The paper draws attention to the large number of divorces in contemporary Russia. It is emphasized that much of them fall on the first years of marriage. However, most of the surveys conducted in recent years have shown that the family is one of the leading positions in the structure of adolescent value. On the basis of this juxtaposition, it is concluded that young people need to be specially trained for family life. Contemporary family and the school cannot cope with this task. We have carried out a large-scale empirical study in eight regions of different federal districts of Russia, the results of which are shown in the paper. Total sample amounted of more than 7,000 people. The sample included respondents from large and small cities in Russia, as well as from the villages of nuclear and one-parent families, families with 1-2 children and also large families.

The research has shown that in the structure of life values the family still occupies the first position. It was also found that the vast majority of respondents emphasize the need to be specially trained for building a family. However, only one third of respondents believe that this can be done by conducting special courses on the family and family life in schools. For the majority of the respondents, their parent family is not a guide or a pattern. The greatest impact on the youth in the process of growing up is produced by mother. Fathers, occupying the second position, prove to be outsiders with a large gap. It was revealed that a generalized portrait of the mother and the father are completely positive, i.e. they do not contain any negative characteristics. The top ten most popular qualities to describe father and mother are the following: kind, reliable, caring, responsible, family-making, smart. Other qualities of the top ten highest priorities differ.

The paper analyzes the problems of deviant and delinquent behaviour from the standpoint of relations theory. The process of socialization is considered as a process of development and purposeful formation of the personality relations system. Deformations in the individual system of social relations can be caused by a number of factors, which include those associated with social institutions such as family and school. The paper emphasizes the determination of anti-social behaviour of juveniles is prioritized by the family of psychosocial strain. An important mechanism of family influence on the development of social deviancy and antisocial behaviour is the emotional neglect of a child, «non-value» attitude. The so-called apathetic or ignoring type of upbringing is most strongly associated with subsequent delinquency. The lack of parental supervision is considered to be more important in delinquency than the adverse socio-economic status. The most important mechanism of negative family influence on the personality development is family socialization on the deviant type. Antisocial values, norms and patterns of behaviour might be acquired through learning and imitation mechanism, if the values and norms are dominant in the family. Adolescent’s representations of the reprimand of the family, parents, involved in adolescent’s behaviour, encourage negative attitudes, reduces the likelihood of further manifestations . If a child has built a negative relationship with one or both parents, if the development of positive self-esteem and I-concept are not supported in the parental estimates, the probability of illegal behaviour increases significantly.

The central place in the system of child and adolescent relations belongs to the mother. Th research shows that the decrease in positive attitudes towards the mother, increasing the negative descriptors in depicting the mother correlates with overall negativism toward all social relations of the individual.