The interrelation of students’ ideas about fatherhood with gender, age and structure of valuable orientations

Introduction. The relevance of the present research is determined by the need to create a system of measures to support and develop the institution of fatherhood, the formation of parental competence, effective models of paternal behaviour among modern youth and insufficient study of this phenomenon from psychological positions. The problem of the research is to resolve the contradiction between the requirement of modern society to form a value-positive attitude towards fatherhood among students’ youth and the need to identify psychological factors in the formation of ideas about fatherhood, parental attitudes, motivation for parenthood, and acceptance of the father’s role at the stage of entering adulthood.

The aim of the research is to reveal the interrelation of ideas about fatherhood (“ideal father”, “I am an expectant father”) with gender, age and structure of valuable orientations among modern students.

Methodology and research methods. The theoretical and methodological framework of the research is based on cultural-historical theory of development of the psyche and the doctrine of psychological age by L. S. Vygotsky; age-psychological approach to the analysis of mental development in ontogenesis (by L. S. Vygotsky, D. B. Elkonin, L. I. Bozhovich, O. A. Karabanova,

E. I. Zakharova, G. V. Burmenskaya, et al.); the doctrine of the indicative activities by P. Y. Galperin. The research methods involve theoretical-methodological literature analysis, questionnaire method, psycho-diagnostic methods, and mathematical and statistical data processing methods.

Results. The authors described and compared the content of ideas about fatherhood among young men and young women depending on the structure of valuable orientations at different stages of age development. Three homogeneous clusters  were  identifi      using  divisive  clustering  of  an  empirical  sample:

1)  orientation towards the values of professional self-realisation (193 respondents, 17.8%); 2) orientation towards gnostic and aesthetic values (274 respondents, 25.2%); 3) orientation towards the values of personal life (619 respondents, 57%). The interrelation of ideas about fatherhood (“ideal father”, “I am an expectant father”) with gender, age, and structure of valuable orientations of modern students is revealed. The image of the ideal father is generally characterised by fragmentary and incomplete representations, and, in some cases, by cognitive distortions.

Scientific novelty of the research is to reveal the interrelation of ideas about fatherhood with the structure of valuable orientations of young men and women in adolescence and early adulthood.

Practical significance. The obtained results actualise the importance and necessity of psychological and pedagogical support of the process of family self-determination of students, the formation of complete and adequate ideas about fatherhood allowing for the development of its educational potential in the conditions of the educational environment of the university.

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