The spectrum of types, forms and categories of the modern family is quite diverse. Different types (categories) of families function differently in certain spheres of family relations. They react differently to the influence of various factors of modern life.

Family typologies are determined by different approaches to identifying the subject of study.

V.S. Torokhtiy, summarizing the results of previous studies, notes that modern families differ from each other in the following ways:

• 1) By the number of children:
  • - a childless or infertile family;
  • - one child;
  • - small child;
  • - large.
• 2) By composition:
  • - incomplete family;
  • - separate;
  • - simple or nuclear;
  • - complex (family of several generations);
  • - big family;
  • - maternal family;
  • - a remarried family.
• 3) By structure:
  • - with one married couple with or without children;
  • - with one of the spouses' parents and other relatives;
  • - with two or more married couples with or without children;
  • - with or without one of the spouses' parents and other relatives;
  • - with mother (father) and children.
• 4) By type of headship in the family:
  • - egalitarian families;
  • - authoritarian families.
• 5) For family life, way of life:
  • - family - "outlet";
  • - child-centered family;
  • - a family like a sports team or discussion club;
  • - a family that puts comfort, health, order in the first place.
• 6) According to the homogeneity of the social composition:
  • - socially homogeneous (homogeneous) families;
  • - heterogeneous (heterogeneous) families.
• 7) By family experience:
  • - newlyweds;
  • - young family;
  • - family expecting a child;
  • - family of an average matrimony;
  • - a family of older matrimonial age;
  • - elderly couples.
• 8) By the quality of relationships and the atmosphere in the family:
  • - happy;
  • - stable;
  • - pedagogically weak;
  • - unstable;
  • - disorganized.
• 9) Geographically:
  • - city;
  • - rural;
  • - remote (regions of the Far North).
• 10) By type of consumer behavior:
  • - families with a "physiological" or "naive consumer" type of consumption (mainly with a food orientation);
  • - families with an "intellectual type of consumption, that is, with a high level of spending on the purchase of books, magazines, entertainment events, etc .;
  • - families with an intermediate type of consumption.
• 11) For special conditions of family life:
  • - student family;
  • - "distant" family;
  • - "bastard family".
• 12) By the nature of leisure activities:
  • - open;
  • - closed.
• 13) On social mobility:
  • - reactive families;
  • - families of average activity;
  • - active families.
• 14) According to the degree of cooperation of joint activities:
  • - traditional;
  • - collectivist;
  • - individualistic.
• 15) For psychological health reasons:
  • - healthy family;
  • - neurotic family;
  • - a victimized family.

Each of the categories of families is characterized by the socio-psychological phenomena and processes inherent in it, marriage and family relations, including the psychological aspects of practical activity, the circle of communication and its content, the characteristics of emotional contacts of family members, the socio-psychological goals of the family and individual the psychological needs of its members.

To a large extent, the motives for marriage are determining the success of future family relationships.

To date, various forms of marriage and family relations have developed, the most common of which are as follows:

• 1) Marriage and family relations based on an honest contractual system. Both spouses have a clear idea of \u200b\u200bwhat they want from marriage, and count on certain material benefits. The terms of the contract themselves cement and help solve vital problems. Emotional attachment, which can hardly be called love, but which still exists in such a union, as a rule, intensifies over time ("they will live to see love," in the words of I. S. Turgenev). Although, if the family exists only as an economic unit, the feeling of emotional upsurge is completely lost. People entering into such a marriage have the most powerful practical support from a partner in all practical endeavors - since both the wife and the husband pursue their own economic benefits. In such marriage and family relations, the degree of freedom of each of the spouses is maximum, and personal involvement is minimal: if he fulfilled the terms of the contract, he is free to do whatever he wants.
• 2) Marriage and family relations based on a dishonest contract. A man and a woman try to derive one-sided benefits from marriage and thereby damage their partner. There is no need to talk about love here either, although often in this version of marriage and family relations it is one-sided (in the name of which the spouse, realizing that he is being deceived and exploited, endures everything).
• 3) Marriage and family relations under duress. One of the spouses somewhat "besieges" the other, and he, either due to certain life circumstances, or out of pity, finally agrees to a compromise. In such cases, it is also difficult to talk about a deep feeling: even on the part of the "besieger", ambition, a desire to possess an object of worship, and excitement rather prevail. When such a marriage is finally concluded, the "besieger" begins to regard the spouse as his property. The feeling of freedom that is necessary in marriage and family in general is absolutely excluded here. The psychological foundations for the existence of such a family are so deformed that the compromises required by family life are impossible.
• 4) Marriage and family relations as a ritual performance of social and normative attitudes. At a certain age, people come to the conclusion that everyone around is married or married and that it is time to start a family. This is a marriage without love and without calculation, but only following certain social stereotypes. In such families, the preconditions for a long family life are not often created. Most often, such marriage and family relationships develop by chance and just as accidentally disintegrate, leaving no deep traces.
• 5) Marriage and family relations, consecrated by love. Two people unite voluntarily, because they cannot imagine their life without each other. In a love marriage, the restrictions that spouses take upon themselves are purely voluntary: they enjoy spending their free time with their family members, they like doing something good for each other and for the rest of the family. Marital and family relations in this version are the highest degree of unification of people, when children are born in love, when either of the spouses retains their independence and individuality, with the full support of the other. The paradox is that by voluntarily accepting such restrictions ("I am happy if you are happy"), people become freer ... The marital-family form of such relations is built on trust, on greater respect for a person than for generally accepted norms.

Another classification calls marriage for love, "role", mixed, marriage based on complementarity as options for a stable family that are currently being formed.

A love marriage is the most promising and stable one when the spouses entered family life with mutual love, and each of them is a mature person. But this marriage also faces many dangers: the very transition from a relatively free premarital period to a family situation with its limitations, everyday life turns out to be a difficult test for a young family. A common reason for the disintegration of love marriages is the discrepancy between the ideal ideas of the husband and wife about home life.

In a "role" marriage, the style of family life is built on the basis of a formal agreement. The family in this case is a means to achieve something and, as a rule, for both spouses.

In a mixed marriage, one of the spouses loves the other, while the latter is more focused on role-building the marriage. The style of family life is based on the fact that the loving spouse accepts the distribution of roles that the partner offers him.

In a marriage based on complementarity, each spouse receives from the other psychologically what he lacks, i.e. there is a mutual decompensation.

Family relationships have a number of psychological characteristics that are characteristic only of them:

• - the presence of not one, but a number of common family goals that can change in the process of family development;
• - partial difference in the interests and attitudes of family members;
• - the presence of a married couple, relationships in which largely determine the nature of interaction in the family;
• - the involvement of representatives of several generations in it and a long period of close acquaintance between its members;
• - the versatility and significance of family relations, and their relationship;
• - special openness, vulnerability of family members.

Family relationships are influenced by external and internal factors. External factors include the totality of material and spiritual conditions that exist in a given society. This is what determines interpersonal relationships in society, work collective, in the family.

The action and manifestation of internal factors is observed at the level of interpersonal relations through the implementation (or vice versa) of mutual expectations, their internal satisfaction with the process of relationships.

The internal factors contributing to successful activity include the individual psychological characteristics of family partners: these are the intellectual, characterological and socio-psychological characteristics of the spouses.

