Socialization Values in Stable and Changing Societies

Abstract

Although socialization values have been consistently linked to sociocultural context, little is known about the question of to what extent societal change is reflected in socialization values. The present study’s aim was to address this research gap by comparing the short-term and long-term socialization values of mothers of adolescents from two different cultural groups (142 ethnic Estonian and 65 Russian-speaking mothers) living in a country of transition—Estonia—to those of 150 Swedish mothers residing in the relatively stable Sweden. The Child-Rearing Value Questionnaire consisted of two different tasks: (a) open-ended questions and (b) item ranking task. Answers to open-ended questions about valuable characteristics in the child in the present, in adulthood, and the mothers’ own characteristics they would like to pass to their children showed that the Swedish mothers’ short-term and long-term socialization values did not differ. The answers of Estonian and Russian Estonian mothers, in turn, appeared to reflect socialization value change in Estonia toward less emphasis on traditional values: The Estonian mothers mentioned conformity values and Russian Estonian mothers hard work less frequently when describing children in adulthood than when describing themselves. Both Estonian and Russian Estonian mothers stressed achievement when describing children in adulthood, whereas achievement and hard work were mentioned less frequently when describing children in the present. In the item-choosing task, the Swedish mothers were more likely than mothers living in Estonia to choose “belief in his/her abilities” among the three most important characteristics.