Marital Decline in the Asian North of Russia and Generational Transition of Family Values

The article discusses some questions of marital behavior of the population in the Asian North of the Russian Federation with the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) as an example. This region is scarcely populated, yet it is the largest in the country by the occupied territory. The analysis of marital behavior revealed that on the background of some decrease in the number of marriages in the 1990s and marriage market decline, the number of divorces was growing. The attitude of the population towards the main circumstances of organizing one’s private life in a marriage is shown on the materials of a sociological and demographic survey. The authors reveal the differences in the views of representatives of different generations on marriage, its forms, marriage union basic principles, causes of conflicts in a marriage and divorces. Regardless of the marital status or presence of children, there is general agreement between the respondents that a conflict situation in a marriage is caused by a complex of reasons, the impact of which, in many cases, takes the form of a chain reaction. One central problem gives birth to a chain of discord that eventually shows the vulnerability of existing relations. The authors conclude that emergence and impact of conflictogenic factors on marital stability are the result of change of the place of marriage in the hierarchy of an individual’s life values in terms of modernization of demographic behavior as a whole.


Introduction
The transformation processes in the political and economic arrangement and social system of Russia brought the problems of population's marital behavior into a new spotlight.The complexity of marital behavior analysis stems from its nature; this behavior is biosocial and accumulates, as such, all possible forms of relations between a man and a woman, relations of a married couple with the society, as well as mutual influence between the family and the state.It is precisely in the family and marriage that continuation of generations takes place, and this is what determines their significance for the society (Panteleeva, 1994;Volkov & Matskovsky, 1994).
A stable marriage guarantees a higher level of mutual understanding between the spouses; the spouses generally tend to see each other as mutually complementing personalities, a source of enrichment and balance of their family world, not as rivals in the struggle for power.Therefore, stable marriages and families are a more advanced type of a primary social organization (Gukova, 1997).However, some circumstances destabilizing the marriage union emerge at various stages of a family life cycle.
By the present time the family structure of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic population combines the features of a modern (European) and a traditional (patriarchal) models of families (Barashkova, 2009).Around 90% of the population live in the families of one or another quantitative and qualitative composition (The Number and Composition of Households in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), 2013).Continuation of generations is the most important function that belongs exclusively to the family.However, in the age of industrialization, an individual's striving for procreation has not biological, social nature (Zvereva, Veselkova, & Elizarov, 2004), changing in time in accordance with the main life goals of the spouses, but not of the woman only.Limitation of the number of children in families is also determined by unstable marital relations, threat of a marital dissolution, and by divorce itself, which is regarded as a major destructive factor of the family demographic development.The scope of this article does not include such stress factors of a family life as disease, or death of some family members; worries related to a housing problem resolution; issues of unemployment and finding a job; concerns of family members addressing credit institutions, etc.
The analysis of opinions will allow the authors to reveal some existing conflictogenic factors and evaluate their impact on marital stability.It is suggested that those conditions of the population's marital behavior, which are from the very beginning contradictory by their nature, will under certain circumstances cause a clash of individuals' ideas regarding the marriage value, organization of life in marriage, responsibilities and rights of each spouse, as well as provoke a discord in the spouses' preferences, needs, interests, and mentality.The conflicts between the spouses can also be conditioned by the very demographic structure of the family, its quantitative and qualitative composition, joint cohabitation of several adult generations (Vdovina, 2005), their lifestyle, views, and habits.

