Value of Children - Relationships between Mothers & Daughters -

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association 1986;24(4):189-197.

논문편 : 자녀에 대한 가치관 - 어머니와 딸 두세대간의 비교연구 -

박성연

Value of Children - Relationships between Mothers & Daughters -

Seong Yeon Park

ABSTRACT

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the nature and relationship of attitudes of mothers and their daughters concerning the value of children. the secondary interest was to compare this study with the American studies done by Bormann & Stockdale(1979), and Leavy & Hough(1983). Subjects for the study were college-age daughters their married sisters, and their mothers. The“Fawcett Opinions about Children Questionnair”was used to measure beliefs about children. Pearson Product Moment Correlations were computed for mother-daughter(married), mother-daughter(unmarried), and daughter(married)-daughter (unmarried) on each of nine subscales on value of children. To study the generation differences and marriage differences, matched sample t-test were carried. Several significant relationships were found for mother-daughter (married), daughter(married)-daughter (unmarried) pairs. Only one significant relationship was found for mother-daughter(unmarried) pairs. Significant differences were found between mother's group and daughters' groups on most subscales except one or two (generation effect). Significant differences were found between married daughters and unmarried daughters on 4 subscales(marriage effect). The results did not corroborate the findings of American studies which revealed the lack of congruence between mother and daughter attitudes. It was noted that as daughters had children themselves, their attitudes toward children had become more congruent with their mothers. There was also evidence to support the generation differences between mothers and daughters values. It was concluded that both value similarity and generation differences vary as a function of the particular events as well as age-itself.