Challenges of family education: A perspective of today’s parents

Abstract

The paper explores the views of today’s parents on challenges of family education. It analyses the data of a survey conducted on 116 parents of different age groups (aged 20 to 60) and the data obtained from the content analysis of Internet resources for parents. The data are analysed according to the age of parents (three age groups: from 20 to 30, from 31 to 40, from 41 to 60), the age (preschool, primary school, teenage) and sex of their children. The data analysis identified most common challenges of family education regardless of the demographic characteristics of the respondents and the age of their children: lack of psychological knowledge about child development, children’s interaction with gadgets and the digital world, difficulties in mutual understanding and building effective communication. An alarming trend is that parents trust recommendations of anonymous Internet users and seek advice about children’s upbringing and health from people with no specialist knowledge. The comparative analysis of Russian and foreign resources shows that Russian parents and their foreign counterparts have different reasons to worry about: children’s mental health, bullying (the child is bullied or the child is a bully), the issue of gender identity in adolescence. The following problems are discussed by both Russian parents and parents from abroad: discipline at school, help with homework, tantrums, communication with peers, game addiction, parental control, etc. The article provides examples of parents’ questions and requests and their descriptions of specific problems.