2408-9338Research result. Sociology and Management2408-933810.18413/2408-9338-2025-11-1-0-43706SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE AND SPIRITUAL LIFE<strong>Loneliness in the family: a study of the everyday practices of a young family</strong><strong>Loneliness in the family: a study of the everyday practices of a young family</strong>RostovskayaTamara K.RostovskayaTamara K.rostovskaya.tamara@mail.ruVasilyevaEkaterina НиколаевнаVasilyevaEkaterinaKnyazkovaEkaterina АлександровнаKnyazkovaEkaterinaInstitute for Demographic Research, FCTAS RAS, 119333, 6-1 Fotieva St., Moscow, Russia202511100

The work presented systematises theoretical approaches to the analysis of the phenomenon of loneliness, demonstrates their applicability to the study of loneliness in family actors, and allows for the development of research tools. The&nbsp;aim of the work was to identify and characterise the practices of forming and overcoming loneliness in young families. Empirical data were collected as part of a qualitative study in November 2022 using the method of semi-structured interviews with members of young families under 35 years of age living in the city of Moscow. The sample is purposive (n = 100), the selection criteria are the age of the spouses; the number of children in the family (childless, one-child and two-child families&nbsp;were&nbsp;selected);&nbsp;the&nbsp;duration&nbsp;of&nbsp;marriage&nbsp;(from&nbsp;several&nbsp;months&nbsp;to&nbsp;10 years). The&nbsp;study characterized&nbsp;the&nbsp;practices&nbsp;of&nbsp;men&nbsp;and&nbsp;women&nbsp;who&nbsp;are&nbsp;members&nbsp;of&nbsp;young&nbsp;families&nbsp;to overcome loneliness, as well as the reasons for a positive attitude towards loneliness in the family. It is stated that problems that contribute to loneliness in the family can be reduced to a minimum by developing a comprehensive strategy for educating the current and subsequent generations, including the principle of prioritizing the value&nbsp;of&nbsp;family&nbsp;as&nbsp;a&nbsp;traditional value&nbsp;of&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;society, as&nbsp;well&nbsp;as&nbsp;informing&nbsp;young&nbsp;people about strategies for overcoming family crises.

The work presented systematises theoretical approaches to the analysis of the phenomenon of loneliness, demonstrates their applicability to the study of loneliness in family actors, and allows for the development of research tools. The&nbsp;aim of the work was to identify and characterise the practices of forming and overcoming loneliness in young families. Empirical data were collected as part of a qualitative study in November 2022 using the method of semi-structured interviews with members of young families under 35 years of age living in the city of Moscow. The sample is purposive (n = 100), the selection criteria are the age of the spouses; the number of children in the family (childless, one-child and two-child families&nbsp;were&nbsp;selected);&nbsp;the&nbsp;duration&nbsp;of&nbsp;marriage&nbsp;(from&nbsp;several&nbsp;months&nbsp;to&nbsp;10 years). The&nbsp;study characterized&nbsp;the&nbsp;practices&nbsp;of&nbsp;men&nbsp;and&nbsp;women&nbsp;who&nbsp;are&nbsp;members&nbsp;of&nbsp;young&nbsp;families&nbsp;to overcome loneliness, as well as the reasons for a positive attitude towards loneliness in the family. It is stated that problems that contribute to loneliness in the family can be reduced to a minimum by developing a comprehensive strategy for educating the current and subsequent generations, including the principle of prioritizing the value&nbsp;of&nbsp;family&nbsp;as&nbsp;a&nbsp;traditional value&nbsp;of&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;society, as&nbsp;well&nbsp;as&nbsp;informing&nbsp;young&nbsp;people about strategies for overcoming family crises.

