Differences in the Perception of Childhood as a Subject of Conflict between Parents and Children: A Microanalysis of Russian Families

This study examines the social parameters of the conflict between parents and adolescents who have different perceptions of childhood. Both theoretical and practical interests to childhood problems have increased significantly over the last decades, which is primarily due to demographic problems. In a situation of postmodern, the institution of childhood is in a crisis: on the one hand, there is a social demand for the development of an active, creative personality of the child, and on the other, the main social institutions are difficult to modernize to interact with such a personality. Thus, the connections between the “world of children” and the “world of adults” can provoke crisis aspects in the primary group - the family. Regular parenting models, including communication and control strategies, become unprepared to perceive the child’s changing position. Growing up, becoming adolescents, children strive for independence and for expanding the boundaries of the sphere of their “personal” spheres, which have a limited parents’ access to. Reactive forms of control and previously effective mechanisms of interaction with the child now face new challenges and lose their effectiveness. In some cases, parents and children are ready to change their interaction strategies in accordance with new conditions, which allows them to build harmonious relationships. However, the main interest of this research lies in the study of those cases when the described mechanisms become dysfunctional and even “conflictogenic” at the moment of a critical collision of perceptions of the boundaries of “childhood”. The key research question of this study is what is the role of differences in the perception of childhood in conflicts between parents and adolescents. The methodological basis of this study is formed by several types of data analysis, including content analysis of Internet-posts, published by adolescents and parents on online-forums, as well as conducting in-depth interviews in order to identify the characteristic features of conflict interaction. As a result of the study, first of all, the roles of the main family members in a situation of conflict interaction are described. The features of the relationship and communication between parents and children are revealed, their conflict-generating aspects are described. The phenomenon of “parental control” is analysed on the basis of data obtained with applying both quantitative and qualitative methods. Next, the analysis of the construction of the category of “childhood” by parents and adolescents is carried out. The main features of the conflict are described, including its nature and specificity. Finally, the main outcomes of the study and their correspondence to the previously given research assumptions are described with new directions for the development of the topic of parent-child relations.