Children's perception of parental attitudes: Russia-Kyrgyzstan cross-cultural study

¹ Lomonosov Moscow State University, Department of Psychology, 119991 Moscow, Russia
² Psychological Institute of Russian Academy of Education, 125009 Moscow, Russia

^* Corresponding author: tikho@mail.ru

Abstract

The article presents the results of a cross-cultural analysis of the perception of parental attitude by children and adolescents. We focused on the indicators of maternal and paternal attitude such as Acceptance, Positive Involvement, Rejection and Hostile Detachment. The Russian sample includes 501 primary school students aged 6.8 to 11.7 years (49.9% boys) and 438 adolescents aged 10.8 to 16.8 years (47.1% boys). The Kyrgyz sample includes 510 primary school students aged from 6.6 to 11.8 years (48.5% boys) and 513 adolescents aged 10.3 to 16.8 years (46.3% boys). Regardless of the macro environment, schoolchildren perceive the attitude of both parents to a greater extent as emotionally accepting and to a lesser extent as rejecting. At the same time, it is shown that cross-cultural differences in the perception of maternal attitude are manifested only in younger schoolchildren: Kyrgyz children assess maternal attitude as more emotionally accepting with positive involvement and less rejecting. Cross-cultural differences in the perception of paternal attitudes are manifested both in younger schoolchildren and in adolescents: Kyrgyz children assess paternal attitude more positively than Russian peers. The results are interpreted in the context of specific socio-economic conditions.