Despite the fact that the family is the oldest and most widespread social group, most people's knowledge about it is limited only to the division of families into good (prosperous) and bad (unfavorable). However, in order to better navigate the solution of many family problems, such an obviously superficial idea of ​​the 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 the characteristics of relationships within each model of a marriage union allows you to take a more “professional” look at your own family, and be more attentive to the problems that arise in it. In addition, different types of families function differently in various areas of family relations. The use of diverse typologies helps to get a more complete, multi-colored 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-marriage union, similar (typical) problems may appear, the presumptive knowledge of which can be a significant help in organizing the necessary social or psychological assistance to such a family.

To date, scientists have not yet been able to compile 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 gives 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. The proposed typology is based on essential criteria that make it possible to single out one or another form of a 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 specifics, due to national, cultural, religious, age, professional and other differences.

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

Each society has different requirements for the nature of the relationship between spouses, ways of caring for disabled family members, participation of people in work, organization of life, ensuring the safety of family members, spending leisure time, etc. Depending on whether or not the family observes these requirements, a family union is distinguished by certain features, which naturally affects the family atmosphere as a whole 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 numerous: 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 of people. 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 the same roof and ran a joint household.

During the formation of the capitalist mode of production, the traditional patriarchal 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 most necessary members for its education - husband and wife; it can be both childless and include any number of children.

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

1. By related structure the family can be nuclear (a married couple with children) and extended (a 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 parents of the spouses and other relatives; with two or more married couples with or without children, with or without one of the parents of the spouses and other relatives; with mother (father) with children; with 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 feature: urban, rural, remote family (living in hard-to-reach areas and in the regions of 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 among spouses); heterogeneous (heterogeneous) families: unite people of different levels of education and professional orientation.

7.By family history: newlyweds; young family expecting a baby; family of middle marital age; senior marital age; elderly couples.

8. By type of leading needs , the satisfaction of which determines the characteristics of the social behavior of members of the family group, families with a “physiological” or “naive-consumer” type of consumption (mainly with a food orientation) are singled out; 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 features of the existing family structure and organization family life: family - "vent" (gives a person communication, moral and material support); family of child-centric type (children are in the center of interests of parents); a family like a sports team or a discussion club (they 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 (focused on communication and the cultural industry) and closed families (focused on intra-family leisure).

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

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

authoritarian family characterized by strict, unquestioning subordination of a wife to her husband or a husband to his wife and children to their parents. The husband (and sometimes the wife) is the monopoly head, the despotic master. Democratic family based on mutual respect for family members, on the distribution of family roles in accordance with the needs of a particular situation, with the personal qualities and abilities of the spouses, on the 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 (separate residence of marriage partners due to the specifics of the profession of one of them or both: families of sailors, polar explorers, astronauts, 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, they have their own traditions and rituals), stable (practically have the same features as prosperous families), pedagogically weak low educational characteristics, preference is given to physical condition and well-being of the child); unstable family (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 in 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 most traumatic source for the child due to the duration of the stressful situation and leads to disturbances in the development of his personality); a broken family (a situation where one of the parents lives separately, but to some extent retains contacts with the former family and performs some more functions).

In the modern world there is no single type of family. According to the criterion of management, there are:

-totemic clan, characterized by belief in a common ancestor, the preservation of group marriage, the counting of descent through the mother;

- home community- living together for several generations under female or male control;

-patriarchal family- the head, who (often an older man, but there are exceptions) is the sole owner of the property and therefore the manager and manager of the entire life of the family community, uniting several generations under one roof. Functional responsibilities in such a family are clearly defined and traditional, therefore this form of family is also called "traditional";

- neotraditional family is the transformation of the patriarchal in modern conditions. It differs from the traditional patriarchal one in that it retains a focus on male leadership and a distinction between male and female duties, but without sufficient objective economic grounds. Sociologists call this type of family exploitative, because along with the right to equal participation in social work with men, a woman receives an “exclusive” right to domestic work;

-egalitarian family- this is already a real, but not yet the dominant form of management of the modern family. Such a family is characterized by the following features:

a) a fair, proportional division of household duties among family members;

b) interchangeability of spouses in solving everyday problems (“role symmetry”);

c) discussion of the main problems and joint adoption of important decisions for the family;

d) emotional richness of relationships.

According to the criterion of structure, families are distinguished:

- extended the family includes representatives of at least three generations of relatives: grandparents - grandfather and grandmother, parents - father and mother, children (grandchildren) - sons and daughters (grandchildren and granddaughters), sometimes there are great-grandchildren, less often great-great-grandchildren. An incomplete extended family is most often formed after the death of one of the older parents, when the left one unites with the family of a son or daughter.

-nuclear(lat. Nucleus - core) . consists of two generations - parents and children. In Europe, about 80% of nuclear families, in Russia - about 60%.

- incomplete called a family without one of the parents. Most often this is a post-divorce family, but a single mother's family has become very common in the 20th century.

According to the criterion of childhood, they distinguish:

Families childless- These are young families before the birth of their first child, as well as married couples who are not able to have children or do not want to have them. There are currently more than 15% of such people in Russia, but there are alarming data on the growth of this category.

