Olga N. Bezrukova

Valentina A. Samoylova

• Occupation: Assoc. Prof.
• Affiliation: St. Petersburg State University
  
• Address: Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

The article analyzes the quality of intergenerational relationships, parental mindsets of fathers and mothers that translate their family experience and choose their own approach to raising children. It reveals that mothers display a more mature understanding of the meanings of fatherhood and that fathers focus on the development of their own personality and experiencing positive emotions in the course of their communication with children. Mothers tend to more conservative socio-cultural mindsets in arranging their family life, and fathers manifest egalitarian and pragmatic mindsets. We made a conclusion that day-to-day care of children remains mainly with mothers. We also note the diversity of parenting practices and childcare approaches, which surely indicates the ongoing transfer from traditional to involved parenting model. As a result of the factor analysis conducted, we identified four types of parental mindsets as follows: “you cannot get divorced if you already have children”, “raising children is hard work”, “difficult parenting is not for me”, “equality of fathers' and mothers' rights”. The fathers who communicate their family experience are more likely to repeat parental habits and traditional parenting practices. Those with their own approach reveal contradictory mindsets at the strong emotional involvement in child care combined with doubts about their own parental competence together with unwillingness to be involved in "difficult" parenting.