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.
Intergenerational transmission is one of the central mechanisms leading to either continuity or change in human culture. The transfer of cognitive and social orientations and cultural knowledge from generation to generation may maintain culture over longer time spans in addition to genetic transmission (Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman, 1981). Vertical social transmission within the generations of a family is the focus of interest in our research. The vertical transmission of cultural knowledge, skills, behavior patterns, and social orientations, including values, is a complex process that involves a transmitter (i.e., mother or father), a transmittee (i.e., daughter or son), and the social context in which these cultural contents represent either the mainstream or some deviant orientation. Human transmitters are generally motivated to transmit a given content and transmittees are—depending on their developmental stage and other influences—open to these transmission attempts, generally accepting their influence if the transmitter serves as a model. Transmission does not necessarily imply deliberate teaching or revealing oneself to be a model. Parents may refrain from deliberate attempts to serve as a model and from teaching cultural content to their offspring, but nevertheless show some motivation to transmit by giving the child multiple opportunities for exploratory interactions: They provide opportunities for the transfer of information and for individual learning. Only when the parent deliberately avoids teaching, serving as a model, or having interactions with the child may such a case be regarded as indicating no motivation to transmit.
This study attempts to operationalize the filter model suggested by Schönpflug (2009a). The model conceptualizes the impact of the parental family roles of father and mother on their sons’ and daughters’ value orientation as mediated by the motivation of the parental actors to promote and the child’s motivation to accept transmission of values. This mediated transfer of value orientations is controlled for the influence of the mainstream value climate in the social context of two culturally different regions under study, Saxony-Anhalt/East Germany and Shanghai/China. The transmitted cultural contents investigated were the general value orientations of individualism and collectivism. We suggest that parent–child similarity in individualism and collectivism will be the result of the transmission process defined in the filter model.
The filter model (Figure 1) proposes that intergenerational familial transmission is a process of transference of information, in our case value orientations, from parent to offspring. The transfer is filtered by the intensity of parental motivation to transmit and the child’s readiness to accept parental impact. The process takes place in a normative context or zeitgeist perceived by transmitter and transmittee. The most prominent relevant characteristics of both transmitter and transmittee are gender, age, and educational level. In addition, the value climate of the social context or the value zeitgeist and other variables might be identified in further research.
The filter model (adapted from Schönpflug & Bilz, 2009, p. 230).
We cannot expect an exact replication of discrete units of cultural elements, such as values, from one generation to the next. Cultures differ in terms of the variations which they tolerate: Some cultures demand high conformity of their members; others have established social systems that allow for a liberal tolerance of deviations. Traditional as well as socialistic-communistic societies usually show little tolerance for deviations, whereas liberal democratic countries appear to be more tolerant (Gelfand et al., 2011). China has a reputation for being traditional, and according to the current socialistic-communistic regime, is conformist with little tolerance for deviance. East Germany, by contrast, is perceived as having a less traditional and more individualistic culture following the decline of the socialistic-communistic regime. In Gelfand et al.’s research report, both regions showed intermediate-level scores on the looseness or tolerance and tightness or intolerance dimension. Nevertheless, we expect more parent–child similarity in the Chinese context than in the East German one, as East Germany has been integrated into the (Western) Federal Republic of Germany for two decades now and has gone through a period of social transformations that have rendered a preference for social continuity in the next generation undesirable. The Chinese people, based on tradition and on the socialistic-communistic regime, seem to be socialized for continuity, and according to its official educational policy as well as its tight kinship and neighborhood networks, also appear to be socialized for conformity (Cen, 1994).
Cultural Transmission in the East German and Shanghai/Chinese Context
Previous studies show that the strength of value transmission in Germany is moderate to low (Boehnke, Hadjar, & Baier, 2009; Grob, Weisheit, & Gomez, 2009; Homer, 1993; Schönpflug & Bilz, 2009). Peterson, Cobas, Bush, Supple, and Wilson (2004) posited that Chinese socialization strategies are based on conformity with parental expectations, which may also mean greater receptivity to parental influences as opposed to parenting strategies in individualistic Western contexts. However, there are evidently not yet any publications which draw a direct comparison of value transmission from parents to child in the two cultural regions of East Germany and Shanghai/China in the same study; our research contributes to filling this gap. We examined the gender-specific prevalence and transmission of values in a cultural region with traditional male preference compared to a region in which sons and daughters are generally welcomed equally and are given equal opportunities by their parents.
