned, society-regulated form of relations between the sexes, between a man and a woman, establishing their rights and obligations in relation to each other and to children. In other words, marriage is a traditional means of forming a family and social control over it, one of the tools for the preservation and development of society.

The marital form of regulation of relations between representatives of different sexes did not appear immediately. In the deepest antiquity, relations between people, including between the sexes, were regulated only by biological impulses. At this time, all members of society could engage in sexual intercourse with each other: brothers with sisters, parents with their children. This form of relationship between the sexes, a chaotic relationship between them is called promiscuity. Every woman of a given herd could belong to every man of the same herd. This phenomenon is called endogamy, i.e. marriage within a given community. Subsequently, such ties began to threaten the existence of this genus. A sexual taboo was introduced, a complete ban on sexual relations between people within a given genus. Gradually, this gave rise to new, exogamous ties between people: deprived of the opportunity to enter into a relationship with a woman of their kind, men began to enter into random connections with women of a different kind. More resilient children were born from this connection. Therefore, gradually endogamous connections were completely forbidden. Thus, the first form of marriage was group dual-clan marriage. Under him, all men of one kind had the right to marry any woman of another kind.

Group marriage lasted until the end of the Stone Age. Subsequently, preferential ties with the most preferred partners became more and more widespread, thus society gradually moved to new form marriage - pair marriage. It has already united one married family. True, any of the partners could at the same time make up such pairs at the same time, and even more so sequentially. Since paternity in such conditions was difficult to establish, the relationship was considered on the maternal side. Children born to a given woman belonged to the family to which this woman herself belonged.

At the very end of the Stone Age, with the emergence of agriculture, with an increase in labor productivity, conditions were gradually created when a married couple was able to independently support and feed their children. And gradually this pair spun off from the genus. Husband and wife joined forces not only in childbearing, but also in the production of things. The relationship between the sexes stabilized, the establishment of paternity became more reliable, and the responsibility for the family was increasingly transferred to the man. Matriarchy relations turned into patriarchal ones, when kinship was already considered on the paternal side. And the paired family was replaced by a new, higher form of the family - the monogamous family. The wife went to live with her husband and, together with the children, fell under his rule.

It must be said that the patriarchal family existed and exists in the form of not only a monogamous marriage, but also a polygamous marriage, when the husband has the right to own several wives. Nowadays, polygamy exists in some Muslim countries. But history knows another form of inequality in marriage: polyandry, polyandry. And until now, polyandry is found in some tribes of India, Tibet. In India, most often the wife of an older brother became the common wife of all brothers - and the so-called fraternal family, or fraternal, was obtained.

A family in sociology is called a social association, whose members are linked by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance. In essence, the family is a system of relations between husband and wife, parents and children, based on marriage or consanguinity and having a historically defined organization. In other words, the family is a new object, with new properties, where the old properties of the family can mysteriously disappear. The family is, first of all, the relationship between its persons. We often do not understand that starting a family means not only finding a person and putting an appropriate stamp in the passport. Starting a family means building a relationship of love, understanding and support.

The question of what comes first - marriage or family - is still under discussion. Some researchers argue that marriage is the foundation of the family. Every census in Russia shows that the number of women who are married exceeds the number of married men. And this means that we have polygamy. Apparently, one and the same phenomenon, actual marriage, people regard in different ways: women declare it real, equal to legal, while men consider it celibacy.

From the above definition of a family, it follows that the main are three of its characteristics:

 marital or consanguineous relations between all its members;

 cohabitation in one room;

 general family budget.

The structure of the family in modern sociological literature means a way of ensuring the unity of its basic elements, i.e. its constituent age and gender groups and individuals. The nature of the family structure is ultimately determined by the socio-economic conditions of life. Changes in the composition, structure and functions of the family are integral and, in many ways, a fundamental part of sociocultural differences around the globe.

Family structure - a set of relationships between its members, which includes: - the structure of kinship; the structure of power and leadership; structure of roles; structure of communications.

The structure of the family is closely related to the order and way of her life, her customs and traditions, as well as her relationship with other families and with the whole society.

The most important functions of the family

The family always performs a number of functions, among which the most important are reproductive, educational, economic and recreational.

Let's start with the reproductive function of the family. This function performs two tasks: social - biological reproduction of the population, and individual - meeting the need for children. It is based on the satisfaction of physiological and sexual needs that induce people of opposite sexes to unite in a family union. the opposite of the sexes, according to E. Durkheim, is not only the basic foundation on which the marriage union is built, but also the main reason for moral intimacy in the family. In terms of the power of influence on the stability of family and marriage relations, it is stronger than even such a factor as consanguinity. E. Durkheim analyzes gender relations from the standpoint of the division of labor. Limited at first only to sexual functions, it gradually spread to many others.

The functions of a woman and the functions of a man were so specialized that women began to lead a different existence from a man. The man personified power, strength, intelligence, and the woman - femininity, weakness, gentleness, emotionality. Functional differences gradually modified physiological signs: height, weight, general shape, and the structure of the skull of a man and a woman differ significantly. Isolated from each other, man and woman are only different parts of the same

A concrete whole, which they, by connecting, restore. And as the differentiation of the sexes grew, the marriage union developed and strengthened, the debt of marital fidelity was formed.

So, the physiological and sexual needs of men and women induce them to unite for the joint implementation of certain goals: the reproduction of the human race, the creation of material conditions for existence - housing, clothing, food; satisfaction of the need for children, the biological dependence of children on their parents, the need for sex.

However, society as a whole, and hence the people who make it up, are interested in ensuring that these biological needs are fulfilled within the family. Only by identifying these specific features in the realization of a person's needs in a family environment, it is possible to understand the essence of the family as a social institution, and with it the origins of the family's vitality, its vitality, and attractiveness to a person.

In nature, in the animal kingdom, social associations of animals are the result of unconscious (instinctive) adaptation to living conditions, the result of natural selection, physiological and psychological activity of individuals. Human family groups adapt not only to physical conditions, but also to social relationships, norms, values, accepted in society. Human society sanctions, makes a choice, gives preference to this or that family arrangement, this or that form of the family, determines the composition, internal organization of family groups. The family arises from the desire to satisfy the purely personal needs and interests of individuals. As a small group, it connects them with the public interest. In the family, personal needs are cultivated, ordered, organized on the basis of social values, norms and patterns of behavior accepted in society, and, in the end, acquire the character of social functions. This, first of all, is the fundamental difference between the human family and the animal family. As a result, the natural biological needs of a person in satisfying the sexual desire, the realization of the family instinct, the male's desire for domination, the biological instinct of the child's dependence on the mother - all this is transformed into the socio-biological function of the family.

Due to its socio-biological function, the family as a small social group has a mechanism of self-reproduction, growing “from within”. No other social community (class, nation, group) has such an internal mechanism of self-reproduction. Thanks to the birth of children, the family reproduces not only itself, but also maintains the biological continuity of society, ensures the reproduction of the population. In a family, not only a person is born, but also a citizen.

The family includes the entire system of social relations - marriage and kinship, legal and social, household and economic, moral and ethical, psychological and emotional. Thanks to this, the family as a social community is the primary element that mediates the relationship of the individual with society: it forms the child's idea of ​​social ties and includes him in them from birth.

