Citizen-making : the role of national goals for socializing children

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Social Science Research

Publication Date

3-1-2014

Volume

44

First Page

75

Last Page

85

Keywords

Citizen psychosocial outcomes, National analysis, National ecology, Socialization goals for children, World Value Survey

Abstract

The ecological, political, religious and economic constraints and opportunities characterizing a nation crystallize to set the agenda for socializing children, its future citizens. Parented accordingly, members of those nations would come to adopt the values, beliefs, skills and attitudes that constitute the requisite human capital to sustain that nation. This study reports on the profiling of 55 nations by two dimensions of the socialization goals for children extracted from the World Values Survey, viz., Self-directedness versus Other-directedness, and Civility versus Practicality. An affluent, less corrupt and more gender-equal society is associated with greater focus on Self-directedness and Civility. Both dimensions show convergent and discriminant validities in their correlation with nation-level psychosocial variables such as citizen subjective well-being, values, beliefs, pace of life and trust of out-groups. These dimensions are also shown to connect a nation's ecological construct to the outcomes of its citizens, adding a psychological-developmental perspective to examine nation-building and cultural transmission.

DOI

10.1016/j.ssresearch.2013.11.002

Print ISSN

0049089X

E-ISSN

10960317

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Bond, M. H., & Lun, V. M.-C. (2014). Citizen-making: The role of national goals for socializing children. Social Science Research, 44, 75-85. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2013.11.002

Share

COinS