Influence of parental attitude on the mental development of primary school students

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Influence of parental attitude on the mental development of primary school students

M. Polukhina, T. Anpilohova

The aim of the article is to study the features of parent-child relationships as a prerequisite for the formation of the child's personality and mental development. Theoretical analysis of the problem showed that the attitude of parents to the child is especially important during all childhood years, especially during age crises, in particular, during primary school age and is realized in maintaining emotional contact with the child, a form of control over his/her behavior, effective-evaluative, consciously-selective idea of the child, which determines the peculiarities of parental perception, the nature and manner of communication with the child, methods of influencing the kid.

An empirical study of the influence of parental attitudes on the mental development of junior students was conducted among students in grades 2-4 aged 8-10 years using psychological techniques: the method of "Test- questionnaire of parental attitudes (ORO) " (A. Varga, V. Stolin), which explores the emotional attitude to the child (acceptance-rejection), socially desirable image of parental attitude (cooperation), interpersonal distance in communication with the child (symbiosis), the form and direction of control over its behavior, the attitude of parents to the failures of the child; the projective method "Picture of the family" reflects the child's attitude to the family as a whole and to its individual members and his/her perception of own place in the family; "PARI" method (E. Schaefer, R. Bell) is designed to study the attitude of parents to various aspects of family life (family role).

Empirical research results have shown that a favorable family environment, harmonious relations between spouses, a constructive type of parental attitude in which the child is free from excessive custody or control, and parents accept and understand the child, seek to be friends and advisers, flexibility in communication and means influence on the child in view of the age, positively affect the emotional state and the formation of individual and personal qualities of the child, the relationship with parents. Children with adequate parental practice are characterized by good adaptation to the school environment and communication with peers, they are active, independent, proactive, friendly, empathetic. The destructive influence of parental attitudes on children increases in those families where at least one of the adults is experiencing emotional distress.

Key words: parental attitude; children; junior schoolchildren; mental development; junior students.

Introduction

In the life of every child, the family is of great importance. Relationships with parents, the attitude of parents to children play a significant role in their further personal development. Communication with parents in the early years, their influence on the ways of resolving typical age contradictions, conflicts and failures of adaptation appear later and manifest themselves as characteristic problems in an adult. Negative childhood experiences lead to infantilism, egocentrism, increased aggression - all this is a prerequisite for difficulties in fulfilling their own parental role, to the rejection of their own child.

It is known that a person's psychological health depends on how exactly the needs of his/her mental development in childhood were met. In order for a child to grow up healthy and efficient, it is necessary to satisfy his/her basic psychological needs: physiological (food, housing, etc.); security needs related to the desire for a stable, safe being, protection from fear, pain, disease, etc.; social needs (realization of human connections, sense of belonging to a certain group); the need for self-affirmation given by the family, etc. (Ковальов, 1988).

In cases where the child has a negative attitude to life, a tendency to pessimism, apathy (i.e., the need for attachment is not satisfied), it is the family that forms a sense of significance. Otherwise, the child develops a sense of grayness, incompetence, the need for development is not accomplished. If a child is born into a family in order to meet the needs of the mother, father or other family members, the kid does not go through all the stages of mental development.

The aim of the article is to study the features of parent-child relationships as a prerequisite for the formation of the child's personality and mental development.

Relevance of research

The family is the closest environment for the formation of personality, influencing the needs, social activity, psychological state of the child. "Parent-child" connections are of paramount importance for the formation of the family structure, its current state and directions for future development (Помитюна, Злагодух, XiM4eHKO & Погоршьська, 2010).

It is interesting that the style of upbringing, the nature of parents' treatment of the child affect the peculiarities of the child's development, the formation of his personality, character traits during all years of childhood. But they play a particularly important role in critical periods of child development.

Therefore, when talking about the problems of primary school age, we must first keep in mind the problems of two age periods: the crisis of 6-7 years and, in fact, primary school age, which covers the period from 6-7 to 10-11 years (Виготський, 1984).

The primary school age has features of transition, a period of significant positive changes. Therefore, the achievements reached by the child independently are very important: in cognition, in acquiring the skills and abilities of educational activities, in relationships with peers, teachers and parents, in gaining self-confidence, in their capabilities, in developing the need for success. It will be difficult to do this in the future, out of this sen sitive age period.

This age is also called the first adolescence. It is believed that young age is the period of maximum "extroversion". Important changes are taking place in the area of feelings and social experience. School age is the apogee of collectivism. The children's team plays a serious role in the development of a child from the age of three, now it is becoming a decisive factor.

