Family values as the goal of life for legal spouses and cohabitants

The article is devoted to analysis of the data from sociological studies conducted by the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation (Rosstat). The author divides all respondents into three groups: [1] legally married; [2] cohabitants, i.e. «unmarried couples»; [3] single men and women who have neither legal spouses nor cohabitants. The research results show that cohabitants are much less likely than legal spouses to consider formation (or preservation) of a «good family» as an important purpose in their lives. They are in intermediate position between single and married by the degree of importance of this life purpose for them. However, this intermediate position depends on the sex of the respondents and on their having or not having children. Childless female cohabitants attach almost the same importance to a good family as married women, who also have no children. Both of these groups are very similar to each other and very different from single women who do not have children. The author concludes that the majority of childless women in «unmarried couples» consider cohabitation and postponement of the birth of children as a test for the possibility of forming a good family with this partner. The goal of these women is legal marriage and birth of children. However, over half of their partners do not set themselves such goals. They are more close to single men than to the married men who have no children. Therefore, not all unmarried couples without children eventually turn into married couples with children.