Culture and Social Change in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Individualism, Collectivism and Parenting Attitudes

Abstract

Cultures and families are not static over time but evolve in response to social transformations, such as changing gender roles, urbanization, globalization, and technology uptake. Historically, individualism and collectivism have been widely used heuristics guiding cross-cultural comparisons, yet these orientations may evolve over time, and individuals within cultures and cultures themselves can have both individualist and collectivist orientations. Historical shifts in parents’ attitudes also have occurred within families in several cultures. As a way of understanding mothers’ and fathers’ individualism, collectivism, and parenting attitudes at this point in history, we examined parents in nine countries that varied widely in country-level individualism rankings. Data included mothers’ and fathers’ reports (N = 1338 families) at three time points in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. More variance was accounted for by within-culture than between-culture factors for parents’ individualism, collectivism, progressive parenting attitudes, and authoritarian parenting attitudes, which were predicted by a range of sociodemographic factors that were largely similar for mothers and fathers and across cultural groups. Social changes from the 20th to the 21st century may have contributed to some of the similarities between mothers and fathers and across the nine countries.

BMF CP29: How students’ exploration influences their acceptance of collectivistic values

“…This study will examine how a student's exploration capability may influence his/her acceptance of collectivistic values. Family environment can influence individual development through family education, which differs significantly based on parents' educational attainment [1]. Therefore, the father and mother's educational attainment will be potential moderators in the aforementioned assumptive correlation.…”

Motherhood As Leadership in Enabling High-Performance Organization by Nurturing Millennials in A Patriarchal Culture: A Conceptual Revisit

“…Let alone many factors have been identified for strengthening the notion of why motherhood is not a natural trait for women based on their socio-demographic characteristics (Bermúdez et al, 2014;Hare-Mustin & Broderick, 1979;McQuillan et al, 2008) and family influences (Bermúdez et al, 2014). Another finding where the studies conducted by Lansford et al (2021) and Senese et al (2012) is that motherhood interpretation in national cultures and identities are different, driven by several aspects of socio-demographic characteristics. National culture's interpretation of motherhood is influenced by education, religion, and employment, using several indicators such as individualism, collectivism, progressive attitude, and authoritarian attitude (Lansford et al, 2021).…”

“…Another finding where the studies conducted by Lansford et al (2021) and Senese et al (2012) is that motherhood interpretation in national cultures and identities are different, driven by several aspects of socio-demographic characteristics. National culture's interpretation of motherhood is influenced by education, religion, and employment, using several indicators such as individualism, collectivism, progressive attitude, and authoritarian attitude (Lansford et al, 2021). For example, women's participation in higher education and the labor market has been connected to declining authoritarian parenting views.…”

Multilevel Evidence for the Parent-Adolescent Dyadic Effect of Familiarity With Climate Change on Pro-Environmental Behaviors in 14 Societies: Moderating Effects of Societal Power Distance and Individualism

“…family relationships (Lansford et al, 2021;Shoham & Dalakas, 2003), on the parent-adolescent dyadic effects.…”

“…This study adopted a global view to explore the parent–adolescent dyadic effect of familiarity with climate change on their pro-environmental behaviors (with adolescents aged 15) in 14 societies. To evaluate the influence of culture, we explored the moderating role of societal power distance and individualism, two important societal moderators that are closely related to family relationships (Lansford et al, 2021; Shoham & Dalakas, 2003), on the parent–adolescent dyadic effects.…”