Intergenerational transmission of values over the family life course

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Abstract

Literature consistently shows that parents transmit their values to children, but less is known about the persistence and timing of value transmission over the life course, how the quality of intergenerational relationships moderates the strength of transmission, and how transmission may be sensitive to the type of value considered. We addressed our research questions using 1971 and 2000 waves of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG). The sample consisted of 775 parent–child dyads in which parents averaged 44 years old in 1971 and their offspring averaged 48 years old in 2000. Religious beliefs and gender role attitudes were the two values considered. We found intergenerational value similarity with regard to children's values in 2000 were mostly the result of early transmission. The quality of the parent–child relationship strengthened the contemporaneous transmission of religious beliefs and the lagged transmission of gender role attitudes. The transmission of gender role attitudes was considerably weaker and less stable over time than it was for religious orientation but tended to have a lagged impact under conditions of high solidarity. We discuss the role of parents’ influence on their children's value orientations in terms of a relational, life course, and societal process.

Introduction

Research on the intergenerational transmission of values has consistently shown that the social values of children are strongly associated with those of their parents, suggesting a process by which parents intentionally influence the values of their off-spring (Acock and Bengtson, 1987, Copen and Silverstein, 2008, Miller and Glass, 1989, Vollebergh et al., 2001). Whether intergenerational transmission of values occurs directly through socialization, didactic training, modeling, classical and operant conditioning, or indirectly through status inheritance, evidence is clear that values are perpetuated through the generations even when accounting for cohort differences resulting from historical change in values (Glass, Bengtson & Dunham, 1986). However, less is known about the persistence and timing of intergenerational value transmission over the family life course, the role that family dynamics play in the transmission process, and the sensitivity of transmission to the type of value considered. Almost all studies of intergenerational value transmission have examined the issue in cross-sectional data where it is not possible to examine whether transmitted values endure or even emerge in children as they grow up and adopt adult role statuses.

This investigation addresses three primary questions. First, we ask whether the timing of transmission matters. Do values get transmitted early in the family life cycle, and then persist in children over time, or is transmission lagged such that children adopt their parents’ values and beliefs when they reach middle adulthood? Second, we ask whether values are more powerfully transmitted when intergenerational cohesion is strong in the early years of family life when sensitivity to value adoption is considered to be strong. Third, we ask whether intergenerational transmission is stronger with respect to (1) belief systems that are privately held, such as those associated with religiosity, or (2) social attitudes that are guided by changing public opinion, such as gender role attitudes.

Socialization theory suggests that early experiences with parents directly shape the values and beliefs of children. Parents can affect their children's values through modeling (learning through observation of parents’ behavior and expressed attitudes) and formal training (such as religious instruction and verbal discipline that enforces conformity). Classical and operant conditioning are examples of how parental training of attitudes may be achieved; value adoption can be occur not only by neutral stimuli and observation but also by reward and punishment (De Houwer, Thomas, & Baeyens, 2001).

Adolescence is considered a critical period for the development of values and identity, when parents serve as important agents of socialization of their children (Alwin, 1984, Smith and Self, 1980, Starrels, 1992). However, parents compete with other socialization agents (e.g., peers, teachers, and media) such that adolescence marks a turning point when parental influence begins to wane (Younnis & Smollar, 1985). Adolescents begin to remove themselves from their parents’ sphere of influence and expand their own identity and values (Hoffman, 1984, Kroger and Haslett, 1988). The process of individuation accelerates as children experience important life transitions such as moving out of their parents’ home, marrying, and having children of their own, which lead to greater divergence from the values of their parents (Bucx, Raaijmakers, & Van Wel, 2010). Because timing appears to a key feature of value socialization, it is important to consider both pre- and post-adult children when studying the transmission of values between generations (Acock and Bengtson, 1980, Bengtson, 2001, Erikson, 1950, Hitlin, 2006).

An alternative perspective considers the conditions that produce value congruence between generations (Cooper, Grotecant, & Gondon, 1983). As adolescent children transition to early adulthood and beyond, they acquire new roles that may put their values in alignment with those of their parents. From this point of view, the establishment of intergenerational transmission is sensitive to life stage. Children may need to reach a certain level of maturity or social status before adopting the values to which they were earlier exposed to by their parents. Cunningham (2001) found that values become ‘activated’ when children enter a specific life stage such as marriage or parenthood, when their susceptibility to early socialization is maximized as something akin to a sleeper effect. In this framework, one might consider that there is a lag between the socialization of children and the emergence of values. A similar perspective is offered by proponents of the status inheritance model proposing that parents indirectly transmit their values to children through the transmission of their social status (Acock, 1984). Adult children are more likely than not to share the socioeconomic status of their parents and thus share the attendant values associated with those social positions. Therefore, it is possible to argue that parental influence is delayed and becomes activated when children come to occupy similar social roles and socioeconomic positions as their parents.

