Effects of a single-parent family on the formation of social and psychological characteristics of children

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Effects of a single-parent family on the formation of social and psychological characteristics of children

Introduction

Degradation of spiritual values of society, the death of one of the parents, illegitimate birth rate, high divorce rate are the main reasons that lead to the emergence of single-parent families and reduce the level of social competence in children from such families. Also, an important factor influencing the increase in the number of single-parent families are changes in moral and value components in relation to the family, unpreparedness for marriage, inflated demands on one's partner, and as a result, the disappointment of unreasonable expectations, a difficult financial situation, the prevalence of premarital relations, etc.

Statistics provided by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine show disappointing data: every year the number of single-parent families with minor children increases, this is dictated by the indicated reasons and by the ongoing war in the East of Ukraine.

The family is one of the thematic groups that remain under the influence of institutions and organizations that support its development. Concern for the welfare of the family is the main axiological component that determines the activities carried out in society as part of the social assistance system. This is due to the special role played by the family environment in creating the conditions for the child's socialization.

In the family, primary socialization takes place, accompanied by the process of introducing young generations to the conditions of social, economic, cultural, and political life. The family environment has the strongest emotional impact, which motivates and supports a person's action, serves for its development in everyday life.

The problem of single-parent families has attracted and continues to attract the attention of specialists in psychology, social work, pedagogy, and sociology. A. Makarenko noted that a singleparent family is a minor disaster compared to a dysfunctional one. A. Kononchuk emphasizes the need for a teacher's sensitive attitude to a child from a single-parent family. K. Suyatynova, O. Maksymovych, L. Povaliy believe that disorders in the family, divorce of parents are the basis for the formation of children's neuroses. I. Dementieva in a sociological study considers the negative factors of raising children in a single-parent family. I. Siryk developed a method of studying the moral spirituality of children from single-parent families. N. Buhayova in her dissertation research analyses the features of socialization and upbringing of children from single-parent families. In his scientific work, Yu. Andreyev points out the factors of the development of aggressive behaviour of children brought up in single-parent families. According to his research, juvenile offenders are mostly from single-parent families. The conditions of gender-role identification, the formation of the child as a person are outlined in the scientific studies by K. Mannapova, M. Bortsova, A. Shydelko.

H. Melnychuk adapts the experience of assisting single-parent families in the EU countries for the conditions of modern Ukraine. I. Tytarenko developed an algorithm for the social support of families, including a single one. L. Tsybulko, characterized the existing types of single-parent families and the psychological characteristics of children brought up in these families, V. Deresh studied the socialization influence of the family on the formation of the child in the socio-cultural dimension. However, issues related to the specifics of the effects of an incomplete family on the formation of social and psychological characteristics in children remain highly relevant and require special attention.

Presenting main material

One of the main institutions of raising a child is the family, where the child, following the example of his/her own family, adapts to life in society and learns to interact with other people. His/her I and the foundations of his/her personality are formed here. The modern development of Ukrainian society dictates its requirements for the institution of the family. And, as a fact, the number of single-parent families is increasing for various reasons. A single-parent family, as a rule, where the child is brought up mainly by the mother, differs from the child's life and his/her upbringing in a complete family. The peculiarities of raising a child in a single-parent family are reflected in the formation of the child as a person, his/her self-esteem, psychological and emotional stability, perception of society, and interaction with other people.

Many specialists have studied the influence of single-parent families on the formation of social and psychological characteristics in children. In particular, N. Strelnikova singled out the educational problems of the modern single-parent family; S. Korzhenevych considered the influence of the structural incompleteness of the family on the development of personality; I. Vakhotska, described the psychological problems of raising single-parent families; I. Siryk, highlighted the peculiarities of the mental development of a child raised in a single-parent family.

From the first days of a child's life, the structure of his/her personality is formed. His/her father and mother become an example to follow. The child accepts the norms of behaviour of the family and tries to be like them. The family, as a small social group, influences its members, while each of them influences the life of the family with some personal qualities. Each member of this small group can influence the goals and attitudes of the entire family. The smaller the family, the higher the psychological compatibility requirements of its members. In large families, micro-groups of interests and spiritual closeness can arise. The family, as a small social group, creates positive conditions for its members to meet emotional needs that help a person feel a sense of belonging to society.

