Pageidaujamo sutuoktinio ir partnerio vaikų ugdyme apibūdinimai leidžia teigti, kad jaunesni žmonės (vyrai ir moterys), norintys sukurti šeimą, nenoriai renkasi partnerį, auginantį vaiką. Todėl galima daryti prielaidą, kad biologiniai vaikų tėvai yra svarbi sėkmingo vaikų ugdymo sąlyga. Supratimas apie tradicinę šeimą, kurią sudaro sutuoktiniai ir jų vaikai, ugdomi bendradarbiaujant, ne visada gali būti įgyvendintas. Ypač sunku tai suvokti vyresniame amžiuje, nes santuokų statistika rodo, kad penktadalis šeimų yra antrosios santuokos šeimos. Vyraujantis šeimos modelis po skyrybų yra mama ir vaikas. Šio tipo šeimos skirstomos į dvi grupes: šeimą, kurioje tėvas aktyviai dalyvauja vaiko ar vaikų ugdyme, ir šeimą, kurioje jis yra pašalintas arba atsisako šios pareigos. Antruoju atveju moteris, ieškanti naujo santuokos partnerio, daugiau dėmesio skiria jo tėviškoms savybėms ir įgūdžiams. Duomenys rodo, kad vyrai geriau save įsivaizduoja tokio tipo šeimoje nei toje, kurioje tėvas ir vaikas vis dar palaiko santykius.

Surrounding environment, social and political situation have affected our life. Thus, all the individual processes have some impact on its value system. At all times motives of human social behaviour and its regulation have been focus of the researchers from the practical and theoretical point of view. Value orientation system, reflecting the lifestyle characteristics through the prism of the public consciousness, is one of the components of individual's world. Generally speaking, it has been established that the human person's behaviour is conditioned by his/her inner, psychological qualities, experience, situational state and environment in which the action or communication occurs. Of course, the internal, psychological characteristics of individual behaviour are also determined by value orientation (dispositions) system. To successfully function in dynamic and sometimes hostile environment, an individual has to build up his/her worldview, basic attitudes and needs for conservation of'the self. On the other hand, modern humanism itself is not limited to preservation of humanity but aims to reveal personal practices that preserve the humanity of another human being (Buber 2000).

The final paper presents assessment of educational needs of the people infected with HIV and importance of their satisfaction in Lithuania. The work highlights the importance of education and the evaluation of the importance of education in contemporary society as well as analysis of HIV discrimination and equal opportunities in the society. The paper assesses the social integration of the people infected with HIV, their participation in education, the importance of increase in equal opportunities for patients with communicable diseases, presents the necessity of vocational rehabilitation of the HIV infected, reveals special assistance provided to the infected by specialists of education institutions. The qualitative research method is applied assessing perception of the importance of educational needs of the people infected with HIV and their satisfaction. The relevance of the topics was substantiated by interviews with HIV infected people in order to determine their educational needs. The end of the paper presents the findings and recommendations of theoretical and practical parts.

Childhood is not just a product of human development but also a product of development of society’s educational and spiritual culture. This paper aims to disclose how nowadays the family helps the child to develop adaptation instruments which would facilitate his/her adaptation to the society – in a micro-macro environment, to show what helps the child to become a member of a social group and the society, what adaptation problems arise during the childhood. Problems of school adaptation of the first-formers have not been properly assessed and analysed so far, though they foresee the future. No proper attention has been paid to the development of the harmonious personality during the pre-school period and to the correction of their adaptation during the first-school year. The paper deals with the child’s experiences of the pre-school period as a factor influencing school adaptation in the first form. Variety and quality of children’s experiences are directly related and most of all depend on the family of the spiritual institution, so its impact is the strongest in terms of the development of the child’s personality.

Today the Lithuanian society, as the majority of post-communist societies, needs social assistance. Social work is performed by confessional organizations. Thus, social assistance and educative activity may take and already has taken a significant place among them. However, confessional social activity is still facing a great number of poorly explored obstacles. Besides, proper and adequate cooperation and interaction between the two powerful institutions: the State itself and the Church is insufficient. The aim of this article is to focus on the essential problems of confessional-social activity, possibilities for cooperation between the State and the Church in the sphere of social activity and social assistance with reference to social activity of the Roman Catholic Church of Lithuania (RCCL).

The paper analyzes challenges faced by parents and other educators striving for creation of optimal conditions for the realization of adaptation options during sensitive developmental periods. In childhood and juvenility, it is necessary to acquire positive experience, which does not impair the natural emotional, mental, physical and social development of child’s personality. The main challenges to educators are to create favorable conditions for this. Diverse and positive experiences that correspond to the developmental stage of a child, enable a young personality to recognize the situation and choose the most appropriate behavior, which promotes emotional well-being. Thus, individual’s readiness to successfully cope with personal crises and to positively adapt to the changes in society in later stages of development is nurtured. The child’s learning process, which successfully started in the family, has to continue in pre-school education institutions as well. A major challenge to educators is to choose the right educational approach as early as birth of a child and to consistently observe this assessing the situation, which would lead to a balanced emotional, spiritual, physical, mental and social development of child’s personality.

Since the end of the 21st century relationships in the family have been rapidly changing in Lithuania. The changes correspond to changes in the birth-rate. The former model of birthrate which was characterized by the prevalence of legitimate children, child-bearing at a younger age and which ensured a change of generations, was replaced by a new model characterized by having illegitimate children, the postponment of child-bearing and low birth-rate, which does not ensure a change of generations. Although love relationships, marriage, children are still considered to be the recognized values, these changes have affected the conception of child’ s education in the family, the perception of child as a value. It is therefore relevant to evaluate future spouses’ preparation for a modern marriage and to constantly improve it. Such preparation is usually understood as young people’s readiness for their first marriage. Readiness for the second marriage and child’ s education in the second family are no less important though still insufficiently explored empirically and theoretically generalized.

The article explores attitudes to child’s education in the second marriage. The research was conducted inquiring people who wanted to create a family or establish long-term relationships. They were members of the online dating site “Harmonious Couple”. In 2007, 4000 participants were interviewed. In 2012 the research was carried out again. A 1000 participants were interviewed.

In both surveys, groups of participants who were to be interviewed were formed randomly. The research data showed that the predominant model of the family after divorce is mother and child(ren). This type of the family splits into two groups: the family in which the father is actively involved in child(ren’s) education and the family where he is excluded or opts ouf of this obligation. In the second case, a woman searching for a new marriage partner pays more attention to his paternal qualities and skills. However, many men who are planning the second marriage do not consider special preparations to communicate with a future spouse’s child(ren) as a prerequisite for the success of an intended marriage.

The research confirmed that parents encounter many difficulties in adolescent education. Parents of children of this age were in need of training in children’s psychology and education.