Description of Study

The Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations Project

Prof. Dr. Gisela Trommsdorff and Prof. Dr. Bernhard Nauck (Principal Investigators)

The "Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations Project" is a replication and a theoretical as well as methodological extension of the original "Cross-national value of children studies“ (VOC-studies, 1970, University of Hawai, Honolulu; e.g., Arnold et al., 1975).

Research questions:

(1) Influence of socioeconomic change on parenting, values and upbringing goals.

(2) Interaction of values, parent-child relationships, intergenerational support and transmission of values in three generations. Integration of interdisciplinary developmental psychological, sociological and comparative cultural approaches.

Sample:

(1) 300 mothers of children aged 2-5 years, used for comparisons with the original VOC-study data collected 30 years ago when the research focused on young parents.

(2) The 3-Generations-Sample: 100 grandmothers, 300 mothers, 300 adolescents (14 to 17 years, 50% female) of the same family. Participating countries e.g.: Korea, Indonesia, China, Israel, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Ghana, India, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Jamaica (mainly with samples of one urban and one rural region). So far: 16.461 participants of 19 countries.

Analysis: (1) and (2) cohort comparisons; Inter- and intracultural comparisons; Multi-level-models.

Pilot study and parts of the main study financed by the DFG.

Participating countries

Table 1. Sample (as of October 2010)

Note: * = core countries

The aim of the project is to contribute to an interdisciplinary analysis of the interrelations between VOC, individual development and parent-child relations in socio-cultural change from a psychological perspective

For detailed information on the project and a list of team members from the collaborating countries click here.

Click here for the abstracts of the VOC-symposia (PDF documents) at the International Congress of the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) in Xian, China, 2004, Spetses, Greece, 2006, and Bremen, Germany, 2008, and for the abstracts of the VOC-symposium at the 19th International Congress of Psychology (ICP), Berlin, Germany, 2008.

Furthermore, a workshop "Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations: European and Asian Perspectives" in the framework of the Asia-Europe Workshop Series has taken place at the University of Konstanz from May 30 - June 1, 2008 as well as from March 29 - March 30, 2012.

In addition from July 16 - July 19, 2017 a workshop in Warsaw took place (IACCP).

For a full list of all VOC-relevant publications (PDF) please click here.

Publications (selection)

 Trommsdorff, G. (2016). The influence of socio-economic change and culture on intergenerational relations. In C. Timmerman, N. Clycq, M. McAndrew, A. Balde, L. Braeckmans & S. Mels (Hrsg.), Youth in education: The necessity of valuing ethnocultural diversity (pp. 11-26). Oxford: Routledge https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/?id=https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/36635

Albert, I., & Trommsdorff, G. (2014). The role of culture in development over the life span: An interpersonal relations approach. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 6, 3-28. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1057 https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/30347

Friedlmeier, M., & Trommsdorff, G. (2011). Are mother-child similarities in value orientations related to mothers’ parenting? A comparative study of American and Romanian families with adolescents. The European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 8, 661-680. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2011.590649 http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-168133

Holte, A., Barry, M. M., Bekkhus, M., Borge, A. H., Bowes, L., Casas, F., Friborg, O., Grinde, B., Headey, B., Jozefiak, T., Lekhal, R., Marks, N., Muffels, R., Nes, R. B., Røysamb, E., Thimm, J. C., Torgersen, S., Trommsdorff, G., Veenhoven, R., Vittersø, J., Waaktaar, T., Wagner, G. G., Wang, C. E. A., Wold, B., & Zachrisson, H. D. (2014). Psychology of child well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frønes & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 555-631). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-254135

Klug, T., Mayer, B., Sudjin, S., & Trommsdorff, G. (2009). Intergenerationale Unterstützung: Ein Vergleich russischer und deutscher erwachsener Töchter. Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation, 29, 45-59. http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/7853

Lubiewska, K. & Trommsdorff, G. (2017). Value of children and intergenerational relations. Symposium organized at the IACCP Regional Conference in Warsaw, July 16.- 19, 2017.

Mayer, B., Kuramschew, A, & Trommsdorff, G. (2009). Familienbezogene Werte und Zukunftsvorstellungen in der Adoleszenz: Ein deutsch-russischer Vergleich. Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation, 29, 29-44. http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/7854

Mayer, B., Schwarz, B., & Trommsdorff, G. (2015, September). A cross-cultural study of adolescents‘ willingsness for internegerational support: Relations to maternal expectations and mothers‘ life satisfaction. In A. Almeida & I. Soares (Chairs), Generations and willingsness for intergenerational support. Symposium conducted at the 17th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Braga, Portugal.

Mayer, B., & Trommsdorff, G. (2012). Cross-cultural perspectives on adolescents’ religiosity and family orientation. In G. Trommsdorff & X. Chen (Eds.), Values, religion, and culture in adolescent development (pp. 341-369). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-209820

Mayer, B., & Trommsdorff, G. (2010). Adolescents’ value of children and their intentions to have children: A cross-cultural and multilevel analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41, 671-689. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110372195 http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2010/12310/

Mayer, B., Trommsdorff, G., Friedlmeier, M., Lubiewska, K., Barni, D., Kasearu, K., & Albert, I. (2015). The roles of religiosity and affluence for adolescents’ family orientation: Multilevel analyses of 18 cultures. Italian Journal of Sociology of Education. 7(3), 47-88.doi:10.14658/pupjijse201533 https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/32843

Sabatier, C., Mayer, B., Friedlmeier, M., Lubiewska, K., & Trommsdorff, G. (2011). Religiosity, family orientation, and life satisfaction of adolescents in four countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42, 1375-1393. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111412343   http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-141055

