Family as a social institution (9) - Abstract. Family and marriage

It is the most important in public relations. Sociologists, psychologists, sexologists and many others are studying it. This biased attention is no coincidence. The family, as is one of the important carriers of the principles of culture and personality education, which are already traditional and passed down from generation to generation. A person receives initial education in a family. There he is also taught behavioral skills and education.

Each specific society has its own concepts and lives. Therefore, the people who make up this community form the opinion that their foundations are the most correct.

Family as a social institution , is so important to society that it makes no sense to consider a particular type as the main one. The roots of family relationships lie deep in antiquity. It was then that the emergence of this institution began.

The typology of the family includes types that differ depending on the form of its organization and on the family ties of its members.

One of the main types is the combination: husband, wife and children. This is the classic version that is presented to everyone at the mention of the word. This type is called conjugal. It is based on the marriage of two people who are not related by kinship.

The second type is a kindred family. It is based on consanguinity. Usually these are numerous relatives representing the clan, which includes brothers and sisters, their husbands and wives, children, aunts, uncles, etc.

The family, as a social institution, exists in these two forms, but their significance is not the same. Usually a kindred is necessary for celebrations, communication and maintaining family ties. The marital type is of great importance. In this case, the role of the family in a person's life is enormous. Even the legislation prescribes certain rules and regulations in relation to children or parents, but says nothing about ties with more distant relatives.

A married family refers to the relationship between spouses and their children. The related type includes a wider range of relationships. In such a family, the spouses are subject to greater influence from their relatives, and only half enter the new family.

The upbringing that the child receives also depends. In a kindred family, care and responsibility for him lies not only with the parents, but also with the numerous relatives. His social circle is extensive, and this has a good effect on education. Many relatives are ready to take on the responsibilities of parents.

As a social institution, it mostly represents the marital type. This is due to the place of residence, which may be far from the rest of the relatives. Many do not maintain family ties due to certain circumstances.

Marriage is one of the more acceptable forms of family. Formal relationships are not only about future offspring and their upbringing. Marriage also includes many other rights and responsibilities. It can be called a model in the form of which the family is presented as a social institution. Each individual society has its own norms of behavior, which take years to develop. They also depend on economic conditions.

Sometimes there is a situation when the choice of a spouse does not depend on the person. It takes place on the basis of certain rules and foundations that are limited only by the boundaries of a particular society.

In most cases, the family, as a social institution, is monogamous. But there are rare cases of polygamous marriages.

For every person, the family is a model for the formation of character and norms of behavior in society. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the development of this institution.

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Introduction

1. Family as a social institution

2. Trends in the development of the modern family

3. The role of the family in society

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The family is a small group and a special social institution that regulates interpersonal relations between spouses, parents, children and other relatives who are linked by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance.

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

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

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

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

1 . Family as a social institution

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, the choice of a marriage partner, sexual standards of behavior, the 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 emergence of the state, the regulation of 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.

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

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

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

married (wife, husband),

parental (mother, father),

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

intergenerational and intragenerational (grandfather, grandmother, senior, junior), etc.

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

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

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

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

For the successful formation of a family, sensitivity to the situational requirements of the family role and the associated flexibility of role behavior, which manifests itself in the ability to leave one role without much difficulty, to be included in a new one as soon as the situation requires, is also of no small importance. For example, one or another wealthy family member played the role of the material patron of other family members, but his financial situation has changed, and a change in the situation immediately requires a change in his role.

Role relationships in the family, formed during the performance of certain functions, can be characterized by role consent or role conflict. Sociologists note that role conflict most often manifests itself as:

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

inter-role conflict, in which the contradiction is inherent in the opposite of role expectations emanating from different roles. Such conflicts are often observed in multi-generational families, where the second generation spouses are both children and parents at the same time and must accordingly combine opposite roles;

intra-role conflict, in which one role includes conflicting requirements. In a modern family, this kind of problem is most often inherent in the female role. This applies to cases where the role of a woman involves a combination of the traditional female role in the family (housewife, educator of children, etc.) with the modern role, which presupposes the equal participation of spouses in providing the family with material means.

The conflict can deepen if the wife occupies a higher status in the social or professional sphere and transfers the role functions of her status into intra-family relations. In such cases, the ability of the spouses to switch roles flexibly is very important. A special place among the prerequisites for role conflict is occupied by difficulties with the psychological mastering of the role associated with such characteristics of the spouses' personalities as insufficient moral and emotional maturity, unpreparedness for the performance of marital and, especially, parental roles. For example, a girl, having got married, does not want to shift the household chores of the family onto her shoulders or give birth to a child, tries to lead the same way of life, not obeying the restrictions imposed on her by the role of a mother, etc.

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

It can be argued that both in society and in the family, women are still discriminated against. Often the women themselves contribute to this, making demands on their daughters to help around the house, while the sons lead an idle lifestyle. With such attitudes, society (in the person of men and women themselves), as it were, consolidates further discrimination against women. If we analyze sociological data, then the most obvious form of discrimination is the nature of the distribution of domestic work in the family. Although studies over the past three years have documented a more even distribution of household chores, the problem is still open.

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

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

The family, in the process of socialization, prepares children for the fulfillment of family roles. IS Kon writes that the concept of social role is central in the analysis of social interactions. The study of social roles in the family allows us to identify the social changes taking place in it, to concretize the issue of the functions of the family and the social conflicts associated with them.

The concept of a social institution is widely used both in our country and abroad. With regard to the family, it is used primarily as a complex system of actions and relationships that performs certain social functions. Or, the concept of a social institution is viewed as an interconnected system of social roles and norms that is created and operates to satisfy important social needs and functions. The social roles and norms included in a social institution determine the appropriate and expected behavior that is focused on meeting specific social needs.