- one-child families is also a difficult problem for any society, since such families do not provide even simple reproduction. In Russia, there are about half of such families, which is the main reason for the depopulation that began in the 1990s. - small children called families with two children. This is the second largest group of Russian families. As for families

-large families, that is, different opinions about the starting point for the number of children to be assigned to this category. Some believe that large families begin with three children, and the administration of some cities even issues certificates of large families to such families and assigns certain benefits. If we calculate according to this method, then there are more than 10% of large families in Russia. However, the majority proceeds from the criterion of large families established back in the Soviet Union - five or more, for which the mother in those days was awarded medals and orders. A little more than 1% of families correspond to this indicator.

According to the criterion of the social status of spouses, families can be:

- homogeneous(homogamous), where spouses have the same social origin and social status;

- heterogeneous(heterogamous) , if the marriage was unequal - by age, ethnicity, confessional affiliation or other socially significant sign.

Sociologists also divide families into parental ones, i.e. families of origin and procreation, i.e. created by adult children separated from their parents.

In modern statistics, families are divided into types based on demographics - gender, age, kinship relationships, as well as the number of employees, social and national affiliation, and other indicators. This classification allows you to calculate some general indicators:

Share of incomplete families;

The share of simple and complex families,

Families are childless and have many children, which is important in the development of social programs and social policy in general.

SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE FAMILY.

The functions of the family are not something immutable, once and for all established. Some of them can be considered as the cause of the very emergence of the family, with them the family began and they will exist as long as the family exists. Others arise at a certain stage in the development of the family and over time can change markedly depending on changes in society itself. From a sufficient variety, one can single out some functions inherent in the modern family, regardless of the level of development and characteristics of different societies. The universal functions of the family include:

- reproductive function- By the birth of children, the family maintains the biological continuity not only of itself, but of society as well. Failure to perform this function leads to the cessation of the existence of the family and the extinction of society;

- personality socialization(educational function) - the family maintains the cultural continuity of society. It carries out the socialization of the younger generation, gives a social position to its children, determines the life career of the child. Teachers and psychologists say that the formation of a harmonious personality requires a stable family. Sociologists distinguish several stereotypes of family education:

- detocentrism - misunderstood love for children, indulging their whims, which leads to spoilage, lack of understanding of prohibitions and duties, a sense of duty, including to parents. Most often, this is a family with one child, whom parents and grandparents protect from difficulties and troubles.

-professionalism - parents reduce their duties to the material support of the child. To educate, in their opinion, should be professional teachers and educators (in kindergarten and at school). The result of such an approach is disconnection from each other's life, mutual misunderstanding, and often unwillingness to understand each other;

-pragmatism - the orientation of the child's personality to achieve success in life by any means, the development of practical skills in children, the ability to settle in life. In the conditions of transition to market relations, there is a danger of exaggerating the attractiveness of such an approach and strengthening such a pragmatic trend in family education, when this particular model begins to be regarded at the level of everyday consciousness as the most adequate to new conditions, as a survival strategy.

We can also mention four tactics of family education: dictatorial, non-interference, excessive guardianship and collaborative, which are distinguished by a science related to sociology - pedagogy.

- economic(economic and household) function includes, first of all, the joint production of material goods and services by the family team. However, in modern conditions, this part of the function is observed only in a small part of families, namely those who have a family business - trading, farming, crafts, etc. Most able-bodied citizens earn their livelihood by working in the public (state or private) sector, and then the economic function is reduced to the preparation and implementation of the family budget, the organization of family consumption. The household function consists in the distribution of household labor, housing care, other aspects of the organization of life;

- recreational function (lat. recreatio - restoration) implies the restoration of physical and spiritual strength, mutual assistance of family members to each other, maintaining health, organizing recreation, satisfying emotional needs, thereby preventing the disintegration of the individual. In modern conditions, when an individual often finds himself in stressful situations, receiving extreme emotional and mental stress, only the family is able to relieve stress by performing a psychotherapeutic role;

- regulatory the function is to ensure and guarantee the primary social control - the moral and social regulation of the behavior of family members, as well as the implementation of power and authority in the family.

- social status the function ensures the reproduction of the social structure of society and the family. Each individual receives as a prescribed status such positions as nationality, social origin, which to a large extent influences the choice of life career. That is, the family necessarily forms the starting position of everyone in accordance with the standards established in it and the opportunities available to it.

In addition to these general and universal functions, some authors distinguish:

- medical a function, the meaning of which, in the prevention of diseases, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, giving up bad habits, active recreation, mastering hygiene skills (others consider all this to be part of a recreational function); - leisure function – consists in organizing the rational use of free time in the interests of the harmonious development of all family members. We are talking about joint recreation on weekends and holidays, during holidays and vacations, as well as about the formed aesthetic need - visiting museums, theaters, etc., and not a sofa, TV and beer. In most schemes, this is also part of the recreational function;

-hedonistic function (Greek hedone - pleasure) - that happiness, pleasure, enjoyment, love that a person receives in the family. This is love between young people, leading to the creation of a family, and love between spouses, strengthening the family, and the birth of desired and beloved children, and the joy of communicating with them.

FAMILY LIFE CYCLE.

The family as a social institution is a volatile community that goes through a number of stages of its development from the beginning of time to the present. But a separate family also goes through a series of stages from its formation to the cessation of existence. The temporal dimension of the family is denoted by the concept of "family life cycle". Usually the life cycle is measured starting from the moment of family formation, marriage in one form or another. However, according to some surname sociologists, family life is the pinnacle of enormous efforts made by spouses long before marriage. The family is not the beginning, but the middle of the family journey.