The child seeks to keep up with others, to earn their recognition. In the children's group, feelings of friendship, camaraderie, a sense of solidarity, duty and responsibility to others arise and develop. Their goal is to come up with something, take something, prove something, and not just play fun. If a child, for some reason, cannot be equal to others, he/she has a complex of inferiority. It is at this age that complexes arise. Awareness of one's own usefulness and need is the most important means in the fight against feelings of inferiority.

Formulation of the problem

The psychological literature widely describes the phenomenology of the relationship between parents and children, analyzes the nature and negative results of inadequate parental attitudes, wrong parenting styles for the current and future development of the child. At the same time, the nature and mechanisms of the influence of certain aspects of the parental attitude on the mental development of the child are insufficiently studied and, therefore, require additional study.

In the works of scientists (Варга, 2001; Гарбузов, 1990; Говорун, 2004; Захаров, 1990; Столш, 1989) and others the dependence of the formation of the child's personality on the style of upbringing in the family, parental attitude, ways of family communication is shown. In this case, the course of mental development of the child is significantly affected not only by gross violations of parental attitudes and behavior.

According to scientific research (Боришевський, 1995; Ейдемшер, 1996), different styles of care and treatment of the child from the first days of his life form certain features of the child's psyche and behavior. In the medical clinical literature, we can find description of extensive number of parental attitudes phenomenology, parenting styles, as well as their consequences - the formation of individual characteristics of the child within the normal and deviant behavior.

Different combinations of parenting parameters (intensity of emotional contact with the child: hyperopia, guardianship, acceptance, rejection; control parameter: permissive, possible, situational, restrictive; sequence - inconsistency; affective stability - instability; anxiety - non-anxiety) are correlated with different types of children (limited, affective instability on the part of parents leads to the development of the child's neurosis of fear, over-acceptance, "permissiveness", inconsistency - to the development of hysterical neurosis, severe limitation - to the neurosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder) (Захаров, 1990). Thus, the nature and degree of influence on the child determines many factors, and above all the personality of the parents themselves as the subject of interaction: gender (the same as the child, or opposite); age (young, minor mother, elderly father, father of a late child); temperament and features of the father's character (active, impatient, inflammatory, domineering, indulgent, careless, restrained); religiosity; national and cultural affiliation; social status; professional affiliation; level of general and pedagogical culture, etc.

Research methods

An empirical study of the influence of parental attitudes on the mental development of primary school students was conducted among 40 parents and 40 students of grades 2-4 (age 8-10) of Erudite and a specialized school with in-depth study of English № 324 Solomyanskyi district of Kyiv. Of the 40 children, 24 children (60%) are raised in a full family, the parents are in a registered marriage, and 16 children (40%) are a single-parent family: the parents are divorced or a single mother.

The following psychological methods were used: "Test-questionnaire of parental attitude (ORO)" (Варга, Столш), which contains 5 scales and explores the integral emotional attitude to the child (acceptance or rejection), socially desirable image of parental attitude (cooperation), interpersonal distance in communication with the child (symbiosis), the form and direction of control over the child's behavior (control), as well as the attitude of parents to the failures of the child; projective method "Picture of the family", which reflects the child's experience and perception ofhis/her place in the family, the child's attitude to the family as a whole and to the individual members; "PARI" method (Шеффер, Белл), which contains 23 scales and is designed to study the attitude of parents (especially mothers) to various aspects of family life (family role) - 8 scales and 15 scales for parent-child relationships (optimal emotional contact, excessive emotional distance with the child, excessive concentration on the child). Raw scores were processed using Excel and SPSS statistical package using correlation data analysis.

Results

As a result of the empirical study, the following data were obtained, which are presented in table 1.

Table 1

The results of diagnostics according to the method of parental attitude (Варга, Столш)

According to the indicators in Table 1, a positive attitude towards the child prevails in complete families, they have higher indicators on the scale of "acceptance" (6,3%) than in single-parent families. However, 91% of respondents from single-parent families have high scores on the "Cooperation" scale. Parents seek to cooperate with the child, show considerable interest in his/her affairs. Whereas in complete families only 75% of respondents have high rates. In complete families, more parents want to be united with the child, contact with a kid (31,3%) than in single-parent families (18,2%). In single-parent families, a larger percentage of parents (9%) establish a significant psychological distance between themselves and the child, taking little care of the kid. In complete families it is 6,2%. According to the "Control" scale, single-parent families do not have high rates, which indicates that neither parent treats the child too authoritarian, demanding absolute obedience. Whereas in complete families, 12,5% of respondents use it. However, the average level of control is much higher in single-parent families - 81,8%, while in a complete family - 62,5%. 18,2% of respondents from single-parent families consider their children small losers, do not pay attention to the thoughts, interests, feelings of their own child. In complete families, this figure is 6,3%. Also, 68,7% of respondents from complete families believe that their children's failures are just a coincidence and believe in them, while in single-parent families - 45,5%. If we summarize the data of respondents from complete and incomplete families and depict them graphically, we obtain the following results shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Distribution of parental attitude types in the group of children under study