Values in the East German and Shanghai/China Contexts
Having a firm theoretical foundation with regard to cultural values and their continuity in a cultural group should shed light on those elements that constitute universals and differences in cognition across societies and improve our understanding of cognitive processes underlying human capacities for internalizing belief systems and ideas. Studies based on many cultural samples showed a similar value structure to that conceptualized by Schwartz and Bilsky (1990; Schwartz et al., 2001). Schwartz defined values as beliefs that function as motives and represent transsituational desirable goals and modes of conduct serving as guiding principles in an individual’s life. Based on the underlying motivational goals of the values, Schwartz postulated 10 values, which belong to the general value orientations of individualism and collectivism, and proposed them as universals. To facilitate comparability with earlier research (Schönpflug & Bilz, 2009), we focused on these global dimensions of individualism and collectivism.
Research Aims
A greater theoretical understanding is needed regarding the process of intergenerational transmission in different cultural contexts. Following the theoretical framework of the filter model, we selected adolescents and their families in East Germany and Shanghai/China to examine the major premises of the model.
The following objectives guided our research:
The first aim was to assess the level of the general value orientations of individualism and collectivism in two different cultural regions: East Germany and Shanghai/China. Both regions had, or still have, a longer period of a socialistic-communistic regime, but look back on different cultural histories concerning individualism and collectivism. Hence, we expect the East German region to be more individualistic than collectivistic, and more individualistic and less collectivistic than the Chinese region.
Hypothesis 1: In terms of general value orientations (individualistic and collectivistic) the East German region tends to be more individualistic than collectivistic, and more individualistic and less collectivistic than the Chinese region.
The second aim was to compare whether values are more intensely transmitted in the Chinese compared to the East German region because the Chinese are socialized toward guarding their traditions and toward conformism, whereas the East German population is going through a process of socio-political transformation. Consequently, we predict that transmission in the Shanghai/China region will be more intense than in the East German region.
Hypothesis 2: Value transmission in the Shanghai/China region will be more intense than in the East German region.
The third aim was to find evidence for or against the two filter functions of the parental motivation for preference of generational value continuity and the children’s readiness to accept parental influence for generational similarity in the transmission process of individualism and collectivism. We expect both motivational components to mediate between parental and child’s value orientation.
Hypothesis 3: Both motivational components—parental motivation for preference of generational value continuity and the children’s readiness to accept parental influence—mediate between parental and child’s value orientation.
Method
Participants
The two samples came from Shanghai/China and the surrounding rural area, and from Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony/East Germany, two areas that were part of the former GDR. The total German sample comprised 260 mostly complete families with one adolescent child. Of this pool of families, 109 were selected based on our attempt to achieve similar socioeconomic status in the two groups, as they matched the criteria for the Shanghai/Chinese sample in terms of age of children, their school track, father’s educational level, and employment status. The sample included 60 ninth and 49 tenth graders in Germany and 50 eighth, 30 ninth, and 27 tenth graders in Shanghai (n = 107), as well as both parents. The children’s mean age in the two samples differed significantly: M = 15.18 years, SD = 0.78 in East Germany, and M = 15.58 years, SD = 0.57 in Shanghai/China (T = −4.25, df = 214, p < .001). However, this difference is irrelevant from a developmental perspective. In Germany, 40.9% of the children in the sample attended the higher-level school track (i.e., Gymnasium) and 39.1% students were in an undifferentiated school track up to the 10th grade (Gesamtschule), similar to the Shanghai school system; the remainder came from the lower- and medium-track schools.
The parents’ educational level did not differ significantly between the two regional samples. Moreover, no gender differences were observed in the parents’ and the children’s samples of both regions. The mean number of children per family was M = 1.04 in the Chinese and M = 1.10 in the East German sample; the mean difference was not significant.
Procedure
The researchers contacted various schools in different districts of the focal cities of Halle in the Federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, in one region of the adjacent Federal state of Saxony, in Shanghai/ China, and in surrounding regions of the two cities. When schools agreed to cooperate, 15- and 16-year-old students were contacted. Those who wished to participate were asked to obtain the consent of both parents for their own and their child’s participation in the study. The parents completed the questionnaires at home, and the children handed them in at school.
Measures
Sociodemographic data
The adolescent participants’ age, gender, place of birth, school track, and desired level of education as well as their parents’ age, educational level, employment status, and child status (biological offspring or other) were assessed.