Of particular importance are the main life orientations or life strategies of family partners:

internal control - external control;

egoism - sociocentrism (altruism);

orientation towards social norms - towards oneself;

acceptance of contradictions - their rejection;

self-esteem - disbelief in oneself.

Other factors that stabilize family relationships include:

• - constant desire of partners to preserve the family;
• - desire and ability of partners for concerted action for the benefit of the family;
• - the initiative of each spouse in solving family problems and the real contribution of each to public affairs;
• - Reasonable combination of various personal goals and needs with general family affairs and needs;
• - striving in difficult times for emotional unity and solidarity;
• - aesthetic appeal (appearance, demeanor, etc.);
• - the ability to emotionally warm a spouse, i.e. behave in such a way as to create an atmosphere of trust, ease, cordiality.

By now such families have appeared whose description does not correspond to traditional ideas. American psychotherapist V. Satir calls such families non-traditional.

In our time, many children are brought up not by the adults to whom they owe their birth. When a family has only one parent, it is called incomplete. There are three types of such families:

the first type is when one parent has left, and the remaining one has not remarried;

the second type - a single person officially adopted a child;

the third type - an unmarried woman brings up a son or daughter alone.

Most often, single parent families consist of a woman mother and her children. When in such situations new families are created, V. Satir calls such newly created families called mixed. She distinguishes three types of such families: 1. A woman with children marries a man without children.

• 2. A man with children marries a woman without children.
• 3. Both man and woman have children from previous partners.

A foster family is another form of a blended family:

• - it can include only one foster child;
• - one adopted child and several natural children;
• - one own child and several adopted ones.

Although mixed and incomplete families are quite peculiar and therefore differ from others, nevertheless, they have a lot, according to V. Satir, which brings them closer to any other families. Each of them can be top-notch if the spouses bring care and creativity to her. The type of family does not at all determine what happens in it. The problems faced by family members only depend on him, but it is the relationship between them that ultimately determines the well-being of the family: how successfully adult family members develop in a family individually and collectively, how successfully children become creative and healthy people. According to V. Satir, in this sense, all families are the same.

In modern society, the development of alternative forms of marriage and family relations is taking place. What are these relations and what is their essence we will consider in the next paragraph of the course work.

Family types
Analyzing the modern family, the following types can be distinguished:
1. Democratic or friendly, prosperous family.
... gradual merging of two “I” - husband and wife;
... the distribution of roles does not take place in accordance with traditions, but on the basis of the personal qualities and abilities of the spouses;
... equality in decision making;
... voluntary distribution of responsibilities.
2. Disorganized family.
This type of family is characterized by:
... steady state of conflict situations: the daily life of a family consists of a series of conflicts;
... lack of cooperation between husband and wife;
... loss of inner unity;
... the inertial existence of the family (the family does not break up, because it is not accepted that way, because of children, etc.).
3. Dysfunctional family.
This type of family is called a “high risk” family for the deviant behavior of one or both family members.
This type of family is characterized by:
... conflict state;
... formal family relationships;
... permanent crisis of family relations;
... problematic existence - problems are not solved, but accumulate.
4. Illegitimate family.
Recently, extramarital unions in our country have not only become a reality, they have become more open, their number has increased.
The typology of illegitimate families is given by the Yugoslav sociologist M. Bosants:
1. By subjective characteristics of partners:
... age - an extramarital union can be organized by two adults;
... civil status - options are possible:
- none of the partners is married;
- one of the partners is married to a third party, and the other is not married;
- both partners are married, but not to each other.
2. On the basis of publicity:
... anonymous - illegitimate families who, for various reasons, hide from the public environment by their extramarital partners;
... not anonymous, or open, - extramarital families in which a man and a woman do not hide their relationship in front of the public environment.
From a social point of view, anonymous illegitimate families are the most undesirable.
3. By duration:
... casual, short-term connections.
These extramarital affairs are not, in the full sense, an extramarital family, because they do not fulfill a number of functions that belong to the family. These usually anonymous connections are often unforeseen and unexpected sources of extramarital birth. For the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that recently, due to various circumstances, unmarried women use such connections to give birth to a child “for themselves”;
... Temporary illegitimate families are those unions that last for some time and, as a rule, are not anonymous.
Sometimes they confine themselves to promises of marriage, and sometimes they culminate in marriage. This is the phase of premarital sexual life, which is increasingly common in modern society and serves as a test of feelings before the official marriage;
... konkubinat (from lat. konkubinatus - long-term extramarital cohabitation with an unmarried woman allowed by Roman law) is a long-term relationship or a long-term extramarital family in which a man and a woman do not intend to formally consolidate the marriage.
This is a legal relationship, ethically pleasing and justified by a man and a woman. Concubines are often founded by partners of mature age who have remained unmarried for various reasons. A man and a woman in such a family have a life experience that helps to avoid acute conflicts that often shock and destroy the marriage and extramarital unions of young people.
Family roles
To understand the family as a social institution, the analysis of role relationships in the family and the functions of the family is of great importance.
Family roles can be defined as follows:
1. Married - husband, wife.
2. Parents - father, mother.
3. Baby - son, daughter, brother, sister, first child, oldest child, youngest child, last child.
4. Intragenerational and intergenerational - grandfather, grandmother, grandson, granddaughter, father-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law.
The main roles in the family are played by the wife-mother and husband-father. Here is how E. Kirpatrick singled out their traditional roles and formulated responsibilities:
1. Wife-mother:
... birth and upbringing of children;
... creation and maintenance of a house, dwelling;
... family service;
... devoted submission of one's own interests to the interests of the husband;
... adaptability to dependent social and economic status;
... tolerance for a limited field of activity.
2. Husband-father:
... loyalty to the mother of her children;
... ensuring economic security and family protection;
... maintaining family power and control;
... making major decisions;
... emotional gratitude and respect for the wife for loyalty to the family;
... providing alimony in case of divorce.
Typical for the traditional, these roles and responsibilities can be realized in the modern family with a creative approach and mutual distribution of responsibilities.
Family functions
In the functions of the family, which reflect certain social and individual needs, its role and purpose is manifested. In the unity of individual and social needs, the functions of the family are most fully revealed (Table 14.1).

It is interesting to consider how the functions of the modern family have changed compared to the functions of the traditional family (see table 14.2).

