Motivations and contents of parent-child value transmission

This study focused on parents’ motivations to transmit values to their adolescent children. According to Self-Determination Theory, controlled motivations (i.e., external and introjected) – which refer to doing something because it leads to approval or rewards – and autonomous motivations (i.e., identified and integrated) – which refer to doing something because it is perceived as inherently worthy – were examined. Three hundred and twenty-five Italian parental couples, with one child aged between 14 and 18 years, filled out a self-report questionnaire. Results showed that in value transmission both parents were primarily moved by autonomous motivations, although for fathers, external motivations were more important than for mothers. Both paternal and maternal motivations resulted to be related with the values parents would like their children to endorse. In particular, the more parents felt volitional in transmitting values, the more they gave importance to self-transcendence in their children’s socialization; the more parents were guided by controlled motivations, the more they would like their children to endorse conservation values. Implications of this research and its possible developments are discussed.