Family values: youth’s attitudes vs older generation

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Introduction
The Strategy for State Cultural Policy for the Period up to 2030 records the weakening of the role of the family and family relations in the system of value orientations of Russian Federation citizens, caused by the breakdown of stable social ties (friendly, family, neighborly), the growth of individualism and the number of divorces, which does not contribute to the “transmission from generation to generation of traditional Russian values ​​and norms, traditions and customs, and disrupts previously stable intergenerational ties in matters of the transmission of cultural, ethnic traditions and knowledge...” (On the Strategy of State Cultural Policy for the Period up to 2030 2024).
In this regard, the problem of continuity of the younger and older generations in modern Russian society arises, by which we mean a social phenomenon in the “tradition – innovation” system; a mechanism for transmitting collective social experience and culture to new generations through social institutions, including a system of values, the process of communication and interactions at the personal, professional, and societal levels.
In this regard, the research questions arise: Are young people’s ideas about family, marriage, children, marital and parent-child relationships, as well as relationships with grandparents the same in terms of  the meanings that older generations ascribed to them? Do people of different generations speak the “same language” or, under the influence of the new reality, familiar, “traditional” concepts acquire a new meaning, changing the very system of family relationships? Can strong differentiation in the value system lead to an aggravation of the destabilization of society, age discrimination, and a generations conflict?
Literature review
At present, various processes occurring in the social institution of the family, in the methodology of Russian sociological science lie in the plane of two main research paradigms: crisis (A.I. Antonov, V.N. Arkhangelsky, V.A. Borisov, V.M. Medkov, 
A.B. Sinelnikov) and modernization (A.G. Vishnevsky, O.A. Voronina, S.I. Golod, S.G. Groman, B.F. Kvasha, M.S. Matskovsky, E.R. Smirnova-Yarskaya), which, on the one hand, without a clear evidence base, are considered rather as a confrontation between two irreconcilable ideologies, which forces researchers in the field of family studies, on the one hand, to look for new methodological foundations that contribute to the search for the causes of “changes in the family in modern conditions and contribute to the development of family policy measures aimed at supporting it” (Sosnovckya 2018, p.169), on the other, to fill the vacuum of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the family in changing conditions, since the old ones no longer meet the new requirements of the time, continuing to remain in the mainstream of social functionalism. Foreign researchers point to two main paradigms in the study of intergenerational relations: a constantly increasing gap between generations (M. Mead, S.N. Parkinson) and a pendulum nature, suggesting alternation of periods of conflict and continuity (X. Ortega- y- Gasset, L. Feuer).
Attempts to overcome the framework of the socio-functional approach to examining the processes occurring in the modern family institution were made by L.V. Kartseva (Kartseva 2003) (subject-centric approach focusing on the loss of formal institutional features by the family and the strengthening of informal ones); A.V. Vereshchagina (Vereshchagina 2009) (neo-institutional approach emphasizing the importance of the quality of family relations underlying the model of an egalitarian family characteristic of modern society; the balance of formal, informal and personal factors); O.I. Volzhina (Volzhina 2002) (axiological approach allowing to study the value attitude towards the family in the context of social changes); A.R. Mikheeva (Mikheeva 2012) and S.A. Ilyinykh (Ilyinykh 2014) (sociocultural field model). However, the presented approaches only partially allow to go beyond the boundaries of the methodology of structural functionalism in its Soviet modification, which should be supplemented by a new methodological base.
In modern sociology, the problem of intergenerational interactions has not been sufficiently studied; the concept of institutional changes requires supplementing with new scientific data. The emergence of theoretical and methodological approaches put forward by Russian scientists (K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, B.G. Ananyev, T.A. Barysheva, M.E. Elyutina, V.D. Shapiro) made it possible to make significant progress in the field of studying the life activities, developmental characteristics, capabilities and limitations of old people, which formed the basis for new scientific developments in gerontology, geriatrics, psychology and sociology of aging. In turn, modern studies on intergenerational connections written by S. Arber (Arber 2016), T.A. Gurko (Gurko 2020), T.K. Rostovskaya, O.V. Kuchmaeva (Rostovskaya and Kuchmaeva 2020), S.A. Sudyin (Sudyin et. al 2018), V.I. Sharin, I. A. Kulkova (Sharin and Kulkova 2019) shed light on important points concerning the movement of financial flows between generations of the family (ascending/descending); the nature of mutual assistance, depending on gender, income, education, place of residence of representatives of different generations; attitudes towards raising grandchildren, and others.