Values
The values listed in the questionnaire were a translated version of the PPQ developed by Schwartz, Lehmann, and Roccas (1999; Schwartz et al., 2001). The questionnaire consisted of 40 items describing a person’s value-related behavior. The 40 items constituted the 10 value categories listed earlier. Participants rated each item with regard to the similarity of the described behavior/thinking to their own on a rating scale ranging from 1 (not at all similar) to 6 (very similar). Five values (power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, and self-determination) belong to the general value orientation of individualism and five values to collectivism (universalism, benevolence, traditionalism, conformity, and security).
Average value climate in social context (zeitgeist)
Self-ratings of value strength of all three family members were randomly matched so that they represented a “random family.” The self-ratings of an adolescent child were matched with the mother of the next child in the data file and again matched to the father of the child two lines later in the file. The average of the respective three random family members was computed, resulting in a zeitgeist measure for a given value (see Boehnke et al., 2009).
Parents’ self-reported motivation to transmit and children’s estimation of parental influence
All parents rated each of the 40 value items regarding the extent to which they want their child to resemble them with respect to the described behavior/thinking. The rated preference for continuity in their offspring was understood as an indicator of motivation to transmit. In addition, the child rated each value item as to how strong the child feels the parents’ influence to be, that is, acceptance of parental influence. The rating scales ranged from 1 (not at all) to 6 (very much). The 40 ratings of each of the 3 family members were grouped into the 2 cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism as suggested previously by Schwartz and Bilsky (1990). We continued our analyses of the filter model with the global motivation ratings for the two value orientations provided by each family member.
Results
Item Bias Check of the 40 Value Items
First, a check of item bias was undertaken by reviewing significant distributional differences between single items within and across cultural groups. None of the items was discarded due to a significantly skewed distribution in either of the two cultural groups. Second, ANOVAs (analyses of variance) were performed with region (i.e., East Germany and Shanghai/China and surrounding area) and item score level as between-group factors, and item score as the dependent variable. The 120 analyses for the 40 items × three family roles resulted in a preponderance of insignificant main effects of region, value scale level, and interactions of Value Score Level × Region. Thus, cross-cultural comparisons appeared to be justified (Matsumoto & van de Vijver, 2010).
Level of Individualism and Collectivism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
The cultural differences between our two samples become clearer if we examine the means of the two-dimensional value structure. In Table 1, the means of the two value orientations are listed for the two regions and, within these, the two parents’ value orientations and the children’s value orientations by sex (son or daughter). From the strength of the representation of the two dimensions “individualism” and “collectivism” as summary measures of two global value orientations—following the results of the multidimensional scaling analyses—we learned that the individualistic orientation is stronger in East Germany than in Shanghai/China and its surrounding area, and the collectivistic orientation was more intense in Shanghai and its surroundings than in East Germany, with the exception of mothers, who revealed no cultural difference in collectivism.
Means and Standard Deviations of Individualism and Collectivism of the Father and Mother, Sons and Daughters, and the Two Regions of East Germany and Shanghai/China.
The differences were tested in a repeated-measures ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) with cultural region, sex of child, and father’s educational level as between-group factors, family role as a first within-subject factor, and value orientation (individualism/collectivism) as a second within-group factor. The dependent variable was the value orientation rating. Age of child in months was the only covariate. The analysis resulted in a significant main effect of sex of child, F(1, 197) = 13.75, p < .001, Eta2 = .07, and several significant interaction effects: Region × Sex of Child: F(1, 197) = 8.62, p < .004, Eta2 = .05; Region × Sex of Child × Father’s Educational Level: F(1, 196) = 4.88, p < .05, Eta2 = .02; Family Role × Sex of Child: F(1, 197) = 7.00, p < .01, Eta2 = .03; Region × Family Role: F(1, 196) = 6.86, p < .01, Eta2 = .03; Region × Value Orientation: F(1, 196) = 36.47, p < .001, Eta2 = .16; Sex of Child ×Value Orientation: F(1, 196) = 13.05, p < .001, Eta2 = .06; Region × Family Role × Value Orientation: F(1, 196) = 22.81, p < .001, Eta2 = .10; and Region × Sex of Child × Family Role × Value Orientation: F(1, 196) = 3.92, p < .05, Eta2 = .02. Table 1 includes the means of the predicted Region × Value Orientation (Hypothesis 1). Both value orientations differed significantly across both regions (p < .001, for individualism, and p < .05, for collectivism) in the predicted direction: In East Germany individualism was higher, and collectivism lower than in the Shanghai region, but only the Shanghai within-region difference between the two value orientations was significant: Family members in the Shanghai region (p < .001) held significantly higher collectivism than individualism values. Table 1 also lists the means of the significant higher-order interaction: Region × Sex of Child × Family Role × Value Orientation. These means reveal that in both samples, parents of sons rated their own individualism and collectivism differently from parents of daughters. The means demonstrate, however, that mothers of daughters were especially prone to expressing collectivistic value orientations. In addition, collectivism appeared to be a gender-specific value orientation: Female members rated their own collectivism higher than male members of the young and the parent generation. Whereas parents of sons in East Germany rated their own individualism higher than parents of daughters, the reverse is true for parents of daughters. In the Shanghai/China sample, parents of daughters rated their own individualism higher than parents of sons, and daughters revealed stronger individualism than sons. We thus gain a more differentiated picture of the greater collectivism than individualism ascribed to an Asian region as compared to an East German region.
