Influence of the Family on the Process of Forming a Child’s Personality

You will research and read one academic article for each annotated bibliography, preferably on a topic that will go beyond the content you have learned so far and that delves deeper into an area of interest that will benefit you.

• Research Criteria: An article from an academic journal found through EBSCOhost databases at EU.
• Writing Criteria: In 300 words (Time Roman, 12-font, double-spaced, 5-6 sentences), summarize your article and indicate how it will be a useful reference for Part IIB.

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Journal of Social Studies Education Research

Sosyal Bilgiler Eğitimi Araştırmaları Dergisi

2020:11 (3), 220-241

Influence of the Family on the Process of Forming a Child’s Personality: Types of Families:

A Case of Modern Youth Prose

Galina Bozhkova1, Olga Shatunova2 & Elena Shastina3

Abstract

The article is aimed at studying the types of modern families and identifying their influence on the
formation of the younger generation, using the material of prose for children and adolescents. The
novelty of the study is in the fact that there is not a single work studying the variety of families in
modern literature. The nature of the work was determined by the method of content analysis, which
allowed us to obtain reliable data from the literary context by studying its formal-substantive
features. Тhe authors obtained interesting results. Modern books for children were analyzed in
terms of age peculiarities and divided into two categories: texts for preschoolers and for young
adolescents. In the works for preschoolers, dominant narratives are about child-centered and
zoological families; this is explained by age specifics, since the texts are addressed specifically to
children ages 3 to 7. The situation changes significantly in literature for teenagers, in which
problems become global and insoluble; the proof is the replacement of the child-centered, multi-
generational family with a personality-centered, incomplete, asocial one. These changes lead to
misunderstandings between generations and to inevitable problems.

Key words: types of families; children’s and youth literature; parenthood models; the role
of family in the younger generation’s upbringing

Introduction

In addition to the educational function, children’s and youth literature has a therapeutic effect on

both children and adults; the problems raised became extremely relevant in the digital era, which

contributes to the separation of the younger generation not only from reading but from family

members. In this regard, family relationships and the influence of the family on the formation of

the personality of the child, which are of particular value in the era of globalization and

computerization, are especially indicative (Curran et al., 2020; Johnson & Hinton, 2019; Karakus,

2018; Korableva et al., 2019; Lafer & Tarman, 2019; Yañez et al., 2020). This article is devoted

1 Dr.,Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Tatarstan, Elabuga, Russian Federation, bozhkova.galina@mail.ru
2 Dr.Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Tatarstan, Elabuga, Russian Federation, olgashat67@mail.ru
3 Dr., Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Tatarstan, Elabuga, Russian Federation, shastina@rambler.ru

mailto:bozhkova.galina@mail.ru

mailto:olgashat67@mail.ru

mailto:shastina@rambler.ru

Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2020: 11 (3), 220-241

221

to the study of family types in modern literature for children and adolescents. Despite scientists’

active interest in the influence of the family on the formation of the child’s personality, the issue

of family types in literary materials is here considered for the first time. The authors reviewed the

works of such writers as Anna Dewdney, Lisa Papp, Catherine Leblanc, Narine Abgaryan, Iva

Procházková, Rose Lagercrantz, Marina Aromshtam, Daniel Pennac, Lygia Bojunga, Dina

Sabitova, Stanislav Vostokov, Timothée de Fombelle, Irina Zartayskaya, and Beate Teresa Hanika.

This study translates the writers’ views on the problem of the influence of the family, on the

formation of the personality of the child. The opinion of the authors of works of art is new and

original, and therefore it is impossible to neglect them; this argument allowed us to reinforce the

importance of research, which reveals a new look at the problem: Modern authors claim that, being

carried away by upbringing and the desire to grow a competitive, successful personality, parents

forget about exhibiting a warm attitude to their children, instead focusing on the material, selfish

good. They lose a full-fledged dialogue, turning family relationships into personality-centered

ones. Parents exert a harmful influence on the children, destroying their identity with their

edification. Moreover, modern prose for youths has not been studied. Children’s writers are trying

not only to attract the readers’ attention with a book but also to help by solving private problems,

including family ones (Akim et al., 2019; Camarero-Figuerola et al., 2020; Vural, 2019). The right

to legitimacy is recognized for children’s literature in modern society. Modern children’s literature

is modified, adapted to the signs of the new reality, supplemented by new family types, and reflects

modern children and adolescent problems of personal and family life (Cáceres-Reche et al., 2019;

Saenko et al., 2019).

Research Objectives

The purpose of the study is to analyze family types in the works of modern literature for children

and adolescents and clarify family influences on the personalities of the younger generation. More

specifically, this study aims to answer the following research questions:

1. What types of families dominate the works of modern prose for preschoolers and

schoolchildren?

2. How do family behaviors affect the formation of a child’s personality?

3. Are there more similarities or differences in the descriptions of the types of families in the

works for preschoolers and schoolchildren?

