Cultural and Developmental Aspects of Values of Children

In the first part, cross-cultural studies on values of children as reflected in parental beliefs, behavior and parent-child relationships are discussed. Considerable differences between Japan and Germany are demonstrated which mainly concern the emotional quality of the mother-child relationship. Japanese as compared to German mothers showed more flexible responsiveness across situations. Also, Japanese and German mothers' responsiveness affected their children's regulation of negative emotions and their children's task solving motivation differently. In the second part questions on socio-cultural changes and related changes in values of children are discussed by focussing on general theories on internalization, and on specific change in Japan