Transmission Of Values And Patterns Of Relations: Intergenerational Studies

Abstract

This article presents studies carried out within the framework of the project "Life models of youth: intergenerational and intragenerational research", supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. (No. 18-013-00599). The purpose of the studies were to identify the role of intergenerational (vertical) transmission in following spheres: value orientations, moral feelings (shame as an experience of discrepancy between action and accepted norms; guilt as a deep remorse, determined by the personality culture), and behavioural patterns of intimate relationships. The mixed method study design was based on a comparison of three different generations within the same family using 90 families; Russians and Dagestanis living in St. Petersburg. 40 young people participated in intimate models study bringing the sample to a total of 310 people. The data collection instruments comprised a semi-structured interview, the Schwartz Value Inventory, the Guilt Inventory, the Test of Self-Conscious Affect, the FACES - III, the Assessment of sexual profile, and Marriage role expectations techniques were used. The findings revealed a decrease in importance of values of security, tradition, conformity, with simultaneous growth values of independence, novelty and achievements from generation to generation. Differences in the understanding and experience of shame and guilt between the older and younger generations; young people's representations of intimacy demonstration and basics of close relations in young and parents’ generation are described. The revealed values dynamics corresponds to the general tendencies described in the literature. However, in another ethnic environment, the values of different generations are close, thus the family culture dominates the culture of the community. Moral experience and intimate relations model show the generations within one family as representatives of different cultures.

Keywords: Intergenerational transmissionvaluesmoral experiencesintimacy

Introduction

The sphere of intergenerational relations has always been the focus of attention. The current emphasis in this area is due to a fundamental change in the situation of new generations’ entry into life. Transitivity, inherent in the modern world (Martsinkovskaya & Turusheva, 2017), sharply raises the issue of reducing the influence of cultural normative patterns, leading to the transformation of the traditional value system, the change of habitual behaviour patterns, and the formation of a situation with the experience of a new generation being absent from their parents. Individual consciousness in such a reality is characterized by a state of multiple identity, determined by the fluid, changing sociocultural contexts of human life (Guseltseva, 2017). In this connection, the study of new ideals and values ​​of cultural development takes the format of the World Values ​​Research ("WVS Cultural Maps"), open for access and actively used in the social sciences and humanities.

(http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp).

The transitivity of the modern world, in another way, accentuates the problem of the relationship between generations. The new social situation of youth development is fundamentally different from the conditions in which their parents and grandparents grew up. These changes concern the establishment of social ties, information immersion and experience that strengthens cultural estrangement between generations. Existing, mostly comparative, cross-sectional studies of social representations, values, attitudes of different generations (in most cases only generations of parents-children, much less often grandparents-grandchildren) reflect the severity, inconsistency and uncertainty of the current social situation. In the case of Russia, which represents an inter-ethnic conglomerate, the intersection of cultures, the change of ideologies over the past thirty years, this situation has multiplied repeatedly, triggering a research need for an evaluation and description of transmission mechanisms.

Literature analysis devoted to the transmission of values ​​showed increased intergenerational distancing and weakening of family ties (Starchikova, 2012). In parallel, other studies, based on comparative surveys of parents and children, emphasize both the reproduction of traditional family values, as well as their liberalization (Rean, 2015). These studies claim the existence of both liberal and conservative views on gender relations and social attitudes, liberalization of family predictors and material values, differences in the main sources of information choice (Grebennikova, et al, 2017).

Studies have revealed the factors influencing the degree of adolescents’ acceptance of their parents’ values: actual value agreement between parents, parental agreement as perceived by adolescents, parent-child closeness and promotion of child’s volitional functioning (Barni, Ranieri & Rosnati, 2011). The strong interaction between family and the social-cultural context in determining the level of value similarity among one family including the generation of ancestors is highlighted (Barni, Ranieri & Scabin, 2012). There are a number of studies observing the features of intergenerational transmission in connection with the poly-ethnic family situation (Lebedeva, et al, 2016).

In many countries, the values of parents and children, and the differences between them have been investigated. So, Demir & Kok (2012) using a modification of Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire studied values of parents of primary school pupils and showed that parents consistently preferred values of Universalism, Security, Benevolence, Conformity, Tradition, that did not significantly vary depending on the age, occupation, education level, and pupils' grade level. Asikuzun & Kildan (2014) showed that in spite of the current changes in the world's societies and centuries-old habits due to a new circumstances and experiences, some universal and human values still remain a priority for many parents in rearing their children as they were centuries ago. Based on the comparative analysis of two generations values, conducted in Russia (parents and their adult children), similar tendencies were revealed. These are the tendencies in changing the significance of values from generation to generation. Moreover, a comparatively stronger influence of mothers on the values of children compared with fathers was shown (Rzhanova & Alekseeva, 2017).

