Family values and parenting of East and West German mothers: Two cohorts from the Value of Children study

Mayer, Boris; Trommsdorff, Gisela (22 August 2007). Family values and parenting of East and West German mothers: Two cohorts from the Value of Children study (Unpublished). In: XIIIth European Conference on Developmental Psychology. Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany. 21.08.-25.08.2007.

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This study is part of the international Value-of-Children and Intergenerational Relations Project (P.I.: Gisela Trommsdorff & Bernhard Nauck). The current study compared family-related values and child-rearing goals as well as reported parenting behavior between mothers from East Germany (Chemnitz) and West Germany (Konstanz) across two cohorts of mothers (N = 411). The first cohort consisted of mothers of adolescent children (age 14-18 years), and the second cohort of mothers of small children (age 2-5 years). Results showed that East German mothers of both cohorts were more collectivistic and showed stronger conservative family values than West German mothers while reporting a lower ideal number of children. With regard to the importance of reasons to have children (‘values of children,’ VOC), all samples reported an equally high importance of emotional values and an equally low importance of traditional utilitarian values. East German mothers of both cohorts reported higher family-related VOCs than West German mothers. With regard to child-rearing goals, East German as compared to West German mothers of both cohorts reported a higher importance of children’s obedience to parents and of children’s school achievement. With respect to reported parenting behavior East German mothers reported more controlling parenting than West German mothers. To summarize, East German mothers reported more conservative and family-oriented values and a somewhat stricter parenting orientation than West German mothers; these differences occurred in both cohorts. Results are discussed from a cultural-psychological perspective of social change.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Cognitive Psychology, Perception and Methodology

UniBE Contributor:

Mayer, Boris

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

Language:

English

Submitter:

Boris Mayer

Date Deposited:

28 Oct 2020 15:19

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:41

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.146984

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/146984

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