Study of the structure of the attitude to children in Russian-speaking and German-speaking parents living in Germany

Abstract

The article describes a problem of child-parent relationships in emigrants’ families, who moved to Germany for the permanent residency. Do parents, who are raising their children in an unfamiliar cultural environment, have different attitudes towards children in comparison to natives? Are there similar traits in Russian-speaking parents’ attitudes to their children in comparison to those of the German-speaking parents? In order to answer this question, we conducted a flight empirical study based on the research method by E.O. Smirnova and M.V. Sokolova (Bykova). Two groups of participants have taken part in the study. The first group included 30 Russian moms and 1 dad who had children of early and preschool age. The second group included 17 German-speaking parents. It was found that in Russian-speaking families the personal attitude to children dominates. German-speaking parents tend to demonstrate a more emotionally restrained type of attitude; they express their desires and requirements in a more sharp and clear way. In this group the autonomous parenting style prevails. Russian-speaking parents who are raising children in Germany, often use the same styles as parents caring for their preschool children in Russia.

Keywords

• child-parent relationships
• parent attitude
• personal basis
• object-related basis
• parental styles of behavior
• values of parents
• emigration.