Sociological Survey of Young Armenian Family Summary

Abstract

Since the last two decades of the 20^th century, the traditional model of Armenian family and its public perceptions have undergone changes. Under the impact of modern reforms and current socio-economic conditions, we observe weakening of tra­ditional foundations of Armenian family and trans­formation of national value system. Because of the birth rate decline, the number of children in young families has reduced to minimum. Moreover, the number of divorces, single mothers and homeless children has significantly increased.

This article discusses the results of our socio­logical research on current life orientation of nowa­days younger Armenian generation. The results ob­tained indicate that the migration intentions a­mong Armenian youth are quite high. Furthermore, the main causes of migration from the country are: education abroad, unemployment and job hunt, poor economic situation. More than a quarter from out of the thousand young respondents cannot see their future in our country. According to the survey, family, work and friends are the priority values in young people’s lives.

The concern shared is that 22% have not even thought about creating families of their own, while 26% of them have shown even no intention to create a family. Meanwhile, half of those, who al­ready have families or any intentions to create them, are willing to have only two children.

In conclusion, we can state that only half of the young people surveyed intend to create fa­milies, and two-thirds of them are planning to have only 2-3 children. This means that in future, even simple reproduction of the population in our country remains under threat.