The family is analyzed as an institution when it is especially important to clarify the correspondence (or inconsistency) of the family's lifestyle and its functions to modern social needs. The model of the family as a social institution is very important for predicting family changes and trends in its development. When analyzing the family as a social institution, researchers are primarily interested in patterns of family behavior, family role, and the specifics of formal and informal norms and sanctions in the field of marriage and family relations.

As a small social group, the family is considered when relations between individuals belonging to the family are studied. With this approach, the motives for marriage, the reasons for divorce, the dynamics and nature of marital relations and relations between parents and children are successfully investigated. Although it must be borne in mind that group behavior is influenced by socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions. Families are a more complex system than marriage, since it usually unites not only spouses, but also their children, as well as other relatives and friends. In addition, the family acts as a socio-economic unit of society, thus representing a very close “original” model of the entire society in which it functions.

The family is a social group in which certain processes take place and which performs certain functions, and develops historically.

2 . Trends in the development of the modern family

The trends in the development of a modern family can be traced on the basis of changes in its functions, since the functions of the family change in the course of history, as does the family itself.

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

1. Economic functions. In any society, the family plays a major economic role. In peasant, agricultural and handicraft production, the family is a joint cooperative labor association. Responsibilities are divided according to the age and gender of family members. Among the tremendous changes brought about by the emergence of industrial production, there was the destruction of this cooperative production system. The workers began to work outside the home and the economic role of the family was reduced only to the waste of money earned by the family's breadwinner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fourthly, the separation of labor from the family complicates the problem of labor education. Previously, the child was brought up at work, by example and under the supervision of older family members. He knew that his work was necessary for the family. He had responsibilities that he could not delegate to anyone. Social forms of labor education have not yet been able to make up for the lack of labor family education. They are more labor training than upbringing.

Fifth, the lack of family professional guidance, the impossibility of inheriting one's specialty by inheritance, makes the process of upbringing itself more universal, but at the same time, more contradictory. Parents cannot unequivocally determine which moral qualities to give preference to: what skills children will most need in future activities.

Sixth, the inclusion of the younger generations in wider social life and labor activity is receding. A long period of life is reduced only to preparation for work and social activity. The gain that society receives in the development of personality is largely devalued by the lag in the social development of the younger generation, the development of socio-psychological infantilism in some of the youth, the artificial restraint of the energy of youth, which sometimes finds an outlet in asocial behavior. Moral values \u200b\u200boriented towards a delayed future are perceived by young people as empty, abstract sermons.

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

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

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

One of the important factors influencing this function is the employment of married women in manufacturing. Since the Second World War, the proportion of working women in manufacturing has increased significantly. Statistics record an inverse correlation between the level of professional employment of women and the birth rate.

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

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

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

Several other alternatives to family life have emerged over the past decades. Among them, the main ones are living together without marriage (cohabitation) and the creation of a commune.

Living together (cohabitation) means that couples live together, having sex with each other, but are not married.

This phenomenon is widespread in Western countries. In Sweden, Germany and other countries, cohabitation has become the norm and is viewed as a “trial” marriage of a couple about to be legally married.

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

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

3 . The role of the family in society

family conflict reproduction education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Polygamy - when a man and a woman can be simultaneously in several marriages. They distinguish polygyny, in which a man can be married to more than one woman, and polyandry, in which a woman can have several husbands at the same time. Most societies have a preference for polygyny. George Murdoch investigated many societies and found that polygyny existed in 145 of them; in 40, monogamy prevailed and only in 2 - polyandry. The rest of the societies did not fit any of these categories. Since in most societies the ratio of men to women is approximately 1: 1, polygyny is not widespread even in societies where it is considered preferred. Otherwise, the number of unmarried men would significantly exceed the number of men with multiple wives. In fact, most men in a polygonal society had one wife. The right to have multiple wives was usually given to a person of the upper class.

In many traditional societies, the following forms of preferred partnership prevailed. In an exogamous (intergeneric, intertribal) marriage, the taboo extended only to members of a kind, and sexual intercourse was limited only with blood relatives; representatives of other clans and tribes were not affected. In other cultures, on the contrary, marriages were concluded only between individuals belonging to the same genus. This form of marriage is called endogamy.

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

The neo-local residence, which was considered the norm in the West, is rare in the rest of the world. Only in 17 of the 250 societies Murdoch studied did newlyweds move to a new place of residence. The patrilocal residence found widespread in societies where there was polygyny, slavery and often wars; members of these societies usually hunted and collected plants. Matrilocal residence was considered the norm, where women enjoyed land tenure rights. Neolocal residence is associated with monogamy, a tendency towards individualism and equal economic status for men and women.

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

In some cases, for example, among the inhabitants of the Trobiand Islands, the relationship is determined by the female line, i.e. by the pedigree of the woman. As is customary in the Trobiand Islands, young wives live in the village with their husbands, but property and daily help comes from the wife's side. The mother's property becomes the daughter's property, and the wife's brother provides the main support to the young family.

In our society, a family system based on a two-sided pedigree has spread. It is common in 40% of the world's cultures. In such systems, blood relatives on the part of the father and mother are equally taken into account when determining kinship. However, with such a system, problems can also arise. The multiple responsibilities towards many relatives, such as visiting them, giving gifts on special occasions, and borrowing money, can become burdensome. Of course, this is fine for children who like to receive gifts from relatives.

