Individualistic and Collectivistic Child-Rearing Values in 50 Countries: How preferences are affected by individual characteristics, societal characteristics, and cross-level combinations.

Abstract

This study addresses the debate concerning the influence of individual and contextual characteristics on the preference for individualistic and collectivistic child-rearing values by individual members of society. For this purpose, we have applied a multi-level analysis using the World Values Study (2005) combined with data from the World Bank for 62315 individuals residing in 50 countries. The individual level is represented by religiosity and socio-economic status. The societal characteristics include a country’s religiosity and its level of affluence. Results show that preferring individualistic child-rearing values and disvaluing collectivistic child-rearing values is related to lower levels of individual religiosity and higher levels of socio-economic status. Results also show that lower levels of religiosity are only related to stronger preference for collectivistic child-rearing values. Level of affluence seems to be positively related to preferring individualistic and collectivistic child-rearing values. An examination of the strength of these effects lead to the conclusion that especially the influence of level of affluence on individualistic child-rearing value preference is remarkable. We end by discussing the theoretical and methodological implications of our findings.