Cultural Values: Their Correlations with Attitudes and Behaviors towards Senior Citizens

Abstract

In Asian societies, the quality of life among senior citizens depends on the support they receive from their younger generation. Accordingly, this study adopted the ‘value-attitude-behavior hierarchy’ in examining the impacts of Chinese traditional cultural values on the attitudes and behaviors of Malaysian Chinese adolescents towards senior citizens. 482 Malaysian Chinese adolescents were recruited for participation in a purposive sampling and surveys. Participants were asked to fill three scales: Chinese values survey, Kogan’s attitudes towards older people, and interaction with older people. The results implied that traditional cultural values significantly impact the attitudes of these Chinese adolescents toward senior citizens. Besides, the attitudes toward older people are associated with interaction with older people. In addition, the findings also showed that attitudes toward senior citizens are statistical mediators of the cultural values impact on adolescents’ interaction with senior citizens. The results supported applying the value-attitude-behavior hierarchy to better understand the influence of cultural values on the attitudes and behaviors toward senior citizens. Besides, the results also indicate that perseverance in particular cultural values will help the younger generation to improve the intergenerational relationships, especially among the younger generation whose values have been changing to individualistic ideas.