The authors examine impacts of immigration on parent-adolescent value similarity, consistency of parents’ value messages, and the value transmission process. Thirty-four former Soviet immigrant families to Israel and 68 matched Israeli families participated. Group mean comparisons revealed generational effects for openness and conservation values: adolescents resembled one another more than their own parents. Immigration further increased adolescent-parent value distance. For self-transcendence and self-enhancement values, there were no effects. Correlations between parent and adolescent group means, across 11 values, suggest that immigration reduces parent-adolescent similarity in value priorities. Within-family analyses showed no immigration effects on parent-adolescent value similarity or on accuracy in perceiving parents’ values, and greater acceptance of parental values in immigrant families. Value messages of immigrant parents were less consistent. Inconsistency undermined value transmission, differently in immigrant and veteran families. The authors discuss why group versus within-family analyses can yield contradictory results and why findings depend on the specific values studied.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ben-Rafael, E. , Olshtain, E., & Geijst, I. (1996). Identity and language: The social insertion of Soviet Jews in Israel. In N. Lewin-Epstein, J. Ro’i, & N. Ritterband (Eds.), Russian Jews in three continents? (pp. 364-388). London: Frank Cass.
2.
Cashmore, J. A. , & Goodnow, J. J. (1985). Agreement between generations: A two-process approach. Child Development, 56, 493-501.
3.
Chiu, M. L. , Feldman, S. S., & Rosenthal, D. A. (1992). The influence of immigration on parental behavior and adolescent distress in Chinese families residing in two Western nations. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2, 205-239.
4.
Cooper, C. R. (1988). The role of conflict in adolescent-parent relationships. In M. R. Gunnar (Ed.), Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 191-187). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
5.
Feather, N. T. (1975). Values in education and society. New York: Free Press.
6.
Georgas, J. , Berry, J., Shaw, A., Christakopoulou, S., & Milonas, K. (1996). Acculturation of Greek family values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 329-338.
7.
Gibbons, F. X. , & Wicklund, R. A. (1982). Self-focused attention and helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 462-474.
8.
Grusec, J. E. , & Goodnow, J. J. (1994). Impact of parental discipline methods on the child’s internalization of values: A reconceptualization of current points of view. Developmental Psychology, 30, 4-19.
9.
Guttman, L. (1968). A general nonmetric technique for finding the smallest coordinate space for a configuration of points. Psychometrics, 33, 469-506.
10.
Harris, J. R. (1995). Where is the child’s environment? A group socialization theory of development. Psychological Review, 102, 458-489.
11.
Hill, J. P. , & Holmbeck, G. N. (1987). Disagreements about rules in families with seventh-grade girls and boys. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 221-246.
12.
Kohn, M. L. , Slomczynski, K. M., & Schoenbach, C. (1986). Social stratification and the transmission of values in the family: A cross-national assessment. Sociological Forum, 1, 73-102.
13.
Kuczynski, L. , Marshall, S., & Schell, K. (1997). Value socialization in a bidirectional context. In J. E. Grusec & L. Kuczynski (Eds.), Parenting and the internalization of values: A handbook of contemporary theory (pp. 23-50). New York: John Wiley.
14.
LaFromboise, T. , Coleman, H. I. K., & Gerton, J. (1993). Psychological impact of biculturalism: Evidence and theory. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 395-412.
15.
Mirsky, J. , & Prawer, L. (1992). To immigrate as an adolescent: Immigrant youth from the former Soviet Union in Israel. Jerusalem: Elka & the Van Leer Institute.
16.
Nauck, B. (1997). Migration and intergenerational relations—Turkish families at home and abroad. In W. W. Isajiw (Ed.), Multiculturalism in North-America and Europe: Comparative perspectives on interethnic relations and social incorporation (pp. 435-465). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
17.
Okagaki, L. , & Bevis, C. (1999). Transmission of religious values: Relations between parents’ and daughters’ beliefs. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 160(3), 303-318.
18.
Pettys, G. L. , & Balgopal, P. R. (1998). Multigenerational conflicts and new immigrants: An Indo-American experience. Families in Society, 79, 410-422.
19.
Phinney, J. S. , Ong, A., & Madden, T. (2000). Cultural values and intergenerational value discrepancies in immigrant and non-immigrant families. Child Development, 71, 528-539.
20.
Portes, A. (1997). Immigration theory for a new century: Some problems and opportunities. International Migration Review, 31, 799-825.
21.
Roccas, S. , Horenczyk, G., & Schwartz, S. H. (in press). Acculturation discrepancies and well-being: The moderating role of conformity. European Journal of Social Psychology.
22.
Roccas, S. , & Sagiv, L. (1998). How best measure societal values? Aggregating individual values vs. asking about the typical person. Paper presented at the 14th congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Bellingham, WA.
23.
Rohan, M. J. , & Zanna, M. P. (1996). Value transmission in families. In C. Seligman, J. M. Olson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The psychology of values: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 8, pp. 253-276). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
24.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.
25.
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 1-64). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
26.
Schwartz, S. H. (1999). Cultural value differences: Some implications for work. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 48, 23-47.
27.
Schwartz, S. H. , & Bardi, A. (2001, in press). Value hierarchies across cultures: Taking a similarities perspective. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology.
28.
Schwartz, S. H. , Lehmann, A., & Roccas, S. (1999). Multimethod probes of basic human values. In J. Adamopoulos & Y. Kashima (Eds.), Social psychology and culture context: Essays in honor of Harry C. Triandis (pp. 107-123). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
29.
Szapocznik, J. , & Kurtines, W. (1993). Family psychology and cultural diversity. American Psychologist, 48, 400-407.
30.
Westholm, A. (1999). The perceptual pathway: Tracing the mechanisms of political value transfer across generations. Political Psychology, 20, 525-551.
31.
Whitbeck, L. B. , & Gecas, V. (1988). Value attributions and value transmission between parents and children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 829-840.
