Administration of a child as a regulator of activity of social teachers
The study is aimed at studying the regulatory features of the mental image of an adopted child in parents with different forms of custody of orphans. In connection with the preparation of the bill on the support of foster families and the mandatory psychological testing of foster parents, empirical research in this area has received particular relevance and significance. The sample consisted of: 1. social educators — adoptive parents who perform their functions on the basis of an employment contract on a fee and raise a different number of orphans; 2. Blood guardians — adoptive parents having kinship with pupils left without parents. A total of N = 110 people were examined. To identify the peculiarities of the image of the adopted child, a verbal version of the SOCH (I) technique was used (V. L. Sitnikova). The following results were obtained: 1. In foster parents, in the hierarchy of image components, the leading place belongs to the qualities of the child, revealing its features as the subject of social interaction — the “Social” component. It was also established that for large adoptive parents, the behavior of the child and its characteristics as a subject of activity are important, occupying the lower hierarchical positions in the form of ordinary parents. We explain this structural feature of the child’s image in the mentality of parents with many children by the presence of many problems that arise in the dyad “adopted child — adopted adult”. 2. It has been established that the blood guardians in the image structure of the adopted child do not have the component “family values”, which is an alarming fact. As you know, it is the values of the family that perform the regulatory function and form the unity of a small group that unites the concept of “we”. 3. When comparing images of a “good-bad” child, an important feature of the mentality of large social educators was revealed — the images of a “good-bad” child turned out to be weakly differentiated in their structure, which in the context of previously obtained empirical data can be interpreted as weak emotional and personal involvement in the process of education, as well as the presence of psychological distance in relations with foster children.