Hence, the next most important function of the family is the socialization of the individual, the transfer of cultural heritage to new generations. The human need for children, their upbringing and socialization gives meaning to human life itself. It is quite obvious that the priority of the family as the main form of socialization of the individual is due to natural biological reasons. The family has great advantages in the socialization of the individual in comparison with other groups due to the special moral and emotional psychological atmosphere of love, care, respect, sensitivity. Children raised outside the family have a lower level of emotional and intellectual development. They have inhibited the ability to love others, the ability to sympathy and empathy. The family carries out socialization in the most crucial period of life, provides an individual approach to the development of the child, reveals his abilities, interests, needs in time. At this age, the child learns the prohibitions and norms of behavior that are laid down in his "Super-I".

Due to the fact that the family develops the closest and closest relationships that can exist between people, the law of social heritage comes into force. Children by their nature, temperament, style of behavior are in many ways similar to their parents. Each family has its own atmosphere, its own cultural environment, and it is this environment that has the greatest impact on the child.

The effectiveness of parenting as an institution of socialization of the individual is also ensured by the fact that it is permanent and long-term, continues throughout life as long as the parents - children are alive.

The next most important function of the family is existential, the function of social and emotional protection of its members. It is known that the essence of any phenomenon is especially pronounced in an extreme situation. In times of danger, most people strive to be close to their families. In a situation that threatens life and health, a person calls for help from the most dear and close person - mother. In a family, a person feels the value of his life, finds selfless dedication, readiness for self-sacrifice in the name of the life of loved ones. The awareness that someone is needed and dear to someone, that they are loved and that they are ready to give their lives for him, generates a sense of security and safety, maintains morale and confidence.

The next most important function of the family is economic and household. The essence of this function from a social point of view is to support minors and disabled members of society, from an individual point of view - in the receipt of material resources and household services by some family members from others.

The social-status function is associated with the reproduction of the social structure of society, since it provides (transfers) a certain social status to family members.

Recreational, restorative function is aimed at restoring and strengthening the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual strength of a person after a hard day's work. This function has not been sufficiently studied, but scientists have reliable facts proving the positive influence of the family on the health of spouses. Marriage has a more beneficial effect on the health of the spouses, and on the body of a man more than a woman. And the loss of one of the spouses is more difficult for men than for women.

The leisure function carries out the organization of rational leisure and exercises control in the field of leisure, in addition, it satisfies certain needs of the individual in spending leisure time.

The sexual function of the family exercises sexual control and is aimed at satisfying the sexual needs of the spouses.

The felicitological function is of particular interest in this list. Of course, the concept of hedonism based on love in the family is not unique to the modern family. It is naive to believe that the felicitological function did not exist before. But right now, love and happiness have become the main reason for starting a family, not reproductive and economic considerations. Therefore, the strengthening of the role of the felicitological function in the family makes modern family-marriage relations specific in comparison with the family and marriage of other historical periods.

All functions of the family are closely interrelated, but their ratio and proportion may be different.

3.Trend of development of family and marriage relations

The study of problems related to the family is gaining more and more importance, both theoretically and practically, in life. It is known that the instability of marriage and family, manifested in an increase in the number of divorces, is characteristic of almost all developed countries of the world. This is explained by the influence of urbanization and the intensive migration of the population caused by it, the emancipation of women, the scientific and technological revolution, and the reasons for the socio-economic, cultural, ethnic, and religious nature.

The institution of the family is currently going through difficult times. Many factors that stabilize the family from the outside have disappeared: the economic dependence of a woman on her spouse, legal, religious, moral prohibition or condemnation of divorce. In these conditions, internal factors inherent in the family acquire a decisive importance for the stability of marriage. Numerous sociological studies show that, in the vast majority of cases, divorce is based on a conflict between spouses, which has reached such a degree that it can only be resolved by dissolving the marriage.

Family conflict

There are several levels of marital relationships at which conflicts can occur.

1. Psychophysiological - disharmony is manifested in the violation of sexual life. In general, this phenomenon occurs quite often, however, only a few note it as the main reason for the decision to divorce.

2. Psychological - an unhealthy climate is created in the family, manifested in constant quarrels, mutual quibbles, irritability, which is often taken out on children.

3. Socio-role - symptoms of a violation of the stability of this level - an incorrect, uneven distribution of family and household load, chaos of the family structure.

4. Sociocultural (spiritual) - conflicts take the form of misunderstanding by spouses of each other, disrespect, lack of interest or dissatisfaction with communication with a partner, rejection of him life values, ideals.

The reasons for the conflict at one level or another can be very diverse. But according to the time of occurrence, they can be divided into two large groups. These are the reasons that arose directly during marriage, during life together and common household management, and the reasons that objectively existed before the creation of the family.

Risk factors

The group of reasons that objectively existed before the creation of the family is called risk factors, since their presence during the period of premarital acquaintance already fraught with the danger of a future divorce.

Risk factors are associated both with the personality of a person, his origin, upbringing, and with the conditions of marriage. Risk factors include:

 a big difference in education and age between spouses (especially if the woman is much older);

 addiction to alcoholism of one of the spouses;

 frivolous attitude towards marriage, family in general;

 too early age of marriage;

 the likelihood of an early birth of a child;

 too short dating period;

 sharp disagreement of the parents on the marriage;

 Forced marriage, without mutual consent.

These factors make themselves felt literally in the first years of life together and largely determine the fact that more than a third of divorces occur in families with a length of life of one to three years.

The results of the polls show that a significant part of young people (about 1/3) got married on the basis of motives that lie outside the family sphere: the desire to leave the parental home, to take a responsible independent step, to take revenge on someone or just for a company with a friend. Naturally, such a superficial, frivolous attitude towards marriage, the lack of appropriate motivation, lead to the fact that spouses are not faced with the task of self-determination of the family, clarification of marital roles, the intra-family status of each of them, and their common goals.

Every seventh marriage, concluded in the first half of the 1980s, is a marriage between spouses, the age of each of whom does not exceed 20 years. In this case, the psychological unpreparedness for marriage is most often manifested. Young families, as a rule, are not separated from their parents and are financially completely dependent on them. In such a situation, problems arise such as ensuring the independence of a young family, leadership in it (often one of the parents of the spouses claims this role), as well as the problem of relationships between members of a young family and parents living with them, which can develop unfavorably and complicate marital conflicts inevitable in this case.

In Russia, the average age of first-time marriages is generally lower than in Europe and the United States, at 21.7 years for women and 23 for men. In Western Europe, the corresponding figures are 25.7 and 28.4. This is primarily due to the specifics of the Western education system. Moreover, we have not yet observed a tendency towards an increase in the age of marriage (the so-called maturation of marriages).

Reasons for divorce include disappointment in a partner and loss based on this initial feeling of love. This danger lies in wait, first of all, for those spouses whose term of acquaintance before the wedding was short (from three to six months).

Thus, we see that a number of factors that negatively affect the strength of marriage can be identified even before the creation of a family hearth.

Reasons for divorce

Most of the divorces occur, of course, due to reasons arising (emerging) directly as a result of living together.

