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Taiwanese and American mothers' goals and values for their children's futures
Author(s) -
Suizzo MarieAnne,
Cheng ChiChia
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207590601109342
Subject(s) - conformity , socialization , agency (philosophy) , psychology , futures contract , social psychology , developmental psychology , power (physics) , sociology , social science , financial economics , economics , physics , quantum mechanics
Cross‐cultural research on parents' socialization goals and practices with young children has increasingly shown that parents promote aspects of both independence and interdependence in their children. However, few studies have examined parents' long‐term goals for their children's futures, which may be equally or more influential than short‐term socialization goals on children's development. This study compared long‐term goals and values for young children in a sample of 201 mothers from two industrialized countries: Taiwan and the United States. Six dimensions of long‐term goals and values were measured: agency and self‐direction, power and achievement, intimacy and enjoyment, conformity and tradition, family relatedness, and benevolence and universalism. Controlling for maternal education, there were no group differences in the importance attached to agency, benevolence, and family relatedness: Both groups attached highest importance to agency and benevolence, and considered family relatedness much less important. Differences were found in importance attached to intimacy, conformity, and power: Although both groups highly valued intimacy, European American mothers valued intimacy more than Taiwanese mothers; and Taiwanese mothers attached greater importance to conformity and power. All dimensions were positively correlated across groups, and only three correlations differed in their magnitude between the groups: Agency and conformity, agency and intimacy, and conformity and universalism, all of which were more strongly associated among Taiwanese than among European American mothers. Among Taiwanese mothers, maternal education was positively related to agency, intimacy, conformity, benevolence, and power. Among European American mothers, more educated mothers attached less importance to conformity than less educated mothers. This study demonstrates that Taiwanese and European American mothers' long‐term goals for their children include aspects of both independence and interdependence, and extends findings of prior research focusing only on short‐term goals. These findings suggest that parents' goals may differ depending on the child's age (short‐term or long‐term), and underscore the importance of examining social context when comparing parents' goals across cultures.