Cultural and Developmental Aspects of Values of Children

1 Summary In the first part. cross-cultural studies on vatues of children as retlected in parental heliefs, hehavior and parent-child relationships are discussed. Considerable differences between Japan and Germany are demonstrated which mainly concern the emotiomll quality of the mother-child relationship. Japanese as compared to German mothers showed more flexihle responsiveness across situations. Also, Japanese and German mothers' responsiveness affected their children's regulation of negative emotions and thrir children'S task solving motivation dillrrently. In the second part questions on socio-cultural changes and related changes in values of children arc discussed hy focussing on genrral theories on internalization. and on specific change in Japan. More than a quarter of a century ago the concept "value of children" had entered large comparative studies on socio-econornic, cultural and psychological aspects of fertility. This study included extensive surveys in the USA, 1 1llis study was par1ly suppor1ed oy Ihe Deutsche Forschullgsgemdnschali (DFa) (Tr/t69/9-t;Tr 16914-3), and the University of KOlIslanz.-209-First publ. in: Social and psychological change of Japan and Germany: the last decade of the 20th century / German-Japanese Society for Social Sciences (Ed.