The largest number of divorced marriages occurs at the age of 25-30, when the spouses become quite independent in material terms, have managed to get to know each other's shortcomings well and make sure that it is impossible to live together. At the same time, they are young enough to create a new full-fledged family and have children. Also, a large number of divorces occur at the age of about 40 years. This is due to the fact that the children have grown up and there is no need to keep the family for their sake, and one of the spouses actually has another family.

The highest divorce rate falls in the first five years of marriage. The presence of children in the family directly affects the strength of the marriage. In large families, where the number of children is more than three, the divorce rate is much lower than the average level.

In divorce, three groups of reasons are indicated as leading.

1. Household (living conditions, the inability or unwillingness of one of the spouses to manage the household, material insecurity, forced separation).

Interpersonal conflicts (loss of feelings of love and affection, rudeness, different views on life, illness of one of the spouses, jealousy, suspiciousness). In this block, the main factor is the rudeness and disrespect of the spouses to each other. For women who initiate a divorce, these reasons are more often associated with the alcoholism of a spouse, from which rudeness, beatings, insults, threats, etc. arise. For men, as a rule, the wife's rudeness has a fundamentally different content. This is, first of all, disrespect for the husband, disbelief in his ability, unwillingness to reckon with his interests, disregard for production (professional) successes and failures, reproaches, petty care, dislike for the husband's friends, etc. This factor is closely related to the difference of views on life - the so-called dissimilarity of characters. It is much more important for men than for women.

3. External factors (betrayal, the emergence of a new family or a new feeling in the initiator of the divorce, the intervention of parents and others).

Of course, all three groups of factors are closely intertwined. So, treason can be the result of inattention, rudeness, and rudeness - the result of economic troubles, etc. Different people experience family breakdown in different ways. According to many Russian and foreign sociologists, the most common consequences of divorce are a decrease in labor activity, a high probability of nervous stress, mental disorders. It is especially painful for society that the influence of parents on the upbringing of children is weakening and children become the subject of serious conflicts between divorcing spouses, and often such conflicts go far beyond the pre-divorce and divorce stages and continue for many years.

So, the instability of marriage creates acute problems both for those who want to start a family and for those whose family has been destroyed. At the same time, divorce cannot be viewed as an entirely negative phenomenon, since the freedom to dissolve a marriage is one of the means of ensuring social justice in family and marriage relations, a means of preserving their moral foundations. Both the abuse of the freedom of divorce and the indiscriminate negative approach to divorce, regardless of the individual situation, are fundamentally wrong.

At the same time, family services can play a significant role in the prevention of divorce (the effectiveness of their work in Moscow is evidenced by the fact that 2/3 of married couples who were on the verge of divorce and turned to specialists changed their mind and managed to settle family relations), improvement organizing consumer services, solving the housing problem.

Let's summarize. There are three main problems in modern family and marriage relations: 1) the problem of family stability, 2) the problem of fertility, and 3) the problem of tension in the sphere of everyday life. But even a high divorce rate does not mean the collapse of marriage as an institution and a crisis of the family in general. On the contrary, the family is recognized as an unconditional value by all age groups. It is only about the quality of family relationships, to which people make ever higher demands.

CONCLUSION

The family is one of the most ancient social institutions. It arose much earlier than religion, state, army, education, market. Not a single nation, not a single civilized society could do without a family. The foreseeable future of society is also not conceived without a family. For every person, the family is the beginning of beginnings. Almost everyone connects the concept of happiness, first of all, with the family: happy is the one who is happy in his home.

The reasons that motivate people to unite in family groups, create

There are many stable connections and interactions, but the basis is primarily human needs. Scientifically speaking, the spiritual, physiological and sexual needs of men and women encourage them to unite for the joint implementation of goals: the reproduction of the human race, the creation of material conditions for existence - dwellings,

Clothes, food; satisfaction of the need for children, the biological dependence of children on their parents, the need for sex. Society as a whole, and hence the people who make up it, are interested in ensuring that these biological needs are fulfilled within the family.

The essence of the family lies in the integrity that is inherent in the family and the social community, both as a small social group and as a social institution. The institution of the family performs very significant functions in the life of society.

The family is both the result and, perhaps, even more so, the creator of civilization. The family is the most important source of social and economic development of society. It produces the main social wealth — man. When a person treats the family as the most important value in life and sees one of the main tasks of his life in creating it strong and happy, then you can be sure that the foundation of such a family is strong and its inner strength will allow it to withstand any storms of life. And vice versa, if he looks at family life as an everyday phenomenon, and at his family responsibilities as something insignificant, burdening, then it is difficult to expect that inner strength self-preservation of this cell, its foundation will be strong. The future of such a family union is practically predetermined. This is either a bleak coexistence filled with constant troubles, or its disintegration.

12 June 2012

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

• economy;
• politics;
• education;
• a family;
• religion.

The entry of a person into each of the social institutions imposes on him certain responsibilities and is accompanied by the emergence of needs inherent in a particular institution.

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

Family institution and its functions

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

• Reproductive... The main function of the family, on a personal level, satisfies the desire and need to have children, in the public sense - the need of society for the continuation of the species.
• Educational. Within the framework of the family, the personality of a person, a future member of society, is laid and educated. The success of the performance of functions by the family directly affects the formation of a mature and responsible personality.
• Household function implies care (primarily material) and caring for family members who, due to their age, are not able to take care of themselves on their own. It is about providing shelter, food, etc.
• Social control. The essence of this function is that the family is responsible for the behavior of each of its members in society, for their observance of moral standards and adherence to values.
• Sexually erotic the function of the family is to satisfy individual needs for affection and sex, while at the same time the need of society for biological reproduction is realized.
• The function of spiritual communication. Satisfies the need of each family member for close communication and spiritual development.
• Emotional: striving for acceptance in the bosom of the family, support and psychological protection.

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

Family contribution to personality formation

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

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Actual

A family - this is social institution and at the same time small social group , which has a historically defined organization, whose members are linked by marriage or kinship relationships, community of life and mutual moral responsibility, the social necessity of which is due to the need of society for the physical and spiritual reproduction of the population.

According to the American sociologist N. Smelzer, a family – it is an association of people based on consanguinity, marriage, adoption, community of life and mutual responsibility for the upbringing of children.

The essence of the family is expressed through concepts such as the functions of the family, 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 major and minor, 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 allocation 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 the non-specific functions – these are those to which the family was forced or adapted in certain specific circumstances.

V different areas social life, the functions of the family are manifested as follows:

· The sphere of reproductive (reproductive) activity :

a) biological reproduction of the population;

b) meeting the need for children.

So that in 15-20 years the population in Russia does not decrease, it is necessary for each family to have at least two, and preferably three children.

· Sphere of educational activities :

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

b) meeting the need for parenting, contacts with children, their upbringing, self-realization in children.

Sociologists identify several fairly stable stereotypes of family education:

1) child-centrism, that is, an all-forgiving attitude towards children, a falsely understood love for them. In such families, children, as a rule, grow up spoiled, not susceptible to reasonable prohibitions and responsibilities, without an educated sense of duty to their parents;

2) professionalism, that is, the tendency of a kind of refusal of parents to raise their children, under the pretext that teachers, educators should be engaged in this – professionals in kindergartens and schools;

3) pragmatism, i.e. education, the purpose of which – the development of "practicality" in children, the ability to "deftly organize their affairs", an orientation primarily towards obtaining immediate material benefits.

