Marriage and family relations and demographic attitudes of a Dagestan family

Introduction. Demographic issues have become one of the key issues on the agenda of state family policy, because the observed decline in the birth rate, an increase in mortality, divorce, and the emergence of new family models logically affect the state of the family institution as a whole. The traditional Dagestani family is naturally subject to changes taking place in the family institution, there is a decrease in the birth rate, a two- child family has replaced a large family, destructive phenomena in the family and marriage sphere take place, in particular, the appearance of polygamy, which is not typical for Dagestani society, due to which the number of single-parent families increases, there is a focus on the career type of family. In this regard, the study of family and marital relations, the reasons for marrying, their priority and reflection on demographic behavior seems relevant, because it will allow predicting demographic behavior. Theoretical justification. Family members actively discuss marital and family attitudes and their impact on demographic behavior. The increased attention of the scientific community to one of the aspects of the sociology of the family is due to the transformations of the institution of the family, the emergence of new models of marriage (cohabitation, which is called civil marriage, the spread of polygamy among followers of Islam), illegitimacy, fertility, an increase in the age of those entering into marriage, and a focus on childlessness. Methods. The subject of the study is voluntary childlessness and its assessment by the Dagestani population. The problem of “childfree” was touched upon as part of the study of the demographic behavior of the Dagestani population. The sociological survey was conducted in 2024 in the cities (Derbent, Kizlyar, Makhachkala, Khasavyurt) and districts (Botlikh, Derbent, Levashinsky, Khasavyurt) of Dagestan, N = 647. The research method is a mass standardized survey. The distribution by socio-demographic parameters of the respondents is as follows: a) gender: 301 men (46,5%), 346 women (53,5%); b) marital status: married – 303 people (46,8%), divorced – 167 people (25,8%), single (not married) – 177 people (27,4%); c) age: 18–25 years – 154 people (25,3%), 26–35 years – 189 people (28,2%), 36–50 years – 167 people (24,2%), over 50 years – 137 people (22,3%); d) education: secondary – 249 people (38,5%), specialized secondary – 213 people (32,9%), higher – 185 people (28,6%); e) attitude to religion: believer – 552 people (85,3%), unbeliever – 43 people (6,6%), hesitant – 52 people (8,1%). Results and its discussion. The study shows that the arguments for registering a marriage union for the surveyed Dagestani population are the religious factor, emotions, and the birth of children in a legitimate marital union. The empirical material obtained shows the vectors of development of the demographic behavior of the Dagestani population, the attitude towards polygamy, firstly, as an opportunity for a woman to become a mother, and secondly, as a way to solve the problem of loneliness. In general, in the mass consciousness, polygamy is characterized overwhelmingly as a negative phenomenon with the argument of its destructive role. The intentions of matrimony indicated by the respondents show the priority of motives and the existence of differences in socio-demographic parameters. Marital and family attitudes should be taken into account when developing demographic policy. Main provisions: Islamic prescriptions along with the emotional component (feeling of love) and the birth of children are the key guidelines for legitimizing the marriage union. There were no pronounced differences in gender, age, religious affiliation, educational status of respondents in motivation; marital attitudes are determined not by age, but by the willingness of partners to marry, although the interval of 19–25 years is considered comfortable; for the respondents, such a social parameter as the ethnicity of the marriage partner does not matter significantly: there is a tolerant attitude towards the marriage of a son with a representative of a different ethnic community compared with the interethnic union of a daughter.