Experience of using the semantic differential method for diagnostics of marital cohesion in families with different number of children

Large families are currently the basis and main potential for overcoming the demographic crisis and increasing the birth rate. It is in these families that preserve the values of the family-child lifestyle, and the population reproduction occurs in them too. The basis of any family is a married couple, so studying the interaction of spouses in large families is an important task for constructing effective demographic policy measures. In this work, the semantic differential method is used to study the semantics of sociocultural family roles in married couples with different number of children. Based on an analysis of the responses of 48 married couples, it was revealed that spouses from large families are significantly more likely than spouses from small families to form stable, cohesive relationships, they are characterized by higher assessments of their own partners, a greater manifestation of mutual love, expressed, among others, in the recognition of a partner as corresponding to the main sociocultural roles characteristic of a married couple (husband/wife, mother/father, man/woman). The identified differences are largely due to the position and assessments of wives, who demonstrate significant differences in the semantic field from wives from small families. The results obtained can be used as the basis for the information part of demographic policy aimed at creating an attractive image of a large family. This image should include an idea of the family core - a married couple, in which respect and high assessments of each other prevail, where the interests of the family WE and the married YOU are often more important than the interests of the individual ME.