Value socialization in families of Israeli-born and Soviet-born adolescents in Israel

The authors examine impacts of immigration on parent-adolescent value similarity, consistency of parents' value messages, and the value transmission process. Thirty-four former Soviet immigrant families to Israel and 68 matched Israeli families participated. Group mean comparisons revealed generational effects for openness and conservation values: adolescents resembled one another more than their own parents. Immigration further increased adolescent-parent value distance. For self-transcendence and self-enhancement values, there were no effects. Correlations between parent and adolescent group means, across 11 values, suggest that immigration reduces parent-adolescent similarity in value priorities. Within-family analyses showed no immigration effects on parent-adolescent value similarity or on accuracy in perceiving parents' values, and greater acceptance of parental values in immigrant families. Value messages of immigrant parents were less consistent. Inconsistency undermined value transmission, differently in immigrant and veteran families. The authors discuss why group versus within-family analyses can yield contradictory results and why findings depend on the specific values studied.