Features of relations in the family in connection with the prominence of socio-psychological needs of parents

The article analyzes the factors contributing to the formation of different models of relations in primary parental families, which further can be preconditions for the child's aggressive and hostile behavior towards other people. Parents' basic socio-psychological needs (SPN), including the need for inclusion, control, and love, were considered as a factor of relationships in the family. The paper presents the results of the study of married couples and their preschool schildren, which showed that socio-psychological needs of mothers and fathers determined the parameters of interaction in the “mother – child / father – child” pairs, as well as relation of the mother/father to the family, the husband/wife, and the child's relation to the mother/father. The study showed the following: (a) the prominent need for inclusion conditioned a higher intensity of a positive relation to their own families in men and women; (b) parents' needs for control/dependency played a special role in the formation of the child's relation to his/her mother and father; (c) the mother's need for other people's love conditioned the parameters of her interaction with her child; (d) compared with mothers, fathers' socio-psychological needs conditioned the interaction with their children to a lesser degree. The comparative analysis between the level of socio-psychological needs in mothers and fathers and the parameters of their emotional interaction with their own children showed that mothers scored higher on the scale of the need for inclusion in various social groups, as well as in the parameters of emotional interaction with the child. The obtained results enabled authors to draw the conclusions about (a) the actualization of the mother's need for inclusion in various social groups at this stage of life, (b) emotional involvement of mothers in the communication with their children. Mothers were more inclined to understand the emotional state of their children, showed empathy, experienced a greater variety of feelings in the communication with their children, as well as related to themselves as to a parent more positively.