Personal characteristics and environmentally responsible behavior of children of the generation alpha with different leisure orientation

Abstract

The problem of the influence of macrosocial factors that determine the trends of psychological development of entire generations of children is a unique opportunity to highlight the psychological and pedagogical conditions that have remained in the shadow of the general «ensemble» of factors. It was suggested that the specifics of leisure activities of preschool children of the Generation Alpha in the conditions of forced epidemiological self-isolation affects intrapersonal structures, their resource state and it is associated with the dominant system of child-parent relations in the family. The empirical study of the dyad «child of 5-7 years-parent» (N=72 and N=72) was conducted using projective diagnostic methods: children's anxiety was analyzed, self-assessment; blank diagnostic methods for assessing the organization of family leisure and child-parent relations. The study showed the emergence of two new forms of free leisure activities for children: virtual and mixed (virtual activity and traditional communication with peers). The dependence of the level of children's immersion in digital gadgets with an increase of their anxiety and a decrease of self-esteem, difficulties with resource recovery was revealed. It is concluded that in families where children spend virtual leisure time, child-parent relations are characterized by a reduced level of acceptance of the child, the desire for cooperation and symbiosis with him. The results obtained are of interest for solving the problems of designing conditions for the psychological and pedagogical development of children of the Generation Alpha as well as training specialists in the field of child practical psychology.