The authors propose a new approach to understanding and investigating the structure of parental attitudes, based on defining two of its specific foundations: the object one and the personal one. The paper aims to analyze and systemize the existing categories describing pa-rental attitudes, as well as to construct a scientific approach to the phenomenon and develop a method for studying it. The authors introduce a new interpretation of the style of parental upbringing and suggest an original classification, demonstrating a connection between parental attitudes and the style of upbringing. The authors also discuss dynamics of the parents' attitude to the child, describing its characteristics in different stages of the child's growing-up - from infancy to adolescence.