Modern parents' perceptions of demands, encouragement, and punishment as components of child rearing

Statement of the problem. Solving the problem of psychological and pedagogical support of parents requires studying the request for psychological assistance from their side. In our opinion, this can be done by studying the social perceptions of modern parents about various aspects of the phenomenon of parenthood. The purpose of the article is to describe the semantic core of modern parents' ideas about encouragement, punishment, and requirements as components of raising children in the family. Materials and methods. The research methodology is presented by the concept of social representations by S. Moscovici, as well as synthesized research in the field of social representations by Russian and foreign scientists (K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, G.M. Andreeva, E.Y. Artemyeva, M.I. Volovikova, T.P. Yemelyanova, L.G. Pochebut, J.K. Abrik, P. Verges, D. Jodle). Research results. The analysis of the results shows that the semantic core is the idea that the main task and responsibility of parents is to educate the child, and for this they can use methods of encouragement and punishment, moreover, they have the right to control and punish the child. The main tasks of different methods of education (requirements, prohibitions, punishments, incentives) is maintaining the authority of parents, taking care of the child's safety, encouraging good behavior, good learning, and obedience of the child. These ideas tend to the traditional Russian understanding of the parent as an educator. Along with this, there is an appearance of ideas about non-mandatory education, the need to develop an educational strategy, and the need to avoid child-centered behavior. Conclusion. The results of the study allow us to make a request for the content of psychological and pedagogical support for parents within the educational system and psychological assistance services. Knowledge of modern parenting's social concepts of parenting methods allows parents to develop education that is appropriate to their characteristics and needs.