Родительская оценка качеств безопасного поведения личности детей младшего школьного, подросткового и юношеского возраста

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of studying safety behaviour in psychology from the point of view of factors that influence this phenomenon. It presents results of a research aimed at understanding how parents assess safe behaviour of their children with and without mental disorders depending on the child’s age. Our hypothesis was that parental assessments of their children’s personality traits associated with safe behaviours would differ according to the children’s age (primary school, adolescent and young age) and mental abilities. The study involved 204 subjects: 136 parents of children without mental disorders (128 females and 8 males) and 68 parents of children with mental disorders (58 females and 10 males).We used the semantic differential method: the parents were asked to assess their children’s personal qualities associated with safe behaviour. The semantic differential was formed with two-pole scales of antonymous adjectives that described personality traits in terms of safe behavior. The adjectives were divided into groups based on three assessment factors: Assessment, Strength, and Activity. The research findings allow us to assume that the age factor has no influence on the manifestation of personal features related to safe behaviour. Yet, mental disorders affect their formation in every assessment factor: Assessment (p≤0,001), Strength (p≤0,01), Activity (p≤0,001).The findings can be useful in creating programmes aimed at developing safe lifestyle both in healthy and mentally disabled children and adolescents.