social practiceslonelinessfamilymarriagechildrenyoung familysocial practiceslonelinessfamilymarriagechildrenyoung familyСписок литературыBarsukova, S.&nbsp;V., Barsukov, S.&nbsp;M. (2021), &ldquo;Loneliness as a social phenomenon of modern society&rdquo;, Sovremennye prikladnye issledovaniya. Materialy pyatoy natsionalnoy nauchno- prakticheskoy konferentsii [Modern applied research.&nbsp;Materials&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;fifth&nbsp;national&nbsp;scientific&nbsp;and&nbsp;practical&nbsp;conference],&nbsp;Novocherkassk,&nbsp;Russia, 45-51. (In Russian)Bauman, Z. (2019), Retrotopiya, VTsIOM, Moscow, Russia. (In Russian)Weiss, R.&nbsp;S. (1989), &ldquo;Issues in the study of loneliness&rdquo;, Labirinty odinochestva [The Labyrinths of loneliness], Progress, Moscow, Russia, 114-128. (In Russian)Vetrova,&nbsp;O.&nbsp;A.,&nbsp;Krasilnikova,&nbsp;T.&nbsp;D., Nishnianidze, O.&nbsp;O. (2023), &ldquo;Prevailing types of loneliness in a modern transforming society&rdquo;, Izvestiya Yugo-Zapadnogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Ekonomika. Sotsiologiya. Menedzhment, 13 (4), 211-221. (In Russian)Dobrina, O.&nbsp;A. (2019), &ldquo;Social risks of modernity and threats to identity: a systematic analysis of Z. Bauman&#39;s concept&rdquo;, Sistemnaya psikhologiya i sotsiologiya, (4), 92-102. (In Russian)Zhestkova,&nbsp;N. A.&nbsp;(2020),&nbsp;&ldquo;Ways&nbsp;of developing the subjective properties of the family in&nbsp;the&nbsp;issues&nbsp;of&nbsp;upbringing&nbsp;a&nbsp;teenager&rdquo;,&nbsp;Nauka&nbsp;i obrazovanie: novoe vremya, (4), 1-7. (In Russian) Kleinenberg, E. (2014), Zhizn solo. Novaya sotsialnaya&nbsp;realnost&nbsp;[The&nbsp;Life&nbsp;of&nbsp;a&nbsp;solo.&nbsp;A&nbsp;new social&nbsp;reality],&nbsp;ANF,&nbsp;Moscow,&nbsp;Russia,&nbsp;278.&nbsp;(In&nbsp;Russian)Kozyreva, P., Smirnov, A. (2020), &ldquo;Loneliness: Age Features&rdquo;, Sociologicheskie issledovaniya,&nbsp;(9),&nbsp;56-69,&nbsp;DOI: 10.31857/S013216250009617-1. (In Russian)Kozyreva, P.&nbsp;M., Smirnov, A.&nbsp;I. (2022), &ldquo;Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Age&rdquo;, Sotsiologicheskaya nauka i sotsialnaya praktika, 10 (4),&nbsp;46-63,&nbsp;DOI:&nbsp;https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2022.10.4.9282. (In Russian)Kozyreva, P.&nbsp;M., Smirnov, A.I. (2023),&nbsp;&ldquo;The demand for information on a healthy&nbsp;lifestyle and lessons learned during the coronavirus pandemic&rdquo;, Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsialnoy antropologii, (26), 6-66, DOI: https://doi.org/10.31119/jssa.2023.26.2.3. (In Russian)Kolesnikova, G.&nbsp;I. (2016), &ldquo;The concept of positive loneliness&rdquo;, Evraziiskiy soyuz uchenyh, (1-1 (22)), 169-171. (In Russian)Kornyuschenko-Ermolaeva, N.&nbsp;L. (2010), &ldquo;Loneliness and forms of estrangement of a&nbsp;person in the contemporary world&rdquo;, Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, (332), 40-43. (In Russian)Kochetkova, T.&nbsp;N. (2017), &ldquo;Social concepts of the permissibility of infidelity in the context of gender relations&rdquo;,&nbsp;Mir nauki, 5 (1), 5.&nbsp;(In Russian) Kryukova,&nbsp;&nbsp;T. L.,&nbsp;&nbsp;Saporovskaya,&nbsp;M. V. (2014),&nbsp;&ldquo;Individual&nbsp;and&nbsp;group&nbsp;tendencies&nbsp;of coping&nbsp;with&nbsp;difficulties&nbsp;in&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;families&rdquo;, Vestnik&nbsp;Kostromskogo&nbsp;&nbsp;gosudarstvennogo universiteta&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;im.