Elena Yu. Ganicheva

Background. Development of psychological and pedagogical competence of parents is placed among the relevant problems of scientific and practical interest in the modern psychological science. Its role is especially great in the crisis periods of the ontogenesis of mental processes and personality traits of children and adolescents. There are many studies in the scientific literature devoted to the development and formation of parental competencies, but the issue of motivating teenagers’ parents to interact with school psychologists, in our opinion, has been paid insufficient attantion. 

Objective. The study was aimed at investigating the reasons for the low motivation of teenagers’ parents to interact with the school psychological service and the possibilities of educational institutions in providing support to adolescents’ parents in developing their psychological and pedagogical competence. 

Methods. The study implemented methods of theoretical analysis, questionnairies, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the research results. 

Sample. The study involved 100 people, including 50 school psychologists with more than 3 years of experience working in educational institutions of Moscow, and 50 parents of adolescents aged 14–15 studying in the secondary education schools in Russia (Moscow, Belgorod, Klimovsk). 

Results. Survey of educational psychologists has established the fact of a decrease in the number of appeals of teenagers’ parents to the psychological services at schools. Survey of adolescents’ parents revealed their readiness to interact with specialists of a psychological service, subject to special conditions. A methodological complex has been developed aimed at increasing the motivation of teenagers’ parents to interact with educational psychologists in order to develop parental competences. 

Conclusion. The study revealed the problem of a decrease in the motivation of teenagers’ parents to consult with a school psychologist. The results analysis suggests that the reasons for this decline are associated with the peculiarities of adolescence period and the parents’ unwillingness for transformation of parent-child relationships. The parents survey revealed the problem of creating conditions for the effective provision of counseling services by a school psychologist on the basis of educational institutions. The resulting methodological complex makes it possible to investigate the problems and opportunities of an educational organization in terms of increasing parental competence and offers means of involving them in interaction with school psychological service. The results of the study suggest that preventive work with parents at the earlier stages of their children’s education in school will be effective in increasing the motivation of teenagers’ parents to interact with school psychologists.