The appearance of a family is preceded by a more or less lengthy process of “fitting”, moral preparation for family life, and the accumulation of life experience. Since in our time they get married more often after 20-25 years, then quite a lot of time passes from adolescence, when a conscious interest in the opposite sex awakens, before creating a family.

This path begins with acquaintance. There are three main forms of dating:

1) on their own, according to VTsIOM polls, about 60% get to know their future life partners;

2) less than 1% get acquainted through formal intermediaries (marriage agency);

3) through informal intermediaries (parents, friends - approx. 10%, colleagues - 9%, matchmakers - 5%).

Where does self-acquaintance take place:

Collaboration - 15%,

Joint study - 11%,

Joint recreation and entertainment - in the campaign 13%, in the south -8%; in a bar, at a discotheque, in a park - 7%;

In transport - 7%,

At weddings, anniversaries, commemorations - 5%.

In European countries, where marriage acquaintance is a personal matter and there is a noticeable influence of relatives and co-workers. In the East, the most popular, at least until recently, was the institution of professional marriage intermediaries (matchmaker-khanuma), proven for centuries and millennia. The fact is that in the East parents always choose, since this is too serious a matter to be entrusted to a young, often inexperienced groom in every sense. In the West, not only the groom, but also the bride can seek, choose, ask to be introduced.

Courtship in Russian and Western European European tradition plays an important role in strengthening mutual feelings. It is expressed in paying attention to the beloved in order to achieve even greater location. This is the most romantic stage of life together. He is often remembered by elderly spouses. As a rule, courtship declines after the first months of marriage, and disappears altogether after a few years. Courtship performs several functions, during this period young people get to know each other, learn to make mutual concessions, control their emotions, put up after a quarrel, and show signs of attention.

The sociologist S. Golod explains the role of the social practice of courtship as follows: “The spread of courtship was both a cause and a consequence of the emancipation of children from their parents.” True, it must be admitted that the courtship of a young man for a girl is an asymmetric process (a girl does not court a young man) and an alternative to the institution of matchmaking (when choosing a chosen one by parents). The emergence of courtship is indicative of a significant shift in society from the traditional to the modern.

The next step in premarital behavior is matchmaking(not as an acquaintance through an intermediary, but as a rite of marriage proposal). Usually the groom himself, less often with his parents or with his closest friend, pays a visit to the parents of his chosen one. On this occasion, it is supposed to put on a festive costume and come with flowers. The groom tells the bride's parents about his feelings and "asks for her hand in marriage." If the parents agree to the marriage, then the bride's father joins the hands of his daughter and future son-in-law. Further agree on the announcement of the engagement.

engagement - This is a ceremony of declaring future newlyweds as bride and groom. The engaged exchanged rings. From the moment of the engagement, the girl - now the bride could appear with her fiancé in society, without fear of gossip. The groom could come to the bride's house at any time without hindrance. On this day, the parents of the bride and groom agree on the upcoming wedding. Previously, most of the expenses were borne by the parents of the bride. In our time, they decide in accordance with the capabilities of each family.

According to an old custom, on the eve of the wedding, they arrange bachelorette party and bachelor party- the evening before the wedding, when the bride with her friends, and the groom with his friends say goodbye to the bachelor life.

Wedding. According to Russian customs, on the wedding day, the groom comes for the bride, but you need to pay « ransom » younger relatives of the bride - sweets, money. This is followed by registration at the registry office, after which the bride and groom can ride in the same car, make a circle of honor around the city, lay flowers at some memorial and invite them to a wedding feast. Other details and options are possible in different regions, but everywhere at weddings they say toasts and give gifts to the newlyweds and their parents.

So, the family was born and the life cycle of the family begins as a sequence of social and demographic states from the moment of formation to the termination of its existence.

A typical family goes through several qualitatively different stages during its life. Sociologists offer different classifications of the life cycle. J. Bernard and L. Thompson distinguish 8 stages:

1) the beginning of a family, a married couple without children for 2 years;

2) the birth of children and care for them 2.5 years;

3) a family with preschoolers 3.5 years old;

4) a family with schoolchildren from 6 to 13 years old 7 years;

5) a family with teenagers aged 7;

6) children leave the family, creating their families for 7 years;

7) "empty nest" - 13 years before retirement;

8) an elderly family (both pensioners) 16 years or more, until the death of the spouses.

The most intense and intense are stages 2 and 3 (mother with children). In the later stages, the care of the elderly about their health and the problems of physical fatigue come to the fore.

Other sociologists distinguish only 4-5 stages. For example, N. Rimashevskaya:

1) family growth (from marriage to the birth of the last child). It is divided into two half-periods: a) from the beginning of marriage to the birth of the first child (2.5 years) and b) from the birth of the first to the birth of the last (2.5 - 12 years);

2) the period of "stability" - from the birth of the last child to the separation of one of the adult children (12-17 years old);

3) the period of "maturity" - from the separation of the first to the separation of the youngest (17 - 30 years);

4 - the period of "fading" - from the selection of the last of the adult children to the death of both spouses. Here again there are two half-periods - "before" and "after" the death of one of the spouses (30 years or more).