The development of a child in a single-parent family is affected by many destructive factors. These include difficult financial and moral situation in the family, a change in the family composition, the lack of opportunities to identify with one of the parents of the same sex, an inferiority complex due to the absence of a father or mother, rapid maturation and other similar factors. A specific problem of a single-parent family is the problem of the child's gender identification, as well as the usefulness of the upbringing process.

An increase in the number of divorces, a decrease in the birth rate, an increase in crime in the sphere of family and domestic relations and an increase in the risk of children's predisposition to neuroses often occur due to the psychological climate in the family. Intrafamily life plays a leading role in the formation of personality, and not only the relationship between the child and the parents, but also the adults themselves. Constant quarrels between them, deceptions, conflicts, fights, despotism contribute to the tension of the child's nervous activity and neurotic states [1].

For normal psychological development, the child needs to have contact with both the mother and the father, since due to the natural differences between women and men, they satisfy the different needs of children.

It is obvious that the active participation of the mother and father in the functioning of the family is extremely important, especially in the process of raising children, because the child's development depends not only on the absence of a father or mother, but also on one of the parents who does not fulfill their functions, or performs them inappropriately.

Raising a child by a single mother is an extremely difficult task, which creates additional risks that a woman often does not take into account. These include, first of all, too much concentration on the child. Mothers, abandoned by their partners, make raising a child the goal of their lives, devoting themselves completely and entirely to the child. They often try to keep the child in a situation of emotional dependence for as long as possible and prevent them from becoming independent in various ways. There is also a situation when a mother makes her partner out of a child, burdening him/her with her problems and concerns, thereby depriving of the childhood. family disorder divorce moral

Researchers have proven that children who are brought up in single-parent families find it more difficult than their peers from complete families to solve problems in life, they feel more emotional stress in establishing contacts, have less sense of security and are more aggressive. The absence of a father and excessive identification with the mother can contribute to sexual disorders in adulthood in boys raised by single mothers [2].

Sex education of a child in a family, as one of the areas of upbringing, begins with the birth of a child. Observing the nature of interpersonal relationships in the family (between grandparents, father, and mother, sisters and brothers, parents and children), the child gets the first ideas about how to behave with a person of the opposite sex and learns the corresponding patterns of implementation of the relevant sex roles. Once such a child is brought up in a single-parent family, gender-role identification is already violated [3, p. 41].

Children who do not have contact with their parents may be less motivated to achieve and less likely to complete goals. In general, they are less patient and less resistant to negative stimuli than their peers. This is due to the fact that a man can better than a woman, consistently apply punishment and reward, which is the main condition for ensuring the emotional balance of the child.

In a boy's life, the father is the model for the role of husband and father. This situation affects the learning of parenting roles. Thus, the lack of a role model can complicate the correct functioning of the child in the gender role, and in the future, prevent the establishment of the right relationship with the parents and partner.

Studies have shown that men who were deprived of lively contact with their father as children show many symptoms of maladaptation in married life [2].

The absence of a father in the early childhood of the son, the inability to imitate the father in adulthood leads to poor motivation in achieving goals, low self-esteem, inability to abandon today's whims for those benefits that can be achieved in the future. A boy who does not have a proper pattern of behaviour in the family often creates a distorted picture of the pattern of behaviour.

The presence of the father in the family is also critical to the proper development of girls. The father's behaviour towards his daughter is of great importance primarily because he is usually the first man with whom the girl begins her interaction. Observing his behaviour, she forms her view of men in general. Communication with the father allows her to know and understand the psyche of the opposite sex as a whole, which affects her further contacts with men, allows her to better understand her husband and sons.

The way a father treats his daughter makes the girl expect the same attitude from her husband. The absence of a father has a greater effect on the psyche of the son than the daughter. The negative consequences of this phenomenon mainly depend on the mother's attitude to her ex-husband and the current situation.

The most damaging effect of a mother's absence in a child's life is insecurity. The mother, communicating with the child, develops and strengthens the feeling of confidence and love. Thanks to this, she develops psychologically. For a child, the most important person is the mother. She satisfies the biological and mental needs of the child, cares for and gives love.

The disruption of the relationship between the child and the mother can lead to very serious consequences, for example, mental disorders, inhibition of intellectual development, personality disorders, etc. The mother creates a favourable atmosphere in the family, forms the child's emotional attitude to the environment. A woman teaches the child the richness of psychological feelings, allows him/her to better understand other people's problems.

