Mis on perekond? 6. klasside õpilaste hoiakud perestruktuuride suhtes

Abstract

In this thesis I will be focusing on sixth grade students’ opinions about different family structures and attitudes toward sharing a surname with their parents and getting married in the future. This is a replication of Marika Roots’ study from 2010 as her bachelor’s thesis. To gather data, I carried out a survey and semi-structured interviews with 225 6th grade students from four schools in Tartu and Viljandi counties. The main results were: 1) Overall, 6th grade students’ views on marriage and cohabitation are quite liberal. For them, being a family does not depend on whether the parents are married or just cohabitating. But when asked about their own wishes to marry, cohabitate or stay alone in the future, the children’s opinions were a little bit more traditional – most of them expressed desire to get married in the future. 2) Boys tend to be more conservative than girls. This became evident, analyzing answers to questions about same gender couples, parents’ marriage and sharing the same surname with parents. Girls’ answers to these questions were more tolerant and liberal. 3) When defining a family, the students leaned on different aspects. Having a child and living in the same household were most mentioned as the things that make a family. When children were asked about the biological father, who has left his family, and the stepfather, ethical, emotional and biological aspects were revealed. The attitudes towards the biological father who had left his family were mostly negative, but there were still some children, to whom biological connection was the most important. Stepfather was mostly counted as a family member, the deciding factor here being living in the same household with him. The child having a good emotional relationship with the mother’s new partner was also mentioned as an important factor. Similar to M. Roots’ study, negative attitudes towards the father who had moved away were more strong among girls. In conclusion, compared to 2010, the children’s opinions and attitudes about family structures have gotten a little bit more liberal, especially among girls.