More often than others, a simplified version is offered:

1st stage - "childless";

2nd "preschool" - from the birth of the first child to his admission to school.

3rd "school" - from entering the school of the first to graduating from the last.

4th "fading" - the separation of children from the family.

5th "empty nest" - from the separation of the last of the children from the family to the death of the spouses.

It is clear that these schemes are nothing more than a guide, since any of the stages can be longer or shorter in duration, some may be absent altogether if, for example, the family is childless, or adult children in a patriarchal family are not separated from their parents.

According to sociological research, up to 80% of the first children appear in the family in the first two years of its existence, and another 10-12% in the next 3-4 years. In general, the process of childbearing takes from 5 years (in 1/3 of families) to 10 years in most families. In the demographic structure of the family, 32% are childless, including young, newly created families; those in which spouses cannot have children for health reasons; as well as families who deliberately refused to have children.

The characteristics of the family life cycle also include the indicator of the family's well-being at different stages of its existence:

The 1st phase (0 - 17 years) is divided into two - a) high status and income, which is formed due to the earnings of parents, which compensate for the temporary withdrawal of a woman from production at the birth of a child, and b) a decrease in status and income, since the parents have already left social production, and the woman was not always included in it.

2nd phase - the growth of social status (17 - 22 years old) - the active inclusion in production of not only women, but also adult children.

3rd phase - a decrease in social status (a family of 22-35 years old) due to the departure of adult children who form their families, parents' help for these children (see 1st phase), retirement.

4th phase - attenuation of labor activity (35 years and beyond).

In modern Russian society, the role of parents in the formation of a young family and maintaining its financial situation has noticeably increased. Often parents turn into the breadwinners of young spouses, since the income of parents is one and a half to two times higher than the earnings of young spouses. More than half of the families start life not in their own housing, but in their parents' house, and a significant part in rented apartments, which are paid by the parents. Improvement of living conditions occurs by 10 - 15 years of marriage, when the family finally builds or buys a separate apartment.

In the modern world there is no single type of family. According to the criterion of management, there are:

-totemic clan, characterized by belief in a common ancestor, the preservation of group marriage, the counting of descent through the mother;

- home community- living together for several generations under female or male control;

-patriarchal family- the head, who (often an older man, but there are exceptions) is the sole owner of the property and therefore the manager and manager of the entire life of the family community, uniting several generations under one roof. Functional responsibilities in such a family are clearly defined and traditional, therefore this form of family is also called "traditional";

- neotraditional family is the transformation of the patriarchal in modern conditions. It differs from the traditional patriarchal one in that it retains a focus on male leadership and a distinction between male and female duties, but without sufficient objective economic grounds. Sociologists call this type of family exploitative, because along with the right to equal participation in social work with men, a woman receives an “exclusive” right to domestic work;

-egalitarian family- this is already a real, but not yet the dominant form of management of the modern family. Such a family is characterized by the following features:

a) a fair, proportional division of household duties among family members;

b) interchangeability of spouses in solving everyday problems (“role symmetry”);

c) discussion of the main problems and joint adoption of important decisions for the family;

d) emotional richness of relationships.

According to the criterion of structure, families are distinguished:

- extended the family includes representatives of at least three generations of relatives: grandparents - grandfather and grandmother, parents - father and mother, children (grandchildren) - sons and daughters (grandchildren and granddaughters), sometimes there are great-grandchildren, less often great-great-grandchildren. An incomplete extended family is most often formed after the death of one of the older parents, when the left one unites with the family of a son or daughter.

-nuclear(lat. Nucleus - core) . consists of two generations - parents and children. In Europe, about 80% of nuclear families, in Russia - about 60%.

- incomplete called a family without one of the parents. Most often this is a post-divorce family, but a single mother's family has become very common in the 20th century.

According to the criterion of childhood, they distinguish:

Families childless- These are young families before the birth of their first child, as well as married couples who are not able to have children or do not want to have them. There are currently more than 15% of such people in Russia, but there are alarming data on the growth of this category.

- one-childfamilies is also a difficult problem for any society, since such families do not provide even simple reproduction. In Russia, there are about half of such families, which is the main reason for the depopulation that began in the 1990s. - small children called families with two children. This is the second largest group of Russian families. As for families

-large families, that is, different opinions about the starting point for the number of children to be assigned to this category. Some believe that large families begin with three children, and the administration of some cities even issues certificates of large families to such families and assigns certain benefits. If we calculate according to this method, then there are more than 10% of large families in Russia. However, the majority proceeds from the criterion of large families established back in the Soviet Union - five or more, for which the mother in those days was awarded medals and orders. A little more than 1% of families correspond to this indicator.

According to the criterion of the social status of spouses, families can be:

- homogeneous(homogamous), where spouses have the same social origin and social status;

- heterogeneous(heterogamous) , if the marriage was unequal - by age, ethnicity, confessional affiliation or other socially significant sign.

Sociologists also divide families into parental ones, i.e. families of origin and procreation, i.e. created by adult children separated from their parents.

In modern statistics, families are divided into types based on demographics - gender, age, kinship relationships, as well as the number of employees, social and national affiliation, and other indicators. This classification allows you to calculate some general indicators:

Share of incomplete families;

The share of simple and complex families,

Families are childless and have many children, which is important in the development of social programs and social policy in general.