Bozhkova et al.

Literature Review

Many scholars reflect on the influence of the family on morality in the modern digital world. For

instance, the Guyana Ministry of Education (2018) website hosted an article titled “The Family

Influence on Children’s Morals,” which presented to the reading audience the principles of humane

parenting in a modern family, such as justice, personal example, and understanding. According to

Budzey (2019), there is a belief that it is necessary to develop the spiritual and moral component

of the child’s personality not only in school but also in the family, but parental employment is

deprived of the main thing: informal communication. The problem of the influence of family

education is considered by Orlova (2017), who is convinced that conflicts can be avoided by using

a democratic style of communication in families.

Writers creating works for children and adolescents also enter the discussion about the role

of the family in the formation of the younger generation. Authors such as Aromshtam (2010), de

Fombelle (2017), Sabitova (2018), Vostokov (2014), Bojunga (2014), Hanika (2009), and Pennac

(2004) argue that the personality is influenced by the style of communication in the family and the

experience of married life, but they urge that special attention be paid not to the formation of

adaptability, flexibility, branding, or non-standard attitudes in the child, but to the psychological

health of the younger generation; this is the undeniable novelty of modern works. In this regard,

they urge parents to abandon their own ambitions and strive to create child-centered families, live

in the interests of children, forgive their mistakes, and accept them for who they are (Olalowo,

2020). World authors visualize the problems of interpersonal relationships and use a mirror

technique, allowing readers to recognize themselves in the text and begin to change.

Scientists such as Fitzpatrick (1998), Orlova (2017), and Korchagina (2017) proved that

the family has uncompensated vital capabilities to create an adequate, cultural, competitive

personality and provide it with social protection. Each individual family establishes its own rules,

customs, and atmosphere, which completely affect the identification of a child’s personality via

the law of intergenerational continuity. Fitzpatrick (1998) noted that full interaction between

husband and wife primarily contributes to the creation of a harmonious family, and he considers

verbal and non-verbal ways of couples reacting to each other. Farver et al. (2007) proved that the

formation of a sustainable identity in migrants’ children is connected with the strategy and identity

of parents; therefore, it is necessary to strive for a solidarity parenthood model focused on

nationwide models. Umaña-Taylor et al. (2006) share this point of view.

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Zhukova et al.’s (2014) criteria of family typology classifies composition, number of

children, characteristics of role distribution and nature of interaction, social homogeneity, value

orientations of the family, age of family life, place and type of residence, professional employment

of spouses, and the nature of sexual relations that directly affect the upbringing of the younger

generations, with the following classifications: As for family composition, they distinguish

between single-generation, nuclear, and multi-generation (traditional) families. As for the number

of parents, families can be complete or incomplete. As for the number of children, families with

one child, families with two or more children, and childless families (when a child is not born in a

family during 8-10 years) are distinguished. As for kinship, families can include biological

children, adopted children, and guardianship. As for family experience, the following types are

distinguished: newlyweds (honeymoon families), young families (from six months to one and a

half years before the birth of the first child), families expecting a child, families of middle

matrimonial age (from 3 to 10 years), families of senior matrimonial age (from 10 to 20 years),

and older married couples. By place of residence, there can be urban, rural, and remote families.

By type of residence, families are divided into patrilocal (living in the husband’s house after

marriage), matrilocal (living in the wife’s house), neolocal (living separately from relatives), and

godwin-marriage (living apart together). In accordance with the characteristics of distribution of

roles, there can be traditional families (characterized by the traditional distribution of male and

female roles, the supremacy of an authoritarian spouse; such families can be both patriarchal and

matriarchal), egalitarian or equal families (implying the primacy of both spouses or its absence, a

clear distribution of roles with an uncertain, modifiable structure; these are mainly young couples

without children, since the birth of children makes the spouses’ lifestyles well-ordered), and

democratic, or partnership, families (determined by equal rights of both spouses, joint seniority, a

changing and renewed role structure and responsibilities, taking into account common interests).

As for spouses’ professional employment, they distinguish full-employment families, partial-

employment families (where one of the spouses works), families of pensioners (where both

spouses do not work), and two-career families (where career growth and well-being are more

important for both spouses). According to the value orientation, the following can be distinguished:

child-centered families (the priority value is attention and care for children), personality-centered

families (in which the goal is to create conditions for achieving goals and ensuring the optimal

personal growth for each family member), consumer families (orientation toward hoarding and

Bozhkova et al.

general satisfaction of personal needs), psychotherapeutic families (in which the goal is mutual

understanding, emotional support, love, and safety), “healthy lifestyle” or wellness families

(focusing on health, proper relaxation, sports, cleanliness, and order), and “intellectual” families

(in which education, books, art, cognition, creativity are the priority). Depending on the type of

sexual relationship that goes beyond the generally accepted standards, the following are

distinguished: open families, i.e., the boundaries of sexual relations between spouses are free; and

homosexual families, i.e., the long cohabitation of same-sex spouses (Zhukova et al., 2014).

