SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF FAMILY UPBRINGING IN MODERN SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXTS

The family institution is moving in the wake of globalization and is one of the first to face the challenges and consequences of global processes. The family is a reflection of the state of society at the current stage of development, because it is the family structure that interacts with such dimensions of society as: economy, politics, information and technology, culture, ecology and society, which, in turn, are the main directions of globalization processes.
Keywords: family, child, globalization, spirituality, upbringing, values.

Luhova M. S.
PhD student of the third (educational and scientific) level of higher education,
H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.173

For every child, the family is the primary unit that creates the conditions for learning the norms and rules of the natural and social environment. Depending on these conditions, which are a unity of cultural, religious, and national peculiarities, the child forms an idea of the environment, and along with it, the spiritual and intellectual education of the individual takes place. Considering the family in a cultural and anthropological context in modern conditions, we stand at the crossroads of manifestations and varieties of the family. We can analyze the traditional and non-traditional family, the family of a secular society and a post-secular one, identifying the peculiarities of the viability of models and the quality of spiritual and intellectual upbringing.

Let us turn to the definition “The family is an educational institution of society that, in early childhood, lays down human character traits at the level of subconsciousness, automaticity, maximally influences the emotional sphere, intelligence, moral positions, will, forms a standard of behavior, certain interests, needs, and exercises social control over the behavior of the individual and his or her activities. It is in the family that a person begins to acquire the first social experience. The content and nature of this social experience depends on the spirituality of the parents, their moral and life values, on the family’s awareness of their responsibility to the child for the “quality of socialization” that it will provide them” [1].

When studying the definition of the author Zobenko N., which is given in the work “On the issue of gender socialization of the child in the family”, it is worth paying attention to the role of parents in the formation of the child’s personality, the formation of his or her psychological and mental health, patterns of behavior, social roles and interests, as well as habits and preferences. Parents practically form a personality by their example, their behavior and family habits. The family atmosphere and the emotional and psychological state of the parents, their words and attitudes related to upbringing also influence the child.

Various traditions and religious and philosophical teachings have left their mark on the spiritual and intellectual upbringing of children. Families that remain post-secular today associate education with the concepts of ideological dogmas and beliefs. In particular, such representatives are Muslim countries and countries of the East, which were studied in the article “Views on the Child and Childhood in the Philosophical and Pedagogical Concepts of the Countries of the East” [2].

Globalization has affected primarily representatives of the secular world. The rapid development of society and global changes affect every person in the world and open up new opportunities for both personal development and personal destruction. The limitless world of possibilities comes at the cost of stress, which can lead to sleep disturbances, irritability, etc. Along with the deterioration of the environment, these symptoms have a tendency to accumulate in the body. Parenting in the era of globalization can be described using the metaphor of God Shiva, who has many hands. Modern parents intend to accomplish a lot of things: career growth at work, self-realization through hobbies, personal development and finding their own purpose, household chores, socializing with friends, social media activity, travel, time for family and raising a child. In this mode, the result can often be emotional burnout and tension, which carries a destructive charge for the climate in the family.

The analogy with God Shiva will be appropriate to use again when describing the variety of family models. Along with the modern liberal family, there is also the traditional, nuclear, classical family. Such a family consists of a man and a woman who share the function of raising children and running a household. In this sense, the traditional family seems to be more viable, because it is the primary unit of society, unlike the modern concept of the primacy of the individual. The traditional family is the basis for spiritual and intellectual development, which, under the influence of globalization, has changed its essence to individualism and cynicism in the struggle for the illusory ideals of popularity in social networks.

One of the key characteristics of globalization is the emergence of the World Wide Web, which makes any information available. This is both a limitless resource and a severe challenge for society. On the one hand, it is a unique opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills, unlimited communication, shopping, work and entertainment. And on the other hand, it is a platform for new methods of fraud and criminal activity, a new type of addiction, and a means of information influence. A child, as a person with an unformed psyche and unstable ideas about cause and effect, as well as an unclear definition of “good” and “evil,” is sensitive and unprepared for the challenges of the information network, and therefore the consequences can be severe.

Therefore, the informatization and digitization of childhood is becoming the norm today, bringing into children’s lives such consequences as: clip thinking, inability to hold attention for a long time on large amounts of monotonous information, which is replaced by the need for dynamic vivid images or the presentation of short text in the form of illustrations.

In such conditions, knowledge also becomes superficial, because there is no point in knowing by heart everything that can be found on the Internet at any time and read again. At the same time, a large network, where entertainment content often changes to faster and more colorful, attracts children. As a result, the quality of health and eyesight can deteriorate in modern children.

In such conditions, the phenomenology of childhood is transformed into a new image, the nature of which becomes more adult, serious, losing its childlike spontaneity and requiring the child to be modern and interactive, which is not synonymous with spiritual and intellectual development. The consequences of such a development strategy can be fully revealed much later. And today, society is in crisis, there is a clear struggle against the established forms of family relationships, values are becoming blurred and the usual idea of the classical family is being lost.

Thus, in studying the impact of globalization on the family institution in Ukraine, significant changes in the structure of family relationships and roles were identified. Dynamic processes and international trends are changing the world fundamentally and start with every family. Families in secular societies are most affected, as modern trends are perceived directly, bypassing the prism of spirituality. Among these influences, it is important to note those that affect parents directly:

the formation of new forms of family relationships;
changes in the role function of family members;
changes that affect demographics (same-sex marriage, abortion laws, child-free);
emergence of new legal structures and regulations;
a new level of international relations (interethnic marriages and international adoption);
new sexual orientations (in addition to traditional heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality are becoming more widespread);
labor emigration; the emergence of a large number of stressors and the need for a fast pace of life.

These aspects indirectly affect the life of a child, as he or she perceives and learns all the norms and rules, adopts family habits and interests, and the psycho-emotional state of parents directly shapes the child’s mental and psychological health. There are also aspects that directly affect young family members. The informatization and digitization of childhood is becoming the norm today, with negative effects on children’s health and the way they perceive information. However, globalization is not an absolute evil for the modern family institution, although it is worth analyzing the real prospects of the problem today.

Every scientific achievement and new level of progress has a downside and an objective assessment of both strengths and weaknesses, and finding alternative ways to solve the problem can help to avoid the crisis or prevent its grave consequences.

List of references

1. On the issue of gender socialization of the child in the family. Equality, leadership, communication in the European aspirations of Ukrainian youth: gender discourse : a collection of materials. All-Ukrainian scientific and practical conference, Ternopil, October 5-7, 2016 / edited by V. P. Kravets. Ternopil: TNPU named after V. Hnatiuk, 2016. С. 44-46.
2. Views on the child and childhood in the philosophical and pedagogical concepts of the countries of the East. Oriental Studies. Actuality and prospects : mat. III international scientific and met. conf. May 6, 2022 Kharkiv: H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. 2022. P. 78-80.