Family Change and New Balance of Family Roles: The Case of Siberia.

The paper examines results of the study of the phenomenon of contemporary fatherhood from the viewpoint of the transformation of men's family roles. The modernization of marriage and family in Russia has led to an increasing dominance of individual values: broader freedom of choice for the woman and the man both in the family and in social fields, the equality of spouses or partners, as well as higher opportunities for self-realization. The Russian husband-wife 'equality' in exercising the role of 'breadwinner' seems to further diminish the man's role in the family and leads to a weakening of the function of social fatherhood; in consequence, fathers take less responsibility for the rearing and socialization of their offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]