This research regards both Zhukova et al.’s (2014) typologies of families and the opinions

of the authors of literary works, since in the 21st century there is a need not merely for upbringing

but for the dialogue of parents with their children so that the child might quickly adapt to the

realities of modern reality, become resilient, and increase their ability to learn; however, they

deliberately avoid edification in their works, and this is a peculiar method of working with both

parents and children. Modern writers offer the right to choose, portraying full-fledged families in

works for preschool children and problematic ones in teenage prose.

Method

This study used qualitative and quantitative approaches. The main design involves content analysis

and thematic analysis.

Research design

This article is an interdisciplinary study, the main task of which is to analyze the species factors

of the family that affect the development of the younger generation. This design method involves

the selection of literary texts by world contemporary authors, the main object of the image in which

is the theme of the family. Thus, the study includes the following stages of work:

1. Selection of texts. We selected 14 modern works for children and youths highlighting the

influence of the family on the formation of the younger generation.

2. Selection of classifications. In this case, we gave preference to the classifications of

Zhukova et al. (2014).

3. Interpretation of modern literary texts. The quantitative method of content analysis made

it possible to work with formal content units of the text and translate them into a percentage,

reflecting the results in tables and diagrams. A qualitative figurative-thematic analysis

made it possible to see the influence of types of families on the formation of the personality

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of the younger generation, as well as to see the similarities and differences in modern prose

for preschoolers and adolescents.

Such qualitative and quantitative approaches made it possible to identify the species characteristics

of families and to prove the influence of family types on the formation of the personalities of the

younger generation. This research reflects the contemporary social reality that is predicted in

literary texts.

Sources of data

The source of the study was the corpus (the substantive-formal units of a literary text: the study of

family images and the motives of the behavior of artistic images). The qualitative data included:

14 literary families, including 7 families of preschoolers and 7 families raising teenagers. This data

is visualized in Table 1.

Table 1

Sources of data
№ Author Title

Literature for preschoolers

1. I. Zartayskaya “Nobody Loves Me”
2. C. Leblanc “Here She Is!”
3. A. Dewdney “Llama Llama: Time to Share”
4. L. Papp “Madeline Finn and the Library Dog”
5. R. Lagercrantz “My Happy Life”
6. N. Abgaryan “Manyunya”
7. I. Procházková “Elias and the Granny from the Egg”

Literature for adolescents
1. M. Aromshtam “When the Angels Rest”
2. T. de Fombelle “Girl from Tower 330”
3. D. Sabitova “Your Three Names”
4. S. Vostokov “Frosya Korovina”
5. L. Bojunga “The Yellow Bag”
6. B. T. Hanika “Little Red Riding Hood Must Cry”
7. D. Pennac “Dog”

Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure involved the selection of factual material, the study of the theme of

the family in contemporary works of authors who received literary awards, the analysis of family

types, and revealing their role in shaping the personality of the younger generation. For this, we

chose an equal number of families in prose for preschool children and adolescents. When

classifying families in texts, we relied on the study by Zhukova et al. (2014), which focuses on

composition (complete/incomplete), number of children (large, without children, with 1-2

children), emphasis on health and cleanliness in the house, etc. We were more interested in the

Bozhkova et al.

value orientation when working with families (child-centric; in crisis, experiencing divorce,

conflicting; problematic, asocial, having bad habits, health problems, etc.); Zhukova unites these

types of families with the term personality-centric. We found that:

1. In works for preschoolers, children-centered families dominate, and in works for

teenagers, families are in crisis, problematic, and incomplete.

2. Family behavior is crucial in personality formation; therefore, in children’s prose,

children are happy and open to friendship and communication, and in teenage prose,

heroes are vulnerable, lonely, depressed, and suicidal (Table 3).

3. In the analyzed families, there are more differences for preschool children and

adolescents. From the point of view of value orientations in children’s literature, six

families are child-centered, although there is one family in crisis, and all families are

young (living together for no more than 5 years). Families in adolescent prose, on the

other hand, are in crisis and problematic, only one family is child-centered, and all the

families are of older marital age (from 10-20 years of cohabitation). The difference is

as follows: Families in prose are idealized for preschoolers (this is a call for correction),

young families are in front of the reader, and families in youth literature are recited by

the eyes of adolescents themselves, which makes it possible to see a crisis in relations.