Intergenerational Value Similarity and Transmission in East German and Shanghai/Chinese Families
In our cross-sectional multiple group analyses, transmission is defined as the impact of the parental value orientation on the child’s orientation relative to the same value category. In statistical terms, we speak of the standardized regression coefficient (i.e., β coefficient) in a stepwise multiple regression analysis controlled for relevant variables. We performed stepwise multiple regression procedures with gender (male = 1, female = 2), age of child, and father’s educational level in Step 1. In Step 2, we introduced the zeitgeist measure of either individualism or collectivism and father’s and mother’s corresponding value orientation. In Step 3, each parent’s ratings of their motivation to transmit and the child’s corresponding acceptance rating followed. In this first theory-guided analysis, we conceptualized the motivation variables as moderators tested with interaction effects. Step 4 included the two interactions of Mother’s/Father’s Motivation × Mother’s/Father’s Value Orientation for either individualism or collectivism and in Step 5 the two interaction terms of Child’s Acceptance × Mother’s/Father’s Value Orientation. This full design elicited severe multicollinearity problems; we controlled for multicollinearity by decentering all value orientation and motivation variables.
In the two regional multiple regression analyses for individualism, East German mothers and fathers did not show the pattern of results that would support the filter model: Mothers’ individualism appears to have a direct influence on their child’s (β = .22, p < .05, R2 = .07). Of the motivation variables, only the child’s acceptance of parental influence was significant (β = .23, p < .02, R2 = .07). None of the interactions, including the terms parental motivation and parental individualism, were significant. Transmission of individualism in the Shanghai/China sample also seemed to be direct: Fathers transmitted their individualism to their child and this was not moderated by motivation to transmit (β = .33, p < .001, R2 = .19). As in the East German sample, the children’s sex and acceptance motivation was a significant predictor of the child’s individualism (β = .17, p < .05, and β = .22, p < .05, R2 = .19). The zeitgeist or value climate had no significant effect in the analyses of either sample. Collectivism was not transmitted in the East German region; only the child’s sex and acceptance motivation significantly influenced the child’s collectivism ((β = .36, p < .001, and β = .41, p < .001, R2 = .28). In Shanghai/China, the same predictors were also significant: Sex of child and the impact of the child’s acceptance motivation were also moderately high (β = .23, p < .01, and β = .44, p < .001, R2 = .30). Fathers also transmitted collectivism in the Chinese region (β = .18, p < .001, R2 = .30).
To summarize, the results of the moderator analyses were not sufficiently consistent to support the filter model: When inspecting the effects of the interactions of the parental motivation with the corresponding parental value orientation, there were no general moderator effects across regional samples and parents. The multiple regression analyses indicated, however, that with the introduction of the motivation variables or their interactions with value orientations, the significant transmission coefficients decreased. This suggested that an alternative conceptualization of the role of motivation in the transmission process as mediators between parents’ and their child’s value orientation could result in a better understanding.
Transmission motivation as mediator
We conducted a formal test of mediation using the Sobel method, which tests whether the product of the unstandardized regression coefficients from (a) parental value orientation to parental motivation to transmit these value orientations and (b) parental motivation to the child’s value orientation differs significantly from 0 (Sobel, 1982, according to Urban & Mayerl, 2006). We tested the two value orientations separately for the two regions and for the mother and father by applying eight Sobel tests, five of which revealed a significant mediation of the motivation variable (see Figures 2a to e). The Sobel tests resulted in a clear pattern of significant mediation of the parental motivation to transmit individualism in all tests across region and parental role. The same general pattern could not be observed for collectivism. Only in Shanghai/China was transfer of collectivism observed for fathers. Chinese fathers’ motivation to transmit was a significant mediator in the transfer process of collectivism from father to child.
