The transmission of values between grandparents

The transmission of values between grandparents, parents and adolescent children; a
relational-intergenerational research perspective
[2005]-[2008]
Research group: Daniela Barni, Sonia Ranieri, Rosa Rosnati
Partner: “Fondazione Ispirazione” of Treviso.
Abstract
The transmission of values between parents and children plays a major social role since it represents
the sharing of values and continuity between generations, which are key to the stability of society.
Over the years, significant changes have characterised the Italian situation (together with the other
western countries), with a shift from a “vertical” family, where the holders of knowledge and
decisions were the parents, to a “horizontal” emotional family in which the children are involved in
family choices.
With the acquisition of greater negotiation power by the children, which has been made stronger by
social changes with the increase in individual choice and the decline of fixed points of reference,
the balance of power between the two sides has changed (Baumann, 1999). These changes have
called into question the relational dynamics between young people and adults that were thought to
be consolidated, involving also the processes of values transmission and acquisition. In a period
such as ours, which is characterised by a process of deformalisation of classic institutions, those
forms of legitimisation that provide for an intersubjective regulation and definition of values and
laws become more significant (Garelli, Palmonari and Sciolla, 2006). It is therefore now
indispensable to review the subject of values and their transmission from the “relational” point of
view.
Based on this premise, this study examines the transmission of values, placing adolescents in
contrast and in relation to the two co-present adult generations, that of the parents and the
grandparents. Adolescence represents a crucial phase in the development of values, characterised as
it is by the tension between the need for autonomy that is gradually developing and the need to
answer to family and social expectations, and with the assimilation of shared evaluation modalities.
More specifically, the study attempts to: a) describe the values of adolescents, highlighting their
specificity with respect to those of the previous generations: 2) highlight some of the mechanisms
(perception accuracy and acceptance, Grusec and Goodnow, 1994) involved in value transmission
between parents and adolescent children; 3) make an in-depth examination using a qualitative
approach of the valorisation/devalorisation process of the “family heritage”, with special attention
to the renegotiation of the distances and significances typical of the adolescence phase.
381 families residing in northern Italy and made up of one adolescent child (46.2% male; average
age = 17 years), the mother and the father, took part in the study. 257 of these families also included
one of the grandparents. In total, the subjects taking part in the study were 1,400. To obtain the
personal values each subject compiled a Portrait Values Questionnaire (Schwartz et al., 2001), a
self-report tool validated for the Italian context. A semi-structured interview for a subgroup of
families (N =18) was used for the qualitative analysis.
Publications:
• Barni D. (2009). Trasmettere valori. Tre generazioni familiari a confronto. Milano: Unicopli.
• Barni D., Alfieri S., Marta E. & Rosnati R. (2013). Overall and unique similarities between
parents’ values and adolescent or emerging adult children’s values. Journal of Adolescence,
36(6), 1135-1141.
• Barni D. & Knafo A. (2012). Value systems of fathers, mothers and adolescents: Do parents
and their children construe basic values in the same way? Survey Research Methods, 6(1), 311.
• Barni D., Knafo A., Ben-Arieh A. & Haj-Yahia M.M. (2014). Parent-child value similarity
across and within cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(6), 853-867.
• Barni D., Ranieri S. & Rosnati R. (2011). Similarità dei valori nello scambio
intergenerazionale tra genitori e figli adolescenti. Psicologia Sociale, 2, 171-194.
• Barni D., Ranieri S. & Scabini E. (2012). Value similarity among grandparents, parents and
adolescent children: Unique or stereotypical? Family Science, 3(1), 46-54.
• Barni D., Ranieri S., Scabini E. & Rosnati R. (2011). Value transmission in the family: Do
adolescents accept the values their parents want to transmit? Journal of Moral Education,
40(1), 105-121.
• Barni D., Rosnati R. & Ranieri S. (2013). Value transmission between parents and their
adolescent children: The process and its outcomes. A psycho-social perspective. In I. Albert,
D. Ferring (Eds.), Intergenerational relations in society and family: European perspectives (pp.
101-117). London, UK: Policy Press.
• Barni D., Rosnati R. & Scabini E. (2011). Trasmissione dei valori e relazioni familiari. In
G.V. Caprara, E. Scabini, P. Steca, S.H. Schwartz (Eds.), I valori nell’Italia contemporanea (pp.
94-115). Milano: Franco Angeli.
• Ranieri S., & Barni, D. (2010). Promuovere valori nei figli adolescenti: uno studio
intergenerazionale sulla trasmissione dei valori in famiglia. Psicologia dell’Educazione, 4(2),
157-176.
• Ranieri, S. & Barni D. (2012). Family and other social contexts in the intergenerational
transmission of values: Introduction to the Special Issue. Family Science, 3(1), 1-3.