Family transformation
The dynamics of the norms of family life testifies to the transformation of the family, the main indicators of which are the following:
... A downward trend in family members. A typical modern family is a husband, a wife, one or two children.
... The nature of the relationship between spouses is changing. The ever greater economic independence of the spouses leads to equality and the ever greater independence of each of them.
... The number of divorces is growing, children are deprived of full-fledged parenting.
... The number of extramarital unions is increasing.
... The relationship between parents and children is changing. Social conditions allow children to establish themselves in society without relying on family traditions. Children cease to be carriers of family traditions. In the matter of marriage, children are less likely to listen to the opinion of their parents.
... The number of youth families is growing.
... Feminization of family education.
... Divorce becomes a structural element of family and marriage relations.
Family conflict
The transformation of the family and trends in its development show that the relationship between spouses is of decisive importance for the stability of the family. In the overwhelming case, divorce is based on a conflict between spouses, which has reached such a degree that it can only be resolved by dissolving the marriage.
V.N. Lavrinenko identifies several levels of marital relations at which conflicts can occur.
1. Psychophysiological.
This is the level at which disharmony manifests itself in the violation of sexual life. In general, this phenomenon occurs quite often, however, few note as the main reason for the decision to divorce.
2. Psychological.
At this level, an unhealthy climate is created in the family, manifested in constant quarrels, mutual nagging, irritability, which is often taken out on children.
3. Socio-role.
Symptoms of a violation of this level are an incorrect, uneven distribution of family and household load, the chaos of the family structure.
4. Sociocultural (spiritual).
Conflicts of this level take the form of spouses' misunderstanding of each other, disrespect, lack of interest or dissatisfaction with communication with a partner, rejection of his life values \u200b\u200band 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:
... arising directly during marriage, during life together and common household;
... existed before the creation of the family, before marriage.
The causes of the conflict that objectively existed before the creation of the family are called risk factors, which usually include:
... big age difference (especially if the wife is older);
... a big difference in education;
... addiction to alcoholism of one of the spouses;
... frivolous attitude to marriage, family;
... too early age of spouses at marriage;
... the likelihood of a quick birth of a child;
... too short dating period;
... sharp disagreement of parents to marry;
... forced marriage, without mutual consent.
These factors make themselves felt literally in the first years of life together and largely determine the breakdown of the family or divorce.
Divorce
Divorce is the end of the family as a social group.
Divorces are based on various reasons, which L.V. Chuiko typologizes as follows:
1. Socio-economic factors:
... unsatisfactory living conditions;
... material calculation upon marriage;
... conviction of one of the spouses with imprisonment for a long term;
... forced separation;
... unwillingness or inability of one of the spouses to manage the household, etc.
2. Socio-psychological factors:
... differences in needs, interests, goals, orientation of spouses;
... dissimilarity of characters;
... cruelty, harshness in relationships;
... unfounded jealousy;
... new love and betrayal.
3. Socio-biological factors:
... drunkenness and alcoholism of the spouses or one of them;
... adultery;
... illness;
... actual or perceived sexual incompatibility, etc.
Modern research shows that an increasing number of divorces are due to adultery.
Yu. I. Rys and VE Stepanov give one of the classifications of the causes of marital infidelity.
1. New love.
This cause of adultery is common in marriages where love was little or no. Typical for rational, rational or forced marriages, marriages based on profit or fear of loneliness.
2. Retribution.
With the help of treason, the desire to avenge a spouse's infidelity is realized in order to restore self-esteem.
3. Abused love.
There is no reciprocity in the marriage relationship. One of the spouses suffers from rejection of his love, irresponsibility of feelings. This prompts to satisfy the feeling in another partner, where reciprocity is possible. Sometimes the cheater himself does not like the new partner, but responds to his feelings, sympathizes with the unrequited person who loves him.
4. Search for new love experiences.
It is typical for an experienced spouse when feelings have faded. Or in families with such a morality, when everything possible is taken from life. An option may be to imitate the "beautiful life" of foreign models, sexual freedom.
5. Remembrance.
With the help of adultery, a person compensates for the lack of love relationships, which arises from the influence of long separations, illness of the spouse and other restrictions on the fullness of love in marriage.
Thus, divorce leads to the destruction of the marriage and creates acute problems for all members of the breaking up family. At the same time, divorce cannot be viewed as an exclusively negative phenomenon, because freedom of divorce is one of the means of ensuring social justice in family and marriage relations, a means of preserving their moral foundations.

The family plays a huge role both in the life of an individual and the whole society. The most important characteristics of a family are its functions, stability and dynamics.

The function of the family is the sphere of life of the family, directly related to the satisfaction of certain needs of all members. Soloviev: "There are as many functions of the family as there are types of needs in a stable, repetitive form, it satisfies."

• 1. The upbringing function of the family consists in meeting individual needs for fatherhood and motherhood, contacts with children, their upbringing, self-realization in children. In relation to society, it ensures the socialization of the younger generation, the preparation of new members of society.
• 2. Household function is to meet the social and material needs of family members (food, shelter), helps to preserve their health.
• 3. The emotional function of a family is the satisfaction of its members' needs for sympathy, respect, recognition, emotional support, psychological protection, and also provides emotional stabilization of members of society, helping to maintain their psychological health.
• 4. Spiritual (cultural) social function - meeting the needs for joint leisure activities, mutual spiritual enrichment.
• 5. The function of primary social control is to ensure the fulfillment of social norms of family members, especially those who, due to various circumstances, cannot independently build their behavior in accordance with social norms.
• 6. Sexual and erotic functions - satisfaction of the sexual and erotic needs of family members. From the point of view of society, it is important how the family regulates the sexual and erotic behavior of family members, ensuring the biological reproduction of society.

Over time, changes occur in the functions of the family: some are lost, others change in accordance with new social conditions. In modern society, the importance of such functions as emotional, sexual, educational, spiritual has significantly increased. Marriage is increasingly seen as a union based on emotional ties, rather than economic and material ones.

In the modern world, the family, in addition to its traditional functions, namely educational and reproductive, has begun to perform the function of a psychological refuge - a place to relieve stress and create emotional comfort. This is especially true for young couples, because the creation of a favorable psychological climate in the family is the key to further successful family life.

According to psychologists, not so much is needed for family happiness, namely:

focus on another (the ability to understand him, treat him carefully, take into account his tastes, interests and desires);

normal, conflict-free communication;

trust and sympathy;

understanding each other;

normal intimate life;

the presence of a Home (a place where the family as a whole, and each of its members individually can take a break from the complexities of life).

Sociologists have identified the following conditions for family well-being:

• 1. Mutual understanding between spouses.
• 2. Separate apartment.
• 3. Material well-being.
• 4. Children.
• 5. Confidence in the strength of the marriage.
• 6. Interesting leisure time in the family.
• 7. Interesting work.
• 8. Appropriate education.
• 9. Good position at work.
• 10. Good friends.
• 11. The independence of the spouses.

An analysis of public opinion showed that the main conditions for family happiness are 1,2,3,4,7 years. Practical men put a separate apartment and material well-being in the first place, followed by mutual understanding between spouses, children and interesting work. Women give the palm to mutual understanding, children, and then - a separate apartment, material well-being and interesting work.

Family development stages. In the first "honeymoon" year of marriage, as shown by studies of psychologists, 37% of married couples say: the attitude towards a companion (companion) has become more strict, 29% note an increased number of disagreements. The perception of each other changes, a reassessment occurs. Marriage is a dynamic picture, it begins with the idealization of your partner, relationship with him. This is replaced by disappointment (the more, the greater the charm was), then only comes the settlement of relations. Almost half of the respondents said that such a dynamics was unexpected for them and much more difficult than they expected.

So, the life of a family naturally breaks up, according to V.L. Psycho, into several stages. On each of them, the family faces specific tasks, and their solution requires joint, coordinated efforts.

1. A-stage. A young family without children during the formation of relationships. It begins on the day of marriage and ends when the wife informs her husband that she is preparing to become a mother. The main task of the family is to form the image of "WE", to learn to live as a single whole, to adapt to each other in conditions of limited freedom, to be able to express their feelings in the language of family life.

