Title: Preschoolers' Representations About The Family As A Component Of Children's World Picture
Abstract: With regard to preschoolers lack of knowledge of the world and their insufficient life experience, it is important for adults to understand what events become significant for children, how they interpret them and what is the content the children’s world rest upon. The aim of this study is to analyze preschoolers views on the family as a component of children's picture of the world. The analysis of children interview and parents questionnaire enables to draw the following conclusions: i) modern children focus on the traditional family model, in which they are its integral; ii) most preschoolers perceive the status of "the child" as the central and most significant in the family, which point to the predominance of the child-centered model of the modern family; iii) as children grow up, their talks and conversations with their parents diminish considerably. Reading books is superseded by watching cartoons without any further discussion; iv) about 30% of parents of nuclear and single-parent families believe that it is not necessary to talk to the child at this young age on the following themes as "family", "marriage" and "love"; v) in the course of forming the ideas of love, marriage and family, to a greater extent, they are influenced by the nature of the relationships between family members and the level of emotional well-being and involvement of the child in the family system, and to a lesser extent, by family composition and the child's gender.