Attitude towards future parental roles of female university students with different levels of self-understanding

The relevance of this study is due to the transformations of the reproductive behavior of modern youth, the extreme complexity and inconsistency of the student life in terms of the taking on maternal role by a young woman, as well as insufficient knowledge of self-understanding as a factor influencing the attitude towards future maternal roles among female university students. The purpose of the study is to identify the peculiarities of the attitude towards future functional parental roles of female university students with different levels of self-understanding. The article presents the results of an empirical study conducted based on Chelyabinsk, Surgut, Perm and Tambov State Universities. Eighty-four unmarried, childless, full-time female students participated in the study. The “Methodology of self-attitude research” by V. V. Stolin and S. R. Pantileev, the questionnaire “My future parental roles” by E. N. Vasilyeva and A. V. Orlov, and clinical conversation were applied. The researchersperformed a statistical analysis using the F-test. The results show that the attitude of the surveyed female students towards their future maternal role is positive. Preferred roles include the roles of the mother as a subject of communication for the child (friend, inspirer, protector, sympathizer), and the roles of the mother as a subject of his education and upbringing (authority, educator). At the same time, in comparison with students with an average level of self-understanding, students with a low level of self-understanding have the following features regarding their own future maternal roles: an increase in the subjective significance of the roles of “educator”, “protector”, “leader” and a decrease in the subjective significance of the roles of “authority”, “inspirer”, “unifier”, “aesthete”. The university’s psychological department specialists are the intended audience for this article.