Parental motivation as a mediator in the transmission process of individualism (IND) and collectivism (COLL) in East Germany and Shanghai/China.
In addition, a direct unmediated influence from parent to child with regard to individualism was observed for fathers and mothers in Shanghai/China and for East German mothers. Shanghai fathers also directly influenced their child in terms of collectivism. The child’s acceptance motivation of parental influence was never a significant mediator in any of the eight additional Sobel tests.
It can be summarized that the filter model found substantial general support for one filter component, that is, a mediating parental motivation for the transmission of individualism. However, parental motivation did not mediate between parental and child collectivism in the East German sample; rather, the mediation model fitted only for Chinese fathers. The child’s acceptance motivation generally did not mediate the intergenerational transfer of value orientation. However, it was a significant general main effect predictor of the child’s value orientation. Thus, the parents’ motivation seemed to be more important than the children’s acceptance motivation for a mediated intergenerational transfer of values, but the child’s acceptance motivation affected the child’s value orientation in addition to parental motivation.
Discussion
This research on intergenerational, intrafamilial cultural transmission of values sheds light on how cultural information, in our case the value orientations of individualism and collectivism, is transferred from parent to child in two different cultural regions: East Germany and Shanghai/China.
The assessment of the two value orientations in our study confirmed our Hypothesis 1 and what is known about stronger collectivism as compared to individualism in Asian cultural regions and higher individualism as compared to collectivism in European cultural regions (Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002). The generational differences in both regions reflect the younger generation’s preference for individualistic value orientations but more so in East Germany than in Shanghai/China. Whereas in East Germany both sons and daughters have equally strong individualism, daughters surpass sons and both parents in Shanghai/China. Chinese daughters revealed themselves to be more individualistic than other members of their family, almost reaching the level of individualism of their East German peers. Nevertheless, in general, female family members tend more toward collectivistic values than male family members in both regions and between both generations. The consistently highest self-ratings of collectivistic value orientation were those of mothers of daughters in both regions. This finding may indicate that collectivistic value orientation is passed on along the female gender line, a conclusion that is corroborated by the significant influence of the predictor gender of child in the multiple regression analysis of collectivism, a conclusion which was not tested directly because of our limited sample size. The younger generation surpassed their parents in the corresponding value climate of their cultural group in East Germany, that is, the children were more individualistic and less collectivistic than their parents. Whereas in Shanghai/China daughters tended toward both value orientations, sons surpassed their parents minimally in both value orientations. Thus, the young generation in urban Shanghai/China appears to be somewhat “bipolar” as far as their value orientation is concerned (Wang & Lu, 1997).
These findings may be interpreted as the result of social change: Individualistic value orientation developed over several centuries in Western Europe, and the 50 years of the socialistic-communist socialization period forced on East Germany did not completely reorient the dominant value climate in this region. In China, socialism built on a traditionally collectivistic culture enforced the prevailing collectivistic value orientation. However, in this region, the individualistic value orientation has also developed to meet the demands of a modernized society, albeit less strongly. We may conclude that both individualistic and collectivistic orientations coexist within these cultural regions, depending on their relevance to and compatibility with other particular aspects of culture.
The design of this study allowed the examination of cultural differences in terms of who transmits (i.e., father or mother) which general value orientation (i.e., collectivism or individualism) to whom (i.e., child), and with what motivation to transmit or intensity of preference for continuity in their own offspring. In our analyses, we followed the filter model suggested by Schönpflug (2009a, 2009b). The filter model proposes parental motivation to transmit and the child’s motivation to accept parental influence as intervening variables between a direct transfer from transmitter to transmittee. In addition, the filter model assumes that the value climate in the social context, referred to as “zeitgeist,” influences all components of the filter model.
In Hypothesis 2, we proposed that parents in traditional and conformist cultural contexts, that is, Shanghai/China, should show more parent–child similarity as a result of transmission attempts to ensure cultural continuity (Chen, Rubin, & Li, 1994) than parents in less traditional and more industrialized social systems, that is, East Germany. A first approach to the transmission analyses conceptualized the filter model as a moderation model controlling for the value climate or zeitgeist, the child’s age and gender, father’s education, each family member’s motivation to transmit, and the critical motivation as a moderator of a family member’s value orientation. This approach including motivation as a moderator revealed that only fathers directly transmitted individualism in the Chinese sample. The mediation analyses, however, resulted in significant individualism transmission coefficients for East German and Shanghai Chinese mothers, as well. Chinese fathers also transmitted collectivism directly. Fathers seemed to be the dominating figure in the Chinese region, influencing their children in both value orientations, whereas only mothers exerted some influence with regard to individualism in East Germany, and no parent showed an influence with regard to collectivism in this region. Hence, our research Hypothesis 2 cannot be fully accepted.