The functions of the family are ways of manifesting its activity; the life of the whole family and its individual members. In all societies, the family performed basic functions:

Reproduction of the population. The function of reproduction of the population includes physical (childbearing) and spiritually - moral reproduction of a person in a family. The predominantly economic stimuli of childbearing in the past are being replaced more and more tangibly by the spiritual and moral: a deep moral, moral and psychological need for your child, the desire to have him from a loved one, the desire to reproduce himself in children, to repeat the path of life with them, hope and confidence in the upcoming spiritual kinship with children and grandchildren, cementing a consanguineous union, family pride;

Household and household. The household function of the family is expressed in the conduct of household and personal subsidiary farming, gardening and horticulture, in the maintenance and self-service of family members, in maintaining proper sanitary condition and hygiene in the home, observing the family budget;

Educational. The upbringing social function of the family determines the responsibility of parents for the spiritual, moral, political, aesthetic education of children; popular wisdom says: "The parent is not the one who gave birth to the child, but the one who raised him";

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

Organization and use of free time, primarily * leisure. Its goal is to help family members to most effectively realize their abilities and talents in self-activity, in the rational consumption of spiritual values, in providing active rest.

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

After all, it is known that the continuous collectivization carried out in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Ukraine and other states of the Commonwealth, even in rural areas, separated the bulk of work activity from family life, contributing to its transformation to a large extent only into a consumer cell. And only in the second half of the 1980s began the development of individual labor activity, family contracts, lease relations, etc., gradually returning productive labor to the family. Such shifts contribute significantly to an increase in the production of food and other basic necessities, but also to an earlier involvement of the younger generation in labor activity. And naturally they contribute to an increase in the effectiveness of labor education of young people, in which the economic function of the family will play a significant role, which will turn into the main production and labor unit of society, but on a new basis, in a new form and with a new content.

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

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

Upbringing is a great thing: it decides the fate, the fate of a person. Upbringing is carried out in the process of everyday communication of the child with family members, relatives, all people with whom the family maintains more or less permanent relations. Yes, and during the period of a child's studies at school, in a technical school, lyceum, higher educational institution, during labor in production, the educational function of the family does not die away, the educational impact on the younger, maturing generation does not stop. A person who grew up in a normal family, in his actions, as a rule, is guided not only by the opinion of the whole society or members of his work collective, but also significantly by the opinion of his loved ones. The world does not exist in order to be cognized, but in order to educate oneself in it. We are born weak - we need strength, we are born helpless - we need help, we are born meaningless - we need reason. Everything that we do not have at birth and that we cannot do without, having become adults, is given by upbringing. And every person realizes himself primarily in socially useful activities. Of course, every year a working person receives professional leave, sometimes, if he is very lucky, he gets to rest homes, sanatoriums, travels to resorts and other places to recuperate. But the main center for recuperation is still the family, in which we receive physical, material, moral, psychological help from each other. But relations in the family develop in different ways: both positive and negative, which affect a person in different ways. It is here that the communicative function of the family plays an important role - it satisfies the needs of a person in communication and in his solitude.

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

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

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

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

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

Falling in love tells a person how he should be. Anton Chekhov said: "When you love, you discover such wealth in yourself, so much tenderness, tenderness - you can't even believe that you know how to love this way ..."

The teacher Vasily Sukhomlinsky noted that "love is a huge work."

Karl Hecht, a sociologist-hygienist from Germany, rightly noted that sexual attraction is the biological basis of love. The social basis is the moral and ethnic side of love, issues of equality of partners, conscious choice. Intimate relationships perform two functions: they serve the continuation of the race - the conception of children, at the same time they carry with them a sense of pleasure, happiness and love, sexual release.

People who are bound by great love receive, through sexual relations, an influx of new, strength, experiencing labor enthusiasm. Leo Tolstoy said: "He who knows how to love - he knows how to live."

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

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

marriage - family formation;

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

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

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

the end of the family - the death of one of the spouses.

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

In the sociology of the family, such general principles are adopted for identifying the types of family organization. Monogamous and polygamous families are distinguished depending on the form of marriage. A monogamous family provides for the existence of a married couple - a husband and wife, a polygamous family - either a husband or a wife has the right. Have multiple wives or husbands. Depending on the structure of family ties, a simple, nuclear, or complex, extended type of family is distinguished. The nuclear family is a married couple with unmarried children. If some of the children in the family are married, then an extended, or complex, family is formed that includes two or more generations.

Conclusion

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

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

preservation of the modern family;

destruction of the family;

family revival (by improving the dating service with the use of computers, providing advice);

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

return to the traditional family.

What will happen in reality will probably not exactly match these predictions. On the other hand, the family is flexible and resilient. The prediction of "darkness and doom" reflects the concern of researchers rather than the real situation. In the end, there is no complete destruction of the family.

At the same time, we can confidently say that the traditional family is a thing of the past. As we can see, the history of the family is accompanied by the gradual loss of its functions. Current trends indicate that the family's monopoly on the regulation of adult intimate relationships, childbearing and caring for young children will continue in the future. However, even these relatively stable functions will partially disintegrate. The function of reproduction inherent in the family will also be carried out by unmarried women. The socialization function performed by the family will be divided to a greater extent between the family and outsiders (play center educators). Friendship and emotional support can be found not only in the family.

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

Bibliography

1. Bogolyubov LN, Lazebnikova, A.Yu., Ivanova LF .. Man and society. M., 2007.

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

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

4. Radugin AA Sociology: A course of lectures. 3rd ed., Supplemented. and revised Moscow: Center, 2001.224 p.

5. Tulina N.V. Family and Society: from Conflict to Harmony. - M., 2004.

6. Tseluyko V.М. Fundamentals of family psychology. Volgograd, 2003.

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

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

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The concept of "family" is found quite often in scientific literature, while many of them have become so accustomed to the consciousness of people that it is already quite difficult to determine the author of each definition.

