The article addresses the empiric study of superstitious beliefs of teenagers influenced by the parent’s superstitions and parental attitudes. The population of the study included 46 adolescents aged 12-18 and 72 parents (mothers and fathers). The following methodology was used with the teenagers: “Superstitiousness Inventory” by Abitov, “Beliefs and Superstitions Questionnaire” by Stoyanova, questionnaire “Teenagers about Parents” by Wasserman, Gorkova, Romontzina and projective technique “Family sociogram” by Eidemiller and Nikilskaya. Parents were studied with the use of “Superstitiousness Inventory” by Abitov, “Beliefs and Superstitions Questionnaire” by Stoyanova, questionnaire “Family relationships analysis” (variant for parents who have 11-21-year-old children) by Eidemiller and Yustitskis and projective technique “Family sociogram” by Eidemiller, and Nikilskaya. It was found that the way teenagers experience parental attitude and peculiarities of parental attitude influence the superstitious beliefs of adolescents: father’s hostility and phobia of loss of a child contribute to the development of pralogical perception and magic anxiety; mother’s educational inconsistency contribute to the development of magical forecasting; father’s hostility, excessiveness and insufficiency of requirements for the child and emotional rejection promote the teenagers’ propensity for going to mentalists and for paying attention to signs; father’s directivity and mother’s low directivity impact the high level of superstitiousness. It was also revealed that various components of parental superstitiousness determine superstitiousness of teenagers by 55%.
Keyword(s) : parents
Family Upbringing Styles and Methods vs Youth Propensity for Aggression
The study of the propensity of young people to react aggressively (readiness for aggression) is relevant
because it affects everyone and is the cause of many disasters, crimes, and the growth of aggressive
behavior of young people, which are reflected in the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Scientists are trying to identify the reasons, factors contributing to the manifestation of aggressive
forms of behavior among young people. However, no Russian research was found in which the
influence of parenting practices (styles of education, methods of education) on the development
of readiness for aggression among young people was studied in a comprehensive manner. The
purpose of this research was to study the influence of family education practice on the development
of readiness for aggression among young people. The experiment involved 237 people aged 18-24,
who were randomly selected. Of these, 110 were girls and 127 were boys. All respondents were
from complete families. The survey was carried out using the following methods: ‘The interpersonal
behaviors inventory’, ‘Retrospective inventory of child rearing practices’, ‘Retrospective
questionnaire of parenting styles’.
The authors identified what forms of readiness for aggression are expressed among Russian youth,
as well as gender characteristics. Emotional-Impulsive Readiness was found for girls and Habitual-
Cognitive Readiness for boys. Mothers are perceived by young people as being more democratic
while fathers, in the opinion of their children, used more often authoritarian and liberal (dismissive)
parenting styles. The results of the study showed that mothers most often used positive and punitive
parenting methods. College-educated fathers used positive parenting methods. The results obtained
will be of interest for specialists working with families.