From the existing set of family typologies (psychological, pedagogical, sociological), the following complex typology meets the tasks of the activities of a social teacher and social worker, which provides for the allocation of four categories of families that differ in the level of social adaptation from high to medium, low and extremely low: prosperous families, families risk groups, dysfunctional families, asocial families.

Prosperous families successfully cope with their functions, practically do not need the support of a social teacher and a social worker, because due to adaptive abilities, which are based on material, psychological and other internal resources, they quickly adapt to the needs of their child, successfully solve the problems of his upbringing and development. In case of problems, one-time one-time assistance is enough for them within the framework of short-term models of work.

Families at risk are characterized by the presence of some deviation from the norms, which does not allow them to be defined as prosperous, for example, an incomplete family, a low-income family, etc., and reduce the adaptive abilities of these families. They manifest themselves with the tasks of raising a child with great effort, therefore, a social teacher and a social worker need to monitor the state of the family, the disabling factors present in it, monitor how they are compensated by other positive characteristics, and, if necessary, offer timely assistance.

Dysfunctional families, having a low social status in any of the spheres of life or in several at the same time, they cannot cope with the functions assigned to them, their adaptive abilities are significantly reduced, the process of family upbringing of a child proceeds with great difficulties, slowly, with little result. This type of family requires active and usually long-term support from a social educator and a social worker. Depending on the nature of the problems, the specialist provides such families with educational, psychological, mediation assistance within the framework of long-term forms of work.

Asocial families- those with which the interaction is most laborious and whose condition needs fundamental changes. In a family where parents lead an immoral, illegal way of life and where living conditions do not meet elementary sanitary and hygienic requirements, and where, as a rule, no one is involved in raising children, children turn out to be neglected, half-starved, lag behind in development, become victims of violence as from parents, and other citizens of the same social stratum. The work of a social educator and social worker with these families should be carried out in close contact with law enforcement agencies, as well as guardianship and guardianship authorities.

The family brings up the new man together with the school and the whole general public. This is a huge responsible and honorable task of the family.

There are still families in which a painful, ugly environment is hard on the children. We have in mind, first of all, the abnormal relations that exist in some families between members of the same family, in particular between spouses. These relationships often lead to divorce, and at the same time - to discord in the family. If in such a family the husband and wife manage to maintain the appearance of family relations, then their internal alienation, hostility towards each other, constant quarrels and reproaches make the life of children in this unfriendly tense environment extremely difficult and usually distort the normal development of the child.

Relations between a man and a woman, being completely free and voluntary, develop differently. We are not going to agitate against divorce in general. But we want to make parents think about how painfully problems in the family affect children, how children suffer, deprived of home comfort, home warmth. And vice versa, we want to show that a child can get the right upbringing only in a good, friendly family.

Watching the life of the family, the child is faced with the fact that in the morning all the elders go to work. ... He sees how everyone is in a hurry to get to work on time, how tired they are sometimes, but at the same time they are satisfied at home in the evening. Gradually, the child begins to understand that all adults do somewhere "out there", behind the doors of their apartment, some very important thing, that when he, the baby, grows up, he will definitely work too.

Parents should in every possible way encourage in their children the desire for work, while instilling in them a special respect for learning, which should precede independent work. It is wrong to connect a child's ideas about work only with the need to earn money, with money. The need for labor must be shown to the child, first of all, as an honorable social duty of every person.

However, one should not hide the economic side of family life from schoolchildren: father, mother, elders, working, receive money for their work, that is, a means of subsistence.

A child of senior preschool, and even more so of school age, should know that every thing that is purchased in the family: a new minced meat, a radio, shoes, a bicycle or something else, as well as entertainment, trips out of town, organizing a holiday, Christmas trees - all this costs money earned by the hard work of adults.

The child should also be well aware that the family has some limited amount of these funds and that if now, for example, they bought a bicycle for their older brother, then they have to wait with the radio. This teaches children to appreciate the things they receive, teaches them to limit their desires, subordinating them to the general interests and needs of the family.

Consciousness of the need to bring one's feasible work into the life of the family should be brought up from early childhood, so that at school age the teenager does not even have questions about his labor duties in the family. If the assigned work is not done brilliantly by the child, but he really put his effort into it, the mother or father will quietly finish cleaning the table or repairing the stool. It is important that children strive to take on some of the household chores.

Of course, parents should not burden the child with overwork. You should also not tear the child away from reading, playing, doing non-urgent assignments. Children need to know their labor obligations to the family, but their fulfillment should not be at the expense of health, occupation, or rest.

One of the biggest mistakes parents make with their children is the “favorites” mistake. The “favorites” are well aware of their advantage and frankly use it, contemptuously treating their brothers and sisters. A pet almost up to fifteen years old is considered “small”, he is released from housework, he is released from housework, he is forgiven for what others are punished for, he is protected from diseases, because he is “weak”, and therefore they are especially carefully dressed and wrapped up . Fearing overwork, they seek to free him from school, allow him to miss classes, and most importantly, demand that everyone else also see him as a little one, always yield to him in everything and give up their habits and desires for him.

It is quite obvious that apart from anger, envy and annoyance, such inequality in relation to children brings nothing. At the same time, “unloved” children often strive to use the privileged position of a pet to achieve those goals that they can directly go to. Pet stories have a number of options. So, we know families where the father has one beloved child, the mother has another. Unequal treatment of children grossly violates the most basic principles of education. No less harmful is the difference in the views and demands of the father and mother. The father wants to raise the child in strictness and submission, the mother, on the contrary, spoils the child excessively.