B-stage. A young married couple waiting for their first child. The key is to adapt to the new responsibilities and feelings associated with pregnancy.

Stage 2. Family formation.

The main task is to adapt spouses to the role of parents, reorganize family relationships, taking into account the needs of the baby and preschooler.

Stage 3. Stabilizing or raising children.

The task of the spouses is to educate children of preschool and adolescence, prepare them for an independent life.

Stage 4. An elderly couple living separately from their adult children.

Its beginning is the departure from the parental home of the last of the children, and the end is the death of one of the spouses. On this day, this family ends its life cycle.

Naturally, the description of the stage is only a diagram, since separation is possible only in a one-child family. In the presence of two or more children, the stages overlap.

V. A. Sysenko grouped all marriages as follows:

• 1. Very young: from 0 to 4 years old.
• 2. Young: 5-9 years old.
• 3. Average: 10-19 years old.
• 4. Seniors: 20 or more.

Very young marriages are characterized by the initial entry into each other's world, the distribution of labor and responsibilities in the family, the solution of financial, housing and problems related to the maintenance of a common household and everyday life, entering the role of husband and wife, growing up and maturing. This period of marriage is the most difficult and dangerous in terms of family stability.

Young marriages are inherent in the problems associated with the birth and upbringing of children, the tension of the budget of time, a sharp restriction of leisure time, an increase in physical and nervous fatigue. All this is superimposed on love and the formation of conjugal friendship.

Psychologically, the essence of these two stages is reduced to a complex and diverse process of adaptation of spouses to each other and to a joint lifestyle. It is known, unfortunately, that 65% of divorces occur in the first 10 years of marriage. And according to the classification of V. A. Sysenko, this is typical for "very young" marriages.

Therefore, the adaptation of spouses in a moral sense is especially important, this implies a discussion and understanding of the mutual actions of spouses in terms of "for the family - against the family", as well as a consistent and purposeful merging of two "I" into one "we", merging, with a qualitative improvement "we "benefits each of the" I. "

Family life crises. EG Eidemiller believes that the so-called "normative stressors" pass through the stages of life, i.e. common difficulties that all families experience in an acute form, for example, the labor of mutual adjustment, the formation of relationships with relatives, the upbringing and care of a child, and housekeeping. The combination of these difficulties at certain points in the life cycle leads to family crises. Of undoubted interest are the studies of Czech scientists who have established two "critical" moments in family life.

A). Between the 3rd and 7th years of family development.

The critical moment is most acute between the 4th and 6th years. The leading role is played by changes in emotional relationships, an increase in the number of conflict situations, an increase in tension (as manifestations of difficulties in restructuring emotional relationships between spouses, a reflection of everyday and other difficulties).

B). Between 17 and 25.

The leading role is played by the growth of somatic complaints, anxiety, emptiness of life associated with the separation of children from the family.

Identifying crisis periods in family life is essential, especially in order to prevent the emergence of a crisis.

1.00 / 5, 1 vote.

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the fact that the study of family and marriage is one of the most important tasks facing sociology. In any type of society, virtually every member is brought up in a family, and in any society the vast majority of adults are, or have been, married. Marriage is among
social institutions , which have become very widespread, although in different cultures the forms of marriage and family (as well as other aspects of social life) differ very significantly. What a family, her relationships with other relatives, her choice of spouses, and the relationship between marriage and sexuality vary widely. In this chapter, we will look at some of these differences and show how they can help in studying the characteristics of family life, marriage and divorce in modern Western society. The family is an integral part of society, and it is impossible to diminish its importance. 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 associates the concept of happiness, first of all, with the family: happy is the one who is happy in his home.

The classical definition of a family says that a family is a small social group whose members are linked by marriage, parenthood and kinship, a common life, a common budget and mutual moral responsibility.

The family is the cell (small social group) of society, the most important form of organizing personal life, based on the conjugal union and family ties, i.e. relations between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and other relatives living together and leading a common household on the basis of a single family budget. Family life is characterized by material and spiritual processes. Through the family, generations of people are replaced, a person is born in it, the race continues through it. The family, its forms and functions directly depend on social relations as a whole, as well as on the level of cultural development of society. Naturally, the higher the culture of the society, the higher the culture of the family. Family should not be confused with marriage.

Life in a family is impossible without communication in it, communication between husband and wife, between parents and children in the process of everyday relationships. Communication in the family is the relationship of family members to each other and their interaction, the exchange of information between them, their spiritual contact.

The main purpose of the family is to satisfy social, group and individual needs. As a social unit of society, the family satisfies a number of its most important needs, including the reproduction of the population. At the same time, it satisfies the personal needs of each of its members, as well as general family (group) needs.

Marriage can be defined as the socially recognized sexual union of two adults. Individuals who marry become relatives to each other, but their marriage obligations tie a much wider circle of people by kinship. Upon marriage, parents, brothers, sisters and other blood relatives of one side become relatives of the opposite side.

Work tasks:

- give the concept of the family and characterize the main functions of the family as the most important social institution;

- bring the typology of the modern family;

- to consider the main stages of family social work.

The family is one of the most ancient social institutions. It arose much earlier than religion, state, army, education, market.

Thinkers of the past approached the definition of the nature and essence of the family in different ways. One of the first attempts to determine the nature of marriage and family relations belongs to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. He considered the patriarchal family to be an unchanging, initial social unit, since states arise as a result of the unification of families. However, Plato was not consistent in his views on the family. In the projects of the Ideal State, in order to achieve social cohesion, he proposed the introduction of a community of wives, children and property. This idea was not new. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus in his famous "History" notes that the community of women was a distinctive feature of a number of tribes. Such information is found throughout the ancient era.

Aristotle, criticizing the projects of the Ideal State, develops Plato's idea of \u200b\u200bthe patriarchal family as the initial and basic unit of society. In this case, families form "villages", and the combination of "villages" - the state.

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, developing the problems of moral and civic philosophy, refuted the point of view of marriage as something unclean, devoid of sanctity, wishing to return its spiritual value to the earthly institution of marriage.

The French educator Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote: “The oldest of all societies and the only natural one is the family. Thus, the family is, if you will, the prototype of political societies ... ”1.

Philosophers of antiquity, the Middle Ages and, in part, even modern times, derive social relations from family relations, focusing on the relationship of the family to the state, and not on describing it as a special social institution. To a certain extent, these views were shared even by the German philosophers Kant and Hegel.

Kant saw the basis of the family in the legal order, and Hegel in the absolute idea. Note that scientists who recognize the eternity and primordiality of monogamy, in fact, identify the concepts of "marriage" and "family", the differences between them are reduced to the formal beginning. Of course, there is a close relationship between the concepts of "marriage" and "family". No wonder in the literature of the past, and sometimes the present, they are often used as synonyms. However, in the essence of these concepts there is not only general, but also a lot of special, specific. So, scientists have convincingly proved that marriage and family arose in different historical periods. Modern sociologists define marriage as a historically changing social form of relations between a woman and a man, through which society regulates and sanctions their sex life and establishes their marital and parental rights and responsibilities.

