Crisis of the First Year and Its Manifestations Due to Family Interaction

The study involved 117 people from 43 families of Saint-Petersburg. Among them there were 31 triads “mother – father -child” and 12 dyads “mother - child”, i.e. 43 children (20 boys and 23 girls), 43 mothers and 31 fathers. The age of children differed from 10 months to 2 years. The sample was divided into 2 age groups: from 10 months to 1 year 6 months; and from 1 year 7 months to 2 years. The methods we used were the following: “Manifestations of the crisis of the first year” questionnaire by V. Vasilenko, “Child and parent emotional interaction” questionnaire by E. Zakharova, Maternal postnatal attachment scale by J. Condon, Parental Attitude Research Instrument (РARI) by E.S. Schaefer & R.Q. Bell, Test of marriage satisfaction by Y.E. Aleshina, L.Y. Gozman, E.M. Dubovskaya. The study revealed that constructive formations of the crisis prevail over negativistic manifestations; the main formation is autonomous child speech. The postcritical phase has not been identified. The data in general show the well-being in the child and parent emotional interaction, the high maternal attachment to children, and prevalence of attitudes towards optimal emotional contact with the child and the high level of marriage satisfaction. At the same time we revealed reduced indicators of ability to perceive the child's state (29% mothers and 48% fathers), understand what causes the child’s state (26% mothers and 39% fathers), influence to the child's state (29% mothers and 26% fathers). Constructive formations of the crisis are positively correlated with the sensitivity of the mother, the maturity of her behavioral manifestations in interaction and negatively correlated with positive feelings in interaction and emotional acceptance from fathers, as well as with the maternal attitudes to excessive concentration on the child. Negativistic manifestations of the crisis are less pronounced in the case of mother’s ability to influence to the child’s state, to support him, the child’s emotional acceptance and mother’s marriage satisfaction, and more pronounced in the case of maternal attitudes to the excessive emotional distance with the child, severity and, at the same time, to partnership with the child. Thus, the mother’s sensitivity, maturity of her behavioral manifestations in interaction and parental attitudes combined with some "conditional love" from fathers can be regarded as resources for the successful flowing of the crisis of the first year. Parents need to move from strengthening their previous parenting methods to searching for new forms of interaction.