Intergenerational Transmission of Values in Urban and Rural Areas of Russia: The Role of Perceived Psychological Closeness

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the place of living (urban or rural society) and its socio-cultural context in determining the parent-adolescent child value similarity. We interviewed representatives of two generations: parents and children from 90 families in Moscow and 62 families in Russian villages (n = 304 people). Our findings indicated the influence of socio-cultural context (urban-rural) on the transmission of values. Conservation values were primarily transmitted from parents to children in the more traditional, rural context. Openness to change, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence values were transmitted from parents to children mainly in the urban context. Perceived psychological closeness between parents and adolescents (as perceived by adolescents) affected the adoption of values by the adolescents in both urban and rural contexts. All values of adolescents were more similar to the values of peers than to their parents, in both urban and rural contexts.