The Role of Parental and Child Motivation in the Intergenerational Transmission of Values in East Germany and Shanghai/China

Abstract

Intergenerational intrafamilial transmission is a process by which acquired information passes from parent to offspring. This investigation examined mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of individualistic and collectivistic values in two societies: East Germany and the Shanghai region in China. To clarify the impact of transmission from mother and father to child, the study analyzed the filter model suggested by Schönpflug, which is based on parental and child’s value orientation, each family member’s motivation in the transmission process and the value climate of the social context. Two matched samples consisting of 216 complete families with one adolescent child in each family participated in both regions. The two-dimensional structure of ten values indicating individualism and collectivism of the Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ) developed by Schwartz, Lehman, and Roccas differed somewhat in both regions for adolescents and their fathers, but not for mothers. The level of individualism was higher than collectivism in East Germany, and higher than in the region of Shanghai/China. The level of collectivism was higher than individualism in the Chinese region and than in East Germany. In this mid-European region, only mothers transmitted exclusively individualistic value orientation. In Chinese families, the father was a more influential transmitter of individualistic and collectivistic orientation, and mothers were not influential. Parental motivation to transmit individualism was a significant mediating variable in both samples; parental motivation to transmit collectivism mediated only between Chinese fathers’ and their children’s collectivism.