Value transmission is also likely to be enhanced by the quality of early family relationships. Research on family relationships has provided strong evidence that positive family relationships can facilitate value transmission between generations (Bengtson et al., 2002, Pearce and Axinn, 1998, Tarvis, 2000). However, the timing and persistence of parental influence over the life course is less understood. We ask whether value transmission in higher quality parent–child relationships is stronger than it is in lower quality parent–child relationships.

The term “values” is used to represent a diffuse set of standards, ideals, and goals. We use the term in the current research to refer to social attitudes and belief systems, specifically attitudes toward women's equality and religious beliefs. These two types of values were chosen because the transmission of each is proposed to require varying levels of parental effort (Vedder, Berry, Sabatier, & Sam, 2009). Research suggests that values are differentially transmitted across generations (Glass et al., 1986, Roest et al., 2010, Rohan and Zanna, 1996). Schwartz (1992) proposed that values that are more widely shared within the community require less effort to transmit to children, whereas values that are more heterogeneous require more effort. The speed of social change has been little investigated with regard to intergenerational transmission, but it would be reasonable to speculate that values undergoing the most rapid transformation would be less strongly transmissible across generations.

The values of gender egalitarianism diffused most rapidly through the population during the 1970s and 1980s but were adopted most vigorously by the Baby-boom cohort (Cotter, Hermsen, & Vanneman, 2011). As the main factors that influence gender role attitudes are educational attainment and working status (Moen, Erickson, & Dempster-McClain, 1997), it is likely that parents have relatively minor direct influence on their children but may be prospectively important through status inheritance, the effects of which would not be observed until education is completed and careers are developed.

In contrast to social attitudes, religious beliefs are rooted more in family culture. The family is the primary agent of socialization with regard to religious beliefs, identity, practice, and salience (Bengtson et al., 2009, Glass et al., 1986, Myers, 1996, Myers, 2004). As religious values are shaped first by family members, we expect that these values will be more strongly transmitted during the younger and more impressionable phase of life, and once established exhibit greater stability over time when compared to gender role attitudes. Thus, we expect parents to more strongly transmit religious beliefs than gender role attitudes as their children mature into middle adulthood. We also expect gender role attitudes to be transmitted in a lagged manner such that entry into adult roles will trigger latent predispositions resulting from earlier family relationships.

Although evidence for value congruence between parents and children is well established, the current study adds to the literature by examining (1) the timing and persistence of intergenerational influence based on theories of socialization and status inheritance, (2) the role of early family cohesion as an accelerator of the transmission process, and (3) variation in the rates and timing of transmission depending on whether social attitudes or belief systems are studied. This analysis addresses these issues using longitudinal data from parents and their adolescent children over a span of almost 30 years.

Section snippets

Sample

This study used two waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG). The LSOG began in 1971 with 2044 original respondents who were members of 341 three-generation families. Grandparents (G1) were selected via a multi-stage stratified random sampling procedure from a population of 840,000 individuals enrolled in southern California's first large HMO (see Bengtson & Schrader, 1982 for further details). Adult children (G2) and adolescent grandchildren (G3) of the grandparents

Results

For descriptive purposes mean scores for each of the values were calculated for both generations at W-1 and W-7. These means, found in Table 1, Table 2, show that at both waves children were less religiously inclined and more egalitarian regarding gender roles than their parents. Cross-generational and cross-time correlations for the summed scales are shown in Table 3. Correlations between generations were stronger at W-1 than at W-7 suggesting greater correspondence earlier than later in the

Discussion

The purpose of this paper was to examine the transmission of values from parents to children in order to identify the timing, persistence, and family context of intergenerational transmission of religious beliefs and attitudes toward gender equality. Using a unique longitudinal dyadic design we were able to trace whether transmission of values (1) occurred early and was persistent over three decades in the lives of children, (2) became evident later in the life course of children when they

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