A functional model of role expectations in child-parent relationships

Abstract

Background. The problem of parents and children remains relevant at all times. Professionals working with families in counseling practice every day face with the need to find professional answers to the questions posed to them. These issues often relate to the mutual expectations of parents and children. But with all the variety of studies on child-parent relations, the system of role expectations in these relationships has hardly been studied. Objective. To develop a functional model of role expectations in child-parent relationships. Study Participants. The study involved 142 respondents aged 18 to 62 years who contacted a psychologist with a request to optimize child-parent relations. Methods. The study was performed on the basis of a diagnostic conversation by means of the author’s ad hoc questionnaire “Semi-structured unfinished sentences”. To develop a model of role expectations in child-parent relations, the categorial method “Celtic Cross” was used, reflecting the possible states of an object in the form of four squares and allowing to trace the transitions of an object from one state to another. The method makes it possible to fully comprehend the interconnectedness and interdependence of the elements highlighted in the object. Results. A functional model of role expectations in child-parent relations has been developed in the form of the coordinate system indicating “guilt” on the vertical axis and “resentment” on the horizontal axis. The model helps to explain the causes, the course of development and the devastating consequences of mutual resentment and guilt between parents and children, which opens up the prospects for developing a mechanism for optimizing child-parent relations. Conclusions. The functional model of role expectations in child-parent relations obtained in the study can become the basis for further theoretical research and practical developments in the field of family psychology and counseling practice.

Keywords

• child-parent relations
• role expectations
• the «celtic cross» method
• resentment
• guilt