Marriage and Family Relations

Mar­riage and fam­i­ly rela­tions are a very com­plex struc­ture of mod­ern soci­ety. Accord­ing to offi­cial sta­tis­tics, more than half of reg­is­tered mar­riages break up. It is dif­fi­cult to name cer­tain prob­lems of fam­i­ly and mar­riage rela­tions, because, as you know, every­one has their own rea­son for dis­cord.

Types of marriage and family relations

Depend­ing on what kind of fam­i­ly and mar­riage rela­tions are estab­lished between the new­ly­weds, one can also judge how the fam­i­ly will devel­op, how long peo­ple will live togeth­er. Today, the word “divorce” is no longer scary, as it used to be, and more and more peo­ple are remar­ry­ing.

So, con­sid­er what types of rela­tion­ships in the fam­i­ly are:

one. By fam­i­ly back­ground:

• new­ly­weds — peo­ple who are in eupho­ria after the­and do not believe that they can face prob­lems;
• a young fam­i­ly — peo­ple who have already real­ized that this love is not enough, they still need care, mutu­al under­stand­ing and trust;
• fam­i­ly expect­ing a child — very seri­ous changes in rela­tion­ships, the devel­op­ment of a new way of life;
• mid­dle-aged fam­i­ly (10 years togeth­er) — the emer­gence of rou­tine, con­flicts, it is nec­es­sary to recon­sid­er the way of life and add new inter­ests to it;
• fam­i­ly of old­er mar­i­tal age — com­mon inter­ests, the abil­i­ty to nego­ti­ate come to the fore;
• a fam­i­ly of advanced mar­i­tal age (with the advent of grand­chil­dren) — a breath of new air, inter­est in grand­chil­dren.

2. By num­ber of chil­dren:

• child­less (16% of fam­i­lies);
• one-child (50% of fam­i­lies);
• small chil­dren (1–2 chil­dren);
• large fam­i­lies (3 or more chil­dren, divorce is almost exclud­ed).

3. The qual­i­ty of rela­tion­ships in the fam­i­ly:

• sus­tain­able;
• pros­per­ous;
• con­flict;
• prob­lem­at­ic;
• social­ly dis­ad­van­taged.

In fact, fam­i­lies can be clas­si­fied accord­ing to an infi­nite num­ber of fea­tures. After all, in addi­tion to fam­i­lies where chil­dren are raised by mom and dad, there are sin­gle-par­ent fam­i­lies where one of the par­ents is miss­ing. Do not for­get that the devel­op­ment of fam­i­ly and mar­riage rela­tions is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of both spous­es.

As a rule, the cri­sis of fam­i­ly and mar­riage rela­tions occurs at cer­tain inter­vals: 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, 10 years, 20 years and then every 10 years. To date, the fol­low­ing fac­tors are con­sid­ered to sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase the like­li­hood of divorce:

• divorce or con­flict between the par­ents of one of the spous­es (or both);
• cohab­i­ta­tion in the liv­ing space of the par­ents with them;
• inter­ven­tion of par­ents in the rela­tion­ship of spous­es;
• the use of alco­hol and drugs by spous­es or one of them;
• adul­tery in mar­riage, lack of trust;
• any bad addic­tions of one or both of the spous­es (gam­bling, excite­ment, etc.);
• forced sep­a­ra­tion of spous­es (busi­ness trips, shift work, etc.);
• high pro­fes­sion­al employ­ment of women (this is called the “bica­reer fam­i­ly”);
• too ear­ly or too late age of mar­riage;
• pre­mar­i­tal preg­nan­cy (this is called “stim­u­lat­ed” mar­riages);
• the birth of a child in the first 1–2 years of mar­riage;

• high con­flict of both spous­es;
• infer­til­i­ty, inabil­i­ty to have chil­dren of one of the spous­es;
• over­load or phys­i­cal exhaus­tion due to work or study;
• self­ish­ness of one or both spous­es;
• unre­al­is­tic expec­ta­tions.

In order to main­tain rela­tion­ships, it is worth dis­cussing them: assign­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties, estab­lish­ing “pos­si­ble” and “impos­si­ble”, and most impor­tant­ly, not involv­ing oth­er peo­ple in them. It is believed that as soon as the prob­lems in the fam­i­ly become pub­lic, the fam­i­ly begins to fall apart at an accel­er­at­ed pace.