The family not only brings up 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 of both children and adults.

· Household sphere :

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

b) the distribution of domestic work, the receipt of household services by some family members from others;

c) support and custody of the elderly and disabled.

· Economic sphere :

a) the 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 status activity:

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

b) meeting the need for social advancement.

· Sphere of emotional and psychological recreation:

a) emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychotherapy;

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

c) organization of family leisure and recreation.

The recreational aspects of family life are closely related to 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 coming to the fore. During the Soviet period, the main sphere was the sphere of emotional and psychological activity.

In sociology, the following general principles have been adopted for identifying types of seed organization and families. The types of family organization are distinguished depending on the form of marriage. (monogamy and polygamy), depending on the structure of family ties – different types of families.

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

Endogamy suggests marriage within one's own group, but prohibits marriage between close relatives. Exogamy means choosing a spouse outside of your group, etc.

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

According to the related family structure, there may be:

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

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

By the number of spouses forming the core of the family, there are:

a) complete(both parents are part of the family);

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 carried out by the father);

b) matrilineal, or matrinal(inheritance of the listed factors by the mother).

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

a) patriarchal(traditional) - the father makes the main decisions;

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

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

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

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

According to the spatial and territorial localization of families, there are:

a) patrilocal- the newlyweds move to live in the house of the husband's father;

b) matrilocal- the daughter and her husband stay with the wife's parents;

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

The following families are distinguished by the number of children:

a) large;

b) average children;

c) small children;

d) childless.

By the nature of the distribution of household responsibilities, families are distinguished:

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

b) collectivist(sharing responsibilities or taking turns).

The current situation in Russia (the economic crisis, interethnic conflicts, the growing material and social polarization of society, etc.) has exacerbated the situation of the family. Millions of families have sharply deteriorated conditions for the implementation of social functions - reproductive, existential content and primary socialization of children. The problems of the Russian family are becoming more urgent and noticeable not only for specialists. A drop in fertility, 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 extramarital births, the preference for so-called alternative forms marriage and family life, including single-parent families, the growth of family deviation (alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, etc.) have become typical problems not only for our country, but also for most developed Western countries.

Legal relations governing the mutual rights and obligations of spouses, parents and children to each other, enshrined in legal norms, are of great importance 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 a woman ran a house, a household, gave birth and raised children, and a husband was the owner, often the sole owner of land and property, ensured the economic independence of the family, were replaced by roles according to which the overwhelming majority of women in some countries and a significant part of them in others began to participate in production activities, economic support of the family, therefore, to take an equal part in family-wide decisions. This influenced the functioning of the family and marriage and family relations, promoted the liberation and development of the personality of a woman-mother, equality of marital relations, but at the same time influenced demographic behavior, reducing the birth rate and increasing the number of divorces, mothers abandoning their children, street children.

The average modern family is usually a nuclear, egalitarian, small, collectivist family.

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

Family concept and typology

The family is the most important social institution of kinship, linking individuals with a common life and mutual moral responsibility.

The family as a social institution is of particular interest, since, on the one hand, it ensures the stability of society and evolves with it, and on the other hand, it acts as a space in which a person's personal development takes place.

A family is a small group based on marriage or consanguinity, whose members are linked by a common life, mutual assistance, moral and legal responsibility. SI Ozhegov defines a family as a group of relatives living together. At the same time, the family, people living together, their household, as well as an apartment, are a home. Everything that relates to home, family and private life is considered home.

According to L.A. Kolpakova, a family is a social group whose members are united by legal or actual marital relations, relations of kinship or property, mutual rights and obligations arising from family legal relations, community of life and emotional and psychological ties.

GF Shershenevich pointed out: "The family is a constant cohabitation of a husband, wife and children, that is, it is a union of persons bound by marriage and persons descended from them." At the same time, he especially emphasized that "the physical and moral makeup of the family is created in addition to the law ... The legal aspect is necessary and expedient in the field of property relations of family members."

The Russian philosopher N. Berdyaev saw the essence of the family in the fact that it "has always been, is and will be a positivist secular institution of improvement, biological and social ordering of the life of the clan"

The Philosophical Dictionary defines the family as "a small social group of society, the most important form of organizing life, based on marital union and family ties"

In sociology, the family is defined as a social institution characterized by certain social norms, sanctions, patterns of behavior, rights and obligations that regulate relations between spouses, parents and children. At the same time, in sociology, marriage is understood as a socially confirmed and sometimes legally certified union between a man and a woman, giving rise to rights and obligations in relation to each other and children.

Along with this general (sociological) definition, there is also a special (legal) concept of the family. In the legal sense, a family is a legal connection. In particular, the family is united not only by moral responsibility, but also by legal relations, both between its members and between the family and a number of other institutions of society. Therefore, a family in a legal sense can be defined as a circle of persons bound by rights and obligations arising from marriage, kinship, adoption or another form of child adoption and recognized to contribute to the strengthening and development of family relations based on moral principles. Moreover, in jurisprudence, marriage is understood as a free, voluntary, equal union of a man and a woman, concluded in government agency for the purpose of forming a family, in compliance with the requirements established by law and giving rise to mutual personal non-property and property rights and obligations between spouses.

As A. N. Ilyashenko rightly notes, the definition of a family from a legal point of view is not simple, since the norms of various branches of law, when determining the circle of family members, proceed from the peculiarities of the relations regulated by them.

Thus, family law does not define a family. The state, using the norms of family law, establishes the conditions and procedure for entering into marriage, terminating a marriage and recognizing it as invalid, regulates personal non-property and property relations between family members: spouses, parents and children (adoptive parents and adopted children), and in cases and within the limits provided for family law, between other relatives and other persons, and also determines the forms and procedure for placing children without parental care into a family.

In the theory of family law, there is also no universally accepted definition of the family. So, the concept of a family is given as a certain set (community, group) of people, according to the general rule of relatives, based on marriage, kinship and property, living together and maintaining a common household, which forms a natural environment for the well-being of its members, raising children, mutual assistance, procreation ...

Housing law uses the term “tenant's family member” of the dwelling instead of “family”. The Housing Code itself Russian Federation does not contain a definition of the terms "family" and "family member of the employer". In Art. 31 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation states that the family members of the owner of a dwelling include his spouse, who live together with this owner in his dwelling, as well as the children and parents of this owner. Other relatives, disabled dependents and, in exceptional cases, other citizens may be recognized as members of the owner's family if they are moved in by the owner as members of his family.

In inheritance law, the concepts of "family", "family member" are not used at all. However, in fact, we are talking about family members when the law determines the circle of persons who are heirs by law. According to Art. Art. 1142 - 1148 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the number of heirs under the law, that is, in fact, family members, includes: relatives of the 1st - 5th degree of kinship (from children, including adopted children, the testator's spouse and parents to his great-grandchildren, nephews, uncles and aunts); stepsons, stepdaughters, stepfather and stepmother; citizens who do not belong to the above persons, but by the day of the opening of the inheritance were incapacitated and for at least a year before the death of the testator were dependent on him and lived with him.

