Parent–Child Value Similarity

Parent–child value similarity is often considered a hallmark of successful intergenerational socialization. Traditional approaches to the study of relationships among generations view value socialization as a top-down phenomenon in which parents transmit their values to their children in a unidirectional and often deterministic manner. Instead, in this chapter, the authors argue for considering parent–child value similarity as the result of a complex network of mutual influences among parents, children, and their shared environments. In particular, we propose a framework that considers four interdependent pathways to parent–child value similarity: parental influence, child influence, genetic effects, and overlap among the environmental antecedents of values. For each of these pathways, as well as for their interactions and correlations, the authors provide and discuss some examples for a better understanding of the shared value development.

Models of Legal Socialization

The aim of this part of the book is to examine different theoretical perspectives on the legal socialization process. In addition, this section of the book considers research on neurological development and how general biological and cognitive growth during childhood and adolescence can put limits on their understanding of the law, legal procedures, and appropriate legal behavior. The text here then introduces the chapters which follow which look closely at the literature on the mechanisms of attitude and value socialization, as well as the literature that examines the evolution of reasoning and the cognitive abilities that enable abstract thinking.

Legal Socialization in the School

Chapter 8 focuses on schools. Traditionally schools sought to socialize children into the values they would need to have to be future citizens. More recently schools have been seen as institutions whose mission is skill acquisition, and the value socialization role has been minimized. Studies make clear that schools do shape values and that the type of classroom and school authority that children experience shapes the degree to which their initial consensual or coercive orientations toward rules strengthen or decline. If children experience transparency in the rules implemented by authorities they believe are concerned about them and their welfare, they increasingly define their relationship to rules as consensual and view the authorities as legitimate. Coercive approaches, in contrast, develop when these legitimating characteristics are absent. Coercive orientations are associated with higher levels of rule-breaking, bullying, gang activity, and criminal behavior. Despite these findings, recent developments in the school environment have increased the coerciveness of school environments.

Adolescent Precursors of Early Union Formation Among Asian American and White Young Adults

Using a framework that emphasizes independent versus interdependent self-construals, this study investigates the relatively low rates of early marriage and cohabitation among Asian Americans compared with Whites. Data from Waves 1 and 3 of Add Health are used to test five hypotheses that focus on family value socialization and other precursors measured in adolescence. Analyses of early marriage indicate that the Asian—White difference is driven primarily by differences in adolescent sexual and romantic relationship experiences and that several measures of family values play a stronger role among Asian Americans than Whites. Asian—White differences in cohabitation persist net of socioeconomic status and other adolescent precursors, but differences are attenuated when parental value socialization, intimate relationship experiences, and educational investments are controlled. These results are interpreted within a culturally sensitive conceptual framework that emphasizes interdependent construals of the self among Asian Americans.