The family is viewed as a social institution, a unit of society, a small group of relatives who live together and conduct joint economic activities.

A family? is an organized social group, whose members are connected by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and social necessity, which is due to the need of society for physical and spiritual self-reproduction.

The family belongs to the most important social values. According to some scientific theories, it was the form of the family that could determine the general direction of the evolution of macrosocial systems for many centuries. Each member of society, in addition to social status, ethnicity, property and material status, from the moment of birth to the end of life has such a characteristic as family and marital status. For a child, a family is an environment in which the conditions for his physical, mental, emotional and intellectual development are formed. For an adult, the family is a source of satisfaction for a number of his needs and a small team that makes various and rather complex requirements for him. At the stages of a person's life cycle, his functions and status in the family change sequentially.

The simplest example of a social institution is the family. A person spends most of his time in it, and it is the family that performs so many social functions that it leaves an indelible imprint on the entire development of a person. It is also embodied in many forms of social relations and satisfies a wide variety of human needs.

A family is a small group based on consanguinity or marriage. The members of this group are connected by a common way of life, mutual support and moral responsibility. She builds her own system of behavioral patterns, sanctions and rewards that establish effective relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and children among themselves.

In addition, the family is needed for the growth, proper development and socialization of children. The quality of this child's environment is determined by a number of parameters: demographic (family composition, number of members), socio-cultural (level of education and participation in the social life of parents), socio-economic (property and employment of parents at work), technical and hygienic (living conditions , lifestyle), etc.

The modern family is fundamentally different from the families of past centuries, primarily in its emotional and psychological functions. The relationship between parents and children is becoming more and more emotional and based on deep affection for each other, as children become for many the main value in life. However, this further complicates family life.

There are various reasons for this. For example, in most modern families there are no grandparents, brothers / sisters, uncles / aunts, who could diversify possible interpersonal relationships. In addition, the authority of the parental authority is replaced by the authority of the personality of the parents.

The word "family" carries Slavic and Indo-European roots (cf. lit.? Eima). Refers us to the meaning of territorial community (cf. lit. Zeme: Land).

The family is most often viewed as a group of relatives. At the same time, kinship can be both blood: parents and children, brothers, sisters, and legal: husband, wife, stepfather. Family members include: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother. The distant circle of relatives includes an uncle, aunt, nephew, first cousins \u200b\u200b(cousin) and second cousins. Also, to designate a family, the Latin word "surname" is often used, which in Russian primarily means "a common name for family members"

The emergence and development of Christianity made adjustments to patriarchal families - traditions were preserved, but the position of women improved slightly.

The modern Russian family is a cell of our society with all its shortcomings, differences from the previous generation, with the peculiarities of the Russian mentality. The family is not stewed in its own juice - its formation is influenced by the place of residence, politics, economy, morality and views of modern society. The modern family in Russia is characterized by a number of attitudes and behavior patterns.

Double standards are a thing of the past. Now what is allowed for a man is also allowed for a woman. This is the main difference between the modern family and the families of our grandparents. In the first post-war years, people built families in conditions of an acute shortage of men, so in marriage the husband could behave as he liked, and the wife tried with all her might to prevent the marriage from falling apart. Now, two generations later, things have changed.

Both spouses became more tolerant of their partner's premarital sexual experiences. If earlier the girl was ashamed of not marrying a virgin, now this is the norm. In many couples, it is customary to talk about sexual experiences with previous partners. Accordingly, the attitude towards adultery in many cases has become more tolerant.

The roles of both spouses became equal: a man is actively involved in raising children and in housekeeping, a woman is more often engaged in her own business and building a career. A wife can easily earn a lot more than her husband. Men do not hesitate to run a household, stay at home with children and even go on parental leave.

The attitude towards civil marriage, and in fact, towards cohabitation, has become much more tolerant. Women have learned to exercise their rights even without being legally married. In addition, they no longer feel economically dependent on their husbands. Moreover, young mothers have appeared, consciously raising children without a husband, earning money on their own and having time to devote time to home.

The meaning of some symbols of the family has disappeared. For example, wearing wedding rings is no longer required. Many people buy rings only for the wedding ceremony and nothing more. Many other wedding accessories (weddings, for example) were considered redundant. Another example: it used to be that spouses should sleep in the same bed. In modern families, spouses often sleep in separate rooms, finding it more convenient.

Legislation in matters of marriage and divorce has become more liberal, which has become a prerequisite and reason for a more tolerant attitude towards divorce. The spouses are no longer afraid of losing their family. Children's institutions no longer tease children from single-parent families, since many children are psychologically accustomed to one parent.

New times - new views on life, especially family life. The Soviet family ideology is practically forgotten: "once and for the whole life." Most of the traditional signs of marriage have been destroyed, and a new one has not been created. What is the modern family today?

Let's remember how our grandparents used to live, and after our parents. A strong and friendly family with two or more children, they met when they were young, got married, at first lived with their parents, gradually overcame difficulties (they constantly saved money either for household appliances, then for a car, then for a cooperative), winter holidays - on skis , summer - in the country. A sort of measured, calm and uncomplicated family life.

The new generation of 20-year-olds has stopped at a crossroads. How to build family relationships? How parents no longer want to, and how they would like - they themselves do not know. The classical family with its principles and foundations was successfully replaced by a "Western marriage". An incomprehensible desire to imitate everything foreign and imported has acquired a caricature.

Perhaps soon the institution of marriage will disappear, it will die out as an unnecessary and unnecessary element of a "civilized" society. I propose to understand the main problems of the modern family.