The criminal legislation of the Russian Federation, instead of the terms "family", "family members" uses the concept of "persons close to the victim" (for example, clause "g" of part 1 of article 63, clause "b" of part 2 of article 105, part of 1 article 163, article 316 of the Criminal Code of Russia). In criminal law, "persons close to the victim" are understood to be his close relatives (parents, children, adoptive parents, adopted children, siblings, grandfather, grandmother, grandchildren) and other persons who are related to the victim, property (spouse, relatives of the spouse) , as well as persons whose life, health and well-being due to the prevailing life circumstances are dear to the victim (for example, the groom, the bride, the roommate, the roommate, friends, and so on).

The criminal procedure legislation of the Russian Federation instead of the term "family" uses such concepts as "close", "close relatives" and "relatives". According to Art. 5 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, close relatives are spouses, spouses, parents, children, adoptive parents, adopted children, siblings, grandfather, grandmother, grandchildren; to relatives - all other persons, with the exception of close relatives, who are related; and to close persons - other, with the exception of close relatives and relatives, persons who are in property with the victim, witness, as well as persons whose life, health and well-being are dear to the victim, the witness due to the established personal relations.

Thus, the concepts of "family", "family and marriage relations" are the object of research in many sciences. This is the sociology of the family, demography, ethnography, the psychology of family relations, developmental psychology, medicine, family law, pedagogy, criminology and, in particular, family criminology. In each of these areas, the family is investigated in a certain section, from those positions and from the point of view that is inherent only in this scientific discipline.

There are various approaches to family typology (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 - Typology of a small group family

The most common criterion for systematization is the criterion of childhood, that is, the number of children (their own and adopted). Families are distinguished:

a) large (from four children or more);

b) average children (two or three children);

c) without children;

d) childless.

As already noted, the dominant trend for the industrially developed is an increase in the number of one-child and childless families (having married, spouses are more and more in no hurry to have children, preferring to first get an education, make a career, and so on).

The sovereign criterion shows how power is distributed between spouses. On its basis, there are two types of relationships within the family.

family social children protection

Table 1 Types of relationships within the family

	Democratic (egalitarian)
the type is associated, as a rule, with the dominance in the family of the husband or one of the older relatives (a classic example - Kabanikha from the drama A. N. Ostrovsky "The Thunderstorm"), much less often - the wife. This type of relationship is characteristic of the pre-industrial stage of the development of society, however, as a woman emancipates, her level of education increases and her involvement in social production gradually disappears. This type is characterized by strict subordination of children to their parents. It should be noted that recently, both in Western and Russian sociology, a direction has developed that pays special attention to the protection social rights children by society and the state, including by means of law.	type assumes equal participation of spouses in decision-making and raising children, voluntary distribution of responsibilities, etc. In a family based on this type of relationship, there is no pronounced leader, since both of its adult members are endowed with equal legal rights to own property and raise children. Here, a woman, especially if she works, reacts more sharply to manifestations of male despotism and selfishness, accompanied by violence against her and children, which confirms the increase in the number of divorces initiated by her.

The criterion for the distribution of responsibilities (roles).

Usually, there are aggregated (from Lat. Segregatio - separation), joint and symmetric types of matrimonial roles.

The segregated type assumes the separation of marital roles and their isolation, which finds expression in a strict delineation of duties and responsibilities between husband and wife. Thus, the husband, while continuing to be the “breadwinner” of the family, the earner of the means of material existence, performs traditionally male work in housework. The wife is a housewife, her circle of occupations is limited to the kitchen, raising children, buying food, and so on.

The existing division of roles continues in the formation of so-called networks of contacts that correspond to individual needs and interests. The latter are conditioned, in particular, by the husband's employment outside the home, which predetermines the circle of his contacts, including the sphere of free time. Men, for example, prefer to relax in the company of other men on fishing, hunting, drinking alcohol and the like. On the contrary, women, all the time engaged in domestic work, stand closer to their mothers and sisters, preferring to communicate with their parental family to all types of contacts.

The joint type is associated with the achievement of greater equality in the family due to the fact that the husband and wife have common interests and goals, as well as with the redistribution of roles within the family as a result of the fact that both spouses work outside the home. In this regard, they spend their free time together, jointly make decisions concerning the whole family. The husband's responsibilities around the house, including raising children, are expanding.

An important factor in the redistribution of marital roles is the alignment of the social positions of men and women. With an increase in the level of education and qualifications, the proportion of women in decision-making is increasing. This tendency is especially pronounced in middle-class families, which, as they move away from parental families, are increasingly oriented towards new cultural standards, which presuppose the egalitarianism of relations between spouses in marriage. This is also facilitated by the fact that the wife often makes a successful professional career, while the husband may find himself unemployed.

Family researchers note that the joint type of marital roles is largely characterized by the transition from the old to the new way of family life. If the man's diktat is already over here, then the load on the woman not only does not decrease, but, on the contrary, doubles because of her employment at work and at home.

The symmetrical type of matrimonial roles is characterized by a greater, than before, the closeness of the family from outside influences, the formation of its own world in it. Relationships of this type are characterized by:

1) the husband and wife are focused on problems at home, especially when the children are still young;

2) the influence of the extended family (for example, relatives living nearby) is minimized, due to which the former traditional cultural stereotypes regarding the sphere of "male" and "female" labor are no longer valid;

3) there is a lesser division of labor in the distribution of household duties, for example, a man is more likely to work on taking care of a child or cleaning an apartment.

Today, the husband is increasingly taking on the same responsibility as his wife for family affairs. This is reflected in the legislation of many industrialized countries, where state-paid parental leave can be granted to any parent of their choice. At the same time, a woman gets more opportunities for her professional career.

Thus, the most common criterion for systematization is the criterion of childhood. The authoritative criterion shows how power is distributed between spouses, and the "cultural ideal" of a traditional family in which women are housewives - wives, and husbands are breadwinners of the family, has actually lost its significance today.

Family functions

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

1. The most important function of the family is the socialization of the individual, the transfer of cultural heritage to new generations. The human need for children, their upbringing and socialization gives meaning to human life itself. It is quite obvious that the priority of the family as the main form of socialization of the individual is due to natural biological reasons.

The family has great advantages in the socialization of the individual in comparison with other groups due to the special moral and emotional psychological atmosphere of love, care, respect, sensitivity. Children raised outside the family have a lower level of emotional and intellectual development. They have inhibited the ability to love others, the ability to sympathy and empathy. The family carries out socialization in the most crucial period of life, provides an individual approach to the development of the child, reveals his abilities, interests, needs in time. Due to the fact that the family develops the closest and closest relationships that can exist between people, the law of social heritage comes into force. Children by their nature, temperament, style of behavior are in many ways similar to their parents.

The effectiveness of parenting, as an institution of socialization of the individual, is also ensured by the fact that it is permanent and long-lasting, and continues throughout life as long as the parents - children are alive.

2. The next most important function of the family is the function of social and emotional protection of its members.

In times of danger, most people strive to be close to their families. In a situation that threatens life and health, a person calls for help from the most dear and close person - mother. In a family, a person feels the value of his life, finds selfless dedication, readiness for self-sacrifice in the name of the life of loved ones.

3. The next most important function of the family is economic and household. The bottom line is to support minors and disabled members of society and to receive material resources and household services by some family members from others.