Data analysis techniques

To analyze the data, this study used a summative content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005; Zhang

& Barbara, 2016) and applied an inductive analysis (Patton, 2002). The summative content

analysis examined the quantitative data at the beginning, then went to the qualitative data that

involved themes and inferences of the whole data. The analysis process included seven steps, with

transforming data into written text as the first step. Second, the unit of analysis was set, identifying

messages in the units, where each unit was coded (De Wever et al., 2006). In the third step,

categories were developed and a coding scheme was administered to involve category names,

definitions or rules for assigning codes, and examples (Weber, 1990). The fourth step was to test

the coding scheme by checking the coding on a sample text, checking coding consistency, and

revising coding rules in an iterative process until sufficient coding consistency was achieved

(Weber, 1990). Fifth, the entire corpus of the text was coded until sufficient consistency had been

achieved. Sixth, assessing the coding consistency involved rechecking the coding of the entire data

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set. The seventh step involved drawing conclusions from the coded data by making sense of the

themes or categories and their attributes, and making inferences and presenting reconstruction of

meaning derived from the data.

Operationally, this study analyzed the data by preparing scores obtained from

impressionistic and in-depth evaluation into the narrative texts (Zhang & Barbara, 2016). Each

point in the checklist was identified by score and the overall attributes were narrated in the written

text. In addition, results of interviews in the FGD, field notes, and memos that supplemented the

results of checklist were drawn in the narrative texts. Based on the narrative texts obtained from

the transformation of the checklist into narrative text and the results of interviews, field notes and

memos, the unit of analysis was identified. The identification represented the items of

impressionistic evaluation as well as the in-depth evaluation. Respectively, the unit of analysis was

coded, and the coding was tested for consistency, until all texts received their own coding.

Verification of the final coding was confirmed whether the analysis was confirmed to answer the

research questions of this study (Kulm et al., 1999; Sahim, 2020; Zhang and Barbara, 2016).

To answer the research questions, the socio-philosophical and pedagogical literature on the

problem of the article were analyzed to ensure that there is not a single study that gives an idea of

the types of families in modern prose for youths, especially comparing families in prose for

preschool children and schoolchildren and establishing their influence on the formation of the

personality of the child, although contemporary authors are included in the discussion and cover

similar problems in fiction.

Answering the first research question, we analyzed the images of families in literary texts

for preschool children, and after that we paid attention to the value orientations in families for

teenagers. “Krippendorf’s content analysis method” (Krippendorff, 2009) and quantitative

approach made it possible to visualize qualitative data using numerical values, to fix text content

elements (in our case, the frequency of occurrence of different types of families), followed by

quantification of the data obtained.

The data obtained made it possible to answer the second research question to see the

dominant types of families in children’s and teenage prose and the influence of the species

characteristics of the family on the younger generation.

We chose the unit for the spread “analysis of Spreadley” (Weber, 1990) to answer the third

research question. The most common thematic analysis of Spreadley in socio-literary studies was

Bozhkova et al.

used. We applied its comparative aspect, which made it possible to make qualitative observations:

to interpret and compare families in works for different age groups of readers (7-10 years old and

11-16 years old).

Results and Discussion

Research Question 1. What types of families dominate the works of modern prose for

preschoolers and schoolchildren?

Having ascertained what types of families prevail in works for different age groups, we can see

the reasons for both the negative and positive influence of parents on the formation of the

personalities of the younger generation. To confirm these comparisons, we analyzed the images of

families first in works for children 3-7 years old. Families in literary works for preschoolers are

harmonious, for they are created to fulfill therapeutic functions (Shastina, 2019).

Figure 1. The percentage of different family types in modern literary works for preschoolers and primary

schoolchildren

The authors analyzed seven families in literary works for preschoolers and primary schoolchildren,

of which three (42%) are zoological families; this is explained by the use of allegory by the authors,

and the life of animals is much more interesting and understandable to preschoolers. Six families

are child-centered (86%); it can be assumed that children’s authors refuse to injure young readers

and strive to form a morally healthy person. The fact that many families decide to give birth to

only one child is evidenced by both statistics and the facts reflected in a literary work, as only two

families (28%) have more than one child. The number of multi-generational families (three; 42%)

is decreasing, as grandparents either cannot look after their grandchildren or there are no

grandparents. The number of single-parent families is growing; there are three of them in the study

(42%). The number of crisis-ridden families is disappointingly increasing as well (28%) (see

Figure 1). The transition from a child-centered to personality-centered family and from a complete

to incomplete, crisis-ridden family is most intensively manifested in literary works for adolescents.

Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2020: 11 (3), 220-241

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Having studied works for preschoolers, the works for adolescents were analyzed. The

family loses its paramount importance as a social unit, the basis of spiritual, moral principles; this

fact is obvious in modern prose for teens.

The authors of the article analyzed seven families in the works of teenage prose and drew

attention to the large percentage of problematic and crisis-ridden families. The number of single-

parent families did not decrease (three; 42%), asocial families appear (two; 28%), and families

with one or two children (five; 71%) are still more numerous than multi-child families (two; 28%)

(see Figure 2).

