Abstract:

The article considers a problem of evolution of the image of the future parental role of young women as one of the aspects of the development of an integral personal characteristic - psychological readiness for parenthood at key stages in a woman´s life - "planning" of the child, pregnancy and motherhood .The author aims to assess the moving forces of the change of images of future parental roles among married young women. The study involved 205 married women aged 24-28 years, who lived in Nizhny Novgorod. For the diagnosis of the structure of role preferences, Vasilyeva E.N. and OrlovA.V.author’s method "Family social roles " (an option of " My future parental roles ")was used. The analysis of the data revealed that the parental status ("potential parent ", " pregnant ", " parent" ) is not a factor of changing the image of their future functional parental roles among young married women. Also, there was determined a list of roles that are universally desirable / undesirable to play by mother in relation to her child, regardless of the type of parenthood . The material presented in this article , may be found useful by family psychologists and counseling psychologists working in antenatal care and perinatal centers.

Keywords: future parental role; an image; readiness for parenthood, parental status