Materials and methods
The study is based on the theory of generations and the model of intergenerational solidarity by V. Bengtson and E. Achenbaum, the essence of which lies in the description of generational relationships from the position of solidarity (financial, material, emotional support and affection) and conflict (clash of interests; different values ​​and meanings). According to the scientist, it is the older generation that is the "backbone" of the family, restraining its disintegration and the aggravation of intergenerational relations.
The research aimed to study the spectrum of family values ​​from the perspective of representatives of the generations of youth (18-35 years) and senior citizens (60+) based on a qualitative methodology. In July-August 2024, 18 in-depth interviews were conducted with respondents of both sexes (9 in each age group) using one questionnaire for subsequent comparative analysis of the results. The transcribed interviews were subjected to content analysis. The respondents were selected using the snowball method, with age and generational background as the main criteria.
The interview guide included five blocks reflecting respondents' opinions on the main provisions of family, marital and intergenerational relations: 1. Marriage (official/unofficial). 2. Gender roles in the family (headship in the family; distribution of household responsibilities between spouses/partners). 3. Economic status (income and its redistribution between family members; components of the family budget). 4. Children (number and time of birth) 5. Divorce (attitude and reasons for divorce; domestic violence). 5. Digital technologies (capabilities of using digital services, platforms, chats and messengers).