The study of the sphere of moral experience is of great importance for understanding the role of intergenerational transmission. In different cultures and at different periods of human history, shame and guilt were universal regulators of social behavior. Thus, as the socialization of the individual is carried out, the norms, rules, and regulations that are necessary for successful functioning in society are assimilated. In the studies devoted to the study of these phenomena, the authors emphasize their socio-cultural conditioning, their connection with the individual social formation, with historical and cultural phenomena (Korotkova, 2002). The psychological content of these experiences is presented in the works of Tangney & Dearing (2003) that reveal the feeling of shame as the experience of inconsistency between actions and accepted norms, and the sense of guilt as a deep repentance determined by the person’s culture. Shame involves an external judgmental environment, while the experience of guilt is exacerbated by internal "pricks of conscience". Fossum & Mason (1986) define shame as an internal sense of humiliation and inferiority, and self-condemnation. Ausubel (1955) associates guilt with the acceptance and internalization of moral values and notes that parents try to educate children's feelings of guilt and conscience in order to create a sense of responsibility. In this regard, the author assumes the existence of general cultural mechanisms that contribute to the assimilation of guilt and the consequent behavior. Studies of intergenerational differences in the experience of moral feelings show that older people are more likely to experience guilt than young people (Gornayeva, 2012).

Peculiarities of behavioral patterns in the field of close relations in the context of intergenerational transmission have become one of the study objectives of family psychologists and psychotherapists in psychological practice. In Bowen’s (1978) theory of family systems, one of the basic propositions is the idea of the importance of understanding the logic of transferring certain features of family interaction to the new generation.

The creation of close intimate relationships, characterized by a demonstration of personal attachment to a partner, a desire to emotionally reveal themselves and a sexual attraction are a significant need for most young people; an important factor in their personal and social development. Most often, the choice of a partner and the way this relationship is built will depend on the value assumptions about the family (Byng-Hall, 1985) and the behaviour patterns in the intimate sphere that young men and women observed with their parents.

In studies related to the analysis of intergenerational transmission concerning the creation of intimate relationships, similarities and differences between parental and positions of young people were found. So Grigorova’s (2016) study revealed that for young people, there is a conflict between the idea of unconditional love expectation and the partners merger (parental) and the desire to be emotionally independent of the partner (children). As for the similarity, it was noted that both young girls and their mothers expect the man to fulfil the leadership role and at the same time, the desire to control it. The study conducted by Izotova, Golubeva and Grebennikova (2017) shows the ambivalence and inconsistency of representations concerning issues of family values between adolescents and their parents. Most parents had stereotyped views and adhered to clear gender differences in the distribution of family responsibilities, emotional response to various situations and building relationships. Older adolescents mostly had liberal views and moved away from gender stereotypes, believing that in difficult situations a man can show weakness and not necessarily restrain emotions.

Problem Statement

Changes in society caused by the development of culture, technology, changing reality entail changes in attitudes, values, and rules of conduct that may contradict the norms of the past. There are questions, according to what norms of the parental family or society as a whole, young people form their values, moral feelings, intimate relations. Our study focuses on the intergenerational transmission in three main areas most important for understanding the portrait of a new generation on the one hand, and on the other hand, the ones most affected by the influence of the decline of cultural normative patterns which refer specifically to the sphere of value orientations, the sphere of moral experience and the sphere of close relations.

Research Questions

The analysis of the problem have generated the following questions:

3.1 How similar and how different are the value orientations of different generations in the same family?

3.2 Does the idea of shame and guilt differ or is it similar among people belonging to different generations in the same family?

3.3 How similar are the young people's ideas about the patterns of close relations of their parents and about the patterns of their own future close relations?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose was to identify the role of intergenerational (vertical) transmission in following spheres: value orientations (hierarchical system of life values), moral feelings (shame as an experience of discrepancy between action and accepted norms; guilt as a deep remorse, determined by the personality culture), and behavioural patterns of intimate relationships.

Research Methods

Findings

Conclusion

The revealed dynamics of values, the experience of moral feelings and the model of intimate relations shows generations within one family as representatives of different cultures. Value orientations are determined by belonging to the generation: they differ substantially between generations and are close within the generation. However, under the conditions of an ethnic environment, the values ​​of representatives of different generations are similar, thus the culture of the ethnic family dominates the culture of the community. Differences in the experience of shame and guilt have a more complex structure. Despite the fact that significant intergenerational differences in the cultural assessment of situations of shame and guilt are obtained, younger generations, in contrast to older ones, are more likely to feel ashamed of their family members. In addition, representatives of the younger and middle generation are more likely to respond that they have learned about what shame and guilt are, thanks to parents and family. That is, for such social emotions as shame and guilt, an intergenerational transmission appears at the level of affective experiences, and intra social transmission - at the level of cognitive attitudes. Young people are characterized by a transformation of a close relationship model. Their model includes representations reflecting the current trends in the development of society related to family, marriage and gender: the decrease in the importance of traditional economic activity, the growing role of emotional-personal and semantic, value factors in relations, an increasing awareness of the role of sexual relations and the growing interest in them. The model of close relations of their parents, in their opinion, is built mainly around economic activities. This indicates the appearance of an intergenerational break in the part of the notions of intimate relations.

The complex trajectory of the transmission of values ​​and moral orientations revealed in the study testifies to the possibility of enhancing the role of social networks and the Internet, the main medium for transferring behavior patterns within the younger generation, in translating the significance of social norms, socially important attitudes, and patterns of relationships between people. At the same time, the need to provide support to the family as a source of moral self-awareness becomes evident, given that ethnic diasporas are able to promote family values ​​more than values ​​accepted in the culture where they live.

Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the research project No 18-013-00599.

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