Features of the Life Position of Mothers Depending on Their Education and the Child’s Age

Introduction

The relevance of this work is largely associated with one of the most significant topics in contemporary psychological and pedagogical research: the socialization of the younger generation. The process of a child’s socialization is closely related to the parents’ social well-being, their life position, which to a large extent determines the social content of the child’s development (Sobkin, 1997; Sobkin & Marich, 2002; Sobkin & Pisarsky, 1992; Sobkin, Skobeltsina, Ivanova, & Veriasova, 2013; Vygotsky, 1984). This study is also important for understanding the context of contemporary socio-economic changes that characterize the current situation of child development at the level of macro-trends: greater economic inequality, social differentiation, ambiguity of processes in educational policy (Belavina, 2009; Belova & Kartseva, 2013; Rean , Kurdashev, & Baranov, 2022; Sobkin, 1997; Sobkin, Abrosisomva, Adamchuk, & Baranova, 2005; Vandanova, 2018). Sociocultural changes in the contemporary Russian family also play an important role here, associated with: the institutionalization of non-marital motherhood, the frequency of single-motherhood, low birth rates, the increase in the number of dysfunctional families, trends toward the “westernization” of the lifestyle of modern parents, which is expressed in the diversification and fragmentation of family practices (Lesthaeghe & Surkyn, 2004; Makhnach, 2019; Polomoshnov & Kravtsova, 2022; Sobkin & Marich, 2002; Sobkin, Skobeltsina, Ivanova, & Veryasova, 2013; Van de Kaa, 2010).

Furthermore, as reviews of publications of contemporary foreign psychological and sociological studies show (Shapovalenko, 2022), the relationship between parenthood and the individual’s psychological well-being are being actively discussed (Levesque, Bisson, Charton, & Fernet, 2020; Mikucka & Rizzi, 2020; Ryan & Padilla, 2019; Simpson & Rholes, 2019; Young, Roberts, & Ward, 2019). This connection was also described in a review of studies of the subjective image of motherhood (Kulikov, Malenova, & Potapova, 2020), which changes under the influence of life plans, circumstances, external and internal factors such as cultural traditions, value orientations, notions of personal success, career, and well-being in interpersonal relationships in the close social environment.

Based on our many years of research, we believe that parents’ life position can be expressed by such indicators as: priorities in life values, emotional assessment of one’s future, and the significance of various social risks. The indicators of life position that we developed have been used in our studies of participants in the educational process since the early 1990s and have shown high content validity regarding the influence of demographic factors and social stratification. This has been confirmed by sociological analysis in cross-cultural studies of the value orientations of adolescents, teachers, and parents (Fedotova, 2016; Sobkin, 1998; Sobkin & Pisarsky, 1992; Sobkin & Smyslova, 2014), deviant manifestations (Sobkin, Abrosimova, Adamchuk, & Baranova, 2004), self-determination of adolescents (Sobkin, 1997; Sobkin 2006; Sobkin & Vaganova, 2006), vocational guidance (Sobkin & Kalashnikova, 2019; 2020), and parents of preschoolers (Sobkin & Marich, 2002; Sobkin, Skobeltsina, Ivanova, & Veryasova, 2013).

But perhaps the most important thing that determines the relevance of this study is its general focus on identifying the mutual influences of institutions of the family and the school in the socialization of the child. The practical significance of the study is in improving the interaction between the family and the school in organizing the educational process (Guzman & Beznosyuk, 2022; Tsvetkova, 2017).

The objective of this study is to characterize the distinctive features of the relationship between indicators of life position (values, emotional evaluation of one’s success in life, the significance of threats posed by the social environment) with the educational status of mothers of boys and girls studying in primary, middle, and high school.

Methods

The study used data from an anonymous electronic sociological survey of 302,117 parents of pupils in grades 1–11 at general schools from 85 regions of the Russian Federation; it was conducted by staff of the Center for the Sociology of Education’s Institute of Education Management, Russian Academy of Education, in 2022. The study examined the answers of 285,714 mothers of primary, middle, and high school students to closed-ended questions in a questionnaire that address three indicators of a mother’s life position: value orientations, emotional assessment of the likely success of her future prospects, and evaluation of the significance for herself of various social threats.

