The Relationship of the Characteristics of Family Leisure and the Level of Formation of Human Potential of Children (Through the Example of Families with School-Age Children)

Abstract

Several key institutions of society, including the family, take part in shaping the human potential of the younger generation. With the growing workload of the working population, it is getting more difcult forparents to combine parenting and professional activities. The “children or work” dilemma arises in almost any family. In these conditions, the importance of the time that parents can spend with their children increases. At the same time, considering the limited time for communication with children, the leisure practices that bring the greatest results in bringing up children remain insufficiently studied. This study aims to fill in this gap. The purpose is to study the influence of the duration and content of communication between parents and children on the formation of their human potential. The information base was composed of data received from representative opinion polls of the population in general and of families with children in particular which were conducted in the Vologda Oblast as a model region of the Russian Federation. In the course of the study, three clusters of families were distinguished, which differ in the duration of the daily communication of parents with their children. On the example of the families that have the least time for raising children, it is shown that the content of communication, the values used as a basis for upbringing, and the qualities of the children themselves are correlated with the effectiveness of upbringing. It is shown that the best formed human potential in children corresponds to such aspects of family upbringing as its focus on the personal, aesthetic, cultural and intellectual development of children, as well as their incorporation in joint work with parents. Additionally, children with higher levels of formation of human potential more evidently showed all the main positive volitional qualities of their personalities. The results obtained confirm the importance of not only the duration, but also the content of communication between parents and children for the formation of the potential of the younger generation.