No less evil is the excessive spoiling of children, which leads to promiscuity and selfishness. Most often, we also meet this phenomenon in families with an only child. It becomes more and more difficult every day to satisfy the little master, satiated with pleasures, and the child begins to seek solace in unhealthy entertainments and amusements. He tortures animals, plays pranks, but most of all he practices bullying his family.

Seeing a child constantly dissatisfied and capricious, adults look for the cause of his nervousness in fatigue. They want to save him from an extra load and sometimes go so far as to do the lessons given to him at school for the child. Under any pretext, they are allowed to skip classes and not go to school. Such unreasonable care leads to even greater licentiousness of the child. It destroys the authority of the school and destroys all foundations of discipline.

Is such a child grateful to adults for their work, care and attention, does he appreciate and respect his family? No, he does not appreciate her, just as he does not appreciate expensive toys. Adults only fulfill their duty - this is how he regards the cares of his relatives. And when this boy, having developed mentally, looks soberly at his family, he will be even more unable to respect and love her. If he does not realize all the ugliness of the home education he received, then he will remain a “little son”, whom no one loves at school and who cannot make friends with any of his comrades. As a result, a person cut off from society, deprived of friends and comrades, lonely in life, with a bleak childhood without any aspirations and ideals in his youth, tired and disappointed with life at 16-18 years old, callous egoist and skeptic.

Fortunately, the school, with its healthy comradely relations, with its ebullient educational and social life, most often sharply shakes up such a minion and brings up other qualities in him. However, in this case, the child experiences a sharp breakdown in his relations with his relatives, the difference between school and home comes out even sharper, from which he begins to move away the sooner he gets used to school.

In many families, the child after school is usually left to himself. Short meetings of parents with a child usually take place in caresses and games. The entire educational value of the family, leading a varied working and social life, has been reduced to nothing. Such parents usually explain their inattention to children by excessive employment in industrial and social life. The child is left to himself or to a neighbor - "she will look after him." And what he does is generally of little concern to parents. They are sure that the child is busy with something, somehow playing with someone, probably reading something and walking somewhere. No references to employment in industrial and social work can justify the inattention of parents to the upbringing of children.

Under all conditions, parents together (or in turn) are obliged to allocate at least one hour daily for children. This one hour is of great importance, and parents should carve out it, despite all their busyness. This is their sacred duty. Then ties are established and strengthened, which are the key to a future great friendship between children and parents, so necessary for both, which, over time, parents will need more than children.

Often the cause of a tense atmosphere in the family is unhealthy relationships between adults, especially between parents.

It should be perfectly clear to everyone that children are especially painfully experiencing any, even minor, disagreements between their parents. Many children do not understand. This ignorance of the true causes of parental quarrels often makes children feel even more painfully that one of the parents did something bad, and what exactly is not clear; the other rudely reproaches him - maybe he himself is to blame? Lost in conjectures, children do not know who is right, they feel tension in relations, they see gloomy, distressed faces, they hear irritated, offensive words, and they are having a hard time quarrels between loved ones, relatives.

Of course, in the life of a family, in the life of adults, there are difficulties, there are disputes, questions arise, both very intimate and very disturbing. But be that as it may, children should be spared the role of witnesses and observers of those conflicts that adults sometimes have to endure. With all the difficulties of living conditions, parents do not have the right to resolve their disputes in the presence of children, and even more so with their participation. Children who witness such scenes gradually lose respect for their parents, do not believe their love for each other, and therefore question all their remarks. Usually in such families, children are ironic about any calls for culture, restraint, politeness and other good rules.

Among family conflicts that painfully affect children, divorces occupy a very special place. In order to understand the full depth of bitterness, and sometimes the real drama that a child experiences when a family is destroyed, it is necessary to remember that for a child, his father, mother, brothers, sisters seem to be inextricably linked. From the stories, the child knows that once upon a time, when he was not there yet, his mother and father lived in different places and were not married. Married - means began to live together. Now there are children; and now the whole family - these three - four - five people - in the mind of the child represent one strong whole.

We know how hard it is for children to deal with the death of a loved one. But in these cases, adopting from adults their attitude to the misfortune that has befallen the family, the children look at death as a grief that has fallen on them, in which none of those around them is to blame.

The death of a loved one, no matter how hard it is experienced, is still a natural phenomenon and is gradually smoothed out in the memory of the child. Children hear how they remember the deceased and, as usual, speak well of him.

It is not at all what happens when a father or mother leaves the family themselves. For the first time, the child faces the fact that one whole, which seemed to him indestructible, suddenly fell apart. A father or mother is, it turns out, random people, like any strangers living in an apartment. A father or mother can leave the family in the same way as a housekeeper, like a teacher at school, change families in the same way as they change their place of residence. This in itself is a great discovery that makes the child look at people, at the family in a new way. The child does not dare to ask someone, because, not yet understanding well what is the matter, he feels some great awkwardness, and sometimes shame, which does not allow him, along with other children, to be proud of his father (mother), his work, merit - all that has so far left the subject of children's pride.

