Orientacja światopoglądowa jako czynnik spójności więzi w rodzinie trzypokoleniowej

Abstrakt

The aim of the paper is to answer two essential questions:

— to what extent three generations of the same family share common philosophy of life, and what are the possible differences in this respect;
— whether the contemporary Polish family possesses so-called inherited philosophy of life, being able to bequeath the professed values to the subsequent generations.

The problems were studied among the three-generation family units in the quickly developing industrial town of Puławy where future Polish society seems to be moulded faster than anywhere else. 128 families with grandparents over 65 years of age and unmarried grandchildren aged 15 to 21 were included in the survey.

The obtained results reveal that 86.0 per cent of the contemporary urban population profess religious philosophy of life, such outlook being most characteristic of the eldest generation (95,5 per cent), less characteristic of the middle generation (87,7 per cent), and least characteristic cf the youngest generation (74,8 per cent). In turn, obviously atheistic (6,5 per cent) and religiously neutral attitudes (9.0 per cent) occur most often among young people and least often among the oldest (2.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively).

In 41.1 per cent of the investigated families grandparents, parents and children share the religious point of view in the essential problems of existence and sense of the world, man in particular. In these families the three generations profess common religious philosophy of life, which they do not intend to alter. These are units of monolithic outlook, immune to the influence of different views of the world and man.

46.8 per cent of the interviewed families reveal the same philosophy of life, which with very few exceptions is the religious one. Such uniformity of views occurs more often in the eldest and the middle generations than in the youngest and the middle generations, and least often in the eldest and the youngest generations. In the family of this type spiritual bonds between generations founded upon common philosophy of life are weaker than in the families of the first type.

Families where each generation holds different philosophy of life constitute the third, least numerous group (4,8 per cent). Families of this type are the most eager to accept new outlooks and new justifications of the outlooks already held.

Analysis of the results justifies the following conclusions:

— philosophy of life becomes increasingly differenciated in the three-generation urban family;
— the younger the generation the higher the percentage of atheists, agnostics and religiously indifferent, and the lower the percentage of confessedly and deeply religious persons;
— in spite of differences in respect to status, profession, interests, democratic and liberal attitude to mutual relations, the contemporary urban family reveals fairly common philosophy of life which tends to be religious one;
— the urban family wants to preserve common philosophy of life and it tends to bequeath the traditional outlook to the youngest generation; hence, even those young people who oper.ly declare their atheistic or indifferent attitude wish to bring up their children according to the religious outlook prevalent in their families;
— comparing the function of bequeathing philosophy of life performed by the family with its other functions such rs reproduction, providing protection and security, etc. one sees that the role of the family in performing the former has changed to a lesser degree than in fulfilling the latter;
— in spite of continuous and far reaching cultural changes common philosophy of life shared by the whole family unit has remained intact; many families consciously avoid new views of the world and man different from lo traditionally religious ones.