Figure 2. The percentage of different family types in modern teenage prose

The meaning of this conclusion is that in families with teenagers, the number of personality-

centered, crisis families that are indifferent to the problems of children is growing. The contrast

between families in preschool and adolescent prose is obvious and is also related to the fact that in

preschool prose, families are young and unburdened by interpersonal and social problems, and in

adolescent prose, families have experience and are tired of problems, so they either abuse alcohol,

are overworked, or frustrate children. In works for teenagers, parents focus only on their interests,

and depressed, lonely teenagers grow up unable to adapt to the conditions of complex reality. We

will talk about the qualities that form these or other types of families in children in the conclusion.

Research Question 2. How do family behaviors affect the formation of a child’s personality?

We managed not only to see the types of families but to observe how family behavior affects the

formation of the child’s personality: In families where parents are attentive to the problems of their

children (child-centered), full-fledged life-resistant personalities are formed.

Bozhkova et al.

Table 2

Personal qualities formed in child-centric families
№ Author Title Family-formed qualities Hero
1. I. Zartayskaya “Nobody Loves Me” Love for loved ones Wolf Cub
2. A. Dewdney “Llama Llama: Time to Share” The ability to be friends,

sympathy for people
Llama Llama

3. L. Papp “Madeline Finn and the Library
Dog”

Ability to achieve goals,
resilience

Madeline Finn

4. C. Leblanc “Here She Is!” Mindfulness, sacrifice Little Bear
5. N. Abgaryan “Manyunya” Friendship, philanthropy,

devotion, hard work
Manyunya,
Nara

6. R. Lagercrantz “My Happy Life” Friendship, philanthropy,
devotion, hard work

Dani

7. D. Pennac “Dog” Sacrifice, love for animals,
determination

Dog

Such families are mainly in works for preschoolers, since the authors idealize reality, fearing to

hurt young readers; but, according to children’s writers, it is necessary to strive for a similar model

of relationships based on mutual understanding, since problem and crisis families in teenage prose

bring personality to the formation of the following qualities:

Table 3

Personal qualities formed in crisis and problematic (personality-centered) families
№ Author Title Family-formed qualities Hero
1. I. Procházková “Elias and the Granny

from the Egg”
Loneliness, indecision Elias

2. M. Aromshtam “When the Angels
Rest”

Loneliness, indecision Alina

3. T. de Fombelle “Girl from Tower
330”

Irritability, suicidal
tendency, need for love

Teenager

4. D. Sabitova “Your Three Names” Secretiveness,
bashfulness, loneliness,
distrust

Margot

5. S. Vostokov “Frosya Korovina” Early adulthood,
irritability

Frosya

6. L. Bojunga “The Yellow Bag” Loneliness, the need to
change gender roles

Raquel

7. B. T. Hanika “Little Red Riding
Hood Must Cry”

Depression, unwillingness
to live

Malvina

Research Question 3. Are there more similarities or differences in the descriptions of the types

of families in the works for preschoolers and schoolchildren?

After becoming acquainted with fiction, we juxtaposed works for preschool children and

adolescents in order to comprehend the spectrum of interpersonal relationships and problems. In

works for preschoolers, child-centric families dominate (six out of seven); in texts for adolescents,

crisis and problem families are widespread (we combined two close species in the classification of

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Zhukova et al. (2014)). This data difference is due to the fact that the reader looks at the family in

works for preschool children through the eyes of a small child, and in youthful prose, through the

eyes of a hero experiencing the difficulties of puberty.

Table 4

Comparison of the types of families in works for preschoolers and schoolchildren

Child-centric families in the literature for preschoolers (young families)
№ Author Title Relationship basis

1. I. Zartayskaya “Nobody Loves Me” Endless love
2. C. Leblanc “Here She Is!” Trust, love
3. A. Dewdney “Llama Llama: Time to Share” Tolerance, love
4. L. Papp “Madeline Finn and the Library Dog” Tolerance, love
5. R. Lagercrantz “My Happy Life” Tolerance, love,

understanding
6. N. Abgaryan “Manyunya” Tolerance, love,

understanding
Crisis, problem families in works for preschoolers (young families)

1. I. Procházková “Elias and the Granny from the Egg” Selfishness, careerism
Crisis, problem families in works for teenagers (older marriages)

1. M. Aromshtam “When the Angels Rest” Selfishness, careerism
2. T. de Fombelle “Girl from Tower 330” Selfishness, careerism
3. D. Sabitova “Your Three Names” Selfishness, careerism
4. S. Vostokov “Frosya Korovina” Selfishness, careerism,

indifference
5. L. Bojunga “The Yellow Bag” Selfishness, careerism,

indifference
6. B. T. Hanika “Little Red Riding Hood Must Cry” Irritability, selfishness,

detachment
Child-centric families in works for teens (older marriages)

1 D. Pennac “Dog” Love, patience

The meaning of this conclusion is to make sure that families in works for teenagers and

preschoolers are different. This allows us to conclude that young families are stronger, therefore

they are child-centric in works for kids; additionally, it is easier to love young children because

they are obedient, not having their own ideas about life, and adolescents are already vulnerable,

trying to understand themselves and society, and are forced to observe the crisis relations of

parents. Zhukova et al. (2014) suggest that the crisis of married life is imposed at the beginning of

the puberty of children, and it is especially difficult for adolescents: they lack love, understanding,

and sometimes they consider themselves to blame for adult quarrels and separations.