Materials and Methods
A complex analysis of marriage behavior was conducted for the period from 1980 to 2013.The choice of this time period was determined by the following considerations.First, it was the time of radical changes in the socio-economic and political arrangement of Russia and its regions that affected its demographic processes as well.Second, there is no comprehensive research covering the region under study and our work partly fills this gap.
The study was conducted with the use of quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis.The authors calculated the demographic rates of marriage, divorce, and marital stability according to the statistical records of the population and demographic processes.A comparative analysis of divorce rates for the conventional generations of parents and children was conducted based on the data of the All-Union Population Census 1989, and the All-Russia Population Census 2010.
The use of statistical data alone is insufficient for a proper assessment of the dynamics of marital behavior processes and understanding their internal mechanisms.The sociological and demographic surveys serve as an important additional source of information on the population's marital behavior.The analysis of the place of marriage in the hierarchy of life values of the population, causes of conflict in families, and the attitudes towards divorce as a way out of the conflict is based on the results of focused group interviews and a social survey conducted by the authors in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
A focused interview is a qualitative method of gathering sociological information through focused discussions with a specially selected group on a particular issue (Rotman, Danilov, & Novikova, 2001).In order to conduct focused interviews we singled out five basic types of focus groups that were of our interest in terms of the peculiarities of family lives and relationships.The "Standard Family" group (I) included members of two-parent families with children, both officially married and living in a common-law marriage.The second group was called "One-Parent Family" (II) and combined the respondents with children, who were never married, divorced or widowed.Multiple children families (III) represented the third group; it included two-parent families with three or more children.The fourth group consisted of youth (IV); it brought together teenagers, high school students and undergraduate students of higher or specialized secondary educational institutions.The fifth focus group consisted of single (not married) respondents (V).
The geography of the focused interview was represented by the capital of Yakutia -the city of Yakutsk, its industrial center -the city of Pokrovsk, and an administrative center of a rural district -the village of Namtsy.Three groups (I-III) were examined both in the city of Pokrovsk and in the village of Namtsy, while in the city of Yakutsk the study involved all the five groups (I-V).The total number of the focused interview participants was 97 people.
The totality of the questionnaire survey respondents was formed according to the purposive sampling method (Sampling, 1989).For this purpose we selected the representatives of indigenous peoples of reproductive age having different marital and family status, different educational and professional level.The total number of survey participants is 468 people living in administrative centers, industrial cities or urban settlements, as well as in typical rural settlements.Fifty one and nine tenth percent of the respondents are officially married, 16.5% live in a common-law marriage, 17.7% have never been married, while the percentage of divorced respondents constituted 9.6%, the widowed -3.4%, and around 1% of the respondents did not indicate their marital status.The respondents from two-parent families accounted for 65.8%.Among the survey participants, 75.6% have children, of whom 31.6% have one child, 29.7% have two children, 8.5% -three children, 3.2% -four children, and 2.6% have five or more children.On these grounds, the aggregate sample is representative and, overall, reflects the population structure of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

Basic Trends in Marital Behavior of the Population
The study of marital behavior of the population in Yakutia has shown that a sufficiently high and stable number of official marriages contracted in the 1980s (the peak was registered in 1987 and 1989: 12.070 and 12.132, respectively) dramatically dropped in the first half of the 1990s.Later on (in the 2000s) even the very nature of the process changed.These changes affected the dynamics of the overall marriage rate having a wave-like decreasing slope (Figure 1).
First-time marriages dominate among those who get married, the age of Yakut women at the time of their first marriage is on the verge of a threshold proposed by J. Hajnal for the late European-type marriage (23-24 years old) (Hajnal, 1965).One of the most revealing characteristics of the divorce rate process is a marital stability rate, which shows the number of divorces per 100 registered marriages.We can trace the territorial differentiation of this indicator (Figure 2).In the rural areas of the Republic, marriages are traditionally more stable in comparison with the urban areas.At the same time there is a clear trend towards the increase of rural marriages instability, thus the number of divorces per 100 marriages in the period under review has increased from 16.1 to 47.8.As a consequence, the existing gap in the indicator of urban and rural marital stability has narrowed.
A comparative analysis of the population marital structure based on Population Censuses data for 1989 (Results of the All-Union Census as of January 12, 1989January 12, , 1990) ) and for 2010 (Age and Gender Composition and Marital Status in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), 2012), showed the situation in two demographic generations: in the conventional generations of parents and children.The research has revealed some gender differences in the indicators and a decrease in the importance of marriage institution for the generation of children.The increase in the number of divorced and separated individuals in the generation of children turned out to be noticeably higher in comparison with the generation of parents.For example, in 2010 a share of divorced individuals was 1.2 times higher for the generation of sons and 1.5 times higher for the generation of daughters.Moreover, the largest discrepancies in the preservation of marriage were observed in polar age groups (under 20 years of age and 70 years of age and older) (Figure 3).The magnitude of this differentiation was probably determined by a change in the matrimonial attitudes in each of the generations.