Lifetime marriages are rare. Those who managed to hold out together for 10-15 years are more likely to surprise than delight. It becomes more and more difficult to create something serious in the era of individualism. People no longer want to fix relationships and create their own happiness, it is easier to throw them out of life, and forget them like last year's snow. Freedom is so seductive that it becomes more and more difficult to maintain family relationships for decades.

Early marriages are now rare. Only our parents could do it. Young people of today want to get on their feet first, get a profession, work, create their own business, acquire housing, a car, etc. according to the list and after that he thinks about creating a family.

Our parents were looking for their soul mate among colleagues and classmates, from their inner circle. Now, with the development of the Internet, the geography of dating has expanded. Lovers easily change their country, faith and everything for the sake of happiness. It is much more difficult to keep love at a distance.

Dating with the consent of relatives was not the worst option. Now everyone listens only to their own heart. We listen, wait, look for our "prince on a white horse" ... until retirement. And the advice of the older generation is no longer a decree for us.

The Knights ended with the beginning of Perestroika. Some 15 years ago, a "flown" bride would have married a naive young man. Pregnancy is not a reason to start a family these days. Free love, free relationships and couples are in no hurry to sign, even when their children are already getting married.

Why tie the knot of an official marriage when you can live in a civil society? Typical reasoning of men. And women have to face it, their fear of being left alone. Civil marriage, like a probe - lived together, did not like it, parted. We got along with the next partner and so on in a circle. It seems that there is a relationship, but at the same time, neither who nor who owes anything. And most importantly, there is no responsibility that men are afraid of like fire.

Emancipation has ruined our women. They fought for equality, but in the end they got loneliness and lack of family life. What man likes it when a woman tries to take the helm of the family boat?

Everyone knows that a normal, natural marriage is a traditional one when a man and a woman get married. That was before, now there is freedom of morals. And the most popular are marriages between a man and a man, between a woman and a woman. This can also include civil, guest marriage, free, marriage between swingers. And in the end, no pleasure, just wasted time, nerves and money.

What about the modern habit of spending weekends and vacations separately from each other? For today's youth, this is called a vacation from family life. First, separate interests, weekends, holidays abroad, after different bedrooms, and all ends in divorce and loneliness.

There are more and more of them every year. Now everything has become easier, people do not want to fight for their happiness anymore. It doesn't work, doesn't stick - goodbye, the door is open, the suitcase is packed and forward in search of new sensations or relationships.

The institution of marriage is a union of two people who are able to adapt to any reality when they want it. Yes, the old dies, the new is born. What to choose: old-fashioned traditions or an open relationship, sex for a marriage contract or for love? Why can't you take only good things from everything, mix and get something new? New happy family, beautiful and healthy children. It is important not to mix up the proportions and ingredients.

Now there is an opinion about the collapse of the institution of the family. The basis for these unpleasant results is the large number of divorces, children with one parent, elderly people without child supervision and new forms of family. More urgent than ever is the question of what will happen to the institution of the family in the future. Scientists studying marriage are increasingly concluding that despite numerous changes, the growth of childlessness and families with a small number of children and many other transformations, the family unit formed on the usual traditional vision of marriage remains that cell of society where various needs can be realized and the capabilities of the individual - both child and adult. The emotional relationship of an individual with family members reflects an increase in the value of family values. Despite the following unpleasant phenomena, such as cohabitation without legal registration, secondary families, divorce, a decrease in the number of children in families, as well as the desire for women's independence, citizens of our country began to appreciate the family more. Based on this, the changes that many call the “crisis of the Russian family,” in fact, are better called the transformation of the family to modern conditions, a change in intra-family relations themselves, and a transformation taking place on a stable traditional socio-normative basis.

Previously, patriarchal families were more common, now nuclear ones are gaining popularity.

The most common in modern urbanized society are nuclear families, which consist of two. In such a family, there are three nuclear positions (husband, wife, children (child)).

An extended family is a family that brings together nuclear families who live in one place and are involved in a community. Such families consist of 3 or more generations - parents of spouses, spouses and their children.

In repeated families, which are based on a secondary marriage, together with the spouses there may be children from a previous marriage, and children born in a new marriage.

The increase in the number of divorces has increased the percentage of remarriages, which were previously created mostly due to the death of a previous husband or wife. Earlier, children of secondary marriages were much less likely to have three "parents". Because of this, relationships have become more complicated among children who have only blood parents and who, in addition to their blood parent, also have an adoptive parent.

In the works of most sociologists, the state of the modern family is regarded as a crisis. The crisis is manifested in a whole range of problems that the modern family faces and solves.

Communication problems between family and society. In modern conditions, the formal connection between society and family is weakening. The family is based on a married couple, but today there are a large number of families in which spouses do not formalize their relationship through the institution of marriage. Sociologists note that the number of women who consider themselves married exceeds the number of men. One of the consequences of this is an increase in the number of single-parent families - the formal (or actual) absence of one of the parents, the presence of “visiting” parents (the so-called guest marriage).

The most important problems are: problems of premarital behavior of people in society; new forms of family relations (same-sex families are legalized in a number of states) and society's attitude towards them; divorces; divorced spouses and children; family interaction with preschool institutions and schools; marital conflicts, etc.

Changes in the nature of interpersonal relationships in the family. According to the historical tradition, in the family there should be subordination of children to elders, a woman should obey a man. At present, young people more and more often strive to live independently and choose their own profession and path of life. The process of women's emancipation has led to the emergence of three types of family relationships:

Traditional (the role of a leader is assigned to a man; several generations live under one roof);

Non-traditional (the traditional attitude towards male leadership remains, but without sufficient economic and other reasons);

Egalitarian (a family of equals, in which a fair distribution of household responsibilities is carried out; joint decision-making).