There is a huge work of thought hidden from adults over an unsolvable problem: why did this happen? There is no inevitable cause here, it is not some illness or chance that took away the father (mother). No, they are alive, healthy, with all such close features, so deeply their own, and now they suddenly turn out to be strangers. There is a reassessment of the personality of the father (mother), there is a struggle between feelings for the father and mother. This unbearable work for the child's psyche, a feeling of embarrassment for a loved one, some vague feeling of something bad happening to the family, the consciousness that everything around is fragile and unstable, the feeling of losing a loved one, a loved one dramatically changes the whole appearance of the child, violates his usual and calm life, disturbs his appetite and sleep, changes his treatment of his comrades. The child becomes distracted, sad, very quick-tempered, for no apparent reason gets into a fight or bursts into tears, becomes thoughtful and gloomy. But, even more difficult, he often changes his attitude towards the remaining parent.

It is important for us to single out only the elements that are the most essential in a pedagogical sense, which would enable us to understand what is happening in this organ of education, and to outline ways of solving this problem in life.

First of all, we must note in the concept of the family the character of the collective, albeit a relatively small collective. This collective was created on the natural soil of vital connection and is united above all by the main goal of the joint struggle for existence. This goal, of course, is not the only one, but - especially for the mass family - it is the subsoil on which other goals grow. This is the first side of the family, which is essential from a pedagogical point of view. There is no society without the individual, but the individual as a human person is generally conceivable only in society and on the basis of communication. Life in a collective, which opens up the possibility of normal communication with others, is not only a phenomenon arising from the instinct of a social animal, but also an indispensable condition for any education. Education involves the communication and interaction of at least two individuals, the educator and the pupil. Since society is the main means of education, it is quite natural that in the history of mankind, wherever it is possible to talk about education, this mission was carried out by the minimum social unit, the family.

During the first year and in general in the first years of life, caring for a child is one of the most important aspects of ... education. The most powerful engine for the development of feeling during this period is imitation. The best educational environment for a child is gradual communication with the mother, in the event that the mother remains a nurse and nurse for him.

In the development of such a feeling, two points are of the greatest importance, the analysis of which is equally important for our purpose. First of all, in a child who is breastfed by his mother and enjoys her mother's care and care, a strong association is established between the image of the mother and the pleasant feelings that he experiences, satisfying his hunger or getting rid of many other unpleasant sensations due to her departure. The whole act of feeding a child with its accessories, with maternal caress, is one of the highest sources of childish pleasure and one of the strongest stimuli in the development of beginning higher feelings ... from this physiological source of rapprochement between a mother and her child, future feelings of human solidarity and altruism grow. But there is another, much more important side to mothering a child. As you know, motherhood, even in animals, awakens altruistic feelings that animals do not show at all at other times. In a human being, motherhood excites all mental and moral aspects and calls to life all the higher qualities with which this person is endowed. With regard to the strength of feelings of the two parents, a woman occupies the first place, because she is distinguished by an unconditionally higher development of feelings than men. This difference becomes even more noticeable during the period of motherhood; at this time, the philanthropy and disinterestedness of a woman rises to a height barely accessible to a man. And if only the mother remains the nurse and nurse of her child, then his mental and moral development is most assured in constant communication with such a high standard.

Many volitional movements of a child are imitative movements... In the development of feeling, imitation plays the most important role and, perhaps, constitutes the only external source of moral development. If for intellectual development the child organizes games for himself, then nothing of the kind exists for the development of complex forms of feeling. All this shows the really important significance of the presence at the cradle of the child of a being who is seized by the highest human impulses and impulses and therefore can serve as the best tool for developing the child's feelings. Thus, the mother's task is much higher than is commonly understood. If, however, we take into account the importance and significance of feelings in the mental progress of a person, then only then will the role of the mother and the role of the woman as a representative of motherhood be presented in the proper light.

2.2 Typology of families

Typology of families - the distribution of families depending on the existence of features of their socio-demographic composition and functions.

Historical types depending on the nature of the distribution of family responsibilities and leadership:

1) a traditional family (its features are: living together for at least three generations (grandparents, their adult children with spouses, grandchildren); economic dependence of a woman on a man (a man is the owner of property); a clear division of family responsibilities (husband works, wife gives birth and raises children, older children take care of the younger ones, etc.), the head of the family is a man);

2) a non-traditional (exploitative) family (its differences from the traditional family: women work on an equal footing with men (women were involved in social work during the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial one); a woman combines work in production with domestic duties (hence the exploitative nature) ;

3) egalitarian family (family of equals) (distinguished by a fair division of household duties, democratic nature of relations (all important decisions for the family are made by all its members), emotional richness of relations (a sense of love, mutual responsibility for each other, etc.).

Historical types based on the allocation of a function that prevails in family activities:

1) patriarchal family (the main function is economic and economic: joint management of the economy, mainly of an agrarian type, achievement of economic well-being);

2) child-centric family (the most important function is the upbringing of children, preparing them for independent life in modern society);

3) the married family (its main function is the emotional satisfaction of marriage partners). According to researchers, the latter type, which is not yet widespread in society, characterizes the family of the future.

Typologies for various reasons:

1) depending on the composition of the family: nuclear - parents and children; extended - parents, children and other relatives; incomplete - one of the parents is missing;

2) by stage of the life cycle: young family; family with firstborn; family with teenager family "abandoned nest" (when children grow up and create their own families);

3) by social composition: a family of workers; family of new Russians; student family and others.