Schwarz, B., Mayer, B., Trommsdorff, G., Ben-Arieh, A., Friedlmeier, M., Lubiewska, K., Mishra, R. C., & Peltzer, K. (2012). Does the importance of parent and peer relationships for adolescents' life satisfaction vary across cultures? Journal of Early Adolescence, 32, 55-80.doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431611419508 http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-137600

Tamm, A., Kasearu, K., Tulvisite, T., & Trommsdorff, G. (2016). Maternal values and parenting and Estonian, German, and Russian adolescents' friendship satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 1-16. doi: 10.1111/pere.12123 https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/35314

Trommsdorff G. (2017). Introduction and overview on the interdisciplinary research on value of children and intergenerational relations. Presentation at the Symposium organized by Lubiewska, K. & Trommsdorff, G. at the IACCP Regional Conference in Warsaw, July 16.- 19, 2017.

Trommsdorff, G. (2017) Cultural perspectives on the development of self-regulation. Paper presented at Invited Symposium of IACCP “Widening the Boundaries of Knowledge on Human Behavior: The Cultural Perspective” at the International Congress of Psychological Science in Vienna, March 24, 2017.

Trommsdorff, G. (2016). Intergenerational relations in cultural context and in socio-economic change. In C. Timmerman, N. Clycq, M. McAndrew, A. Balde, L. Braeckmans & S. Mels (Hrsg.), Youth in education: The necessity of valuing ethnocultural diversity (pp. 11-26). Oxford: Routledge https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/36635

Trommsdorff, G. (2014). Cultural roots of values, morals, and religious orientations in adolescent development. In L. A. Jensen (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of human development and culture: An interdisciplinary perspective (Online publication). http://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/31005

Trommsdorff, G. (2009). A social change and a human development perspective on the value of children. In A. Aksu-Koc & S. Bekman (Eds.), Perspectives on human development, family and culture (pp. 86-107). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/8076

Trommsdorff, G. (2006). Parent-child relations over the life-span. A cross-cultural perspective. In K. H. Rubin & O. B. Chung (Eds.), Parenting beliefs, behaviors, and parent-child relations. A cross-cultural perspective (pp. 143-183). New York: Psychology Press.  http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/8132

Trommsdorff, G., & Albert, I. (2009). Kulturvergleich von Beziehungsqualität in Mehrgenerationenfamilien aus psychologischer Sicht [Cultural comparison of relationship quality in multigenerational families from a psychological perspective]. In H. Künemund & M. Szydlik (Eds.), Generationen – Multidisziplinäre Perspektiven (pp. 119-134). Wiesbaden, Germany: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/8080

Trommsdorff, G., Kim, U., & Nauck, B. (2005). Factors influencing value of children and intergenerational relations in times of social change: Analyses from psychological and socio-cultural perspectives: Introduction to the Special Issue. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 54(3), 313-316. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2005.00212.x http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/8439/

Trommsdorff, G., & Kornadt, H.-J. (2003). Parent-child relations in cross-cultural perspective. In L. Kuczynski (Ed.), Handbook of dynamics in parent-child relations (pp. 271-306). London: Sage. http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/8316

Trommsdorff, G., & Mayer, B. (2012). A cross-cultural study of intergenerational relations: The role of socioeconomic factors, values, and relationship quality in intergenerational support. In H. Bertram & N. Ehlert (Eds.), Family, ties, and care: Family transformation in a plural modernity (pp. 315-342). Berlin: Barbara Budrich Publishers. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-181568

Trommsdorff, G., & Mayer, B. (2011). Intergenerationale Beziehungen im Kulturvergleich: Die Rolle von sozio-ökonomischen Faktoren, Werten und Beziehungsqualität für intergenerationale Unterstützung. In H. Bertram & N. Ehlert (Eds.), Familie, Bindungen und Fürsorge. Familiärer Wandel in einer vielfältigen Moderne (pp. 349-382). Opladen: Barbara Budrich. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-163708

Trommsdorff, G., Mayer, B., & Albert, I. (2004). Dimensions of culture in intra-cultural comparisons: Individualism/collectivism and family-related values in three generations. In H. Vinken, J. Soeters, & P. Ester (Eds.), Comparing cultures: Dimensions of culture in a comparative perspective (pp. 157-184). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/8305

Trommsdorff, G., & Nauck, B. (2010). Introduction to special section for Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology: Value of children: A concept for the better understanding of cross-cultural variations of fertility behavior and intergenerational relationships. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41, 637-651. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110373335 http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2010/12309/

Trommsdorff, G., & Nauck, B. (Eds.) (2010). The value of children: Overview and progress and recent contributions [Special section]. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41(5-6).

Trommsdorff, G., & Nauck, B. (2006). Parenting and social demographics. Parenting: Science and Practice, 6, 343-360.

Trommsdorff, G., & Nauck, B. (Eds.). (2005). The value of children in cross-cultural perspective. Case studies from eight societies. Lengerich, Germany: Pabst Science. https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/17342

Wu, J., Kasearu, K., Värnik, A., Tooding, L. M., & Trommsdorff, G. (2016). Associations between quality of relationships and life satisfaction of older mothers in Estonia, Germany, Russia and China. Ageing & Society, 36(6), 1272-1294. doi: doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X15000355

Ziehm, J., & Albert, I. (2013). New Developments and Recent Research Questions in the Project “Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations”. Diskurs Kindheits-und Jugendforschung, 8(1), 113-118.