The authors argue that parents need to give up their own comforts—careers, alcohol, the

desire for a personal life, a selfish race for material values—in order to educate a healthy moral

person. If adults can overcome personal temptations, the crisis of married life can also be avoided.

Families in children’s prose are examples, and in teenagers’ prose are an anti-example.

Bozhkova et al.

A discussion of the influence of families on the personality of the child, as well as a diverse

palette of types of families, is present in the texts we have outlined, so we pay special attention to

this discussion so that the results of our interpretations are understandable. First we turn to the

texts of works for preschoolers. All the books are united by problems any parent can face. For

example, in “Here She Is!” French author Catherine Leblanc considers the crisis of older children

after the birth of younger ones; the author suggests that young parents trust the older children to

care for the new baby, and thus, the children become friends and parents have more free time.

Every second modern family has 2 to 3 children, so the problem raised by Leblanc in the book is

very relevant. The first children are often spoiled by young parents and grandparents, so it is

difficult for them to cope or put up with a new family drama. The book is recommended for family

reading, as it describes situations in which both a child and an adult can recognize themselves.

Leblanc is a child psychologist who subtly conveys children’s experiences and emotions in her

books. The family in the book is zoological, complete, nuclear, child-centered, a family with two

children, and neolocal.

American writer Anna Dewdney addresses the common problem of childish greed in

“Llama Llama: Time to Share.” In a family of llamas, a little boy does not want to share his toys

with anyone, but when a family of cows comes to visit him, he goes through three stages: At first,

he does not share, then he gives away the toys he does not play with, and soon he easily comes to

an understanding with the little guests. This family is zoological, complete, child-centered,

neolocal, with one child. This story is very useful to be read by parents of children ages 2 to 7. It

prepares for growing up, the ability to overcome difficulties, and trusting relationships in the

family.

Russian author Irina Zartayskaya’s story “Nobody Loves Me” centers a family of wolves,

answers the eternal children’s protest “nobody loves me,” and opposes parental punishments. In

families with a small child, this phrase can often be heard, and parents often get tired of it;

therefore, the author explains that children are never unloved in the family. Children do not

understand that parents’ prohibitions and punishments come from a place of love. Zartayskaya

describes a zoological, complete, child-centered family, with one child and multi-generational

(traditional). It is worth noting that families with grandparents or great-grandparents are better in

educational terms, since in such families they always have time for the child, who feels more

protected and needed but is not always independent and responsible.

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The role of the family in addressing the issue of children’s reading is considered by

American writer Lisa Papp in “Madeline Finn and the Library Dog.” The author addresses

canistherapy, a type of animal therapy in which specially trained dogs undergo treatment and

rehabilitation with patients. In the book, the “library” dog helps little Madeline overcome her fear

of failure and achieve the desired learning outcome. Patient dogs are best suited for the role of

listeners for small patients. It is important to note that the girl’s family is neolocal, incomplete, and

child-centered. Despite the fact that there is no grandmother, grandfather, or father, the mother

does not despair, and her love and attentiveness help to reveal Madeline’s depression and

constraint, which prevented her from learning to read. A loving mother will remove the

psychological barrier by means such as animal therapy; this method not only helped the girl, but

made her more confident and made it possible to find a real friend.

The family from “My Happy Life” by Swedish author Rose Lagercrantz seems the

opposite. It is worth noting that this literary work is addressed to younger students, and the range

of problems is much wider. Dani, who lost her mother in early childhood, is experiencing a family

crisis calmly thanks to the efforts of her single father. Dani’s dad tries to be both parents and

supports Dani in everything. Dani calls this period “happy.” This is probably because she notices

the efforts of her father, feels loved, and meets her best friend. Dani’s family is incomplete,

neolocal, child-centered, and crisis-ridden, as the girl grows up without a mother and none of her

relatives are available to help.

Armenian writer Narine Abgaryan, in the humorous trilogy “Manyunya,” presents the

Abgaryan and Shatz families. The autobiographical novel is filled with vivid memories of the

writer’s childhood and the people who played important roles in forming the personality of little

Narine. The main characters are the girls, Nara and her friend Manyunya, and a terrific

grandmother, Gran. Manyunya’s grandmother is the very strict yet friendly head of the Shatz

family, consisting of Manyunya, grandmother, and father. The Abgaryan family consists of Nara’s

mother, father, and her three sisters. The family compositions are different, but the author says that

their families were united, and they were brought together by love. For Nara, Gran became her

own grandmother, and Nara’s mother replaced Manyunya’s mother. Thus, readers can see a

complex phenomenon: two families as one complete, multi-child, child-centered, neolocal, multi-

generational family. After all, the main goal of upbringing is the formation of a competitive

personality capable of overcoming difficulties and knowing the needs of the modern world. In

Bozhkova et al.

