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Relationships Between Parents’ And Children’s Salient Values For Future And Children’s Overall Life Satisfaction. A Comparison Across Countries

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Abstract

In this paper, a model is set forth relating (a) overall life satisfaction of children to children’s values and (b) children’s values to parents’ values. Using confirmatory factor analysis models three dimensions of values (materialistic values, capacities and knowledge values and interpersonal relationship values) consistently emerged in 5 countries (Brazil, South Africa, Norway, Spain and India) for both parents and children. There was a considerable amount of missing data, mainly because the parent’s questionnaire was often not returned. Full information maximum likelihood estimators with missing data were thus used.

Multiple-group analyses were next performed to assess factor invariance of the three value dimensions across the five countries for both parents and children. This implies testing the equality of factor loadings and intercepts across groups. This equality is required to ensure that factors have the same interpretation in all groups, which is necessary when comparing any aspect of the factor distribution across groups.

The only two countries for which the interpretation of value dimensions was invariant for both parents and children were Brazil and Spain. The results of other countries could thus not be compared. Multiple-group structural equation models revealed that both parents and children scored higher on most values in Brazil than in Spain. In both countries, each child value dimension was only significantly predicted by the same value dimension of the parents. R-squares were in the 4–12% range and slightly higher in Brazil. The only value dimension that had some effect on overall life satisfaction was capacities and knowledge, which was so in both countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Quality of Life Research Institute, University of Girona, Girona, Spain

    Germà Coenders, Ferran Casas, Cristina Figuer & Mònica González

  2. Faculty Building of Economics and Business, Campus Montilivi, 17071, Girona, Spain

    Germà Coenders

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  1. Germà Coenders
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  2. Ferran Casas
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  3. Cristina Figuer
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  4. Mònica González
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Correspondence to Germà Coenders.

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Acknowledgements are due to the country project directors and their associates Per Egil Mjaavatn (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway), Usha Nayar (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India), Irene Rizzini (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Rose September (Western Cape University, South Africa) and Ferran Casas (Catalan Network of Child Researchers – XCIII – in co-operation with the University of Girona, Spain) for permitting us to use part of their project and to Childwatch International, Oslo, for sponsorship.

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Coenders, G., Casas, F., Figuer, C. et al. Relationships Between Parents’ And Children’s Salient Values For Future And Children’s Overall Life Satisfaction. A Comparison Across Countries. Soc Indic Res 73, 141–177 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-004-3233-0

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