Place of Marriage in the Hierarchy of Life Values
In the opinion of the focused interview participants, a positive moment of marriage consists in the fact that marriage is a family foundation, a guarantee of the "productive life" of the family.Marriage is necessary for both men and women, as "a person feels more confident, safer," he or she has "a warm feeling of security, of being needed to someone."This is also, what mothers with many children and even teenagers believe in.A special significance of the lawful matrimony and its impact on the upbringing of children were emphasized in almost all focus groups.It is important that the child knows "what mother and father are," "feel like a full-fledged member of the family and society," 'can rely on both the mother and the father.""The child is not a toy, he or she should be brought up properly, and the role of man in such upbringing is enormous, especially when it comes to the upbringing of sons."In reality though, "up to 80% of child-rearing lies on the woman," as is noted not only by the representatives of families with many children, but also by single individuals.Can this be the cause of many disagreements in the family?
The respondents also expressed their views that one's carrier, achievement of financial and material well-being, education, getting specialty and advanced training, occupies today the first place, and "only after that come family and marriage".And this mindset is conditioned not only by the imperatives of our time, but also by the fact that "now they promote the priority of well-being, very good living conditions." In the course of the survey, the respondents made a quantitative assessment of the marriage value in the hierarchy of their life preferences, which emerges from the respondents' perception of some separate elements of marriage.In the opinion of the survey participants, a positive side of marriage lies in the possibility "to continuously have a person who is close to you in spirit" (mean evaluation -4.6 points).The second place in terms of importance is occupied by the following answer: "you find love and cordiality in the family" (4.4 points).Married women (from older age groups) are inclined to believe so more often than others, while overall, 54.9% of the respondents rated this factor with the highest score -5 points.Family and marriage "give a sense of security and confidence" -this factor is third in the ranking of evaluations of positive aspects as regards marriage and family (4.3 points).The lowest score was given to the answer "I do not see any benefit in marriage" (2.2 points).It is noteworthy that the material benefits of marriage lie in the background, while the foreground is occupied by the sensual and emotional moments.For example, such response option as "material benefits from joint householding" received 3.9 points, the option "gives material rights in case of a possible divorce" -2.4 points.
When ranking the most important life values of the respondents we obtain different results (

Causes of Conflicts in Families
The distribution of the respondents' views on the main causes of family conflicts, depending on the family type is shown in Figure 4.According to the representatives of two-parent and single-parent simple families, two-parent complex families with children, and single respondents living with relatives, the main reason for conflicts has become alcohol abuse of one of the adult family members.
The same problem is also highly relevant for other respondents who have no children.Financial difficulties as a cause of conflicts were more often indicated by the respondents from single-parent and other families with children.
In the course of the focused group interviews the leading role in family conflicts was also attributed to alcoholism, excessive alcohol abuse of one of the spouses.When the question "Why do they drink?" was asked, the respondents gave such answers as they drink everywhere; everybody drinks; they always drink: life has become difficult, and the people, especially men, are not able to resist difficulties.The respondents referred to the lack of jobs, earnings as a cause of heavy drinking, particularly in the rural areas, and noted with surprise that "families of alcohol abuse people live in misery, but they always find money on booze."The attitude towards such asocial behavior is primarily critical: the heavy drinking man's psyche is already spoilt; it is very difficult to live with him, over time, the couple starts having sexual problems as well.But sometimes they also expressed sympathy: "He began with one glass, then fell into the habit; he cannot stop, and nobody is waiting for him at home, nobody is happy to see him." Adultery was also named among the causes of conflict, and according to the group interview participants, it inevitably leads to divorce.It is believed that adultery in the lawful matrimony, where "the husband is a property," is unacceptable.Disagreement when choosing the ways of spending leisure is also recognized as a cause of conflicts.Often conflicts arise because of a financial situation in the family, with all the consequent chain of mutual discontent and accusations.When a husband or a wife gives little time to household chores, they often face disagreement about the distribution of family responsibilities.
The focus group participants noted that "people are not robots" and any person becomes nervous in the situations when some of the existing problems are solved, while others remain in the background, but they tend to come forward after a while, it is difficult to keep emotions in this case.Discord in the family is possible because of misunderstanding, immoral behavior of men, their disrespectful attitude towards women.The female participants of the focused interview voiced the following position: "The man must yield to the woman, while she is not obliged to endure."The divorced women who are city dwellers believe that it is better to live peacefully alone with the child than to have the child witnessing conflicts between parents.In the meantime married women call for enduring for the sake of children, for the sake of status.Consciously enduring for children's sake is probably a manifestation of duty, responsibility, a person's civic position evoking respect.And tolerating a promiscuous, alcohol abuse spouse for the sake of a married woman status is more likely a position of an individual living within the framework of a traditional norm of marital and family relations.
The male heads of families were of the opinion that one should somehow make concessions; try to smooth a conflict situation.A woman should be wise knowing that "anyway, the final word always rests with the husband," -this is the opinion of the heads of large and two-parent urban families.It is generally acknowledged that the couples need to listen carefully to each other, to negotiate, to trust each other, develop together, and have common dreams: "everything is possible if there is mutual understanding and love, but not indifference." The focused interview participants named heavy drinking and alcoholism, adultery, repression of emotions, the husband's headship in the family as causes of conflicts in the family.These circumstances, together with some problems in relationships with parents, irritation by the fact that one of the spouses did better in their professional activities or achieved more public recognition, differences in questions of education and upbringing Later, in court, the accumulation of mutual discontent is worded as a socially approved reason for divorce: "the incompatibility of characters" (Sinelnikov, 1992).

