The foundation of societythe familyis undergoing significant transformations with clear signs of crisis changes. The functions of the family are being reviewed, but the importance of the basic functionreproductiveremains undeniable. The accelerating intergenerational continuity gap is changing the determinants of reproductive behavior, inherent both to an individual, married couples and the population as a whole. In contrast to the small family type of reproductive behavior, characterized by a pronounced predominance of abortive and contraceptive attitudes, the large family type of reproductive behavior assumes complete domination of procreation attitudes. It is revealed that according to the research, life experience of the parent family is of great importance and affects the views of the vast majority of Russian youth, including students [1]. Since the reproductive attitudes of people with higher education often differ from those of other social groups, a detailed consideration of a state of determinants of the large family or small family types of reproductive behavior of student youth is required. The paper reveals the basic theoretical aspects of reproductive behavior, presents the research results of the main determinants of reproductive behavior of the student youth from large and small families: visions of a marriage age and a birth of a first child age, number of children in a family, the gender of a firstborn, the necessity for cohabitation, the probability of extramarital birth, etc.