Is There Really a Generation Gap? Value Similarities and Differences Between a Group of Junior High Girls and Their Mothers

Abstract

To determine the degree of agreement or disagreement on values between mothers and daughters, a group of junior high school girls and their mothers in a rural Kentucky community filled out the scales of instrumental and terminal values constructed by Rokeach. Spearman rank-order correlations showed significant agreement between daughters and mothers on both scales when comparing mean rankings of all the items by group and when comparing which items each group ranked first, second, and third. Both groups adhered to traditionally female values, rating highly such items as honest, loving, forgiving and clean as instrumental values, and salvation and family security as terminal values. Items involving mental activity, such as imaginative, intellectual, logical, and a sense of accomplishment, were ranked low by mothers and daughters. There appears to be little or no divergence of values between the two groups studied.