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

The existence of the family, like all social institutions, is determined by social needs. Like all social institutions, the family is a system of actions and relationships necessary for the existence and development of society. "Family is a small social group whose members are united by marriage or blood relationship, community of life, mutual assistance, and mutual and moral responsibility" 1.

Through the family, the unity of the social and natural in man, social and biological heredity is most fully expressed. In essence, the family is the primary link between nature and society, the material and spiritual aspects of human life.

The life cycle of a family - a sequence of significant, milestone events in the existence of a family - begins with marriage and ends with its dissolution, that is, divorce. Not divorced spouses, going through all stages of the life cycle, have served as scientists as an ideal type for identifying the stages of the family life cycle. It is much more difficult to build a life cycle diagram for spouses who have divorced several times and created repeated families.

In short, the life cycle of a family is as follows. Marriage is the first, or initial, stage of the family. After some time, the young spouses have their first child. This phase lasts from the moment of marriage until the birth of the last child and is called the growth stage of the family.

The second stage begins from the moment of the birth of the last child and continues until the time when the first adult child, who has his own family, is resettled from the parental family.

At the third stage, the process of resettling adult children continues. It can be very long if children are born at long intervals, and very short if children following one after the other in the years of birth take turns leaving the family. This is called the "mature" phase. At this time, the first children to settle down give birth to their own children, and the parental family often turns into a place where grandchildren are brought up.

The fourth stage is the stage of loneliness in old age, or the stage of "fading". It ends with the death of one or both spouses.

The final stage of the life cycle, as it were, repeats the first - the married couple remains alone with themselves. The difference lies only in age - at the beginning it is a young couple, and now they have grown old.

There are two main types of families - extended (or multigenerational), it is also called
traditional (classical), and modern nuclear
(two-generation) family.

The family is called nuclear because the demographic nucleus of the family, which is responsible for the reproduction of new generations, is the parents and their children. They constitute the biological, social and economic center of any family. All other relatives belong to the periphery of the family. If they all live together, then the family is called
extended. It is expanding at the expense of 3-4 generations of direct relatives. The nuclear family can be complete or incomplete. A complete family is a family in which there are two spouses, an incomplete family is a family in which there is no one of the spouses. It should be noted that the nuclear family is possible in those societies where adult children have the opportunity after marriage to live separately from their parental family.

A distinction is also made between the parental family, or the family of origin, and the procreational, or newly formed (it is created by adult children).

Childless is distinguished by the number of children , single-child and large families. According to the criterion of domination in the family of a husband or wife, patriarchal and matriarchal families are distinguished, and according to the criterion of leadership - paternal (the head of the family is a man), material (the head of the family is a woman) and
equalitarian
(both spouses are equally considered the head of the family).

Also, modern families differ in other ways: in the number of employed family members, in the number of children under 18 years of age, in the types of dwellings, the size of the living space, in the type of settlement, in the ethnic composition, etc.

The family can be viewed as a social institution and as a family group performing a specific social task.

The following main functions of the family can be distinguished, contributing to the implementation of this task:

The reproductive function fulfills two main 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 fulfillment of this function by the family depends on the entire totality of social relations.


Both adults and children are brought up in the family. Its influence on the younger generation is especially important. Therefore, the educational function of the family has three aspects. The first is the formation of the child's personality, the development of his abilities and interests, the transfer to children by adult family members (mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, etc.) of the social experience accumulated by society, the enrichment of their intellect, aesthetic development, the promotion of their physical improvement, health promotion and development skills of sanitary and hygienic culture. The second aspect is that the family has a huge impact on the development of the personality of each of its members throughout his life. The third aspect is the constant influence of children on their parents (and other adult family members), encouraging them to actively engage in self-education.


Fulfilling the economic and economic function, the family ensures strong economic ties between its members, supports financially minors and disabled members of society, provides assistance and support to those family members who have material and financial difficulties.


The recovery function is aimed at restoring and strengthening the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual strength of a person after a hard day's work. In a normally functioning society, the realization of this function of the family is facilitated by a reduction in the total length of the working week, an increase in free time, and an increase in real income.


The purpose of the regulatory function is to regulate and streamline relations between the sexes, to maintain the family organism in a stable state, to ensure the optimal rhythm of its functioning and development, to exercise primary control over the observance by family members of social norms of personal, group and social life.


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 \u200b\u200bsocial ties and includes him from birth. Hence, the next most important function of the family is the socialization of the individual.


Sociologists have attached and still attach increasing importance to the communicative function of the family.


The leisure function organizes rational leisure and exercises control in the sphere of leisure, in addition, it satisfies certain needs of the individual in spending leisure time ..


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


Emotional function involves receiving emotional support, psychological protection, as well as emotional stabilization of individuals and their psychological therapy.


The function of spiritual communication involves the development of the personalities of family members, spiritual mutual enrichment.


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


In the 20th century, a decrease in the educational role of the family was revealed in industrial, developed countries in connection with the crisis of the family and family lifestyle in the course of certain processes:


the process of nuclearization - the separation of generations in the family, the spread of the nuclear, two-generation family, which consists of parents and children, as they grow up, they become distant from their parents;


The process of conjugation is the reduction of the unity of family life, the unity of "kinship - parenthood - matrimony" to spousal partnership and sex, that is, to such relationships that involve minimizing family-parental ties;


the process of individualization is a shift in the center of communication from joint marriage to forms of an extrafamily and extramarital way of life.


In the second half of the 20th century, the system of factors associated with the "modernization" of industrially developed countries led to a number of negative tendencies, indicating a deep crisis of the institution of the family. The social order removed the value foundations of family parenting, extinguishing the family's aspirations to have multiple children.


The processes of family crisis have been observed in Russia since the late 1960s. They are still observed. Considering the educational role of the family in Russia, one cannot ignore the global tendencies of the weakening of the institution of the family. However, the analysis of the educational impact of the Russian family on new generations is complicated by the action of specific factors.


The accelerated urbanization and industrialization of the Russian Federation led to a sharp deformation of the family structure, to the replacement of a three-generation rural family by an urban two-generation family. At the same time, the government-supported transfer of the socializing functions of the family to specialized upbringing and education institutions (preschool institutions, schools, boarding schools, etc.) was of key importance.


The previously unified family authority split into a number of conflicting "socializing authorities" and underwent a multi-stage splitting. In this regard, a constant source of conflict socialization of youth has been created, which finds various forms in accordance with historical time and changing living conditions. The manifestation of this conflict can be seen in the inconsistency of educational actions - from the violation of sociocultural behavior to social pathology (escape from oneself, suicide, violence, delinquency). Criminal forms of conflict socialization force the creation of institutions for the repeated, forced socialization of minors.


All currently known substitutes for family education are targeted, specializing in the purpose of raising children. Around these goals, the functioning of organizations with a certain charter, staff is built, which inevitably leads to the emergence of informal structures that oppose the formal (in the army - "old men" and "salags").


Family socialization is devoid of this confrontation between formal and informal structures, since the family is not a targeted formal organization and intrafamily roles include certain rights and responsibilities for household and family production.


The splitting of family authority was revealed initially in the disintegration of the extended family into a number of nuclear families and in the split of the authority of the head of the extended family into a number of authorities of the heads of nuclear families. Migration from villages to cities, to city communal apartments contributed to the separation of adult children and their parents. This contributed to the disruption of the family continuity of generations, alienation, isolation of new generations from the elders.