Results
Individual values ​​represent an internalized layer of national culture, consciously or unconsciously assimilated in the process of socialization, under the influence of training, education, accumulation of life and social experience, observation, communication and interactions with other people.
The attitude towards official marriage among young people and the older generation does not have significant differences. Both age groups consider the creation of a family, the search for a loved one who is able to show love, care and support to be an important step on the path to adulthood. In relation to cohabitation (unofficial marriage), the opinion of respondents differs: young people actively speak out for this form of relationship, motivating it with the opportunity to test their feelings, look at their partner in everyday life, in various, including problematic or crisis situations; check sexual compatibility; spend leisure time together; share the financial burden of renting housing, food costs, paying for housing and communal services and other current expenses; receive various types of assistance from both parental families at once.
Representatives of the older generation generally do not express harsh, negative criticism of cohabitation, but rather express a humble position based on the prevalence of this phenomenon and the lack of stigma (“What will people say?”). In 2020, 16 % of respondents under the age of 34 were in an unofficial marriage (All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion 2020). At the same time, 56 % of young people, as well as representatives of the older generation, do not consider these relationships to be marriage; however, when children are born, 71 % of surveyed Russians express the opinion that they need to be legally registered (All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion 2018).
Thus, both age groups express a loyal attitude towards cohabitation before marriage: from the point of view of young people, this is seen as the acquisition of primary experience of family life, with its advantages and disadvantages, from the point of view of older generations is an opportunity to avoid pointless expenses on organizing a wedding ceremony with a high risk of divorce for the newlyweds.
Providing various types of assistance (financial, material, emotional) from one generation to another plays an important role in the context of strengthening intergenerational family ties. Young people indicate receiving funds not only from their parents, but also from their grandparents, mostly from grandmothers, who transfer their pensions to their grandchildren's bank cards to provide them with additional financial support during their studies, living in another city, to buy things or pay for education or medical services.
Despite their low incomes, older adults try to allocate even small amounts of money to their grandchildren, leaving a fixed amount for monthly expenses on housing and communal services, a minimum set of products and medicines. Unlike older people living alone, elderly couples have a large amount of resources, whose budget usually consists of two pension payments, as well as a possible additional source of income (renting out real estate; selling their own agricultural products; income from bank deposits). In the case of the impossibility to provide financial assistance, grandparents living in rural areas provide their children and grandchildren with their own agricultural products (fruits, vegetables, meat). Younger family members receive more assistance from their grandparents than they provide it themselves, of course, taking into account the age and health of the latter, but when older people reach aged 75 the situation becomes the opposite.
In addition, grandparents, especially grandmothers, act as indispensable assistants in the care, supervision and upbringing of grandchildren and great-grandchildren of different ages, given the high workload of their own adult children and grandchildren because of the high prices for the educational  and childcare services, the negative attitude of employers towards paying sick leave for child care in the conditions of fierce competition in the labor market, as well as the parents’ labor or education migration, when the eldest woman in the family has to play the role of a surrogate mother in raising children (Galindabaeva 2014).
At the same time, modern women of retirement age, especially urban ones, are moving away from the stereotype of a "grandmother with pies", whose destiny is to grow old, do housework and raise grandchildren. At present, many of them continue to work, financially help adult children and grandchildren, attend sports, cultural and educational events, arrange their personal lives, and therefore are ready to only occasionally provide assistance in raising grandchildren, giving them experience and knowledge. In turn, young people note helping their grandparents with housework, making things around the house (washing floors, windows, hanging curtains, doing minor repairs); adult children buy household appliances (automatic washing machines, dishwashers, electric kettles, etc.) to make housework easier for their older relatives.
At the same time, the issue of several generations living together in one living space is not approved by either young people or the elderly: both groups prefer “closeness at a distance,” which implies separate living and autonomy with close interaction, including the use of modern telecommunications.
With regard to the distribution of responsibilities and the performance of gender roles, there are clearly expressed divergent trends among different generations: older people are more inclined to perform traditionally prescribed gender roles: the wife is responsible for the cleanliness and comfort of the house, cooks food, takes care of her husband and children, which requires her to perform numerous daily duties, while the husband does housework from time to time or as needed and, as a rule, rarely and minimally participates in daily household chores, devoting his leisure time to activities in the garage, hunting and fishing trips, and meeting with friends. On the contrary, young people are more inclined to expand the range of gender roles, delegating and distributing household responsibilities among themselves, citing equality of rights, employment outside the home for both men and women, joint contribution of income to the family budget, high workload and lack of time. Young men demonstrate greater willingness to voluntarily provide assistance in housekeeping, care and upbringing of children, and to spend leisure time more often with their family.
Filling the family budget and planning expenses in families of different generations has its own nuances: most older couples point to several scenarios for distributing funds: fist, the existence of a joint budget, when regardless of the income level of both spouses (and the husband, as a rule, received a large salary); second, the money was put in one place and could be spent by both spouses as needed, on current expenses and on large purchases; third, the husband gave all the money to his wife, leaving himself a “stash” for small expenses; four, less often, the wife gave money to her husband, and he allocated funds for her to buy food and other expenses.
Young spouses/partners tend to detail their individual income and expenses more carefully: the bulk of money earned by each of them is usually kept on bank cards and is rarely withdrawn; when living together, both in an official and unofficial marriage, they have an agreement on joint expenses (for example, one buys groceries, the other pays rent, utilities, gasoline, insurance and car repairs, etc.); or payments are made jointly (vacation, travel, leisure) in approximately equal proportions. If there are additional jobs or part-time work, the total amount of the individual budget is not transparent, spending on personal needs is carried out based on the individual's sole decision; in the case of receiving funds from parents or older members of the blood-related family, they are used to a greater extent to cover personal expenses than for general family needs.
The time of birth and the number of children in the family are important issues that require joint discussion by spouses. Some older respondents noted the early birth of their own children (at the age of 19-20), a year after the wedding, often unplanned. The birth of children was considered a self-evident fact of creating a family, despite housing and material insecurity (living in dormitories and rented apartments, lack of funds or help from extended family members due to their remoteness, the presence of younger siblings, etc. According to the recollections of older women, the need to return to work early after year of child’s birth forced mothers to send small children to preschool institutions or even left them at home alone or under the supervision of neighbors, friends, as well as took them to work.
Young people more often plan their immediate future in the long term, critically assess their capabilities as well as threats and risks (“if I go on maternity leave, we simply won’t be able to survive on my husband’s salary alone”; “the question is who will look after the child after birth, our grandmothers work, and they are far away”). In our opinion, it is precisely the high level of responsibility of young people, along with the above-mentioned factors that restrains their reproductive behavior. In our opinion, one of the reasons for postponing childbearing is the high level of responsibility of young people, along with other factors, which restrain their reproductive behavior.
Instability of society generates dysfunction of its social institutions. The divorce rate in modern Russian families is very high, and, unfortunately, there is a tendency to increase (2020 - 564,704 people; 2021 - 644,209; 2022 - 682,850) (Demographics. Marriages and Divorces 2023). Views on the causes of divorce among representatives of the older and younger generations differ significantly: older adults are more ready to maintain family ties, even in the case of long-term, chronic alcoholism of one of the spouses, psychological and physical violence, infidelity, citing the situational behavior of the partner (“when he does not drink, he is a good husband and father”), attaching importance to the loss of the status of a married woman, the fear of stigmatization and blaming the woman for the breakup of the family by colleagues, friends, members of the extended family (“relatives will not understand, they will blame me for not being able to save the family”; “they will say that I orphaned the children, left them without a father”), the lack of their own income, housing, education, the difficulties of supporting and raising children alone (“how can I live without a husband with two children?”).
On the contrary, young people prioritize personal comfort, safety, focus on their own interests, and more easily break up with partners and spouses for “emotional” reasons, including loss of love, lack of care and mutual assistance, disappointment, failure to meet expectations, selfishness and distance, as well as fixation on achieving their own goals. If young women have their own resources (education, work, place of living, income), and support from their parental family, most of them are more likely to break off toxic or abusive relationships and will not “put up with it for the sake of the children”.
The greatest level of intergenerational differentiation is observed in the field of digital technologies. Russian researchers D.E. Dobrinskaya, T.S. Martynenko (Dobrinskaya and Martynenko 2019) identified three levels of digital inequality: first, access to innovative telecommunications technologies, gadgets and high-speed Internet; second, the presence/absence of skills to use Internet content (passive or active); third, the range of use of information technologies in various spheres of life.
Undoubtedly, older people usually use one electronic device (more often it is an old model push-button mobile phone) equipped with a minimum set of functions to make a call, receive or write SMS messages. They find it difficult to get used to a new gadget, motivating it  ("why do I need it, I'm already used to mine, it's enough for me"); to change, to learn something new ("I only need it to call my children"); fear of being left without communication, "to ruin something" or "to press the wrong button". Therefore, most of the information, services and opportunities remain outside the older people's reach, which undoubtedly affects their daily routine social practices and behavior strategies (instead of, for example, paying for housing and communal services online using a QR code in a couple of minutes, they go to a cash center located on the other side of the city or in a district center).
Young people, on the contrary, act as ambassadors in the use of all kinds of electronic gadgets, having several at once (mobile phones, tablets, laptops, electronic bracelets, etc.) with Internet access, connecting service packages when traveling (within the country and abroad) in order to be “in touch” all the time. The youth makes up the main pool of profiles in social networks, instant messengers, chats (both personal and professional), young people are active participants in online communities, consumers and creators of Internet content; they use online services for ordering and delivering goods from markets, specialized sites, electronic pharmacies, food services and stores; receive distance education, work online; turn to the neural network for advice and information; spend leisure time in the information space.
In addition, the growth of various types of cybercrime, including fraud using mobile communications, makes older people suspicious of any offers in the form of advertising goods and services, and immediately block the flow of information. As a rule, older people who live together or being in touch with adult children and grandchildren turn to them for help and explanations regarding some “strange” calls, because they have been repeatedly informed about crimes, specific forms of fraudulent schemes by their closest relatives. The most vulnerable situation is for older people living alone, whose social circle, on the one hand, is extremely limited; on the other hand, it usually includes peers who do not have the necessary competence  against protection from fraudsters.