Soviet Russia, such friendly family unification was common and brought good educational results;

in Narine’s memoirs, childhood was the happiest time, and the girls achieved a lot in life.

The story “Elias and the Granny from the Egg” by Czech author Iva Procházková touches

upon an equally important and widespread problem in families with children. Seven-year-old Elias

dreams of his busy parents finding time to play with him. The boy considers the absence of

grandparents to be a misfortune because “… they always have time for you” (Procházková, 2013).

The tale is also interesting because Elias’s dream comes true, and a grandmother with wings,

mentally similar to a child, hatches from an egg. Elias has to take care of his grandmother, as she

is still learning and growing. Changing roles, Elias becomes a little father, but when his

grandmother grows up, she becomes Elias’s friend. One cannot help but notice the absent

grandparents, whose love the child found in a fictional world. This is a crisis-ridden, complete

family, which becomes multi-generational in the finale.

We can see how families and attitudes change in works for teens. Russian writer Marina

Aromshtam, in the story “When the Angels Rest,” describes a typical situation of suppressing the

talents of a child at school. The main character, Alina, is in a class headed by a strict teacher with

traditional attitudes. Alina’s family consists of a mother, grandfather, and grandmother, and

although she does not know her father, she really wants him to return. Alina’s mother does not

care about her daughter’s problems at school; only the grandparents are concerned about this. The

grandfather does not like the lifestyle of the girl’s mother, so Alina becomes a constant witness to

their quarrels. Aromshtam also shows Alina’s attitude to her mother’s lover. The girl becomes

jealous of a potential family member, and she feels rejection and even hatred. She often asks about

her father and when he will return to the family; it is obvious that the teenager lacks fatherly love.

The girl’s family is incomplete, complex, crisis-ridden, with one child.

An incomplete, problematic family is also depicted in the story “Girl from Tower 330” by

French author Timothée de Fombelle. The mother of a teenager is sure that the ideal upbringing is

to dress and feed the child. The narrator admits that his mother is never at home: “She worked

tremendously a lot and constantly went on business trips. I saw her once a month. She wanted me

to have everything I need. The delivery man rang at the door at ten in the evening. I received a

large amount of everything: eight boxes every Monday. I managed to eat three eggs, a few jars of

paste and some broccoli in a week” (de Fombelle, 2017). Even in a difficult time, the main

character cannot get through to his mother.

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Russian author Dina Sabitova’s striking story “Your Three Names” is about the difficult

fate of a girl who lost her parents in a fire. At the beginning of the book, Sabitova tells Margarita’s

story before the tragedy. This is a vivid example of a problematic family: “Mom and Dad are

arguing all the time. Sometimes they fight. Rita and Gelya then hide in the entrance hall or on the

stove. They sit quietly, because Tatka [her father] can hit them – when angry, it’s all the same to

him: Mom, Rita or the cat can run into him in the heat of the moment” (Sabitova, 2018). The girl

and her mother, father, and sister Gelya live in a village. The girls’ parents invite guests very often

and drink alcohol. The father often beats his daughters, but Rita does not cease to love him and

justifies him in the story. Thus, the girl took responsibility for household chores. The girls’ parents,

although irresponsible and unbearable, do not cease to be parents and take care of them. The

children grow up, afraid of their mother but respecting and loving her. The need to love and

idealize parents is an indisputable fact. Rita is unable to live in well-to-do families after the loss

of her parents. Her family is complete, problematic, crisis-ridden, neolocal, asocial, rural, with

two children. Independent children grow up in such families if they do not live to their parents’

example. Rita is different from her parents, reading all the books written by their neighbor and

decorating her room with her own art. It can be assumed that the parents will not be an example

but an anti-example for the young character.

Another rural family is shown in the humorous novel “Frosya Korovina” by Russian author

Stanislav Vostokov. The main character Frosya comes from a family of wealthy peasants and lives

in a modern-day village. Frosya is an interesting person, identifying herself as a village woman,

talking to everyone as an adult, and helping her grandmother in everything. The character appears

to the reader as a very serious, courageous, and independent girl who looks like a teenager.

Frosya’s parents are geologists who are rarely at home. Her grandmother pities her and reports that

her parents love geology more than their own daughter. But Frosya has long accepted this situation

and behaves like an adult. This family is complete, distant, neolocal, rural, crisis-ridden, two-

career, one-child, multi-generational. One can see the motives of loneliness and orphanhood with

living parents. Frosya lives as the mistress of the house with a pet chicken as her only friend, and

her elderly grandmother strives to teach Frosya to survive.

