The increase in the birth rate observed in Russia since 2000 is largely due to the active implementation of pro-family demographic policy. 2013 showed signs of decline and stagnation in the birth rate, indicating the exhaustion of stimulating effects of the state demographic initiatives of 2011. If there is no new stage of expansion of the demographic policy, then the immediate prospects of fertility will be determined by the models of demographic behavior that have been developed among the small generations of those born in the 1990s under the current pro-family policy. The goal of the present study is to identify the attitude of today’s young people toward family values and to determine their reproductive plants. The study is based on the analysis of demographic statistics data and on the results of the author’s sociological surveys conducted at different stages of modern demographic policy in the sphere of fertility, using the method of real generation. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it carries out a comparative analysis of the results of two sociological studies and applies the cohort method to determine the level and dynamics of reproductive attitudes of generations born in 1989 – 2000, which helps identify the influence of pro-family policies on the nature of demographic behavior patterns that young people develop. Based on the sociological research “The attitude of young people toward family and children” conducted at the end of 2015 – early 2016, we conclude that in the conditions of active state policy in the field of fertility young people have developed sufficient family-oriented standards of demographic behavior. Comparative analysis with the results of the 2013 survey shows that in the cohort of those born in 1989 – 1993 who became the target of the federal maternity capital and given the prolongation of its validity, there has been an increase in the number of children that they want to have. At the same time, in the generation of those born in 1994 – 1998 in the absence of new measures to stimulate the birth rate there is a negative dynamics of reproductive intentions. Childbearing attitudes of those born in 1999 – 2000 were not influenced by existing measures of the demographic policy. Together with the stagnation of crude birth rate and a low increase in the total fertility rate, this proves that it is necessary to promote a new phase of significant increase in pro-family demographic policy. The results of the study enhance the understanding of the impact of demographic policy on the formation of marriage and family and reproductive attitudes and can be used by the legislative authorities in the development of new measures of demographic policy
Keywords
birth rate, youth, population policy, family, marriage and family and reproductive attitudes