&nbsp;N. A.&nbsp;Nekrasova.&nbsp;Seriya: Pedagogika.&nbsp;Psikhologiya.&nbsp;Sotsia&#39;naya&nbsp;rabota. Yuvenologiya.&nbsp;Sotsiokinetika,&nbsp;20&nbsp;(2),&nbsp;71-77.&nbsp;(In&nbsp;Russian)Martynenko, T.&nbsp;S. (2021), &ldquo;Lifestyle diseases:&nbsp;health&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;contemporary&nbsp;city&rdquo;,&nbsp;Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov.&nbsp;Seriya: Sotsiologiya, 21&nbsp;(1), 18-35, DOI: 10.22363/2313-2272-2021-21-1-18-35&nbsp;(In&nbsp;Russian)Pokrovsky,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;E.,&nbsp;Ivanchenko,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;V.&nbsp;(2008), Universum odinochestva: sotsologicheskie i psikhologicheskie ocherki [The Universe of loneliness:&nbsp;sociological&nbsp;and&nbsp;psychological&nbsp;essays], Logos, Moscow, Russia, 408. (In Russian)Puzanova, Zh.&nbsp;V. (2009), &ldquo;Sociological study of loneliness: the problem of building a conceptual model&rdquo;, Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Sotsiologiya, (2), 42-46 (In Russian)Rostovskaya, T. K., Suleimanly, A. D., Gnevasheva, V. A., Tolmachev, D. P. (2022), &ldquo;Loneliness in the pandemic: Country overview&rdquo;, Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta. Novaya seriya.&nbsp;Seriya:&nbsp;Sotsiologiya.&nbsp;Politologiya,&nbsp;22&nbsp;(1),&nbsp;17-22,&nbsp;DOI:&nbsp;10.18500/1818-9601-2022-22-1-17-22.&nbsp;(In&nbsp;Russian)Rostovskaya,&nbsp;T.&nbsp;K.,&nbsp;Kuchmaeva,&nbsp;O.&nbsp;V., Vasilieva, E.&nbsp;N. (2023), &ldquo;The institute of multi- generational family as a reserve of demographic development in Russia&rdquo;, DEMIS. Demograficheskie issledovaniya, 3&nbsp;(4), 59-77,&nbsp;DOI 10.19181/demis.2023.3.4.4. (In Russian)Rostovskaya, T. K., Vasilieva E. N. (2023), &ldquo;Social portrait of single fathers: an analysis within the framework of responsible parenthood&rdquo;, Sotsialnoe prostranstvo, 9&nbsp;(1), DOI: 10.15838/sa.2023.1.37.2. (In Russian)Rostovskaya, T. K., Khasbulatova, O. A., Smirnova, I. N. (2022), &ldquo;Social portrait of single mothers in Russian society: conceptual approaches&rdquo;, Zhenshhina v rossiyskom&nbsp;obshhestve,&nbsp;(4),&nbsp;15-21,&nbsp;DOI: 10.21064/WinRS.2022.4.2. (In Russian)Sadler, U.&nbsp;A., Johnson, T. B. (1989), &ldquo;From loneliness&nbsp;to&nbsp;anomie&rdquo;,&nbsp;Labirinty&nbsp;odinochestva&nbsp;[The&nbsp;Labyrinths&nbsp;of&nbsp;loneliness],&nbsp;Progress,&nbsp;Moscow, Russia, 21-50. (In Russian)Sinelnikov, A.&nbsp;B. (2018), &ldquo;Family and marriage: crisis or modernization?&rdquo; // Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal, 24&nbsp;(1), 95-113, DOI: 10.19181/socjour.2018.24.1.5715. (In Russian)Horney,&nbsp;K.&nbsp;(2024),&nbsp;Psikhologiya&nbsp;zhenshhiny [Psychology of a woman], Akademicheskiy proekt, Moscow, Russia, 252. (In Russian)Chernysh, M.F. (2019), &ldquo;Factors of Influence on the state of happiness in the contemporary&nbsp;&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;society&rdquo;, Sotsiologicheskaya nauka i sotsialnaya praktika, 7(2),&nbsp;9-33,&nbsp;&nbsp;DOI:&nbsp;https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2019.7.2.6407. (In Russian)