Comparative Analysis of Family and Marriage in Belarus, Ukraine and Germany

Abstract

The modern world is changing rapidly, and the ordinary way of life is changing as well. One of the most conservative institutions, the institution of family, also undergoes changes, still remaining within the sphere of influence of religion. The empirical fixing of such changes is possible by means of comparative analysis of family life and marriage among the people of countries that have defining religious traditions, namely Belarus, Ukraine, and Germany, employing the data of the project called «European Values Study».
Within the study Ukraine and Belarus appear as traditional societies with the standard vision of family and marriage lives. This is confirmed by the priority of successful marriage conditions. For the Ukrainians and the Belarusians they are fidelity (86,1 % and 75,0 % in accordance), having children (84,8 % and 72,8 %), willingness to discuss problems that arise between spouses (69,4 % and 57,9 %); for the Germans – fidelity (77,3 %), willingness to discuss problems (58,3 %), satisfaction with sexual relations (53,5 %). An additional confirmation that Ukrainian and Belarusian societies are traditional is also the disagreement with the fact that marriage is an obsolete way of organizing the family (almost 70 % of the population in both countries and less than 50 % of Germans think so); and also the inadmissibility to adopt children by non-traditional couples (the opinion of almost 60 % of Ukrainians and 50 % of Belarusians, and less than 30 % of Germans).
The influence of religious traditions is reflected in the fact that the completeness of a woman is measured by having children (considered by 92,7 % of women in Ukraine, 78,2 % in Belarus, and 51,8 % in Germany), and that she is obliged to give them birth and raise them together with her husband. The views on family roles differ in all the three countries, but the inequality of family responsibilities is more firmly fixed in Ukraine and Belarus.
The differences are also observed in the upbringing the children. For Ukrainians and Belarusians such features as hard work, responsibility, tolerance and respect, good manners, providence, careful attitude towards money and things are important. And for Germans such features are responsibility, good manners, tolerance and respect, independence, determination, persistence, imagination; here also such features as creativity and self-fulfilment are supported.
So, in Germany family values based on individual priorities of everyone are more common, hence follows better adaptation to social changes, and faster development of the country. For Belarusians and Ukrainians traditional views are more constant, as the result we can observe unwillingness as regards changes and resistance to innovations.