4. The social-status function is associated with the reproduction of the social structure of society, since the family transfers a certain social status to its members.

5. Recreational, restorative function is aimed at restoring and strengthening the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual strength of a person after a hard day's work. Marriage has a more beneficial effect on the health of the spouses, and on the body of a man more than a woman. And the loss of one of the spouses is more difficult for men than for women.

6. The leisure function carries out the organization of rational leisure and exercises control in the field of leisure, in addition, it satisfies certain needs of the individual in spending free time.

7. The next reproductive function is associated with the biological reproduction of members of society. Society cannot exist if there is no well-established system for replacing one generation with another.

8. The sexual function of the family exercises sexual control and is aimed at satisfying the sexual needs of the spouses.

9. The felicitological function is of particular interest in this list. It is now that love and happiness have become the main reason for starting a family, rather than reproductive and economic considerations. Therefore, the strengthening of the role of the felicitological function in the family makes modern family-marriage relations specific in comparison with the family and marriage of other historical periods.

The strength and attractiveness of the family, its essence lies in the integrity that is inherent in the family as a social community, and as a small social group, and as a social institution. The integrity of the family is formed due to the mutual attraction and complementarity of the sexes, which create a "single androgenic being", a kind of integrity that cannot be reduced either to the sum of family members or to an individual member of the family.

A family is created to satisfy not one or two, but a whole range of vital human needs.

Families that adequately perform all or most of the functions are called functional families. In the case of violations of many functions (especially priority ones), such families are called dysfunctional.

Thus, human existence is currently organized in the form of a family lifestyle. Each of the functions can be more or less successfully implemented outside the family, but their totality can only be carried out in the family.

Socio-economic situation of the family in modern Russia

Public opinion polls in Russia show that the family is perceived as one of the main values ​​in life and as a condition for a happy life. Moreover, the stability or instability of social life, the health of the nation is directly dependent on the state of the family. A disintegrating family is one of the conditions for the degradation of society.

With the transition to market relations, the standard of living of the population of Russia has significantly decreased. The financial situation of large families, single mothers, families with disabled children, student families has especially worsened. Almost all of the monetary income of these families is used to buy food.

The socio-economic and political transformation of the Russian state and society taking place in recent years has led to a radical breakdown of economic and social structures. In these conditions, the study and preservation of such an important primary basic institution of society as the family is of particular importance.

The basic principles of family policy, proclaimed by the UN, are as follows:

The family, as the most important unit of society, deserves attention, protection and support from the state, regardless of the types of families, the variety of individual preferences and social conditions;

It is necessary to promote the rights and freedoms of the individual in the family;

Family policy should be aimed at promoting equal rights between men and women in the distribution of family responsibilities and consolidating their equal opportunities to participate in work and social life;

All family policy measures should strengthen the autonomy and independence of families by providing assistance to the family in performing its inherent functions, without replacing them with government structures.

The world community has also formulated the priority tasks of family policy for all states:

Formation of egalitarian (equal) relations between spouses in the family;

Improving the situation of single-parent families with one breadwinner, with sick and elderly family members;

Protecting families from poverty and deprivation, from the negative effects of changes associated with the economy, migration, urbanization, ecology, and as a result of which the family often loses the ability to perform its functions;

Creation of conditions that allow families to make competent decisions on determining the intervals between births of children and their number;

Prevention of alcohol and drug addiction, domestic violence.

Problems faced by the modern Russian family as a result of social and economic changes:

Low material security;

Increased social and geographic mobility; migration, including outside the state;

Deteriorating health status, demographic situation (natural population decline began);

Fundamental changes in the traditional roles of family members, especially women;

Growth in the number of single-parent families;

Increasing the dependency ratio;

Domestic violence, social orphanhood.

The not always consistent building of statehood in Russia, mistakes made in reforming socio-economic life, have damaged such social achievements as an extensive free system of preschool and out-of-school education, health-improving recreation for children. This system allowed parents to combine family responsibilities with participation in labor market structures, introduced young people to various types of creativity, helped them in choosing a life path.

Due to the increase in parental fees and the reduction in the number of places, fewer children attend pre-school institutions from year to year. For the same reason, the number of children involved in paid sports clubs and art studios is decreasing.

For most families, health care services have become less accessible, including skilled health care, drugs and medication.

A very painful problem for most families is getting better housing conditions, especially for young families who do not have their own homes.

The number of families of refugees and internally displaced persons, both within the country and outside it, is growing.

Experts' studies show that the refusal of some families to give birth to children due to unfavorable economic and psychological conditions can, with the continuation of the socio-economic crisis, develop into new reproductive attitudes, which are expressed, in particular, in a sharp decrease in the values ​​of children for parents, which will lead in the future to a new round of depopulation - for example, to a decrease in the population and labor force, as well as to neglect and neglect of children.

The psychological climate in society is deteriorating, which is directly related to the growth of violence, crime, the spread of alcoholism and drug addiction, prostitution and pornography. The family, being a part of society, ceases to be a psychological refuge from social cataclysms. As a result, the number of disadvantaged families is increasing.

Nevertheless, the weakening of the negative consequences of reforming society is quite possible. The way out is seen not in the rejection of reforms, but in giving them a social orientation, economic growth, stabilization of the socio-political situation. The state sets the task of considering the interests of the family as the goal of developing the economy and social sphere.

The state should not impose on the family the lifestyle, the number of children, the employment of the parents. The family is autonomous in making all decisions, its right is to choose support measures.

The social market state is called upon to carry out social protection of the family in a differentiated manner, ensuring an acceptable standard of living for disabled family members: children, disabled people, pensioners, as well as large families.

Single-parent families with one breadwinner require special attention: single mothers, divorced men and women with children, widows and widowers with children, as well as foster families.

At the same time, it is necessary to create conditions in society for the self-sufficiency of families with able-bodied members on a labor basis. We need a new income policy. Wages and pensions should, in particular, meet all the needs of the family in terms of paid social services (health care, consumer services, etc.).

It is important to provide conditions for partnership between the state, sharing responsibility for the fate of Russian families with all civil institutions and all citizens on the basis of cooperation.

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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-Economic

Department of Economics and Finance

ESSAY

By discipline: Fundamentals of the welfare state

On the topic: Family as a social institution

Completed by a student

gr. ESP No. - 101

Osipova E.A.

Supervisor:

Serebryansky S.V.

Chelyabinsk 2014

INTRODUCTION

1. MARRIAGE AS THE BASIS AND CORE OF THE FAMILY

2. FAMILY - 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 next 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 labor brigade, a hobby 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. From an institutional point of view, the process of forming a family appears as a time-stretched process of assimilating social norms, roles and standards governing courtship, the choice of a marriage partner, family stabilization, sexual behavior, and relations with the parents of the spouses. family society marriage endogamy exogamy

The family as an institution, or rather as a set of institutions, does not belong to real people. The institution of the family is associated with the customs, laws and rules of behavior that reinforce the relationship of kinship 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 obligations of a husband and wife, children and parents. The law defines the minimum age for marriage, rules for the division of property after divorce, etc.

