Communication as an intergenerational Barrier

Abstract

Abstract. In the article we use the data from specific research entitled "Media Education in the Family" and conducted by the Department of Social Pedagogy, College of Education, University of Hradec Králové, in 2012. The survey focused on mapping the state of media education in the contemporary Czech families. Specifically, we asked families with children at the age from six to fifteen. The data collection was conducted by questionnaire method. Our group of researchers created two different forms of questionnaires, the first one for parents and the second one, which was modified into appropriate form for children. Questionnaires were given to both parents (if they lived both in the household) and to one child in each family. The children were divided into groups according to their age: the first age group from 6 to 8 years, the second group from 9 to 11 years and the third group from 13 to 15 years. Into these age categories (quotas) were included families with a child at a given age. Parents separately completed a questionnaire. The researchers had to do a controlled interview with children due to possible misunderstanding of the questions by the youngest respondents. Then the researchers filled in answers from children to the appropriate questionnaire. Totally 1, 306 questionnaires were received from parents and 566 from children after exclusion of improperly completed questionnaires.All data relate to families in Czech society, but we think that many of the characteristics could occur in families from other countries as well. This is caused mainly by a global expansion in electronic media. Czech families and an intergenerational communicationWe would like to focus on changes in intergenerational communication and on the deepening communication barrier among contemporary Czech generations. Arising problems in intergenerational communication are influenced by the changing interconnection of generations in the Czech families. The number of multigenerational living, which means cohabitation of grandparents, parents and their children, has been decreasing in recent years. On the contrary, the number of two generation families (= parents and their children) has been increasing.There has been a limitation of communication topics among different age groups recently. We consider that the value of positive family relationships has weakened. Children prefer development of the relationship with peers and they (children) communicate with peers more than with their parents. This kind of communication is simplified and accelerated. Children are not limited only to personal meetings with peers but they can satisfy their need to entrust immediately by using any type of electronic media. They (children) can immediately tell anyone else any necessary information, even if they are at home only with their parents. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is pr...