Marriage priorities and patterns of the Russian youth (on the example of mixed marriages)

The sociological study of value priorities of young people in the sphere of marriage and family relations requires understanding of the ongoing demographic processes and their perception by different generations, which is often expressed in the commonplace formula ‘stereotypes and realities’. Unfortunately, problems and perspectives of interethnic marriages, as a rule, fall out of the sociological focus for they require a detailed approach and often simply do not fit into complex questionnaires designed to assess the dominant worldview of various generations. The authors aim to understand whether the mixed marriage issues should be included in the thematically (not) focused questionnaires, and are sure that interethnic marriages and families today reflect most of the ethnic, social and demographic processes in a concentrated form. Thus, the study of this type of marriage practices and relationships can help us understand these processes and uncover their key features and consequences. The article considers mixed marriages, despite all their specific features, the same family unit as monoethnic marriages, so sociological analysis of mixed marriages is unlikely to be radically different from the study of ‘traditional’ marriages, although should take into account sensitivity of ethnic issues. The authors summarize interpretations of the concept ‘family’ in interdisciplinary perspective and sociological tradition; based on actually very few studies of interethnic marriages and the results of their own survey, the authors identify key reasons and problems of mixed marriages, their types and perceptions in contemporary Russia.