To identify significant values, the following question was asked: “Which of the following life values are the most significant for you?” The respondents could choose from several possible answers: health; successful professional activity; spiritual and physical intimacy with a loved one; achievement of material well-being; having close friends; raising one’s cultural level; self-reliance and independence; happy family life; opportunity for creative work; raising the level of one’s education; a good relationship with one’s parents; respect of others.

The emotional evaluation of the likely success of one’s future prospects was determined by the question: “Everyone evaluates their personal prospects differently. Can you say that in general: 1) you look forward to tomorrow with confidence and optimism; 2) you have your doubts that life will turn out well; 3) you anticipate tomorrow with fear and pessimism?

To identify the attitude to threats from the social environment, the following question was posed: “What scares you the most?” The respondents could choose no more than three of the proposed answers for what is most significant to them: crime; unemployment; hunger and poverty; lack of social protection; extremism; military resolution of foreign and domestic conflicts; tightening of the regime in the country; deterioration of the foreign political situation; epidemics (coronavirus, HIV) and other infectious diseases.

The answers to these questions are analyzed with respect to the mother’s educational level, and the gender and age of the child. We studied subsamples of mothers with different educational status (higher education 50.4%, specialized secondary education 40.4%; secondary education 10.2%). This article provides a comparative analysis of the responses of mothers with higher and secondary levels of education. Table 1 shows the distribution of subsamples, taking into account the level of the mother’s education, and the gender and age of the child.

Table 1

Distribution of Respondents in Subsamples by Level of Education, Age and Gender of Child, %

In addition to considering the distribution of answers to the questions posed by different subsamples of respondents (about values, success in life, social threats), we used factor analysis of the statistical materials to identify meaningful features of the indicators of the mothers’ life position. The answers in the subsamples of mothers with higher and secondary education of boys and girls studying in grades 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were subjected to factor analysis (principal component analysis with axis rotation according to the varimax Kaiser criterion).

The differences discussed in the article are significant at the level p ≤ .05.

Results and Discussion

The results are grouped into two sections. The first presents data analysis about the distribution of respondents’ answers to the three questions that determine the particular life position (values, emotional evaluation of success, social risks). The second describes the results of factor analysis of respondents’ answers, taking into account the level of the mother’s education, and the gender and age of the child.

I. Mothers’ Answers to Questions That Identify Their Particular Life Position

Although the research is midway through the five-year programmatic study, there have been significant developments in understanding how imagination in play and imagination in STEM have affected the children’s development. A summary of the key findings is presented in Tables 2–5, alongside a discussion of the collective significance regarding the impact of increasing the cognitive load of children across cultural age periods.

Life values. The general distribution of the schoolchildren’s mothers’ answers to the question about life values showed that “health” (91.4%) and “happy family life” (61.6%) are the most important for them. One out of three respondents answered “achievement of material well-being” (34.1%) or “successful professional activity” (32.4%). One out of four or five indicated “self-reliance and independence” (24.5%); “respect of others” (21.6%); “having friends” (18.3%). The following are in descending order of importance: “raising the level of one’s education” (13.0%); “spiritual and physical intimacy with a loved one” (12.2%); “raising one’s cultural level” (8.9%); “opportunity for creative work” (6.8%).

Figure 1 shows the results of a comparative analysis of responses by level of the mothers’ education.

Figure 1. Significant differences in the priorities of life values among subsamples by educational status of the mother, %

Note. S/E = secondary education; H/E = higher education

The figure shows that the values associated with personal and professional growth (striving for self-realization) are more characteristic of mothers with higher education, while mothers with secondary education more often note the importance of maintaining social status in the microsocial environment (“respect of others”).

Consideration of the age dynamics of changes in the significance of various values showed that as the child grows older, mothers consistently place more emphasis on successful professional activity and less on the importance of a happy family life (Fig. 2).

Figure 2. Dynamics of changes in the importance of life values in mothers, depending on the age of the child, %

An additional analysis of the data shows that the decline in importance of “a happy family life” with as the child grows older is mainly observed among mothers with higher education: 70.4% for mothers of first-graders, and 63.5% for mothers of 11th-graders; whereas for mothers with secondary education it is 52.8% and 50.1%, respectively. At the same time, the importance of “successful professional activity” among mothers with higher education consistently increases with the age of the child from the first grade to 11th grade (33.4% of mothers of first graders and 43.8% of mothers of 11th graders), whereas for mothers with a secondary education, a similar increase in the significance of “successful professional activity” occurs only at the child’s transition to high school (24.6% for mothers of ninth graders and 34.0% for mothers of 11th graders).