Discussion
For a long time, intergenerational communications were viewed through the prism of a generational conflict, which was based on the irreconcilable attitude of the old generation to new trends, views, behavior, innovations of the youth, who was often regarded as threats to the traditional world order, and were criticized and punished. According to a survey conducted in 53 constituent entities of the Russian Federation (n = 1,500) by Public Opinion Foundation, modern youth are distinguished from the older generation by the following characteristic features: mentality, outlook on life, upbringing – 15 %; bad manners, arrogance – 10 %; possession of new technologies – 7 %; 
excessive dependence on gadgets – 6 %; spoiled, infantilism – 5 %; independence, emancipation, progressiveness – 3 %; immorality, selfishness, commercialism – 3 %; found it difficult to answer – 22 % (Modern youth. How modern youth differs from the older generation 2024).
The results of our own research and the analysis of the results of similar studies (Arber 2016; Gurko 2020; Rostovskaya and Kuchmaeva 2020) in the context of studying issues of intergenerational interactions allow us to talk about a new point of view of young people on the generation of older people, not focusing only on age differences, but considering them in a broader context of opportunities, respecting their right to self-realization, rest, and creating a family.
Despite alarmist statements about the loss of traditional family values ​​by new generations of Russian youth, they do not find scientific confirmation. As before, the majority of young people respect elderly family members, considering them as people who cared and continue to care for them, keenly experience their ups and downs, provide them with material assistance and moral support, to whom they confide their "secrets" and whose advice they await. Due to various reasons, including intergenerational ones, social contacts occur more intensively between generations standing next to each other (parents - children) than between those distant from each other (grandmothers/grandfathers – grandchildren). 
Nevertheless, the quality of these relationships is not equal to their quantity: researchers note more conflictual relationships between parents and children, compared to the relationships of great-grandparents and grandchildren, characterizing their relationships as softer, more trusting, emotionally close than child-parent relationships (Arutyunyan 2012; Besschetnova and Mayorova-Shcheglova 2021). Grandparents act not only as bearers of experience and knowledge about the family’s past, but also about the history of the country in their personal biographies as symbols of a bygone era, while younger relatives help their elderly relatives adapt, acting as guides in the world of digital technologies (Parfenova and Petukhova 2024).
Despite the remoteness of residence, members of different generations of the family regularly communicate by phone, use instant messengers, video platforms that allow them to stay in touch, be aware of family events, health status, and the needs of all family members. The emotional closeness of young and older generations, their close contacts, and shared childhood memories serve as the basis for solidarity between generations within the family system, preserving traditions and continuity through mechanisms of belonging, social connections, and mutual assistance (Burmykina 2018).
Of course, in the conditions of digital inequality, older people cannot compete equally with young people in the field of mastering and using modern information technologies, some of whom rarely or do not use Internet resources at all; as users they are less active; their range of interests is limited to several sites; they have a lower level of computer literacy compared to young people (Osipova 2019; Maximova 2018).