Both the traditional roles of women and men are changing. In the sociology of the family, the role of women is actively studied, on whose positions the moral climate in the family and its stability largely depend, and who today more and more actively changes her exclusively “domestic” mission to that of an active member of society. Sociologists record an inverse relationship between the level of professional employment of women and the birth rate. Professionally employed women spend much less time on childcare than non-working women. At the same time, participation in public life broadens a woman's horizons, enriches her intellectual and emotional world, which has a beneficial effect on her role as a mother-educator. Today different ways out of the current situation are offered: to return the woman to the home (for this, her housework should be paid for); redistribute functions in the family (both spouses, while working, equally participate in serving and raising children); to help a woman to fulfill a double burden through the all-round development of household services.

An acute problem is the relationship between parents and children, representatives of the younger and older generations. The family influences the entire life of a person, but its role is most significant in the first years of a child's life, when a number of the most important social and psychological personality traits are laid. The upbringing of the younger generation is a big job that requires significant physical and mental efforts. The most important condition for the correct upbringing of a child is the ability of parents to wisely convey to children the feeling of love, the conviction that the child is immensely dear to someone and the feeling of reciprocal care, the ability and willingness of children to cherish loved ones.

Changes in family functions. The modern family is becoming increasingly small. For the reproduction of the population, it is necessary that in society there should be about 24% of two-child families, 35% of three-child families, 20% of four-child families, 7% of five-and more children, 14% of childless and one-child families. Today in the Russian Federation, approximately 90% of families have 1-2 children, which means a drop in the birth rate below the border of simple population reproduction.

The volume of work carried out by the family is decreasing. Family work is increasingly facilitated by the use of modern household appliances. At the same time, the reduction of joint family work activities can lead to the formation of dependent attitudes, neglect of work.

The emotional, leisure function of the modern family is becoming more and more significant in modern conditions.

Problems of crises in family relationships. According to some reports, about a quarter of families never quarrel. Most families go through periods of crises, aggravation of family relations. Family crises can arise for a variety of reasons. Often the cause of conflicts is the husband's rudeness, drunkenness and alcoholism, betrayal, the extinction of the feeling of love, the simplification and primitivism of relations between the sexes, etc.

Sociologists note a number of crises corresponding to the stages of family development. There are several stages in the development of the family: 1st - the stage of childlessness; 2nd - stage of reproductive parenting; 3rd - stage of socializing parenting; 4th - the stage of ancestry. Each of these stages has its own problems, crises and qualitative changes in relations. At each stage, the level of culture of people is of great importance, their ability and willingness to compromise and consciously build family relationships.

Often, a crisis in family relations leads to divorce. The most important negative result of divorce is the upbringing of a child in an incomplete family (in the absence of one of the parents): a complete family as a social institution has the highest moral and educational potential.

Despite the crisis phenomena of the family as a social institution, its value for most people remains. The changes represent the beginning of a new stage in the development of family relations, a new historical round in the development of the institution of the family.

It is a primary small social group, an association of people connected by blood or marriage, responsibility, a single household and way of life, mutual assistance and understanding, a spiritual community.

Each member has a clearly defined role - mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather, son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter. The social unit is the conductor of the norms and rules that are accepted in society. It contributes to the formation of a full-fledged human personality, fosters spiritual and cultural values, patterns of behavior. It gives the younger generation the first ideas about morality and humanism, life goals.

Characteristics of the family as a small social group

The initial basis of all unions is marriage, which is concluded by two young people out of mutual love and sympathy. The traditional type of relationship in our country is the union between a man and a woman. Other forms such as polygamy, polyandry or same sex are prohibited in Russia.

The cells are very different. In some, harmony, openness, emotional closeness and trusting relationships reign, in others - total control, respect and submission to the elder.

The family, as a type of a small social group, can be of several types:

By the number of children

• Childless - there are few of them, but they still exist.
• One-children - most often these are residents of large cities who have only one baby.
• Small children - in which there are two children. This is the most common option.
• Large children - from three or more children.

By composition

• Full - in which there are mom, dad and children.
• Incomplete - one of the parents is absent for various reasons.

For one or more generations living on one living space

• Nuclear - consisting of parents and children who have not yet reached the age of majority, i.e. two generations who live separately from their grandparents. This is what every young couple strives for. Living separately, only with your family, is always better - it takes less time to "fit in" to each other, minimizing situations when a husband or wife is "between two fires", forced to take someone's side and make a choice in favor of the parents or spouse. However, it is not always possible to live separately immediately after the wedding, especially in large cities. Many newlyweds in the first years of their married life are forced to "stay" with their parents, waiting for the solution of their own housing problem.

• Extended or complex - those in which several generations live at once, three or four. This is a common option for a patriarchal family. Such social groups are found both in rural areas and in cities. The situation when grandparents, parents and their grown children, who also managed to acquire their own wives, husbands and children, live in one three-room apartment is no longer a rarity. As a rule, in such unions, the older generation takes an active part in the upbringing of grandchildren and great-grandchildren - gives advice and recommendations, leads to additional developmental classes in the Palaces of Culture, Houses of Creativity or educational centers.

By the nature of the distribution of family responsibilities

• Traditional patriarchal. The main role is played by a man. He is the main earner, fully financially providing for the needs of his wife, children, and possibly parents. He makes all the main decisions, settles disputable situations, solves emerging problems, i.e. takes full responsibility for the members of his surname. The woman usually does not work. Her main responsibility is to be a wife to her husband, daughter-in-law to her parents and mother. She monitors the upbringing and education of children, as well as order in the house. Her opinion is usually not taken into account when making important decisions.