Emotional evaluation of success in life. In analyzing the answers to the question about the emotional assessment of one’s prospects, we found that the majority of the mothers surveyed are optimistic about their future: “I look forward to tomorrow with confidence and optimism” (80.7%). At the same time, one out of six “doubts that life will turn out well” (16.4%). And, finally, only a few (2.9%) clearly evaluate their life prospects negatively (“with fear and pessimism”).

The data of comparative analysis in the subsamples by level of education indicate that mothers with secondary education have a more negative assessment of their life prospects (Fig. 3).

Figure 3. Differences in answers to the question about the emotional evaluation of life prospects among mothers with different educational status, %

Note. S/E = secondary education; H/E = higher education

Analysis of the influence of the child’s age indicates a clear decrease in “optimism” in mothers with higher education. Whereas 85.9% of mothers of first-graders are optimistic about their life prospects, that is true of 78.4% of mothers of 11th-graders. In parallel, the proportion of those who are “uncertain” about their future (11.7% and 17.8%, respectively) and those who are “pessimists” (2.4% and 3.8%, respectively) increased in this group. For mothers with secondary education, self-appraisal of their life prospects remains fairly stable throughout all the stages of their child’s schooling.

Social risk assessment. Analysis of respondents’ answers to the question about threats from the social environment showed that respondents consider the most significant to be “crime” (48.0%), “unemployment” (43.0%); “epidemics” (41.4%); and “military resolution of foreign and domestic conflicts” (41.2%). One in three respondents checked “deterioration of the foreign political situation” (30.2%); “hunger and poverty” (28.7%), and one in five – “lack of social protection” (22.2%). The threat of “extremism” (11.7%) and “tightening of the regime in the country” (11.4%) are much less frequently checked.

Figure 4 shows the results of a comparative analysis of answers about the significance of social threats depending on the mother’s educational status.

Figure 4. Significant differences in answers to question about threats to the social environment between subsamples with different educational status, %

Note. S/E = secondary education; H/E = higher education

 The figure shows that the mothers’ educational status significantly affects their evaluation of the significance of various threats to the social environment. Thus, mothers with higher education tend to pay more attention to macrosocial trends (military resolution of foreign and domestic conflicts, deterioration of the foreign political situation, extremism, lack of social protection), whereas mothers with secondary education are more likely to focus on threats associated with personal insecurity and social well-being (crime, unemployment, hunger and poverty).

Analysis of changes in mothers’ evaluations of the significance of threats to the social environment depending on the age of the child showed that from 1st to 11th grade, the frequency of choosing such aspects as “military resolution of foreign and domestic conflicts” increases (from 41.4% to 44.8%, respectively); “unemployment” (from 40.6% to 44.9%, respectively); “deterioration of the foreign political situation” (29.3% to 35.8%, respectively); “lack of social protection” (from 21.2% to 24.1%, respectively). The significance of other threats decreases in parallel: “crime” (from 51.4% to 38.6%, respectively) and “hunger and poverty” (from 31.4% to 24.1%, respectively). Note that such age dynamics are quite understandable given the change in the social composition of high school pupils, where the proportion of pupils from families in which the parents have higher education is increasing.

II. Interrelation of the Mother’s Educational Level, and the Gender and Age of the Child, on the Mother’s Life Position

On the whole, the data cited above shows the clear influence of mothers’ educational status on various aspects of their life position: value attitudes, social risks, and emotional evaluation of their success in life. At the same time, several of the results clearly also illustrate the important role of the child’s age in the significance of various characteristics of the mother’s life position. This means there is a need to simultaneously consider the impact of a complex of indicators. For this purpose, we performed a factor analysis of the empirical data, which makes it possible to take into account the interacting effects of the mother’s level of education, and the gender and age of the child, on the meaningful features of her life position.

To do this, the mothers’ responses were processed with respect to the subsamples that classified their educational status, the child’s gender and age group (grade). The percentage distributions of answers to questions about values, success in life and social threats in each subsample were grouped into a matrix of primary averaged data with a total dimension of 23 (rows) × 24 (columns), where the rows contain the wording of answers to questions about various aspects of life position, and the columns identify subsamples of mothers by educational level (secondary or higher education), the child’s gender (boy or girl), and school grade (1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th grades). The cell of the matrix (the intersection of the row and column) shows the percentage of the corresponding subsample that chose that answer to the question.