These findings indicate selective transmission with regard to the role of potential transmitters and transmission content. However, the selection of the transmission content apparently depends on many factors other than the content itself, as in previous studies of migrant groups in Germany and the Netherlands (i.e., Phalet & Schönpflug, 2001) we found that collectivism was transmitted whereas individualism was not. We interpreted this finding as revealing that collectivism was group serving (Campbell, 1975). However, if group-serving values are transmitted selectively, are individualistic values in East Germany and China group serving? The argument already mentioned that Chinese fathers’ apparent belief that their children will need individualistic and not only the traditional collectivistic values in their future in a modern China might have motivated the selection of value contents to be transmitted. Collectivism may only be adaptive for cultural groups if their cultural heritage has a collectivistic tradition and the group does either not desire a future of social change toward strong individualism or it resists social pressure toward individualism, as might be the case in certain groups of immigrants who resist integration into or assimilation to the individualistic majority.
Theoretically, the motivation variables of the filter model may be understood as mediating parent–child similarity in value orientation. The filter model as described in Hypothesis 3 was generally supported for the transmission of individualism when parental transmission motivation was considered as a mediator; both mothers and fathers in both cultural regions transmitted individualism mediated by their corresponding motivation to transmit. The filter model also fitted Chinese fathers’ transmission of collectivism but not Chinese mothers’ and East German parents’ collectivistic orientation. The Chinese fathers’ individualism and collectivism and East German mothers’ individualism had an additional direct influence on their child’s individualistic orientation, suggesting that parent–child similarity has additional sources.
The filter model proposes another potential mediator, namely, the child’s acceptance motivation, but our analyses did not result in any mediating effects of the second motivational component of the filter model. The lack of mediation of the child’s acceptance motivation in this study appeared to be due to the lack of association between parental value orientation and the child’s acceptance motivation. In the light of the findings of the moderation analyses, in which the child’s acceptance motivation was a direct general predictor, this is an unexpected finding, which warrants further analysis. Hence, the child’s acceptance motivation seems to have a general regulatory function for the child’s value orientation that remains to be explored. One way to test the full model would be to employ a family-systemic approach with regard to motivation. Finding family constellations of levels of both types of motivation, parents’ and child’s, which would corroborate or suppress successful transmission, appears to be a promising approach.
Limitations and Future Research
This study attempts to extend previous research on transmission to a regional sample that was previously not included in our research in order to gain new insights into the transmission process. The Chinese sample was matched to a subsample of the German data set. Therefore, we cannot claim representativeness for the families from the Shanghai region for the Chinese context or for big cities in China, and the German subsample used for matching is also not representative of the German context. We may only tentatively judge our findings by comparing our values with those in the published literature, in which we find evidence in support of our assessment of individualism and collectivism orientation in the two regions (e.g., Oyserman et al., 2002).
The structures of the value systems in the two samples revealed another limitation: The theoretically constructed and the empirically observed structure of values differed somewhat from the theoretical structure corroborated by, for example, Schwartz and Bilsky’s (1990) structure. Our further analyses were based on this theoretical structure, as we thought that a culture-, generation-, and gender-specific approach would jeopardize any comparability with previous related research. Future analyses should extend the structural analyses to encompass a confirmatory approach following the idea of defining cultural values according to the concepts specific to the culture.
In addition, parental influence changes over the life span. In this investigation, we report on parent–child similarity at a developmental stage in which conflicts between parents and children are to be expected (Berk, 2010). Using offspring data from an earlier and later developmental stage should complement the analyses reported. In these analyses, parents might turn out to be more powerful transmitters in both regions.
Cultural transmission takes several directions. Of course, parental transmission to offspring is not the only source of cultural continuity over generations. In future investigations, it would be beneficial to pursue other, more specified and directly assessed directions of influence such as from children to parents, from peers to transmittee, and from other adults to transmittee. Future research has to discover the specific mechanisms and the effectiveness of each of these possible directions of value transmission.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.