Family as value as seen in the research from the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
In this article a research review concerning the ranking of the family in young people’s hierarchy of values is presented. In all the studies family ranks the highest. Parallelly, an increase of commonlaw marriages is indicated. It was assumed that individual’s system of values, developed in a socialization process, influences behavior and life choices. In order to verify that assumption, the research among young people was conducted in one of the poorest region of East Poland. The hierarchy of values was analyzed according to three criteria: criterion of importance, criterion of meaning of life and criterion of life sacrifice. It was found out that on the one hand young people valued the family and family values more than the other ones. Such attitude should be considered as a familiocentric life orientation. On the other hand, significant number of young people lived in common-law marriages. However, they treated it as a temporary solution and they intended to get married in the future.