Answer to Question #234885 in Economics for Sba

Question

Identify TWO major reasons for a decline in the child dependency ratio?

Answer 1

In the unstable conditions of the transition period and crisis, people need values ​​that can be “leaned on” and that is not destroyed under any political and socio-economic breakdowns. Such eternal values ​​are undoubtedly in the sphere of personal relationships - friendships, love, and family. And in this area, the pivot bearing the main burden of people's value expectations regarding love and support, of course, is the relationship between parents and a child.

Psychologists pay special attention to adolescence. Currently, in the developed countries of the world, this period of life tends to gradually increase. According to modern data, it covers almost a decade - from 11 to 20 years.

Adolescence is one of the most difficult periods of human development. Usually, it is characterized as a turning point, transitional, critical, but more often as the age of puberty. L.S. Vygotsky distinguished three points of maturation: organic, sexual, and social. In the modern child, all the lines of development have diverged. Now we see first puberty, then organic and after a while - social. This discrepancy led to the emergence of adolescence.

It is in adolescence that the formation of character and other foundations of personality predominantly occurs. These circumstances: the transition from childhood cared for by adults to independence, the change from the usual schooling to other types of social activity, as well as the rapid hormonal changes in the body, make the adolescent especially vulnerable and susceptible to negative environmental influences. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the tendency inherent in adolescents to free themselves from the care and control of relatives, teachers, and other educators. Quite often this striving also leads to the denial of spiritual values ​​and living standards in general of the older generation. On the other hand, defects in upbringing work with adolescents are becoming more and more obvious. Particularly significant in this regard are the wrong relationships in the family, the increased level of divorce.

Researchers analyze the psychological content of this period, which determines its crisis nature. Of particular interest to researchers is the fact that personal development in adolescence is characterized by the presence of two oppositely directed tendencies: the desire for independence, conditioned by age-related developmental tasks, on the one hand, and the desire to preserve child dependence, which provides a feeling of safety, security, and confidence, on the other. If a moderate manifestation of dependence on parents in a teenager is natural and normative, then the dominance of dependent tendencies has a negative impact on personality development. In this regard, it is of particular importance to study the characteristics and causes of psychological dependence on parents in adolescence.

In the study of dependence in the system of emotional relations, a significant place is occupied by the problem of the relationship between the phenomena of dependence and attachment. In psychology, the attachment means seeking and establishing closeness with another individual. Attachment is based on especially strong emotional ties with another person, which determine the entire mental and psychological structure of a person: attitude to oneself, to the world, creative abilities, etc., and meet a person's needs for love, security, and safety.