Characteristics of Role Functioning Within Kazakh and Russian Families

In this presentation we examine the role of ethnic and cultural differences in family functioning and satisfaction of the spouses with family relationships. Participants were 60 families who were either Kazakh or Russian.

Role functioning with family was assessed using "Role expectations and ambitions in Marriage", "Marital satisfaction" questionnaires and test «Family sociogram».

The results indicated that the structure and the role functioning of Russian and Kazakh families differed. Specifically Kazakh families engaged in more traditional roles than Russian.

Russian and Kazakh families were similar in terms of the presence of traditional concept of head of household. It was found that in both Russian and Kazakh families important family decisions mostly were not made solely by the head of the family. Rather these decisions were made jointly by both spouses.

There are differences in the structural characteristics of families. In Kazakh families there is a weakness of external and internal borders. In Russian families, on the contrary, the rigidity of external and internal borders is observed.

Members of Kazakh families are distinguished by their hyper-socialization, orientation to public opinion. In Russian families, there is a reverse trend, which indicates a greater openness and willingness to discuss the existing difficulties, little care at the same time about public opinion.

A high degree of satisfaction with marriage was found in young Kazakh and Russian families. In Russian families, the degree of satisfaction with marriage is higher than in Kazakh.

Keywords: family system, ethnic and cultural characteristics, marital satisfaction, family roles