The modern family typology is based on the presence and number of married couples in it. The simplest classification is:

Nuclear families, including one married couple with minor children or without children;

Extended families that include more than one married couple, or a married couple and other adult relatives;

Incomplete families that do not have a single married couple.

Thus, the presence of a married couple is not an obligatory feature of a family, since a significant part of families does not include married couples. In the modern world, the absolute majority of families - (about 3/4) - are nuclear; however, the share of incomplete families is constantly growing.

It should be noted that although stable marriage couples as the main form of cohabitation apparently developed a very long time ago, nevertheless, in most societies, during many millennia of the late appropriating and early producing economy, the basis of the family structure was not the marriage couple, but the clan. Marriages were also part of the family, but were, as it were, its periphery.

A clan is a social group that has existed for at least several generations, consisting of the direct descendants of a person on the paternal and / or maternal lines, within which marriages are prohibited. The genus has a name, a legendary or real ancestor (“totem”) and symbols of belonging to the genus.

Inheritance of belonging to the genus can occur on the maternal line (matrilineal genus), on the paternal side (patrilineal genus). In patrilineal clans, marriages with relatives on the paternal side are prohibited, in matrilineal families - on the maternal side. Initially, territorial communities were formed on the basis of some sort. The spouses of members of a given genus must necessarily be from another genus. With a matrilineal system of kinship, men left for another community, with a patrilineal system, women.

Many peoples (for example, the Indians of North America in the 19th century, the Slavs in the 5th-6th centuries) used to have large houses, the basis of the population of which were members of the same clan with their spouses. Spouses were not considered full members of the clan, since they belonged to another clan. The population of such houses was a single extended family, including many married couples. However, the main thing in such a family is not the relation of property, as in the modern married family, but the relation of kinship.

It should be noted that the clan is not a biological formation, but a social one, since the prohibition of marriage with relatives on the paternal side did not exclude the combination, for example, with a cousin on the maternal side. The emergence of a clan organization is most likely due to the need to secure property (lands) for a clan group and organize activities for cultivating the land and grazing herds. Genus exogamene - a rule according to which it is forbidden to marry men and women belonging to a given social group.

Endogamy is the rule that all marriages are assumed to occur only within a given social group. Strictly endogamous groups are almost unknown in history. Therefore, endogamy is more of a theoretical abstraction. A more general case is homogamy - preferential marriage within the same social group or category. Endogamy is the extreme case of homogamy. However, the term “endogamy” has been fixed in the literature.

The mentality of the Russian diaspora in the Baltic countries

Since the specific forms of existence of diasporas are very diverse, it is at first glance difficult to determine their typological features. It's actually like this...

Large families (on the example of the Yaroslavl region)

All large families can be divided into three categories: 1) families in which large families are planned (for example, in connection with national traditions, religious precepts, cultural and ideological positions, family traditions) ...

Nation and ethnicity

Depending on the nature of the tasks set and being solved, several types of national movements are being formed in the modern world. The most widely used classification is made by H. Cohn...

The relation of Christian dogmas to the family, marriage, divorce and birth control

The selection of types of families and their classification can be carried out on various grounds: 1) according to the form of marriage: a) monogamous (marriage of one man with one woman); b) polyandry (a woman has several spouses); c) polygyny (marriage of one man with ...

The family as an object of social work. Social protection of childhood and women's interests

In modern psychological and pedagogical literature, there are various typologies of families, but all of them are characterized by the following features: by the number of children: a childless or infertile family, a small family, a large family; Ingredients: Incomplete...

Personality socialization

There are two ways to approach the task of personality characteristics: from the point of view of its structure; in terms of her interaction with others, communication with other people. B table. 3...

social communication

Social communication in the process of its implementation solves three main interrelated tasks: 1) the integration of individuals into social groups and communities ...

All large families can be divided into three categories: - families in which large families are planned (for example, in connection with national traditions, religious prescriptions, cultural and ideological positions, family traditions) ...

Social work with large families

What is meant by the term "large family"? Family law specifically in Russia does not establish which family is large. The main document of the federal level, which determines the social status of a large family ...

The family is one of the main objects of social work. The modern family is going through a difficult stage in evolution - the transition from the traditional model to the new one, and many scientists characterize the current family conditions as a crisis ...

Social work with disadvantaged families

The concept of "dysfunctional family" does not have a clear definition in the scientific literature. Synonyms of this concept are used: - destructive family; - dysfunctional family; - families at risk; - disorganized family. Problems...

Socio-psychological features of a large family

In the literature on psychology, pedagogy, sociology, there are quite a few different classifications of families on various grounds: complete, incomplete, prosperous, problematic, etc. Of the many typologies of the family (psychological ...

Socio-economic problems of the modern family

The structure of the family as an integral system largely depends on the type of family group. Although the family is the oldest and most widespread social group...

Theoretical foundations of social work for the protection of the family

The most common type is the nuclear family (from Latin nucleus - core), consisting of one pair of spouses with or without children. It can be complete and incomplete - with one parent with children. There are about 13% of such families ...

Traditional society and modern society

All the mental and real diversity of societies that existed before and that exist now, sociologists divide into certain types. Several societies, united by similar features, criteria, make up a typology ...