The mother forms feelings of love and other positive emotional states in the children. She teaches how to love and understand other people. Children raised without a mother have problems expressing their feelings and affection. A particularly important task of the mother in the family is to maintain family ties. The mother creates the «roots» of the family and takes care of it. The absence of a mother in a child's life often leads to a feeling of lack of belonging.

For a girl, the absence of a mother is the absence of a personal picture from which she inherits her traits and learns how to act in a given situation. This reduces the chances of successfully fulfilling the role of wife and mother in adulthood. For a son, a mother is often a model of a woman. The absence of this model can cause difficulties in finding a wife. The mother's relationship with other people is very important for the proper social development of the child. A small child observes his/her mother's relationships with other people. The child acknowledges that there are other people whom the mother loves and whose needs she meets. Before the child starts making contact with other people, he/she learns from her mother how to treat them. If there is nothing to learn, this area may not develop at all, and an adult is doomed to loneliness.

Many psychologists point to the increased vulnerability of boys in single-parent families and the presence of additional causes for anxiety. K. Mannapova singles out the general negative consequences of raising a child in a single-parent family:

self-doubt;

having difficulty defining moral values, taking responsibility, developing a sense of duty, and making commitments to their loved ones;

have difficulty respecting someone else's authority;

there are psychological complexes, which in the worst case, can lead to alcohol addiction, substance abuse, and delinquency [4].

Children whose parents are divorced are more likely to face psychological problems than children from strong families. In single-parent families, such a phenomenon as authoritarian or overly liberal relations is more common [5].

Parental divorce for a teenager has a different psycho- traumatic factor. The most traumatic situation is when one of the parents tries to "pull" the child to his side, thus setting it against the father or mother. To a large extent, the ability of parents to adapt to a new situation is important for the adaptation of the adolescent after divorce, because the more anxious the father and mother are, the more likely it is that the child's mental balance will also be disturbed [6].

After analysing the literature, we can conclude that the presence of both parents in the family is very important, it affects the financial situation and living standards of the family. Families living in difficult circumstances cannot afford to raise a child properly. When there are both parents, the difficulties of upbringing are divided into two. The psychological environment in which a child is brought up influences his/her upbringing. Husband and wife have different effects on a child's personality. The sphere of emotional feelings develops under the influence of maternal care; children have a sense of security with their mother. The father also influences the social sphere of life. That is why it is so important for children to be raised by both parents.

Conclusions

Thus, the section of the monograph considers the theoretical aspect of raising children in a single-parent family and the influence of such a family on the formation of the child's general socio-psychological perception of the world and life in it. Having highlighted the problem, we can say that single-parent families belong to one of the main socio-demographic types of the modern Ukrainian family. A family is considered incomplete if one of the parents is absent due to certain circumstances. Single-parent families face psychological, pedagogical, material, and financial problems. Psychological and pedagogical problems include the feeling of family discomfort experienced by children in singleparent families. After all, the absence of one parent is bad for the psycho-emotional state of children, which can lead to a number of complexes that are associated with feelings of inferiority, watching those children who have a strong and complete family. As a result, there are psychological disorders concerning their own family. Material and household problems are the second largest problem, which is present in most single-parent families. Usually, the social and living conditions in such families are far from ideal, and, according to researchers, the lack of material stability has negative consequences for both children and parents from single-parent families. Financial problems often push members of single-parent families to such anti-social acts as robbery, theft, etc. Since the family is the fundamental principle of the child's spiritual, economic, and social development, it must still be complete and harmonious, because the family environment has always been and remains a determining factor in the formation and development of the child's personality, affects his conscious and unconscious actions throughout his life [3, p. 40].

References

1. Вахоцька І. О. (2013). Психологічні особливості дітей з неповних сімей. Актуальні проблеми соціології, психології, педагогіки. 2013. Вип. 4. С. 135-139

2. Дементьева И. Ф. (2001). Негативные факторы воспитания детей в неполной семье. Социологические исследования. №11. С. 108-122.

3. Шиделко А. В. (2015). Соціальна профілактика статевої деморалізації неповнолітніх дівчат в Україні та в Польщі : монографія. Київ, 2015. 208 с.

4. Маннапова К. Р. (2011). Неповна сім'я як чинник, що впливає на формування життєздатності підлітків.

5. Конончук А. І. (2014). Неповна батьківська сім'я як об'єкт соціально-педагогічної роботи

6. Сірик І. В. (2014). Особливості психічного розвитку дитини, яка виховувалась в неповній сім'ї та інтернаті.

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