The article describes the specifics of the socialization process of children in complete and incomplete families. The research is based on the use of various methods: parental surveys and psychological tests. The main goal was to determine the level of anxiety in children and their individual characteristics influencing the socialization process.The study showed that children from incomplete families are characterized by a higher level of anxiety than children from complete families. During the study of personality traits of children according to R. Kettell's questionnaire, it was found that most children living in incomplete families and for various reasons raised by one parent show significant differences in some traits and behaviour, which may result from the fact that they have an incomplete picture of the family environment, unlike children from complete families. Such traits as emotional stability, normative behaviour and self-control are not characteristic of this category of children.The projective technique "My Family" made it possible to assess the specifics of relations between children and members of complete and incomplete families. Analysis of the research results showed that children with behavioural disorders more often appear in the drawings of children who have experienced a divorce of their parents than children in harmonious interpersonal interaction with their parents. The questionnaire "Analysis of family relations" (Eidemiller, Yustyckis) allowed to diagnose dysfunctions in the system of mutual influence of family members on each other and to detect errors in the parenting style chosen by the parents. Analysis of the answers of complete and incomplete families surveyed using this method and their comparison with the description of parenting styles allows to state that in incomplete families the features of excessively dominant care, excessive protection and excessive indulgence, emotional alienation prevail. Parents who raise their children separately or alone most often choose an "indulgent" parenting style.