In the structure of indicators of authoritarianism, a central position is occupied by rigidity of educational attitudes as a manifestation of the syndrome of authoritarian aggression. This article addresses educational attitudes of mothers, as well as their idea of the role of a father in families with varied economic resources. The study involved 500 mothers, selected basing on the criterion of self-identification of their economic status (low and medium), under the age of 45, with children aged from 1.5 to 3 years old. Educational attitudes were estimated on the basis of views characterizing typical principals of upbringing of children in everyday family life. This study highlighted that authoritarian attitudes are characteristic of low resource families, rather than of families with medium resources. A similar tendency can be traced in mothers' perception of fathers in these families: as more authoritarian and more democratic, sensitive, partner-oriented in communication with their children, respectively. This work suggests the directions in correction of authoritarian educational attitudes.
This publication has been produced as part of the Empowerment of Families with Children project. The key aims of the project are to develop practice in the delivery of preventive family services and social services for families with children, to foster the wellbeing of families with children and to promote mutual awareness and understanding of Russian and Finnish public service provision and family culture. In the course of the project, Finnish participants have developed preventive family services for Russian immigrant families living in Finland, while in Russia the focus has been on preventive family services for vulnerable families and families facing challenging life situations. The project will run from 29 April 2011 to 28 April 2014 and is coordinated by Helsinki University's Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education Kotka unit. This publication makes a contribution towards the project aims by highlighting empowering perspectives and practices in social work through research. It consists of a series of articles, each approaching the topic of empowerment from a different perspective. The research findings presented in the publication are the result of collaboration between a number of individuals, with the authors representing universities across Finland and Russia. We would like to thank the authors for their outstanding contributions and the reviewers for their constructive and insightful feedback, which has been invaluable to the authors during the revision process.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.