The urbanization of the country contributed to the consolidation of this trend, new cities and towns arose around the factories and plants under construction. Housing constraint broke family ties, leaving the nuclear family surrounded by "strangers". This contrasts sharply with the intensity of family-related and neighborly contacts in the countryside, where everyone knows each other. The city, accustoming people to constant contacts in transport, shop, creates a background of alienation of people from each other, the phenomenon of the absence of people when they touch. This urban feature is psychologically very dangerous as a basis for criminal behavior. Only the socio-psychological characteristics of the family allow the personality to form the ability to switch from the code of impersonal interaction to the code of personal communication without any deviations from generally accepted norms. The split in family authority, especially sharp in urban families, aggravates for the younger generations the tendency towards deviant behavior among “strangers”.


The split of family authority also occurs when family production is destroyed as an arena for joint activities of parents and children, as an arena for labor education and the formation of family dynasties according to their professional orientation. In family household management, no one feels like a farm laborer, a mercenary, and the family authority of parents is strengthened thanks to their professional skills passed on in the learning process. The family's lack of a common family affair deprives family members of a sense of mastery of their lives, self-respect and dignity. Only parents with liberal professions, engaged in creative work within the walls of the house, are able to inherit their professional knowledge and skills - only a few, under the conditions of capitalist mercenaries, are able to create family dynasties of artists, artists, writers, and musicians. These few exceptions confirm the enormous importance of the joint common family affair of parents and children as a leading factor in the full socialization of offspring and maintaining a high level of family authority.


Another point associated with the disruption of family production by capitalist industrialization is the lengthening of the period of socialization. Many consider the socialization of young people under 25 a sign of progress, in this regard, labor education of children is met with hostility and is declared the exploitation of children. Here are the roots of the prohibitions on the work of minors, even together with their parents, since labor is initially thought of as non-family and is such. As a result, parents are left with the opportunity to prove themselves as educators not in a serious matter, but during recreation and tourism. Delaying study and apprenticeship without real work puts adolescents in the position of under-adults, socially not recognized by adults. The postponement of social recognition is sharply opposed to the process of acceleration - the accelerated development of physical and sexual education. From here comes a pile of acute social problems of motherhood of minors, sexual permissiveness, group sex. Early marriages as an attempt to acquire the status of socialized adulthood during a period of protracted apprenticeship and, as a consequence, an increase in divorce rates due to social unreadiness for parental roles - all this is a consequence of the gap between social and physical maturity, the lengthening of the socialization period due to the collapse of family authority due to collapse of family production.


Industrialization and the involvement of women in the state production system lead to another kind of fragmentation of family authority. Employment of women mothers outside the home puts mothers and fathers in a competitive position. Instead of the mutually complementary roles of the mother and father in the family production system, instead of the unity of parental authority and the unity of parental influence on children and adolescents, women's employment, which lowers men's wages, led to competition between husbands and wives in the labor market. Such a conflict could not but affect the family relations between fathers and mothers, which is the reason for the increase in divorce. The general family authority was split into two conflicting parental authorities. Moreover, there was a decrease in the authority of the father, and an increase in the authority of the mother.


The involvement of women in production took place under the conditions of the existence of socio-cultural norms of the separation of male and female responsibilities. The collapse of family production affected primarily men, urbanization consolidated the disappearance of those types of domestic work that were performed by men. But women retained their former domestic roles, which are most closely associated with the function of motherhood. Hence the dominance of the mother in the household and in the family, complemented by the mother's more time at home in connection with the benefits provided to mothers by the state for childcare. These benefits gave rise to a kind of matriarchy system.


The bias of family authority towards the role of the mother is also due to the preponderance of female generations over male generations in the first post-war decade. The proliferation of single mothers contributed to the strengthening of social acceptance of alternative single-parent families, the legitimacy of the status of single mothers.


Thus, over the course of several decades, the structure of parental authority inherent in the extended family has radically transformed, narrowing down to the family authority of the nuclear family, moreover, deprived of labor cooperation between parents and children, burdened with the need for long-term care due to the prolonged period of socialization; finally, the narrowed authority of the family was split into two conflicting authorities of the father and mother, with the latter being strengthened.


2. STAGES OF SOCIAL WORK WITH THE FAMILY


1. Single-parent families, including functionally incomplete families in which there are two parents, but various reasons leave them little time for the family (they are identified through schools, kindergartens, institutions of additional education);
   

   Families where the relationship between the parents is tense or an application for divorce has been filed (track through the registry office, Family centers). Particular attention should be paid to a family with one child, because according to J. Wallerstein's research, the only child is the most vulnerable when the family breaks up;
   

   Families with the recent death of one of their relatives (A.K. Beck, G. Brown); negative consequences are reflected in the development of personality and can result in depression. (search for families through the registry office, individual work).
   

   Accordingly, three related objectives of “early intervention” can be formulated:
   

   Systematic monitoring of the status and condition of the family, the dynamics of its interpersonal and social relations in the process of patronage work (implementation of the technology on the basis of the Family Center);
   

   Creation of social and psychological conditions for overcoming family conflict and crisis states. (consulting and therapeutic groups at social institutions for parents, work with children in educational institutions). The solution to this problem assumes that the interaction is built according to flexible schemes, changing depending on the actually observed family relations;
   

   - creation of special conditions for rendering assistance and support to the family as a whole or to those of its members who have psychological, physical or social problems. To solve this problem, the temporary placement of children in family educational groups is especially effective. This allows the implementation of rehabilitation technology for children within the required period of time. At the same time, specialists work with parents, provide the necessary assistance and support.
   

   There are various models of family assistance that a social educator can use to improve the educational function of the family, depending on the nature of the reasons causing the problems of parent-child and marital relations: pedagogical, social, psychological (psychotherapeutic), diagnostic, medical.
   

   To achieve this goal, it seems necessary to familiarize yourself with the algorithm for working with a dysfunctional family proposed below, at all stages of the implementation of which the active intervention of specialists is required.
   

   The stage is organizational. The main method of work at this stage is expert assessment. It is aimed at finding out the degree of need for intervention in the family problem. Specialists have identified some criteria by which it can be determined that changes in the family are needed:
   

   There is no clear family structure (it is not known what type of relationship is authoritarian or democratic, the role functions of family members who are involved in raising children, the relationship between spouses);
   

   There are inappropriate or incorrect boundaries between the family and the surrounding world, between representatives of different generations (there is no authority of the elders, children perform "adult duties";
   

   The collapse of the hierarchy is observed (there is no parental authority, no respect for each other);
   

   Creation of an erroneous system of relationships (for example, in the event of a divorce, the daughter begins to independently manage the household instead of the mother, or the son plays the role of "head of the family").
   

   When determining the need for intervention, the first thing that specialists should pay attention to is the study of the family environment, the relationship of family members, family history, while focusing on the moment of the problem (cause, time period). At the same time, there is a gradual shift in the analysis to the periods of successful overcoming of conflicts and crises by the family.
   