Divorce as a Way Out of Conflict Situation
The questionnaire survey attempted to clarify the respondents' perception of divorce as a possible way of solving family problems.In addition to the above, the focus was made on identifying the differences in attitudes between different generations; for example, the opinion of 15-19 year olds was conventionally "set against" that of the 35-39 year olds (Figure 5).These generations represent families at different stages of the family life cycle.The authors have revealed some differences in their views.The young families at the stage of formation turned out to be more opinionated and more often consider divorce the best way out.The members of mature families have predominantly expressed the view that divorce "is not the best, but an acceptable way out."The families close to the end of the reproductive cycle (45-49 year olds) believe that divorce is possible only in extreme cases.

Figure 5. Attitude of different generation representatives towards divorce
The presence of children changed the attitude towards divorce in all groups of respondents regardless of their marital status.Thus, divorce as the best way to resolve family problems has been chosen by 44.5% of childless respondents and only by 33.4% of respondents with children.The respondents with children considered more reasonable the answer option that divorce "is not the best, but an acceptable way out" (36.3%).Regardless of the presence of children, those respondents who have never been married apparently are not prone to make any effort for preserving one's marriage (Table 2).

Discussion
The number of individuals that get married determine the wave-like dynamics of general marriage and divorce rates.The generations with relatively numerous potential grooms and brides (born in the 1980s) were succeeded with the generations of few individuals who were born in the 1990s, when a widespread decrease of the population birthrate was observed (Sukneva, 2010).This factor largely influenced the dynamics of the marriage cohort number in the urban settlements of the Republic.In the rural areas, the influence of disparities in the numbers of potential brides and grooms turned out to have a bigger significance.In addition, the transformation of marital behavior of the population should be viewed as a result of changes in the system of the population's life values that followed in response to some radical reforms in the society.These changes can be clearly traced in the marital stability rate dynamics.Migratory movements also influenced the general character of marriage and divorce rates.The increase in the migration of rural population contributes to the instability of marriages in rural areas of the Republic.
On the background of the population nuptiality reduction in the Republic, some growth of marriage instability is observed in every new generation, especially in the rural areas where before the 1960s there were practically no cases of marriage dissolution registered (Sukneva & Barashkova, 2013).The changes taking place in the marital behavior are confirmed by the trend towards the increase in the number of divorced and separated individuals in the generations of children compared to those of parents.
The initially low place of marriage and family in the hierarchy of the population's life values can be considered one of the conflictogenic factors in the organization of one's life in marriage.The research has revealed realization of the instability of relations, unpredictability of partners' further behavior, tacit acceptance of double standards as regards the requirements to the man and the woman in marriage and family.
The instability of basic binding principles in the modern marriage is visible in the discord over the evaluation of marriage as a necessity or a need.According to the female participants interviewed, men often get married believing that "it is time to find a wife; the only thing that matters is presence of some feelings."At the same time, women are more likely to perceive marriage as a need, an integral part of a woman's destiny, while the external attributes of marriage are equally important to them: a mark in one's passport, a wedding ring.
A social stereotype that a husband has the right to behave in a marriage as if he was a guest -which is supported even by mothers with many children (and the Yakuts have a corresponding saying) is in deep conflict with the ideas of a modern self-sufficient woman about the image of a husband, and the place of man in the family.
The influence of stereotypes is manifested in the opinion that "only in marriage a woman can fulfill herself as a woman," and taking into account modern realities, they add "at least for a while."This view demonstrates the realization of marriage vulnerability, of the fact that this relationship can turn out very short, it is not supported by duty or commitments.The lawful matrimony means "the status for women in the first place," as many female participants of the survey believe.Single young men express a different point of view.They are confident that now family is going through an obvious crisis, especially in the metropolitan areas, where "people live all alone and feel lonely in the cities with a million-plus population."It happens because it is now possible to find self-actualization without participating in any social units, today people "do not need to form a family, or continue their kind." Never married women of younger age with the reasoning that marriage is a common social program, a tight pattern imposed on an individual, showed a kind of generational solidarity.They note, that after reaching a certain age and social status, many young women "begin to run around and bustle," take irresponsible steps, marry hastily, struggling to execute this program, and apparently not realizing that it is outdated.In the statements of young people, we find a fundamentally different view of marriage and family from the one of the older generation, while the irresponsible steps mentioned by them are seen as a reason for the instability of modern marriages.
Although the attitude of society towards divorced women is rather democratic, a married woman has a higher status in the society.Therefore, one must strive to live in a marriage with a chosen person "till the end of life," this is the opinion of the interview participants aged 40 and older, although they admit the fragility of relations in the young couples and so their statements have some anxiety, a sense of threat for the future.Moreover, these concerns of the older respondents gradually grow in almost every (urban, rural) focus group, sometimes even turning into a kind of collective opinion of the peers.
Opposite opinions have been expressed by the young participants of focused interviews.In their view, family is a fragile institution and marital stability is questioned by them.Divorce is not seen by the youth as something negative or blameworthy; it is rather viewed as a certain change in one's life, an indicator of women's emancipation, the evidence that some values have changed under the influence of liberal views on marriage and family, politics, or information technologies.The young respondents also recognize the existence of a large number of people, who are not ready for marriage.The following opinions are found as well: "if there are no common children, separation is a better alternative to living in a stressful situation," then there is a chance to remarry, and build a new family.This view testifies to the existing need in marriage.
The social survey participants were sincere in expressing their opinions, defending their point of view based on their personal experience, their own ideas, attitudes, and preferences.Hence comes the objective differentiation of their opinions depending on their age, marital status, family types and presence of children.
It is generally accepted that a stressful event -specifically, divorce -reduces the achieved level of stability in a family (Kharchev & Matskovsky, 1978;Golod, 1984;Sinelnikov, 1997;Golod, 2008).Judging by the opinions prevailing in the survey, the situation has changed, and divorce is no longer the stress factor it was before.However, as a result of divorce, the family demographic type is changing; in general, the family function is being modified, and the roles of each of the family members are being redistributed (Wood, Repetti, & Roesch, 2004).The increase in the number and share of single-parent families in the family composition of the population as a result of spouses' divorce leads to enhanced demographic transformations, and reduction of the demographic potential of Russia's Asian North.
It was found that emergence and impact of conflictogenic factors on marital stability are a result of a change in the place that marriage occupies in the hierarchy of an individual's life values within the framework of the demographic behavior modernization process as a whole (Van de Kaa, 1987;Lesthaeghe & Van de Kaa, 1986;Vishnevskiy, 2006).