The matrix of averaged percentage scores concerning different aspects of the mothers’ life position in the corresponding subsamples was subjected to factor analysis (principal component analysis with axis rotation according to the varimax Kaiser criterion). The table shows the results of the factor analysis performed with SPSS Statistics 13.0 software.

Factor analysis yielded four factors explaining 90.4% of the total cumulative variance. Significant weight scores of meaningful indicators of life position according to the selected factors are shown in Table 2.

Table 2

Content of the Selected Factors (% of Variance and Weights of Indicators)

 The first, most powerful bipolar factor, F1 (contribution to the cumulative variance – 44.3%), characterizes the opposition between “striving for self-realization” and “personal insecurity”. At its positive pole, values were grouped with respect to successful professional activity, raising one’s cultural level, the level of one’s education, opportunity for creative work, self-reliance and independence, spiritual and physical intimacy with a loved one. These are values associated with striving for self-realization in various areas of life: professional, educational, cultural, interpersonal relations. It is significant that the success of self-realization and achievements in various fields correlate with possible threats on the macrosocial level, both in domestic policy (lack of social protection, extremism) and in foreign policy (deterioration of the foreign political situation, military resolution of foreign and domestic conflicts). The negative pole of this factor reflects the significance of the microsocial environment (respect of others) and threats that are associated with personal insecurity (crime, tightening of the regime in the country).

Thus, in general, this factor establishes the opposition between “striving for self-realization” and “personal insecurity”.

The second-most-powerful bipolar factor, F2 (contribution to the cumulative variance – 23.9%) establishes the opposition between “optimism” and “pessimism”. The positive pole of this factor is characterized by an emotionally positive evaluation of one’s success in life (“I look forward to tomorrow with confidence and optimism”). Such an evaluation is associated with the importance of the values of material well-being and a happy family life. Thus, we can conclude that it is these basic values that, in general, determine the mothers’ evaluation of their own well-being, of its foundation.

The negative pole of this factor is determined by emotionally negative evaluations of one’s success in life (“fear”, “pessimism”, “doubt”). Such a negative view of one’s life prospects is characteristically associated with the threat of “unemployment”. Thus, job loss turns out to be an important factor, not only for material success (the ability to provide for oneself), but also for social success (the status of being “unemployed”).

This factor establishes the opposition between “optimism” and “pessimism” in assessing one’s success in life.

Unipolar factor F3 (contribution to cumulative variance 13.9%) is “microsocial well-being”. This factor is quite simple in its structure and establishes a connection between the value of “having close friends” and the threat of “hunger and poverty”. We may consider that this factor characterizes the significance of the particular role of the microsocial environment in evaluating one’s well-being: the microsocial environment (“close” friends) acts as a supporting factor in a difficult financial situation (“hunger and poverty”).

And finally, unipolar factor F4 (contribution to cumulative variance 8.3%) is “physical well-being”. This factor, like the previous one, is simple in its structure and establishes a connection between the value of health and the threat of epidemics. That connection is quite obvious today, in connection with the spread of the coronavirus.

Thus, the factor analysis we performed made it possible to identify the following four generalized factors that characterize the meaningful features of the life position of the pupils’ mothers: F1 “striving for self-realization — personal insecurity”; F2 “optimism — pessimism”; F3 “microsocial well-being”; F4 “physical well-being.”

Another line of consideration of the results of factor analysis concerns the placement of the scores of subsamples of mothers along the axes of the selected factors (see Table 3).

Table 3

Placement of the Scores of Subsamples of Mothers along the Axes of the Selected Factors.

We begin consideration of the distributions of subsamples of mothers by analyzing the results along the axes of the simplest of the identified factors, F4 and F3.

Table 3 shows that, as a rule, mothers of girls have positive scores along factor axis F4 (“physical well-being”), in contrast to mothers of boys, whose scores along that factor axis are negative. This fact shows that physical well-being does not play a significant role in the life position of mothers of boys. In general, this allows us to conclude that the gender of the child affects the actualization of health-maintaining values in mothers. It is mothers of girls who are more inclined to accentuate the value of health and the threat of being exposed to epidemics and various infectious diseases (coronavirus, HIV, etc.). It is possible that such concern about health among the mothers of girls is due to mechanisms of gender identification of the mother with her daughter. Fears and concerns for the daughter’s health are also projected onto the mother’s own life position, whereas social stereotypes associated with the idea of a man as healthy and strong, negate the importance of this value for the mother to a significant extent. And the son himself is inclined to resist such patronizing behavior on the part of the mother regarding his health.