Conclusion
The results of studies of the interaction of representatives of the younger and older generations in modern Russian society show the continuity of generations despite the influence of various factors of their socialization. Currently, the problems of the older people are increasingly included in the agenda of modern state social policy when discussing issues of urban development, comfort and convenience of public transport (Accessible Environment program), receiving social services online (Gosuslugi, EMIAS.Info, mos.ru), organizing and holding events, developing and adopting state programs (Federal project "Older Generation", the Moscow Mayor's project "Moscow Longevity", "Silver Volunteering") aimed at strengthening and activating the potential of this social group, including them in various types of activities (education, mentoring, volunteering) to overcome loneliness, prevent destructive age-related phenomena, maintain physical and mental health, increase life expectancy, improve adaptive capabilities, which allows maintaining the connection between generations in difficult socio-economic and political conditions.

About the authors

Oksana V. Besschetnova

State University of Psychology & Education

Author for correspondence.
Email: oksanabesschetnova@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4181-9886

doctor of sociological science, associate professor, professor of the Department of Social Communication and Organization of Work with Youth

Russian Federation, 29, Sretenka str., Moscow, 127051, Russian Federation

Elmira K. Naberushkina

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

Email: ellana777@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7495-231X

octor of sociological science, associate professor, рrofessor of the Department of Sociology

49/2, Leningradsky Prospekt, Moscow, 125167, Russian Federation

References

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