The aim 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 prescriptions that determine the rights, duties and privileges of a 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-date of the conclusion of the marriage agreement, but does not indicate the expiration date of the contract. This implies that the marriage bond holds people together for the rest of their lives. In many societies, the state takes upon itself only the formalization of marriage, and its consecration is performed by the church. The spouses take an oath of allegiance to each other and take on the responsibility of each other's social, economic and physical care. Consecration of a marriage in front of a church altar is considered the most powerful form of strengthening a marriage.

The institution of marriage by the very fact of its existence testifies that society has 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 relations looked completely different, but at the dawn of human history they did not exist at all.

In any society - ancient or modern - the family is formed, as a rule, through marriage. Marriage is a society-sanctioned union of a certain duration between two or more individuals. Such an alliance is usually concluded through a special ceremony - the inauguration, the solemn conclusion of the marriage bond. The inauguration can take place in a strictly formal or in a 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 descendants, take care of them Children born out of wedlock are considered illegitimate. Although the mother of the illegitimate child is known, there may not be a man ready to fulfill the social role of father.

Marriage is also a set of customs that regulate the conjugal relationship between a man and a woman. In modern European culture, such customs include acquaintance, betrothal, exchange of rings, throwing rice or money during the wedding ceremony, honeymoon, and stepping over a symbolic obstacle of the bride and groom.

Marriage ceremonies in some traditional societies look more simplistic. 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 with a chicken from all sides, the priest hit the bride and groom with their heads three times, during which they had to manage to put nuts in each other's mouths - thus the marriage was recognized as concluded.

Among Europeans, marriage implies some rules of conduct that have become a tradition, for example, premarital chastity, marital fidelity, monastic tonsure, 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 valid reasons, the right to declare a marriage fictitious if fraud is found, the age of the bride and groom matches, parental consent, and the absence of kinship between those entering into marriage.

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

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

If marriage extends to the relationship of spouses, then the family takes over the matrimonial and parental relationship. Marriage is only a relationship, and the family is, moreover, also a social organization.

There are such types of marriage as endogamy and exogamy. In endogamy, the partner is selected only from the group to which the elector belongs. Exogamy involves choosing a marriage partner 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 they often try not to pass off their daughters and sons as people of lower social groups and estates. Membership in a different race or nation can also act as a barrier to marriage. Mono-national and intra-class marriage must be considered a kind of endogamy.

The criterion for distinguishing unequal marriage is the inequality of spouses. Unequal marriage implies that spouses differ in some significant way: 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.

Purchased marriage involves the payment of a payment for the future spouse. The woman's relatives "gave" the man's relatives his future spouse in exchange for equal services and assistance. Later, such a form of purchased marriage as redemption marriage appears. The wedding ceremony has become much more complicated, it has become formalized. Oral agreement of young people or parents was no longer enough, it was necessary to conclude an agreement (contract), 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 distinguished into a special group. They are between young people under the age of 18. In order for the young to be allowed to marry legally, they must have a serious reason - pregnancy or life together. In Russia, about 84.4 thousand young citizens enter the marriage union every year. As a rule, these marriages fall apart as quickly as they are concluded. The likelihood of divorce between persons under the age of 20 is twice as high as for marriage after this age. The lower stability of early marriages is associated with the problems of children appearing in the 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.

A marriage of convenience 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 for one of the spouses at the expense of the other. International marriages can be considered a type of marriage of convenience.

Marital relations are governed by types of norms - legal and cultural. To legal norms usually include questions about ownership of property, material obligations of spouses in relation to children and to each other, the minimum age of marriage, and some others. The society also provides for a set of rules governing the dissolution of marriage. They determine the legal grounds for divorce, the nature of the divorce procedure, the rights and obligations of former spouses related to the material maintenance and upbringing of children, and the ownership of property after divorce.

Unlike written legal laws, cultural norms are unwritten. They regulate marriage based on morality, tradition, and custom. These include norms of courtship, marital choice, premarital behavior, distribution of power and responsibilities between spouses, and post-divorce behavior. Cultural norms are formed primarily by society, but how they are used and 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 life together must be divided equally. The cultural norms in force in our society suggest that the man should leave the apartment, the furnishings in it, and part of his money savings to his wife, especially if the court has saved her children. But it depends only on the personal culture and upbringing of a man how he actually behaves.

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

2. FAMILY - SOCIAL INSTITUTE

Speaking about the most important social institutions - the pillars of society, the family is called among the first. 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 fatherhood, 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, and even more so all the diversity of relations between relatives - close and distant. It implies a set of rules and sanctions that govern the relationship between spouses. Some norms are of a legal nature and are regulated by law, while others are cultural and morally regulated by customs and traditions. These rules govern two main phases - marriage and divorce.

The historical aspect of the institution of the family is studied by historians, ethnographers and anthropologists who have drawn up typologies of marriage, family and kinship. The concepts of exogamy and endogamy, monogamy, polygyny, patriarchal, matrilineal and some others came to sociology from related disciplines. Other concepts, for example, nuclear and extended family, marriage of convenience, family of origin and procreational family, single and large family, and a number of others, were invented by sociologists.

The family as an institution should be distinguished from the family as a primary group. The group consists of specific people performing specific roles directly related to personal relationships. Relationships between people in a group are spontaneous and intense. The family includes representatives of two generations. The family institute contains descriptions of the positions of the 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 the family differs in each society in its tasks, structure, and social role. But all societies have something in common. The family arose because human babies, unlike all other animal species, have the longest childhood. A child's dependence on parents lasts up to 15-18 years. During this period, he needs material and social support from adults. Preparation 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, inheritance rights to property or property, social status and position in society, identification with a certain line of kinship, i.e. genealogy. No one and nothing, apart from the family, is capable of providing a young person with a legally recognized targeting - a social "residence permit" in a given society.

The functions of the family are the ways of manifesting its activity, the ways of life of the whole family and its individual members. Among the various functions of the family, the most important are reproductive, educational, economic, recreational, social status, and medical.

Reproductive function is associated with the biological reproduction of members of society. Society cannot exist if there is no well-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 declining, the population is aging, the number of one-child and childless families is increasing, and the illegitimate birth rate is growing. From 1992 to 2000 inclusive, the natural decline in the population of Russia amounted to 4.9 million people. Only in 2000, there was a tendency towards an increase in the birth rate. According to the 2002 census, the population of the Russian Federation was about 145.5 million people. Since 1993, the natural population decline has been at a consistently high level (0.7 - 0.9 million people per year).

Unfavorable socio-economic factors gave rise to a mechanism of depopulation of the country's regions, which entails a deterioration in the age structure of the population and, consequently, a decrease in the contingent of the able-bodied population. In these conditions, it is necessary to take urgent measures to overcome the negative trends in the demographic development of Russia, to 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 the older generations. The new generation, replacing the old, is able to learn social roles only in the process of socialization.

The family is the cell of primary socialization. Parents pass on their life experiences to their children, instill good manners, teach crafts and theoretical knowledge, lay the foundations for speaking and writing, and control their actions.

Recently, there has been a decrease in the educational potential of the family. The upbringing 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 education, but also on other issues;

* interference of relatives in the upbringing of 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 custody of the elderly and disabled.

