Title: INSTITUTE OF POLYGAMY AND GENDER ASSESSMENT OF THE MODEL OF MARRIAGE BEHAVIOR
Abstract: Within the framework of the study of the Dagestan family and the destructive processes taking place in it, among which the emergence of the institution of polygamy, the key is to establish the attitude of the “first wife” to the decision of his spouse to have a “second wife”. It is hypothesized that a man's decision to have a “second wife” and “second family” is influenced by his status and income level. The results of the author's research show that the overwhelming majority of the surveyed population considers a man to be the head of the family. When assessing the marriage behavior of a spouse, the respondents are ready to take drastic measures when the spouse decides to have a “second wife”. However, most often the first wife is forced to come to terms with the husband's decision to have a “second wife” for a variety of reasons, including material dependence on the spouse, the desire to raise and educate children in a complete family, as well as unwillingness to change the established way of family life.