Conclusions
The questionnaire survey and focus group interviews were aimed at studying the attitudes of participants towards the values of family and marriage, causes of conflict in the family.This topic, very sensitive for the northern society, provoked active discussion in almost all focus groups.
In certain family life circumstances, the population's marital behavior conditions that are from the very beginning contradictory by their nature cause a clash of individuals' ideas about the value of marriage.Divorce is a result of non-performance of some family, marital duties, encroachments on the rights of one of the spouses (a parent), a discord in their preferences, needs, and interests.By its impact on the former spouses and children's psyche, divorce is without a doubt the strongest stress factor.
Overall, it can be concluded that the influence of conflictogenic factors on marital stability is determined by the place that marriage occupies in the hierarchy of life values of an individual.Today, not only the importance of marriage has changed, but also the people's ideas about the things that hold it together.Apparently, marriages based on love and affection are not as strong as those based on the sense of duty, responsibility, and a strict control on the part of society.A single thing, for example, alcohol abuse of one of the spouses or the incompatibility of characters, does not cause a conflict situation in a marriage but it is a result of a complex of causes, whose impact in many cases takes the form of a chain reaction.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The dynamics of overall marriage and divorce rates, for the years of 1980-2013

Figure 3 .
Figure 3.The ratio of the number of divorced and separated individuals in the generation of children (2010) to the generation of parents (1989), by gender and age groups, number of times

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Distribution of the respondents' views on the causes of family conflicts depending on the family demographic type and presence of children

Table 1 .
Table. 1).Here, for all the survey participants the importance of marriage is much lower than the importance of raising a child, material well-being, having one's own comfortable modern dwelling.The value of marriage competes with such values as "success, promotion at work," "education, continuous advanced training," and "interesting leisure."Average evaluation of life values depending on the respondent marital status (on a 5-point scale)

Table 2 .
Distribution of respondent opinions about divorce depending on their marital status and presence (or absence) of children (100% on the column)