The family is the basic social unit, where a man and a woman take on the social roles of mother and father. Family life allows us to assimilate the conditions in which we become like our parents. The parents' role models and attitudes towards their children are therefore important here.

What is an attitude?

It is a state of mental readiness to assimilate something as well as an emotional attitude towards a given thing or object.[1]

What components are important for parental attitudes?

First and foremost, the conviction of the importance of the parental role. Parents' attitudes here are extremely important because of the perception of their role, whether it is primary or secondary to other social functions. Identification with the role is important, i.e. the belief that no one else can replace the parent. Motivation for family co-parenting is another component of parental attitudes. It is important whether parents pursue the goals of the family as a system or their personal ambitions and plans.[2]

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Maria Ziemska has identified parental attitudes that are undesirable in parent-child contact. We refer to several disorders of contact with the child.

The first dimension is excessive distance - excessive focus. When parents have excessive distance from the child we can talk about two types of contact:

• Aggressive contact, it manifests itself in behaviours such as "doing right by the child", without considering the child's needs or feelings.
• Avoidance, withdrawal from the relationship i.e. next to the child, without turning towards him/her.

When parents display an excessive emotional focus on the child, we can also speak of two types of contact:

• Striving to correct the child's behaviour, persistent and harassing.
• Limiting social contact by "keeping the child to himself".