Therefore, according to the results of diagnostic research using this method and according to the indicators of fig. 1. the majority of respondents have high scores on the scales of "cooperation", "symbiosis" and low on the scale of "attitude to failure". These data show that most parents show a genuine interest in the interests of their child, value the child's abilities, and encourage the child's independence and initiative. They strive to be on an equal footing with him/her. High scores on the "symbiosis" scale indicate that parents strive for a symbiotic relationship with the child, feel unity with the child, always try to be closer to the kid, meet basic needs, protect from trouble. However, these parents treat the child's failures as a coincidence, do not lose faith in the offspring.

Therefore, we can talk about the difference in the direction of parental attitudes in the studied groups. This will help to build a clearer picture of the problem under study and to determine the particularity and nature of the relationship between the emotional disorders of children from complete and single-parent families and parental attitudes.

Studying the features and type of parental attitudes towards the children under study, we identified two main generalizing types:

1) constructive attitude: the child is in a positive family relationship, free from excessive care or control, with accepting and understanding attitude of the parents; the desire of parents to be friends and mentors for the child;

2) destructive attitude: the type of parental influence in which the child is in an uncomfortable family situation, with an authoritarian style of upbringing, where excessive control and rejection of their own child prevails; parents usually have a low opinion of their own child, which provokes the low self-esteem. Such a division is conditional, of course. In general, the analyzed scales and their indicators are understood and analyzed by us in this way, i.e., according to the level of favorable impact on the child.

The "Family Picture" technique helps to establish good emotional contact between the psychologist and the child, relieves the tension that arises in the research situation. In pictures, children can express things that are difficult for them to express by words. Observing the drawing process, useful information about the child's family relationships was obtained. Some children constantly covered their drawing with their hands, which testified to the children's distrust of their own strength, the need for support from adults. Most of the students started their drawing with a picture of mom or dad, to whom they relate well. The location of family members in the picture shows their relationship.

Analysis of the "Picture of the family" method results are presented in table. 2. They helped to find out the child's attitude to family members, as well as establish the characteristics of the relationship that cause kid's anxiety and conflict.

Table 2

Distribution of indicators and characteristics of respondents from complete and incomplete families ("Picture of the family")

As it can be seen from table. 2, a more favorable family situation is observed with children of the first group (62,5%). These children grow up surrounded by love and self-respect, have a warm relationship with their family members. In general, bright colors dominate in the pictures of children from complete families, usually depicting both parents, the child is placed in the center of the picture surrounded by relatives, brothers and sisters.

Most of the studied children from single-parent families are characterized by distress. The absence of one of the parents, the constant employment of the other (usually the mother) leads to a feeling of loneliness and at this background feelings of anxiety. Disharmonious relations between family members, which are manifested in quarrels, lead to negative characteristics in the child, provoke conflict and aggression. The rate of anxiety is quite high in both groups of children. The child, prone to anxiety, is constantly in a wary and depressed mood, he/she has complex relationship with the world around, which is perceived as scary and hostile. Anxiety of younger students can be caused by both external conflicts originating from the parents and internal - from the child himself. One of the most common causes of anxiety is high demands on the child, inflexible, dogmatic system of education, which does not take into account the child's own activity, interests, abilities and inclinations.

The most common system of education - "you have to be an excellent student." The reason of anxiety is always an internal conflict, which can be caused by: conflicting demands from parents; inadequate requirements that do not meet the capabilities and aspirations of the child; negative demands that put the child in a humiliated, dependent position.

In all three cases there is a feeling of "loss of support"; loss of strong guidelines in life, uncertainty in the world around. Studies have shown that in childhood, when the foundation of the human personality is laid, the consequences of anxiety can be significant and dangerous. Anxiety always threatens where the child is a family "burden", where there is no love or the upbringing is excessively rational, academic, cold, without feelings and sympathy. Anxious children are characterized by frequent manifestations of anxiety and worry, a large number of fears and special sensitivity, as well as low selfesteem. Drawing helps to recognize anxious children.

Their drawings are characterized by a large number of hatching, strong pressure, as well as small image sizes. Often such children are "stuck" on details, especially small ones. Such children have a serious, restrained facial expression, lowered eyes, sit neatly on a chair, try not to make unnecessary movements, not to make noise, prefer not to attract the attention of others. Such children are called modest, shy.