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

In our country, where the level of mechanization in everyday life is low, the network of consumer services is inaccessible, everyday problems fall primarily on the shoulders of women. A woman often has to combine activities in the sphere of social production and household, especially in the sphere of family life. Since the state is not able to provide a choice of their preferred way of life, the solution to the problem of women's double employment 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 the place where a person could feel more protected and be always accepted. In the conditions of the accelerating rhythm of life, the growth of all kinds of social and psychological stress, the number of stressful situations, the family takes on a psychotherapeutic role. It becomes an "oasis" of calmness and confidence, creates a sense of security and psychological comfort so important for a person, provides emotional support and maintains general vitality. The recreational function also includes spiritual and aesthetic moments, including the organization of family leisure and recreation.

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

Observations show that strength is restored most fully in a family environment, in communication with loved ones, children. The recreational aspects of family life are closely related to the culture of family relationships , and this, as never before, affects the life of the family in general, its stability and, ultimately, the very existence of the married couple.

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

The medical function is most often of a preventive nature. It consists in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, giving up bad habits, active recreation, mastering hygienic skills, and carrying out health-improving activities. Family members should have information on health issues, promptly seek medical advice and assistance, and fulfill their appointments.

Families are distinguished by medical and social risk factors:

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

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

These families have a higher percentage chronic diseases, especially in children under three years of age. Failure to comply with the rules of hygiene, diet and leisure, ignorance of prevention issues, and late seeking medical care for a child's illness are typical for such families. The listed functions determine the life of the family. They are closely interconnected, although their ratio and specific weight may be different. As a small social group, a family is a community of people formed on the basis of marriage or consanguinity, whose members 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 features are significant: a common household, common children, and the presence of sexual relations between spouses. There is a point of view according to which a small group is recognized as a family if it has any two of the listed characteristics. If there is only one of these signs, it is not 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. May be in the status of officially registered marriage and still not be a family.

In this case, for all fragmentary "fragmented" forms of the family (parent without matrimony, 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 matrimony. The definition of a family group includes an incomplete family, where one of the parents is absent or the parental generation for some reason is not present at all (for example, when children live with grandparents without parents). The types of family structures are diverse and are formed depending on the nature of marriage, kinship, parenthood.

So, the family as a community of people connected by relations of marriage, parenthood, kinship, joint household, as the basic 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 translator 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 is of consolidating importance, 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 the view in the United States of the crisis of the family as a social institution. The peak of such conversations came in the early 70s. However, in the late 70s, there was a revival of family values. The 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 fell on a later period. In the 90s, many specialists in the field of sociology began to talk about the crisis of the institution of the family. This meant the inability of the family as an institution to fulfill those functions and roles that it has always been called upon to perform and with which it has coped before.

Figure 1 - The crisis of the institution of the family

On the crisis of the institution of the family, according to T.A. Gurko, evidenced by the following facts:

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

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

3) decrease in nuptiality and fertility

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

5) the crisis of the paternal 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 the family in modern Russian society has not only the deepest 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 and communication between generations and spouses. 9/10 of the total population live in families, the proportion of absolutely single people has decreased. Lonely young people can be represented as a potential family The process of divorce has slowed down and, one might say, in a number of territories (especially rural ones) began to decrease. The marriage rate by international standards can be recognized as high. In addition, after fifteen years economic reforms in economically developed regions of Russia (with a high level of prices, but also a saturated market), the family began to adapt to new forms of life and groped for market sources of livelihood. New intonations and a conscious desire of parents to have a child, regardless of material conditions, began to sound in the positive motivation of fertility. In the negative, phobiotic worries about the fate of children, fear of the future came to the fore ... The ideal of family well-being is becoming more and more distinctly the family in which the husband performs the functions of a "breadwinner", and the wife, meanwhile, controls the family and financial situation, expenses .. The privatization of apartments and land plots made possible the legal inheritance of living space and land by younger generations in the family, which objectively strengthened the position of the young family as a subject of inheritance of family property ... Decrease in the role of state institutions of social security for the elderly and the importance of pension support in old age due to growth prices and inflation, rising prices for food, rent, clothing, medicines and funeral services increase the role of children and the younger generation as a whole as a guarantee of a wealthy old age ... Children and adolescents are beginning to "regain" their status of not only potential, but also actual strength, which, of course, requires their legal protection, but at the same time enhances the motivational side of future fertility ... The changes taking place today in the economy increase the role of the father and the power of men in the family. In the future, when the norms of reproductive behavior are transmitted to the younger generations, this can strengthen the filial orientation ... 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 food, clothing, services, social hygiene, ecology and the level of awareness of their environment " ...

Despite the encouraging trends, the family as a whole is going through a crisis, which should be considered an institutional and cultural crisis. The main reason is the fact that the institution of the family is crumbling those historical bonds on which it has always held, primarily the ties between generations, parents and children, family and ethnic ties. "The current crisis is the result of the multiplication of unfavorable long-term changes in the institution of the family."

Often, Russian 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, predatory tendencies of the era of initial accumulation), demographic and family (decline in the birth rate, change in the model of marital behavior, an increase in the number of divorces, etc.) at one time or another were inherent 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 rise in divorce rates.

In Russia, there has been an increase in divorce rates in recent years, 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 - about 10%. Experts believe that "Russians go 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 - the family is formed, as a rule, through marriage. Marriage is a set of formal prescriptions that determine the rights, duties and privileges of a husband in relation to his wife, and the two of them in relation to their children, relatives and society as a whole. Such an alliance is usually concluded through a special ceremony - the inauguration, the solemn conclusion of the marriage bond.

Speaking about the most important social institutions - the pillars of society, the family is called among the first. 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 fatherhood, the institution of property, the institution of social protection of childhood and guardianship, etc.

As a rule, family problems arise when its functions are not implemented or poorly implemented. The instability of marriage and family, an increase in the number of divorces, and a decrease in family reproductive capacity are characteristic of all developed countries of the world.

The aggravating economic crisis in Russia does not yet allow stabilizing the situation and taking measures to improve family relations. Nevertheless, experts believe that such a time will come, albeit perhaps with a delay: "the family can become a key factor in the development of a stable middle class and contribute to the revival of Russia."

LIST OF SOURCES USED

1.http: //biozhiogs.narod.ru/KINDER/program_soc_razv.htm

2.http: //www.blyo.ru/referaty_po_sociologii/referat_semya_kak_socialnyj_institut.html

3.http: //referatwork.ru/refs/source/ref-37962.html

4.http: //www.referat.ru/referats/view/17026

5.http: //bibliofond.ru/view.aspx?id=6590

6.http: //www.0zn.ru/referaty_po_psixologii/referat_semya_kak_socialnyj_institut_i.html

7. Hunger S.I. Family and marriage: historical and sociological analysis. - SPb .: LLP KT "Petropolis", 1998.

8. Dobrenkov V.I., Kravchenko. A.I. Social institutions and processes. M .: Moscow State University, 2000 vol. 3.

9. Sociology: a textbook for universities / V.N. Lavritenko, N.A. Nartov, O.A. Shabanova, G.S. Lukashov; Ed. Prof. V.N. Lavrytenko. - M.: UNITI, 2000.

10. Perov G.O. Sociology: Textbook / G.O. Perov, S.I. Samygin. - Rostov n / a: Ed. center "March", 2002.

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