Types of reproductive orientations of modern students

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyze the socio-demographic and activity-motivational factors that determine the type of youth reproductive orientations. The object of the study is students of Vavilov Saratov State Agrarian University. Formation of the target sample is due to the need to consider the reproductive orientations of young people in conjunction with the desire to live and work in rural areas. The information base of the study is the results of a sociological study conducted by the Institute of Agrarian Problems RAS (216 respondents). The work shows that the cause of the formation of narrowed reproductive orientations is the shift of the value of family and children to the last places in the system of life priorities of this group of young people who prefer to focus on development of individual human capital and self-realization in profession. They are convinced that children are associated with a great responsibility and restriction of freedom, so any measures to increase the birth rate are of little interest to them. Young people with extended reproductive orientations are characterized by child-centric attitudes, with a high value of family lifestyles and traditional gender stereotypes. Most of them associate effectiveness of measures to increase the birth rate with economic instruments and development of a social infrastructure for maternity and child support. It has been found out that the selected typological groups of reproductive orientations of today's youth are characterized by different potential for future reproductive behavior, which leads to differentiation of tools to increase the birth rate for these groups of young people.