The social protection aspect of the subjective assessment of the material security of large and foster families: the results of a comparative qualitative study

Abstract

Modern demographic trends in the field of fertility have led to increased state attention in recent years to issues of social protection of motherhood and childhood, social support for families with children. This trend has resulted in a significant increase in the list and volume of social benefits and other social benefits, and an increase in the number of their recipients. The issue of evaluating the effectiveness of measures taken by the state is becoming increasingly relevant, not only from the standpoint of quantitative statistical indicators, but also by studying the opinion of beneficiaries. The article presents the results of a study aimed at determining subjective assessments of the material security of families with children in connection with their receipt of social protection and support measures. The object of the study is families with children belonging to the categories of large and foster families. By the method of in-depth qualitative interviews, representatives of households of 10 large families and 10 foster families living in large and small cities of the Irkutsk region were interviewed. The author has revealed significant differences in assessments between representatives of different categories of families with children. Large families express dissatisfaction with the following positions: the availability and amount of social benefits; the amount of benefits and the complexity of obtaining them. In conditions of dependence of social benefits on the size of the per capita income of family members, the status of having many children ceases to play a social protection role, not being a significant factor in ensuring the material well-being of the family. On the contrary, foster families note: a significant increase in the amount of payments for the maintenance of foster children and the remuneration of foster parents; an increase in the list and volume of additional social support measures. These measures have made it possible to increase the level of financial security of foster families. Foster parents expressed the need to take into account the needs of foster children not only of a minimal nature, but also related to their development, health maintenance, and additional education. The results obtained made it possible to formulate approaches to solving problems of a social protection nature of the considered categories of families with children. For foster families, it is important to gradually expand measures of social support for foster children based on monitoring needs. In relation to large families, it is necessary to radically change the social protection mechanisms based on the recognition of the status of having many children, which gives the right to receive additional social guarantees.