• Egalitarian or affiliate. The complete opposite of patriarchal. Here the spouses play equal roles, agree, compromise, solve problems together, take care of children. Household responsibilities in such cells are usually also separated. The husband helps his wife to wash the dishes, floors, vacuum, takes an active part in the daily care of the children - he can also bathe them if they are too young, change clothes, work out with them or read a bedtime story. These families are usually more emotionally close. For spouses and children, gentle touches, affectionate words, hugs and kisses at night and before leaving are the norm. Children, based on the example of their parents, express their feelings more openly, both tactilely and verbally.

• Transitional type - they seem to be not patriarchal, but not yet partnership. This applies to those unions in which the wife and husband decided to be more democratic, to equally share responsibilities around the house, but in reality it turns out that the woman still pulls all the burden on herself, and the husband's actions are limited to only one thing - for example, vacuumed the apartment or washed the dishes once a week. Or, on the contrary, the union decides to become more patriarchal - the husband works, the wife takes care of the house. But despite this, the spouse continues to actively help his wife in everything related to everyday life and children.

The functions of the family as a small social group

They are expressed in her life activity, which has direct consequences for society.

• Reproductive, most natural function. This is one of the main reasons for creating a social unit - the birth of children and the continuation of a kind.

• Upbringing and educational - it is expressed in the formation and formation of the personality of a little person. This is how children acquire the first knowledge about the world around them, acquire norms and acceptable models of behavior in society, and become familiar with cultural and spiritual values.

• Economic and economic - it is associated with financial support, budget management, income and expenses, the purchase of food, household items, furniture and equipment, everything that is necessary for a comfortable life. The same function includes the distribution of work responsibilities around the house between spouses and grown children, in accordance with their age. So, for example, a five-year-old child is already introduced to the minimum obligations - to clean up toys, dishes, make a bed. Economic and economic support also affects the care of the elderly or sick relatives, custody of them.

• Emotional and psychological - the family is a reliable stronghold, a safe haven. Here you can get support, protection and comfort. Establishing an emotionally close relationship between family members helps develop trust and concern for each other.

• Spiritual - associated with the education of the younger generation of cultural, moral and spiritual values. This is the reading of fairy tales, poems and fables to children by adults, which tells about good and evil, honesty and lies, generosity and greed. From each fairy tale read, you need to draw a conclusion about how to act well and how bad. Everyone should visit children's puppet and drama theaters, the Philharmonic Society, watch performances and concerts. All these actions contribute to the formation of moral and ethical guidelines adopted in society, introduces to culture.

• Recreational - joint leisure and recreation. These are ordinary everyday evenings spent with relatives, interesting travel, excursions, hikes, picnics and even fishing. Such events contribute to the rallying of the clan.

• Socio-status - the transfer to children of their status, nationality, or belonging to any place of residence, in a city or rural area.

Signs of the family as a small social group

As a group formation, it has several types of signs - primary and secondary.

Primary

• common purpose and activity;

• personal relationships within the union, formed on the basis of social roles;

• a certain emotional atmosphere;

• their values \u200b\u200band morals;

• cohesion - it is expressed in friendly feelings, mutual support and mutual assistance,

• clear distribution of roles;

• control over the behavior of members of the family in society.

Secondary

• Conformity, the ability to yield or submit to common opinion.

• Emotional closeness of relationships, belonging, which are expressed in mutual sympathy, trust, spiritual community.

• Norms of behavior and values \u200b\u200bare passed from the older generation to the younger through traditions and customs.

Features of the family as a small social group: what characterizes the unit of society

The family, as a small social group, is distinguished by the following characteristics:

• Growth from the inside - fulfilling the reproductive function, it expands. With each new generation, the number of its members increases.

• Closedness in relation to joining adults. Each child has its own mom and dad, grandparents, there will definitely not be others.

• Each change concerning an individual cell of the society is controlled by the society and recorded by state bodies. On the day of the wedding, in the registry office, a record appears in the official book about the registration of marriage, at the birth of children, first certificates are issued, and then a certificate, and when a marriage is dissolved, all legal formalities have to be completed.

• Long-term existence. Each union in its development goes through a certain natural cycle - the creation, the appearance of the first child, then the subsequent children, their upbringing and education, the period of the "empty nest", when already adult children marry themselves or get married and leave their father's house. And then it ceases to exist when one of the spouses dies.

• The family, as a small social group, unlike others, does not imply the presence of a single activity for all. Each member fulfills his duties, they are all different. Parents work, provide financial support for everyone, keep order in the house. The main activity for children depends on their age - play or educational. And only on certain days, all relatives can be busy with one thing - joint leisure, for example, or a Saturday work day.

• Dynamic features - they are expressed in norms of behavior, ideals, traditions and customs, which each cell of society forms for itself.

• Obligation of emotional relationships. Parents and children are bound by love, tenderness and care. This psychological involvement is total for all members of the family.

A distinctive feature of the genus can be the creation of its own family tree, family tree. Family album design can accomplish several tasks at once:

• Involves each member of the surname in this process, joint activity - mom, dad, children, grandparents.

• It helps to strengthen the clan, its cohesion.

• Forms a respectful attitude of the younger generation to the history of their ancestors.

To make a family tree according to all the rules and not get confused in scientific difficulties, use the service offered by the Russian House of Pedology company in the form of a genealogical book. Its authors have developed a unique methodology, give detailed recommendations and instructions, guided by which you can easily compose a documentary history of your family.

