THE RELATIONSHIP OF PARENTAL EMPATHY WITH THE PECULIARITIES OF RAISING PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

Purpose. The article is devoted to the study of parental empathy and the identification of the relationshipbetween this phenomenon and the peculiarities of raising children at the age period from 3 to 6 years. The article considers the essence and mechanisms of empathy phenomenon. It was found thatthe phenomenon of empathy has been studied by many scientists from different angles, creating their ownconcepts of understanding this phenomenon and its mechanisms, while emphasizing its importance. Thephenomenon of empathy was considered as an emotional sensitivity to another, as a perception of the innerworld of another person, as a penetration into the individual identity of the object of communication withoutlosing understanding of oneself. The main mechanisms of empathy included decentralization, interpretation,emotional contagion, and identification. The role of parental empathy in relationships and interactions withthe child that affect the child's development was demonstrated.Methods. An empirical study was organized and conducted based on a sample of 65 mothers and fathersaged 25 to 44 living in Ukraine who have their first or only child aged 3 to 6. Three psychodiagnostic methodswere used to implement the study, namely: questionnaire of emotional empathy by A. Megrabyan and N. Epstein(1975), adapted by Yu.M. Orlov and Yu.N. Emelyanov; multifactor questionnaire by M. Davis (1980),adapted by T. Karyagina, N. Budagovskaya and S. Dubrovskaya (2013); questionnaire of emotional relationsin the family by O. Zakharova (1996). Psychometric verification of the reliability and representativenessof the selected methods for empirical research was conducted.Results. The level of parents’ empathy and peculiarities of interaction with the child were determined,correlation analysis with interpretation of the obtained results was carried out. It has been proven that the higherthe level of emotional empathy in parents, the higher the level of emotional intimacy with the child.Conclusions. It was found that parental emapthy is a necessary condition for positive emotionaland educational interaction with the child, which has a significant impact on the child's development,communication and building relationships with other people in the future.