We note in addition that the importance of health-maintaining values is most pronounced in the life position of mothers with a secondary education, both when her daughter enters school (1st grade) and after her graduation (11th grade).

As for the interpretation of the placement of subsamples of mothers along the axis of factor F3 (“microsocial well-being”), here it is necessary (taking into account the data in Table 2 on the weight loads of life position indicators) to keep in mind the high, not positive, but negative scores. The data show that negative scores are mainly characteristic of mothers with a secondary education who are raising girls. Moreover, the supporting role of the significance of the microsocial environment is actualized in them at the stage of their daughter’s transition to middle school (grade 4) and reaches the highest score among mothers of 11th graders. It is at this stage of her daughter’s life that the value of having close friends and their supportive role is most significant for the mother. It is also noteworthy that among mothers with a secondary education whose sons are in the 11th grade, the importance of the role of “close friends” also sharply increases and the fear of possible material threats (hunger, poverty) grows. On the whole, this allows us to conclude that there are significant changes in the life position of mothers with a secondary education when the child graduates from school. Obviously, in this social group of mothers with secondary education, the separation of the child from the parents is acutely felt, which causes the mother’s compensatory need for close friends to increase. However, another interpretation is also possible. Separation of the child from the mother actualizes her anxiety about the child’s socio-psychological well-being. Therefore, it is important for the mother that the child have close friends, including among prosperous families (who do not experience “hunger and poverty”).

In general, the placement of subsamples of mothers along the axes of factors F3 and F4 allows us to conclude that the child’s gender and age have a significant impact on the mother’s life position with respect to the importance of physical and social well-being. Moreover, it can be assumed that both the mechanisms of gender identification of the mother with her daughter and the projection of her concerns about the socio-psychological well-being of the child during the transition from adolescence to adulthood play an important role in the actualization of such life attitudes.

Of greatest interest is the placement of the scores of subsamples of mothers in the space of the bipolar factors of F1, “desire for self-realization — personal insecurity” and F2 “optimism — pessimism” (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Placement of subsamples of mothers of boys and girls in grades 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11 in the space of the bipolar factors of F1, “desire for self-realization — personal insecurity” and F2, “optimism — pessimism”,

Note. B = boys; G = girls; 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 – grades; S/E = secondary education; H/E = higher education

From the data shown in Figure 5, it can be seen that the F1 factor, in general, clearly differentiates between mothers with higher and secondary education. Thus, women with higher education who are mothers of all age groups of boys and girls are located at the positive pole, which indicates the intensity of their aspirations for self-realization. At the same time, women with secondary education who are mothers of primary and secondary school pupils are located at the negative pole of factor F1 (“personal insecurity”), where a significant value is the respect of others, along with the fear of both a tightening of the regime in the country and the fear of becoming a victim of crime.

The factor F2 “optimism — pessimism”, as seen in Figure 5, clearly differentiates women with higher education who are mothers of primary and secondary school pupils (positive values) from all subsamples of mothers with secondary education, as well as from those mothers with higher education whose children are in the 9th and 11th grades (negative values).

When interpreting the results, it is important to note the placement of subsamples of mothers in the quadrants of the space defined by the intersection of factors F1 and F2. Two points stand out here.

First of all, Figure 5 clearly shows that women with higher education who are mothers of primary and secondary school pupils (both boys and girls) are placed in quadrant I, and women with secondary education who are mothers of pupils of the same age are placed in the opposite one, quadrant III. Thus, the life position of women with higher education who are mothers of primary and secondary school pupils, in general, is characterized by striving for self-realization and optimism regarding their success in life, whereas the life position of women with secondary education who are mothers of schoolchildren of the same age is determined by the personal insecurity of the mother, as well as her negative evaluations (pessimism, doubt) about her success in life.

In our view, this result is of fundamental importance for understanding the impact of a mother’s educational status on parent–child relations in the process of a child’s socialization at the age of primary and secondary school. Thus, the social relationships between a child and a mother with a higher education are determined by the transmission of emotionally positive attitudes from the mother to the child (striving for self-realization, optimism), whereas pupils in primary and secondary school from families in which the mother has an average level of education, are in a completely different situation in a socio-psychological sense: here the position of the mother is determined by personal insecurity and a negative evaluation of her life prospects.

