Concept of motherhood as dependent on the moral structure of personality in young men and women

Abstract

Background. Th e urge to solve practical problems of overcoming family and demographic crisis, of increasing the authority of parenthood in modern society evokes the relevance of research on socio-psychological factors determining the development of marriage and family concepts in the framework of information socialization of young people. Objective. Current research aims to analyze the characteristics of the concept about motherhood among young men and women who diff er in the structure of moral orientation of personality. Design. An empirical study involved 490 students (126 young men, 364 young women). It was conducted with the use of a set of psychological assessment methods: “Th e Moral Self-Determination” by A.E. Vorobieva, A.B. Kupreychenko, a modifi ed version of the semantic diff erential method by I.L. Solomin, projective techniques “Incomplete Sentences”, the questionnaire “Role Expectations and Claims in Marriage” by A.N. Volkova. On the basis of the correlational analysis with the subsequent ranking the hierarchy of content characteristics in the concept of motherhood among young men and women diff ering in the moral structure of the personality was determined. Results. It has been shown that moral structure of personality is a signifi cant diff erentiating factor in the development of concepts about motherhood among young men and women. Th e image of the ideal mother is distinguished by cognitive distortions among young women with egocentric (negative attitude towards joint family recreation: r = –0.46 at p = 0.009) and group-centered (setting for low activity in taking up household responsibilities in the family: r = –0.425 at p = 0.012) orientations. Conclusion. Th e materials of the conducted research indicate the need for changes in the concepts of marriage and family and for promotion of a positive moral position among students. Th e development of a humanistic and worldcreating orientation of the personality will contribute to the development of complete, adequate and harmonious ideas about the concepts of parenthood in modern young men and women.