The Role of Family and School in Securing Psychological Well-Being of Primary School Children

The paper reviews the age spicific form of psychological well-being in primary school age as the result of the acquisition of a new social position and role of student that, according to C. Ryff, is the essence of psychological adaptation of the child to school. The research was aimed at exploring the conditions of psychological adaptation to school in chidlren as a process that promotes psychological well-being at this age. The research goals were as follows: to explore the character and dynamics of school adaptation in first-graders; to compare the notions of successful adaptation in teachers and parents; to study the relationship between successful psychological adaptation to school and a) the features of the internal position of student, b) the type of parenting style. The sample consisted of 122 first-graders (7—8 years old) and 110 parents. It was empirically proven that all components of psychological well-being in primary school children, namely: positive relations in the form of cooperation in joint educational activities with the teacher and peers; self-acceptance represented in the form of internal position of student as self-identification with the social role of the student; competence as mastering the means of learning activity and autonomy as an independent implementation of the latter; important goals in the form of meaningful acceptance of learning objectives; personal growth, expressed in the content and pace of individual progress in personal and metacognitive development — all these are determined by the psychological readiness of teachers and parents to transform their relationships with the child and to establish adequate forms of educational cooperation. It is argued that disharmonious types of parenting styles interfere with the child’s psychological adaptation to school.