   The stage is functional. Family resources are being mobilized. Psychologically, the task is to normalize family relations, the acceptance by the parents of their own parents, each other and the child. A family rehabilitation environment is created for the child during this period - work with specialists either inside the family (visits, conversations) or outside it, within a specialized institution for minors when organizing visits by relatives, identifying the desire and possibility of returning to the family. In social terms, if necessary, labor activation of family members is possible (employment, stabilization of earnings, activation of the role of parents). At the same time, upon request, the family is provided with targeted social (household, material, monetary) assistance, assistance in organizing treatment (in the presence of serious illnesses, alcohol and drug addiction).
   

   After that, the study and elimination of conflicts in the development of the family is carried out - this process involves the desire and active participation of family members - the object of influence. the basis of preventive and corrective work is the formation of skills and values \u200b\u200bof a healthy lifestyle. here we can also talk about secondary prevention - the prevention of relapses of such problem situations.
   

   Control. The dynamics of family development is revealed - the material situation, living conditions, relationships between family members are investigated. In addition, for the required period of time (determined by specialists), family patronage is carried out in order to confirm and consolidate positive changes. At this stage, the family, which has not yet been removed from the "risk group", is moving to rehabilitative self-development by building up its own potential and receiving regular social assistance.
   

   At all stages, parallel to the social process, the algorithm of work includes the organization of a system for monitoring the development of a dysfunctional family, determining the forms and methods of prevention and correction. This allows not only to study the effectiveness of work with a specific family, to implement an interdepartmental approach to the rehabilitation process, but also to create a bank of problem situations, which allows you to develop an algorithm for work in relation to the type of a specific situation, and focusing on a specific family, select forms and methods of work.
   

   Specialists have identified several models for organizing work with dysfunctional families, namely 1:
   

   Diagnostic - based on the assumption of a lack of knowledge about the child or his family. The object of diagnostics is the socio-psychological climate of intrafamily communications, that is, diagnostics of the "family - children" system. The diagnostic conclusion can serve as a basis for making organizational decisions. Diagnostic methods: questionnaires, conversations, tests aimed at identifying intra-family problems; Pedagogical - is based on the hypothesis of the lack of pedagogical competence of parents. The object of the complaint is a child. The consultant, together with the parent, analyzes the situation, outlines a program to improve the parent's pedagogical competence, focusing on educational methods that are universal from the point of view of pedagogy and psychology. If the parent himself is the cause of the trouble, then this possibility is not openly considered. Methods for increasing the pedagogical competence of parents: day / week, month / legal knowledge, parent meetings, lectures, seminars, trainings for parents, speeches of narrow specialists / inspector of the Institute of Internal Affairs, psychologist, psychoneurologist, inspector for the protection of childhood rights /; Social - it is used in cases where family trouble is associated with the action of a sociogenic factor. In these cases, in addition to analyzing the situation and recommendations, it is necessary to intervene by external forces, involve social protection agencies, formalize guardianship and trusteeship, organize socially significant activities, etc.; Medical - assumes that the basis of family trouble is the illness of one of the family members. The task of counseling is to clarify the diagnosis, treatment and adaptation of healthy family members to the patient. Forms of assistance: social and medical support of a child, interaction with health authorities to solve problems of treatment and rehabilitation of a child, a system of preventoria and sanatoriums; Psychological - it is used when the reasons for the child's trouble lie in the field of communication, personal characteristics of family members. It involves an analysis of the situation, psychodiagnostics of the personality, diagnostics of the family, psychotrangs for solving family problems. Practical help consists in overcoming communication barriers, the reasons for their appearance, and correcting intra-family communications.
   

   Socio-pedagogical work is aimed at strengthening and developing, restoring the internal potential of the family to fulfill its many socially significant functions. The ultimate goal of social and educational assistance is for the family to overcome its disorganization and the resulting deviations in the behavior of family members and be able to recognize and independently resolve problems that arise before they get worse. 1 .
   

   Social pedagogical assistance to the family is characterized by a focus on the environment. The work is carried out not only with family members, but also with her immediate environment. Socio-pedagogical support may be necessary for any family, albeit to varying degrees. Passive families (with a focus on dependency, with low mobility and underdeveloped adaptive abilities) especially need help. They have little potential of their own for resolving crisis situations.
   

   The implementation of the state's social policy in relation to the family involves the activities of specialists from social institutions (OVD, KDN, PDN, bodies of social protection, guardianship and trusteeship, educational institutions, public associations, etc.) in various areas:
   

   assistance in family adaptation to changing socio-economic conditions; improving its economic and social situation;
   

   targeted support of low-income and socially vulnerable categories of families;
   

   identification of families with medical and social problems and provision of necessary medical care;
   

   social and legal protection of families and social rehabilitation of children and adolescents with deviant behavior;
   

   rehabilitation of children from the social risk group;
   

   prevention of neglect and juvenile delinquency;
   

   diagnostics, analysis and forecasting of integral socio-psychological characteristics of family development and its influence on the processes of teaching and upbringing of children (psychological climate, public opinion, sociometric structure, leadership);
   

   assistance in the implementation of the main humanistic approaches to the development and education of the personality in the family: age (taking into account age characteristics), individual (taking into account individual characteristics), differentiated (taking into account significant criteria for life), personal (reliance on the manifestation of subjectivity, self-awareness);
   

   informing the family about topical socio-psychological-pedagogical problems through the work of lecture halls, socio-psychological and pedagogical services of various organizations and institutions;
   

   pedagogical and socio-psychological prevention of the emergence and development of deviant behavior and personal destructiveness of family members;
   

   establishing family ties with other teams, organizations and social institutions that provide resources, support opportunities;
   

   assistance in organizing family leisure, etc.
   

   Each of the above areas has its own potential in solving problems of the family and society as a whole. Success in solving them largely depends on the creation of a system that covers the family, educational institutions, administrative bodies, state and non-state centers for working with children and adolescents, focused on caring for children, their upbringing, education, prevention and overcoming of deviant behavior. Improving the quality of social and pedagogical work with the family society is possible with the coordinated activities of all social institutions, while the social teacher must take on the role of a coordinator, a link between them.
   

   CONCLUSION
   

   So, the family is one of the most ancient social institutions. It arose much earlier than religion, state, army, education, market. The family is the only and irreplaceable producer of the person himself, the continuation of the family. But, unfortunately, it performs this main function with failures. And it depends not only on her, but also on society. The family arises from the need to satisfy the personal needs and interests of individuals. As part of society, she connects them with the public interest. Personal needs are organized on the basis of norms, values, behavior patterns accepted in society, and it often happens that the unceremonious intervention of society in the life of the family destroyed it and the life of its people, bringing it to a miserable existence.
   

   The reasons for the decline in the birth rate up to the small number of children are generated by the extrafamilial nature of the industrial civilization. They are associated with the loss of families, first of all, of the production function, and then of a number of others (transfer of experience from parents to children, parental authority over children, provision in old age, etc.). Neither the nature of work, nor remuneration for work now depend on the presence of children, nor on the presence of a family in general. Rather, on the contrary: small children win in everything over large families.
   

   Speaking about the creation by the state of the necessary conditions for the development of the family, it is important to define the main functions and responsibilities of the state in relation to the family: protection of the family, protection from unjustified interference in its affairs.
   

