Family structure and family education as the factors for personal development of preschooler

• Published in: Social Psychology and Society
• Main Authors: Golovey L.A., Vasilenko V.E., Savenysheva S.S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Russian
• Published: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education 2016
• Subjects: Psychology; BF1-990; Arkhangelsk
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2016070201; https://doaj.org/article/5fb50905bbe4472fb7ee59650ee31985

This article is devoted to analysis of personal characteristics of preschoolers in relation to the factors of gender, family structure (complete or one-parent, the presence of sibling) and family upbringing (parenting styles, parent-child emotional interaction). The study involved 155 boys, 157 girls and 312 mothers from Saint-Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Arkhangelsk. The age of children — from 4 to 7 years. We used the test and projective techniques. The study revealed that children from single parent families had higher indicators of anxiety, insecurity, depressiveness, self-distrust, hostility, feeling of inferiority, conflicts and difficulties in communication. In families with pronounced overprotection and characteristics of an authoritarian style children had lower self- esteem and higher indicators of anxiety and hostility. Children's aggressiveness was more pronounced in the case of permissive style and instability of parenting style. It was shown that emotional well-being in the parent-child relationships can be regarded as a resource for personal development of the child: understanding the causes of child s state, empathy. However we revealed that one third part of mothers had difficulties in emotional interaction with children. The research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities (project №13-06-00480 «The family as a resource of child´s mental development in stable and critical ontogenetic periods»).