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

Abstract

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»).