French writer Daniel Pennac, in the story “Dog,” has an original approach to depicting the

family, telling the tale from the point of view of a homeless dog. The author raises exciting

questions about responsibility for those whom we domesticated. The family with whom Dog lives

Bozhkova et al.

is ordinary, urban, and modern. A girl had long dreamed of caring for a dog, but her parents do

not want to be responsible for the pet; the measure of their parenting is selfish, equating “well-fed”

and “clothed” with “happy.” Many parents demonstrate to their children that one can treat any

living being poorly if they get bored. But still, the dog’s loyalty and friendship change all the

characters. The family described by the author is complete, nuclear, urban, child-centered, and

one-child. One-child families often raise selfish children, consumers of life; statistics confirm that

in one-child families, children who dream of friends often get pets instead and, unfortunately,

cannot become good guardians for pets.

A different family is depicted by Brazilian writer Lygia Bojunga in the novel “The Yellow

Bag.” Raquel admits that it is difficult to be a child; she wants to grow up soon and be a boy,

because she is an unwanted child in the family, born out of place and by mistake. Deprived of

attention and care, Raquel lives in her dreams. She endows an ordinary yellow bag with magical

properties and stores her secret diaries in it for safekeeping. An object expressive element—a

yellow bag—is an imitation of happy reality, warmth, and friendly communication. She is

convinced that if she had been born a boy, an heir, everyone would cherish and love her, so she

writes in her diary using a boy’s name and dreams of becoming a boy; she is persecuted by her

sisters, who steal her yellow bag. The family is complete, multi-child, problematic, and nuclear.

In multi-child families, parents very often assume no responsibility for raising children by

transferring it to older children, but the fragile psyche of adolescents cannot perceive such

injustice.

The family in “Little Red Riding Hood Must Cry” by German author Beate Teresa Hanika

is also problematic, crisis-ridden, multi-children, and asocial. The story calls for frankness and

attempts to interpret a well-known folk tale based on family problems. In Malvina’s family, the

parents refuse to address the children’s problems; only a comfortable existence is important for

them. The senior family members escape their duties to the children in predictable ways—the

mother has migraines, the father is at work all day—and only their hatred for the grandfather brings

them together. At the behest of her parents, Malvina becomes a victim of her grandfather’s

violence; she must visit him daily and bring him cheese and wine, and her complaints are

dismissed. Unfortunately, this incident is not unique either in life or in the literary work.

We analyzed the types of families in previously unexplored works of children’s and youth

prose, and received the following meanings: the dominant type of family is personality-centered

Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2020: 11 (3), 220-241

237

(its varieties are crisis, problematic), the model of behavior that forms a huge number of ailments

in the younger generation. Unlike many researchers, the authors of all works are sure that it is

necessary to strive for the formation of a healthy personality, and not a competitive and

multitasking one. This can be achieved through a dialogue between parents and children, a return

to the methods of upbringing of the past, while adopting some convenient forms of upbringing

proposed by modern reality.

Conclusion

The current study examines the impact of the specific characteristics of families on the formation

of the child’s personality. The authors made their conclusions by analyzing 14 families in modern

children’s literature. The authors were able to prove that the opinion of modern authors involved

in the discussion should not be neglected. The three research questions were answered according

to the classifications of Zhukova et al. (2014):

1. In works for preschool children, child-centric families dominate; this contributes to the full

formation of children 5-7 years old. Puberty problems are aggravated in troubled families,

and older children feel lonely, defenseless, and commit irreparable acts. If in children’s

prose, wealthy families are faced with temporary minor difficulties, such as the birth of the

second child, egoism of spoiled children, or unwillingness of children to learn, attention is

concentrated not on the interpersonal relationships of adults but on the problems of life

perception in children. The situation changes dramatically in prose for teens: The analyzed

texts include instances of loneliness, divorce, scandal, drunkenness, careerism, and incest.

2. The authors have shown that families in works for preschool children form such qualities

in children as love for family members, compassion, philanthropy, and hard work; families

in works for teenagers develop irritability, loneliness, and suicidality. The reasons are that

for young families, the center is the child, and in adult families, the parents are paramount.

3. Based on this, in families in literary works for adolescents and children, there are more

differences. Young families in prose for children manage to keep calm, have fresh feelings

for each other, and the main goal of life remains raising toddlers. In adolescent literature

about adult families, parents are experiencing a crisis of life and material difficulties, so

there is less time for raising children, and adolescents require a special attitude. According

to the authors, parents need to be aware of this and strive for dialogue with their children

rather than authoritarian behavior.

Bozhkova et al.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

This study has limitations because its subject is the family in modern prose for children. Future

research should therefore look at family influence on the personality of the younger generation in

broader terms and consider the influence of families on the growing personality in the literature of

previous eras, as well as in prose for adults. Compare data from past eras with modern variables,

see the causes of regression or progress in relations between children and adults. Based on these

limitations, the use of quantitative methods is recommended for future research to study a number

of variables that may be interconnected.

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