Gender attitudes and domestic violence in young families: the case of Karelia

This article is a sequel to publication of the results of the sociological survey The Issue of Forming New Models of Family Relationships in the North-West Russia (Karelia) held in November 2014 by the Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population RAS and the Institute of Economics of the Karelian Research Center RAS. The first results presented in the journal Population No 1, 2016 provided data on gender attitudes, role behavior and conflicts between spouses in households consisting of persons aged 18-64. This article is focused on young families (with one of the spouses aged under 35) and aimed at identifying the difference between the gender attitudes and relationships of the younger and the older generation. Comparison of a series of indicators shows changes in women’s attitude to their professional career, scale of their economic dependence, trends in distribution of domestic labour. The article examines recurrence of the basic forms of domestic violence and views of the generations about punishment of children. It shows poor knowledge of legislations and lack of trust in institutional structures responsible for domestic violence prevention. In the conclusion there is a detailed analysis of the violence consequences and evaluation of the practical relevance of research on this issue.