ABSTRACT
The State of Family Studies in Lithuania Alina Zvinkliene
The Lithuanian family was and is the object of various political speculations, firstly related to problems of interethnic families and women's position in society. The main purpose of this is the restoring of the Lithuanian family, which lost its shape during the Soviet period of Lithuanian history. Family studies in Lithuania show that all tendencies inherent in contemporary family relations are there. There is a high level of marriage and divorce, shortening the marriage duration; an increase of the number of single-parent families and single people; a decrease of family size and birthrate; a tendency to liberalization of sexual relations, etc. However, Lithuanian people differ in the conservative attitudes towards family relations as shown in various sociological investigations, and it is still impossible to say what it is: self-censorship or natural convictions. These attitudes are maintained by the previous Soviet ideology, which was supported by family policy means in the last decade of the existence of the USSR, and strengthened by new Lithuanian Family ideology, which can be found in the state's family policy, the Constitution of the republic of Lithuania, mass media, etc. In any way such traditional family ideology, which preserves, first of all, a subordinate position of women, makes a profound impact on Lithuanian people's consciousness. At the same time, the diversity of family life forms is spreading in Lithuania, which is still unclear from the investigator's view and now it is possible to talk only about "time delay" in the character of the family development.
