Analysis of advice requests of modern parents raising 13-15-year-old teenagers

Statement of the problem. The article provides an analysis of the advice requests of parents raising 13-15-yearold teenagers on the issues of upbringing, education and development of children, for the timely provision of psychological assistance. The purpose of the article is to analyze the advice requests of modern parents raising 13-15-year-old teenagers, to identify and characterize the typical difficulties of parents associated with education, development and upbringing of children. Research methodology. The methodology of the study consists of the provisions of scientific research by Vygotsky L.S., Leontiev A.N., Prikhozhan A.M., Rice F., considering the features of mental and personal development in adolescence; research by Smirnova E.O., Raygorodsky D.Ya., characterizing child-parent relations in families with adolescents; works by Varga A.Ya., Spivakovskaya A.S., Gippenreiter Yu.B., Emelyantseva T.A., proving the importance of family support in ensuring psychological well-being of a child and overcoming existing difficulties. Research methods include questionnaire, content analysis, prototypical analysis by P. Verges. Parents of 13-15-year-old teenagers were surveyed. The questionnaire questions implied parents’ formulation of appeals to a psychologist on issues of child development, fixing the existing difficulties. To analyze the ideas of parents about their children, as well as to identify the specifics of their difficulties in upbringing, education and development of children, P. Verges’ method was used to assess the structure of social representation (to identify the core and periphery) and predict its possible dynamics. Research results. The study showed that the core of parents’ ideas about their teenage child reflects, on the one hand, the ideas that have developed in society about the priorities of family education, on the other hand, it demonstrates the real experience of communication and interaction between a parent and a child. So, parents consider it necessary to raise a ‘smart’ child, and the ‘intellectual sphere’ is indicated as the priority area for children’s development. The second zone mainly includes characteristics reflecting parents’ ideas about their child’s social well-being. Thus, parents understand the importance of a teenager’s social well-being, as well as the need for emotional support from close adults in ensuring their full-fledged social development. The third zone includes quite divergent parental judgments related to the sphere of children’s education. The main request to the psychologist is “How to increase a child’s interest in learning?” These are the ideas that contain elements that may have been imposed on an individual from the external environment and are the result of the assimilation of certain social stereotypes. The fourth peripheral zone includes the ideas that are associated with the ordinary patterns of parents’ behavior. These judgments reflect the individual experience of parents, depending on the family’s life, including the experience of relationships with their own parents. In this area of ideas, the model of parenthood looks like the need to take care of a child, pay attention to a child, and develop vital skills. Conclusion. The obtained results make it possible to substantiate the directions and content of psychological education of modern parents raising teenagers. The main areas of work in this case are: informing about the features of child-parent relations and their impact on the formation of personality and the formation of the character of a teenager; gaining knowledge about building adequate relationships with children; joint discussion and development of constructive ways to resolve conflict situations, effective methods of education and their application in practice.