In general, (average indicators), a favorable family situation is observed in more than 40,6% of families. Family cohesion, drawing family members with joined hands, their unity in common activities are indicators of psychological well-being, perception of family integration, inclusion in the family. In 25% of families children experience high anxiety. Strong shading, or strong pressure when depicting figures give a sense of anxiety that the child feels in relation to this character. In such drawings, children often used erasure, redrawing. According to practice, children who feel insecure, anxious, tend to draw small figures that modestly occupy a small part of the sheet. 60,4% of families face conflict. The drawings show the separation of family members from each other, sometimes using "barriers" in the form of walls, objects, lines. Inadequate size of individual figures indicates the significance or, conversely, not the significance of this person for the child. The absence of a family member indicates possible difficulties in interpersonal relationships, indifference, emotional alienation, and so on.

Feelings of inferiority are felt by children in 40,5% of families. Small figures of themselves, depicted in the company of parents, express feelings of helplessness. They feel weak, insignificant in the family. The image of themselves at the bottom of the sheet indicates the child's deprivation, the feeling of inferiority. Such children often portray their legs as weak, short, and poorly drawn. The figures are unstable, ready to "fall" at any moment. Hostility in the family occurs in 17,5% of families. Aggressive posture, too wide eyes, pursed lips, open mouth, disproportionately large hands, long and well-drawn fingers indicate family aggression.

So, we come to the conclusion that in general a favorable family situation affects the emotional state and well-being of the child, the formation of individual and personal qualities, their relationship with parents. However, there are families where children are most anxious about the family microclimate, family conflicts, hostility in the family, and feelings of inferiority. It is obvious that children unconsciously express insecurity, anxiety, built on a weak foundation in a symbolic way. In the absence of a basic sense of security, personality development is impaired; constant anxiety continues to hinder the movement to emotional maturity and mental health.

Due to the results of "Picture of the family" graphics method, there was a tendency for the constructive type of parental attitude to dominate in complete families and the destructive type of attitude - in incomplete. Statistical analysis, however, did not confirm the assumption: this interdependence is not statistically significant. As a result of the PARI method by data on parental attitudes in families of primary school students were obtained (Tables 3, 4).

Table 3

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Резюме

М. Полухіна, Т. Анпілогова

У статті подані результати теоретичного та емпіричного дослідження впливу батьківського ставлення на психічний розвиток молодших школярів.

Метою статті є дослідження особливостей батьківсько-дитячих стосунків як передумови формування особистості дитини та її психічного розвитку. Теоретичний аналіз проблеми засвідчив, що ставлення батьків до дитини має особливе значення протягом усіх років дитинства, особливо, під час вікових криз розвитку, зокрема, протягом молодшого шкільного віку та реалізується у підтриманні емоційного контакту з дитиною, формою контролю за її поведінкою, містить суб'єктивно-оцінне, свідомо-вибіркове уявлення про дитину, що обумовлює особливості батьківського сприйняття, характер і спосіб спілкування з дитиною, прийоми впливу на неї.

Емпіричне дослідження впливу батьківського ставлення на психічний розвиток учнів молодших класів проводилося серед учнів 2-4 класів віком 8-10 років за допомогою психологічних методик: методика «Тест-опитувальник батьківського ставлення (ОРО)» (А. Варга, В. Столін), яка досліджує емоційне ставлення до дитини (прийняття-неприйняття), соціально бажаний образ батьківського ставлення (кооперацію), міжособистісну дистанцію у спілкуванні з дитиною (симбіоз), форму і напрямок контролю за її поведінкою, ставлення батьків до невдач дитини; проективна методика «Малюнок сім'ї» відображає ставлення дитини до сім'ї в цілому та до окремих її членів та сприйняття нею свого місця в сім'ї; методика «PARI» (Е. Шеффера, Р. Белла) призначена для вивчення ставлення батьків до різних сторін сімейного життя (сімейної ролі). У результаті емпіричного дослідження було доведено, що сприятлива сімейна обстановка, гармонійні стосунки між подружжям, конструктивний тип батьківського ставлення, за якого дитина вільна від надмірної опіки чи контролю, а батьки приймають та розуміють її, прагнуть бути друзями та порадниками, гнучкість у спілкуванні та засобів впливу на дитину з огляду на її вікові особливості, позитивно впливають на емоційний стан та формування індивідуально-особистісних якостей дитини, її взаємин з батьками.

Ключові слова: батьківське ставлення; діти; молодші школярі; психічний розвито; учні молодших класів.