QUALITY OF LIFE DURING CHILDHOOD AS A SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON

Abstract

Relevance. The study of the quality of life is one of the current trends in the field of sociology, psychology, pedagogy, medicine and other sciences. Considering the essence of the quality of life of children, we note that today it is an interdisciplinary concept that characterizes all aspects of a child’s life: the level of intellectual and physical development; the degree of satisfaction of material and social needs; ensuring the safety of life, etc. Thus, the quality of life of children covers their physical, psychological and social health, as well as their perception of their place in society.
 The aim of the study was to study the quality of life during childhood through the prism of the mental states of children in parents with different levels of satisfaction with marriage.
 Research methods. In the course of the study, a theoretical analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature was carried out, which made it possible to clarify the depth and relevance of the problem of quality of life during childhood. An empirical study of the mental states of preschoolers and satisfaction with their parents’ marriage was conducted using the testing method. Quantitative and qualitative processing of the results was carried out on the basis of SPPS statistical programs.
 Results. As a result of empirical research, we have revealed that in families with a low degree of satisfaction with marriage, children, as a rule, have a negative mental state and, accordingly, in families with a high degree of satisfaction with marriage, children, as a rule, have a positive mental state. Unsatisfactory child-parent relationships provoke the emergence of more complex disorders in older age, contribute to the formation of various character accentuations in adolescence and a negative assessment of the quality of their lives, and therefore need adjustment aimed at parents’ awareness of their attitude to children. It is from the period of childhood that the value uniqueness of the child begins to take shape, which is realized in a special cultural and social reality, where childhood and adulthood are differentiated. During this period, children are already beginning to enter the social space, participating in a certain subculture of childhood, showing the acquired skills of socialization, and hence the corresponding quality of life. In the socio-psychological context, the structure of the family and the system of “parents-children” relationships are of great importance. Therefore, in the content of the upbringing of children, the conditions of the child’s development and the quality of his life, there are certain differences between families who are satisfied or not satisfied with their marriage. However, with all the differences in the quality of life of children, their mental states are associated with factors such as instability of marriage, low-income family, drinking in the family, constant conflicts in the family, the presence of people in the family who have offenses, etc.
 The field of application. The article will be useful for teachers and students of pedagogical universities studying in the areas of “Preschool pedagogy and psychology”, as well as managers and educators of preschool institutions.