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The article is devoted to study of value-goal orientations of senior preschool aged children’s parents and their connection with the implemented style of social-role interaction between a parent and a child. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the following issues: determination of significance of various life values for parents; identification of priorities in parental responsibilities; characterization of parents’ goals in the development of the child’s personal qualities; identification of connection between the parents’ value-goal orientations and the style of social-role interaction with the child (“normative-controlling” and “democratic”); consideration of life values, goals and responsibilities of upbringing with styles of interaction with the child, depending on the social-role position of the parent (paternal and maternal). Following article is based on the materials of a sociological survey of 486 parents of senior preschool aged children attending kindergartens in Moscow. The questionnaire used in the research was developed by the group of the Center for the Sociology of Education of the Russian Academy of Education; the respondents were given a wide range of questions related to their life values, perception of their future, the characteristics of parent-child relationship, etc. The conducted study revealed characteristics of the parents’ value-goal orientations depending on the demographic (sex, age) and socio-stratification (income level, level of education, two or one-parent family) factors. The dynamics of changes in value-goal orientations of parents over the past 20 years has been shown on the basis of comparison of the following research results with the results of monitoring studies held in 1997 and 2007. The obtained data made it possible to reveal the peculiarities of the value-goal orientations of fathers, married and unmarried mothers, depending on the styles of social-role interaction with the child: “normative-controlling” and “democratic”.

Background. Contemporary Russian society is experiencing significant changes in family structure: divorce rates are rising, the proportion of single-parent families is increasing, and perceptions of marriage and parenthood are transforming. Under these conditions, parents’ attitudes — their values, outlook on the future, and perception of threats — directly influence the development of preschool children and the stability of the family as a social institution. Research into these characteristics, particularly among divorced mothers, is essential for developing family support measures and improving the quality of preschool education.

Objectives. To identify the features of the influence of socio-demographic and socio-stratification factors on various components of the “life position” of parents of preschool children.

Sample. A total of 42 865 parents of preschool children aged 2 to 7 participated in an anonymous questionnaire survey using a specially developed author’s questionnaire. For the purpose of the main hypothesis, subsamples of fathers (1 313 respondents), married mothers (34 199), and officially divorced mothers (2 535) were specifically identified.

Methods. Survey data were processed using the SPSS 21 and StatSoft Statistica 7.0 statistical software packages. All differences in respondents’ responses discussed in the article are statistically significant at a p≤0.05 level. To study the interrelations of the components of «life position», the method of factor analy­sis was used (the method of extracting Principal Components with Varimaks axes rotation with Kaiser normalization).

Results. Four substantive factors were identified that determine the characteristics of the «life position» of parents of preschool-aged children: F1 «doubt in professional success — parenting (focus on the child)»; F2 «personal success — marriage»; F3 «focus on physical well-being — life pessimism» and F4 «Value of social life». The results showed that the life position of a divorced mother is significantly distorted: compared to the traditional maternal position, both parental and marital orientations are altered.

Conclusions. The data obtained show fundamentally different attitudes of fathers and mothers towards the importance of implementing the parental function in raising a preschool child. The breakdown of a family («divorce») in the presence of a preschool-age child causes the mother to develop a negative attitude towards marriage as a traditional value.