The family is both a social institution and a small group.
The family is the main social institution that contributes to the satisfaction of the most important human needs, first of all, the reproduction of the person himself.
The family is a small social group based on marriage or consanguinity, linked by personal relationships, community of life and mutual responsibility.
Family functions:
- reproductive - biological reproduction of the population;
- socialization of the individual - is the primary agent of socialization, under its influence the personality is formed;
- household - housekeeping, caring for children and disabled family members;
- economic - the accumulation and transfer of property, material support for family members;
- social status - giving a person a hereditary status, for example, nationality, belonging to a certain dynasty, class;
- psychological - providing emotional support to family members;
- protective - physical, economic, psychological protection of family members;
- Spiritual and moral - personal development of family members;
- leisure - the organization of rational leisure, family rest.

Classification of family structures:

1. Monogamous families are based on the marriage of one man to one woman.
   Polygamous - multiple marriage, there are two types:
   polygyny - marriage of one man with several women (harem);
   polyandry - marriage of one woman to several men.
2. Patrilineal families - inheritance of surname, property and social status is carried out by the father, matrilineal - by the mother.
3. Patriarchal families - the head is the father;
   matriarchal - the mother enjoys the highest authority and influence;
   partner - spouses are equal, rational distribution of responsibilities.
4. Nuclear - consisting of a married couple and minor children dependent on them.
   Extended - cohabitation of several generations of relatives (parents, children, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, nephews).
5. Childless, few children, large (three or more children).
6. Authoritarian (based on the strict authority of parents), liberal (based on self-determination of the individual, regardless of habits, customs), democratic (based on the equal participation of all family members in solving the most important family issues).

The main trends in the development of a modern family:

- the predominance of nuclear families with small children;
- the spread of partner-type families;
- raising the average age at marriage;
- the spread of cohabitation, trial marriages, the emergence of same-sex marriages in some countries;
- reduction of the leading positions of the family in the socialization of the individual (associated with the active participation of women in social relations: career, business, politics, working grandmothers).
Another social institution is closely connected with the institution of the family - the institution of marriage, most often it is the married couple that forms the basis of the family.
In sociology marriage - a historically changing social form of relations between a man and a woman, regulating sexual relations.
In a legal sense marriage - a voluntary and free union of a woman and a man, concluded in accordance with the procedure established by law, aimed at creating a family and giving rise to mutual personal, as well as property rights and obligations of spouses.
In accordance with the Family Code of the Russian Federation, only a legally formalized, concluded and registered marriage with a civil registry office is recognized.

Conditions required for marriage:

a) mutual voluntary consent of those entering into marriage;
b) personal participation in filing an application, registration of marriage;
c) reaching the marriageable age, i.e. 18 years; if there are valid reasons (pregnancy of the bride), at the request of the spouses, the marriageable age can be reduced to 16 years, in some constituent entities of the Russian Federation, for example, in the Rostov region, it is possible to marry from the age of 14. For minors, the written consent of their parents or persons replacing them is required;
d) none of those entering into marriage should be recognized by the court as legally incompetent due to a mental disorder;
e) absence of another registered marriage among persons entering into marriage;
f) lack of close relationship between persons entering into marriage. Marriage is prohibited between parents and children, grandchildren and grandfathers, grandmothers, between siblings, between adopted children and adoptive parents.
The marriage is made after a month from the date of application. If there are valid circumstances, the marriage can be concluded on the day the application is submitted.
State registration of marriage is carried out by any civil registry office on the territory of the Russian Federation at the choice of the persons entering into marriage.

Grounds for declaring a marriage invalid:

a) non-observance by persons who have entered into marriage, the conditions of its conclusion established by law;
b) hiding by the person entering into marriage, the presence of a sexually transmitted disease or HIV infection;
c) the conclusion of a fictitious marriage, i.e. with no intention of starting a family.
Grounds for termination of marriage death or declaration of one of the spouses as deceased, as well as divorce in accordance with the procedure established by law.
Exists two procedures for divorce:
1. In the offices of registration of acts of civil status (simplified order)
1) upon mutual consent to divorce of spouses who do not have common minor children;
2) at the request of one of the spouses, if the other spouse is recognized by the court as missing, incapacitated or convicted of a crime to imprisonment for a term exceeding three years.
Divorce in these cases is carried out regardless of whether the spouses have common minor children.
2. In a court
1) in case of disputes between spouses during divorce in the registry office (for example, on the division of property), they are considered by the court;
2) if the spouses have common minor children, except for the cases noted above;
3) in the absence of consent of one of the spouses to dissolve the marriage;
4) if one of the spouses evades the dissolution of the marriage in the registry office, although he does not object to such a dissolution (for example, refuses to submit an application, etc.).
A number of restrictions on husband's rights to submit claims for divorce (in particular, he has no right to initiate a divorce case during the wife's pregnancy and within a year after the birth of the child without the consent of his wife).
Dissolution of a marriage is carried out if the court finds that the further life of the spouses and the preservation of the family are impossible. In this case, the court has the right to take measures to reconcile the spouses. If there is a mutual consent to divorce of spouses with common minor children, the court dissolves the marriage without clarifying the reasons for the divorce.
When considering a divorce case, the court decides the issues with which of the parents after the divorce the minor children will live, with which of the parents and in what amounts to collect alimony for the children, as well as on the division of property that is in the common property of the spouses. On all these issues, the spouses themselves can conclude an agreement and submit it to the court.
Dissolution of a marriage by a court is carried out after a month from the date the spouses filed an application for divorce.

The marriage is considered terminated:

a) in the event of its dissolution in the registry office - from the date of state registration of the divorce in the civil registration book;
b) in the case of divorce in court - on the day the court decision comes into legal force (however, in this case, state registration of the divorce is necessary).
The spouses are not entitled to remarry before receiving a divorce certificate from the civil registry office.