Second, of particular interest is the placement in Figure 5 of the subsamples of mothers in quadrant II. This quadrant characterizes, on the one hand, “striving for self-realization” (F1+), and on the other, “pessimism” (F2-). Mothers of senior high school students in the 9th and 11th grades, both with higher and secondary education, were placed here. Thus, when the child is in high school, the mother’s level of education ceases to play much of a differentiating role in relation to her life position. From this we can also conclude that child–parent relationships for senior high school students from families in which the mother has a secondary or higher education are, in principle, similar, if we consider the mother’s life position: the mothers express a positive attitude towards self-realization, and, at the same time, doubts about their success in life.

But, we emphasize that such similarity is rather formal. Therefore, in order to clarify the specific social situation in the child’s development, we must pay attention to the sociocultural dynamics of differences in the changes in the mother’s life position when a child moves on to high school, from families with different levels of education.

And, indeed, what, does it mean socially for a child whose mother has a low level of education to go to high school? This very fact testifies to a trend of upward educational mobility in the social development of the child, since education in high school implies the continuation of education either at a university (the vast majority of school graduates are oriented to this) or in institutions of secondary vocational education. Thus, we can conclude that in an educational strategy for children from families in which the mother has a low educational status, an important role is played (along with other things like the child’s academic success, abilities, interests, etc.) by the mother’s life position, her value orientation towards self-realization. It is this position of the mother (striving for self-realization) that is of great supporting importance in the child’s strategy of upward educational mobility.

A substantially different situation develops for mothers with higher education in connection with the child’s transition to high school. Their life position also changes. However, the sociocultural dynamics of these changes follows a different line: here the transition along the axis of factor F2 is clearly actualized, from its positive pole (“optimism”) to the negative one (“pessimism”). Since factor analysis indicates that doubts about one’s success in life are associated with the fear of unemployment (see Table 2), we can conclude that for mothers with higher education, not only their possible personal problems in the labor market, but also the professional self-determination of the child, is significant at the stage of graduation from high school. In this regard, we note that parents with higher education often have ideas about a successful professional career that do not correspond to the real situation in the labor market. And, in this respect, parents’ opinions are not authoritative for a senior high school student, for whom a professional choice is of vital importance. And this concern for the success of her child’s future path after graduation is also reflected in the change in the mother’s life position: increased anxiety, doubts, including about her own success.

Conclusion 

1. Using an anonymous questionnaire survey of mothers of primary, middle, and high school pupils, we conducted a large-scale study to identify their life positions. The material was analyzed for the influence of a number of factors (mother’s level of education, gender and age of the child) on the mothers’ evaluations of their success in life, their value orientations, and the significance of various social threats.

2. On the basis of a factor analysis of the empirical data, the following four generalized factors were identified that characterize the life position of mothers of pupils in general schools: “striving for self-realization — personal insecurity”; “optimism — pessimism”; “microsocial well-being”; and “physical well-being”.

3. It was established that the life positions of mothers with higher and secondary education are fundamentally different when the child is in primary and secondary school. Thus, mothers with a higher education are clearly oriented towards self-realization and, at the same time, evaluate the success of their life prospects positively; on the other hand, among mothers with a secondary education, concerns are clearly accentuated about their personal security and pessimism about their success in life.

4. Institutional selection for the continuation of a child’s education in high school levels out the differences in the life positions of mothers with higher and secondary education. The mother’s life position, associated with her striving for self-realization, turns out to be an important factor supporting the child in a strategy of upward educational mobility.

5. The results of the study give grounds to conclude that both the psychological mechanisms of a mother’s gender identification with her daughter and the projection onto the child of her own fears about the child’s socio-psychological well-being during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, play an important role in changes of the parent’s life position.

Limitations

In the future, we plan to consider the life position of mothers in comparison with the positions of fathers, who were also surveyed as part of this study. We also plan to analyze the parental life position depending not only on educational level, but also on the level of material security, as well as the social status of the family (complete/incomplete families). A special line of consideration of the data is associated with comparison of the life positions of fathers and mothers of senior high school students with the life positions of the parents of students receiving secondary vocational education.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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