   In modern conditions, family protection is elevated to the rank of state policy through the guaranteed right to work of every person, every family. Effective use of the labor potential of young families is one of the most important ways of the modern stage of the state's social policy. It is the younger generation that is practically the only source in the state for replenishing the workforce.
   

   An equally important area of \u200b\u200bstrengthening the family is government measures directly aimed at stimulating the birth rate, protecting mothers and children, and maintaining a healthy family. The purpose and expediency of demographic policy is to proportionally combine reproduction, the birth of children and the parents' own lives in the family, taking into account the social qualities and the harmonious development of the personalities of parents and children.
   

   1. Kharchev A.G., Matskovsky M.S. Modern family and its problems. M., 1978.
      

Despite the fact that the family is the oldest and most widespread social group, the knowledge of it for most people is limited only to the division of families into good (prosperous) and bad (dysfunctional) families. However, in order to better navigate in solving many family problems, such a clearly superficial idea of \u200b\u200bthe varieties (types) of the family, of course, is not enough. The presence of a system of knowledge about the types, forms, types of families and peculiarities of relations within each model of a marriage union allows one to look more “professionally” at one's own family, to be more attentive to the problems that arise in it. In addition, different types of families function differently in certain spheres of family relations. The use of diverse typologies helps to get a more complete, multicolored picture of the most important characteristics of the family in social and scientific terms: marriage, divorce, fertility, the influence of the family on the upbringing of children, etc.

In addition, in a certain form of a family and marriage union, similar (typical) problems may appear, the presumptive knowledge of which may be of significant help in organizing the necessary social or psychological assistance to such a family.

To date, scientists have not yet managed to draw up a complete classification of families due to their diversity among representatives of different cultures. In the list of various forms of modern families, there are more than forty varieties of them. The book provides a family classification, taking into account those models that are common to most cultures and at the same time are widely represented in modern Russian reality. As a basis for the proposed typology, significant criteria are taken that make it possible to single out a particular form of family organization, taking into account its structure, dynamics and functions. As you know, there is no family at all. There are specific families: urban and rural, young and old; families belonging to different educational and social groups, etc. The importance of identifying certain types of families is also explained by the fact that, despite the commonality of internal relations, they have their own specificity, due to national, cultural, religious, age, professional and other differences.

The more such groups can be identified, the more thoroughly and scientifically the family is investigated, which, in turn, allows people to avoid many mistakes in building their family life, make it psychologically comfortable and happier.

Each society imposes different requirements on the nature of the relationship between spouses, ways of showing care for disabled family members, people's participation in work, organizing everyday life, ensuring the safety of family members, spending leisure time, etc. Depending on whether the family adheres to these requirements, the family union has certain characteristics, which, naturally, affects the family atmosphere in general and the psychological well-being of each family member.

The fundamental principle of modern monogamy (monogamy) is patriarchal family, which is characterized by the dominant position of men in family relations.

Initially, the patriarchal family was quite large: it included relatives and descendants of one father with their wives, children and relatives, slaves, including concubines. The Latin word "surname" in ancient times meant a set of slaves belonging to one person. Such a family sometimes numbered hundreds. In various modifications, the patriarchal family existed among different peoples. In Russia, it took the form of a large family headed by a man, consisting of several generations of close relatives who lived under one roof and ran a joint household.

During the formation of the capitalist mode of production, the traditional patriarchal mode of production was replaced by nuclear family (from the Latin "nucleus" - the core). For the first time the name "nuclear" in relation to the family was introduced into scientific use by the American sociologist J.P. Murdoch in 1949. This kind of family consists only of the members most necessary for its education - husband and wife; it can be childless or include as many children as you like.

Modern monogamous family may have several types that differ from each other in certain characteristics.

1. By related structure the family can be nuclear (married couple with children) and extended (married couple with children and one of the relatives of the husband or wife living with them in the same household).

2. By number of children : childless (infertile), one-child, small, large family.

3. By structure: with one married couple with or without children; with one married couple with or without children, with one of the spouses' parents and other relatives; with two or more married couples with or without children, with one of the spouses' parents and other relatives or without them; with mother (father) with children; with a mother (father) with children, with one of the parents and other relatives; other families.

4. By composition: incomplete family, separate, simple (nuclear), complex (family of several generations), large family.

5.By geographic location: urban, rural, distant family (living in hard-to-reach areas and in the Far North).

6.By homogeneity of social composition : socially homogeneous (homogeneous) families (there is a similar level of education and the nature of professional activity in spouses); heterogeneous (heterogeneous) families: unite people of different levels of education and professional orientation.

7.By family experience: newlyweds; young family expecting a baby; middle-aged family; senior marital age; elderly couples.

8... By type of driving needs , the satisfaction of which determines the characteristics of the social behavior of the members of the family group; families with a “physiological” or “naive-consumer” type of consumption (mainly with a food orientation) are distinguished; families with an "intellectual" type of consumption, i.e. with a high level of spending on spiritual life; families with an intermediate type of consumption.

9.According to the characteristics of the existing family structure and organization family life: family - "outlet" (gives a person communication, moral and material support); child-centered family (children are in the center of parents' interests); a family like a sports team or a discussion club (travel a lot, see a lot, know how, know); a family that puts comfort, health and order first.

10. By the nature of leisure activities: open families (oriented towards communication and the cultural industry) and closed (oriented towards family leisure).

11.By the nature of the distribution of household responsibilities: families are traditional (duties are mainly performed by a woman) and collectivist (duties are performed jointly or in turn).

12.By type of leadership (distribution of power) families can be authoritarian and democratic.

Authoritarian family characterized by strict, unquestioning submission of the wife to the husband or husband to the wife and children to their parents. The husband (and sometimes the wife) is a monopoly head, an oppressive master. Democratica familybased on the mutual respect of family members, on the distribution of family roles in accordance with the needs of a specific setting, with the personal qualities and abilities of the spouses, on equal participation of each of them in all matters of family life, on the joint adoption of all important decisions.

13. Depending from the special conditions of organizing family life:a student family and a "distant" family (separation of marriage partners due to the specifics of the profession of one of them or both: families of sailors, polar explorers, cosmonauts, geologists, etc.).

14.By the quality of relationships and the atmosphere in the family:prosperous (spouses and other family members highly appreciate each other, the husband's authority is high, there are practically no conflicts, there are own traditions and rituals), stable (practically have the same features as prosperous families), pedagogically weak, low educational characteristics, preference is given to physical the state and well-being of the child); unstable family (a high level of dissatisfaction of both spouses with family life, including their role and position in the family, which leads to unpredictable behavior); disorganized (there is a pronounced lag of family relations from the general level of development of society: drunkenness, archaic relations of rude dictate; there is practically no internal unity and contacts between family members); socially disadvantaged (low cultural level of family members, alcohol consumption by one or both parents); problematic (lack of reciprocity among spouses and inability to cooperate); conflict (the presence of psychological incompatibility among spouses or family members); a disintegrating family union (an excessively aggravated conflict situation in the family, in fact the marriage has already broken up, but the spouses continue to live together, which is considered the greatest traumatic source for the child due to the duration of the stressful situation and leads to disruptions in the development of his personality); a broken family (a situation when one of the parents lives separately, but to some extent retains contacts with the former family and performs some more functions).