The accelerated pace of social change characteristic of modern society entailed significant
transformation of the entire social life. The growing influence of information technology, the shift of
labor activity towards the service sector, the accelerating pace of the social life, high mobility result
in changes in the organization of an individual’s life and individuals themselves. The family, being an
open sub-system of a wider social system, is in constant interaction with it, which makes it more difficult to study possible areas family transformations. The purpose for the article is to identify basic
strategies of the population of the Republic of Belarus in the sphere of family relations and analyze
their differences among urban and rural population. The review of the subject field reproducing the
features of the transformation processes of the family institution helps distinguish three aspects of
transformation: functional, structural, and value. The article focuses on the value aspect which reflects the general social significance of a family and family values of individuals. Such analytical separation
based on factor and cluster analysis has helped identify four major strategies of respondents’
behavior in the sphere of family relations determining the direction of the process of family transformation
in the Belarusian society. Urban residents are focused on professional fulfilment and harmonious
combination of career and family, while rural residents find family values more important. A signi
ficant number of rural residents are disappointed with family and professional sphere. Parenthood
is viewed in more detail – as a family value vital to the country’s population. Based on cluster analysis,
we identify two areas which organize the respondents’ basic educational impacts: focus on the child,
development of child’s personality and the “formal” approach which focuses on the implementation
of the “procedural” side of education. Attention to the value aspect of family transformation provides
deeper understanding of the nature of the ongoing changes and contributes to the development of effective
measures of the family policy taking into account the variety of behavioral strategies
Keywords
family, family transformation, family values, behavioral strategies, parenthood