Vegetarianism as a socially conditioned phenomenon. A social portrait of a modern vegetarian family with children

The idea of excluding animal products from the diet, affecting families with children, has become extremely popular, embodying fashion trends and belonging to a group of people with similar social orientations and lifestyle. In the situation of increasing prevalence of vegetarianism in the children’s population, there are no studies of lifestyle, style and conditions of raising children by vegetarian parents. At the same time, in practice, there is insufficient awareness of vegetarian parents in a field of adequate diet composition, as well as difficulties in compliance between specialists with vegetarian families.

The purpose of the study – to study the socio–psychological characteristics of a modern vegetarian family.

Materials and methods. An uncontrolled psychological and pedagogical examination of vegetarian families was conducted. 45 mother-child dyads were included in the study. We studied: psychological characteristics of the personality of the child and parents, reasons for choosing the type of nutrition, the style of upbringing of the child, beliefs about monitoring the health and treatment of the child.

Results. The normative variant of cognitive development was established in 15.9 % of vegetarian children, the delayed variant of cognitive development – in 72.7 % of children, the deviant variant of cognitive development – in 11.4 % of children. 52.3 % of vegetarian children can be attributed to a group with a low level of socio-psychological adaptability, 38.6 % of children – to a group with an average level of adaptability, 9.1 % of children had high indicators for this parameter. In 62.2 % of cases, there was a permissive parenting style, in 17.8 % of cases – an inconsistent parenting style, in 13.3 % – an authoritarian parenting style, in 6.7 % – a democratic (authoritative) parenting style.

Conclusion. The motive for choosing the concept of vegetarianism has a direct impact on the style of parenting and adherence to the recommendations of specialists. Parents do not focus on the individual, personal and psychological needs of the child when they choosing a diet and parenting style, but are guided by their own motives and beliefs regarding the lifestyle that they consider correct.

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