Table 2.

Chi-square
Table
2. tests of association between education level and socialization goals at blevels of power distance
Note. N = 40519.
Chi-square
tests ofOR=odds
association
ratio;
between
In the education
case of highest
level education
and socialization
level it refers
goals at
to blevels
how likely
of power
is a parent
distance
to mention a socialization goal if he has higher education than if he has lower education. N = 40519
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***P <.001

Cross-cultural differences in socialization goals as a function of

power distance, individualism-collectivism and education
Ionut-Sergiu Mone , Oana Benga , Adrian Opre
a,*

Developmental Psychology Lab, Babe-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romnia

b

Department of Psychology, Babe-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romnia

INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVE

Studies that focus on the influence of culture on socialization goals have been conducted mainly from the standpoint of
individualism-collectivism (Harkness, Super, & Tijen, 2010; Hofstede, Hofstede,& Minkov, 2010).Since this approach
raises several issues, in the present study we have also taken in consideration the power distance dimension in the
investigation of cross-cultural difference in socialization goals. Out the six cultural dimensions postulated by Hofstede
et al (2010) we chose power distance because of studies that suggest its association with child socialization. In high
power distance cultures, there is an emphasis on family hierarchy and on the child`s obedience, the power asymmetry
inherent in the mother-child relationship being emphasized (Hofstede et al., 2010; Dermuth, 2013).
Power distance might also help explain the way socialization goals vary within a culture. In high power distance
countries, there is a higher difference regarding individual power distance orientation between employees with low
socio-economical status and employees with high socio-economical status. As individual value orientation is
associated with parental socialization goals (Keller & Kartner, 2013), power distance might also moderate the
association between socio-economical status and socialization goals

Our first objective was to investigate cross-cultural differences in parental socialization goals as a function of
individualism-collectivism and power distance. Our second objective was to investigate if power distance
moderates the relationship between education and socialization goals.

HYPHOTHESES
1.Parents from individualistic societies, as opposed to parents from collectivistic societies, will more
frequently endorse independence, self-expression and imagination as socialization goals.
2.Parents from individualistic societies, as opposed to parents from collectivistic societies, will less frequently
endorse obedience as a socialization goal.
3. Parents from high power-distance countries would more frequently endorse obedience as a socialization
goal.

METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
Participants in our study were 41.017 individuals from 42 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Ghana, India, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,
Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine,
Egypt, United States and Uruguay).
Our data was drawn from the Sixth Wave of the World Values Survery that lasted from 2010 to 2014 (WVS, 2014).
Only participant who reporter having at least one child were included.
Each country was categorized as being individualistic or collectivistic and as being high or low in power distance according to the each countries scores on these dimensions as reported by Hofstede et al. (2010)
MEASURES
A. Questionnaires
To assess socialization goals , participants were asked to choose up to five qualities from a list of 11 qualities that the child can be encouraged to learn at home. Only participants who chose between 1 and 5 qualities were
included in this sample.
Participants in each country reported the highest education level they had attained.

RESULTS
A. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

To investigate if there are cross-cultural differences in socialization goals as a function of the individualism- collectivism
and power distance dimensions we performed a series of chi-square analysis. The results are presented in Table 1
Table 1.
Chi-square Tests of Associations between Individualism-Collectivism, Power Distance and Socialization Goals
Power Distance

Individualism-Collectivism

2(df)

OR

2(df)

OR

Independence

581.25*** (1)

0.56

445.60*** (1)

1.63

Hard Work

196.63*** (1)

1.38

319.89*** (1)

0.67

Feelings of Responsibility

14.08*** (1)

1.10

37.65*** (1)

1.17

Imagination

356.11*** (1)

0.60

356.00*** (1)

1.63

Tolerance and Respect for other People

125.34*** (1)

0.75

173.89*** (1)

1.40

Thrift saving money and things

34.36*** (1)

1.16

29.04*** (1)

0.88

Determination, perseverance

123.21

0.76

80.52

***

Religious Faith

371.23

***

Unselfishness

127.97

***

Obedience

295.77

***

Self-expression

106.93

***

(1)

***

(1)

1.61

814.93

(1)

1.35

115.39

(1)

1.52

581.93

(1)

0.78

89.78

***

***
***

***

(1)

To explore if power distance modulates the relationship between education level and socialization
goals we performed a series of loglinear analyses. To be able to include education level in the
analysis we first performed a median split by calculating the median highest education level in
each country and grouping individuals with highest education above the median in a high
education group and individuals with highest education at or below the median in a low education
group. When the association between power distance, highest education level and a socialization
goal was significant we performed a series of chi squares to investigate how the relationship
between highest education level and the socialization goal differ as a function of power distance.
In tabel 2 we present the chi square tests of the association between education level and
socialization goals as a function of power distance for the socialization goals for which the
interaction between power distance, education level and socialization goal was significant.
Table 2.Chi-square tests of association between education level and socialization goals at
different levels of power distance

0.49

(1)

0.76

(1)

0.55

(1)

1.25

Note. OR=odds ratio; In the case of power distance the odds ratio refers to how likely is a parent to mention a socialization goal if he is
from a high power distance society than if he is from a low distance society. In the case of individualism-collectivism it refers to how likely
a parent is to mention a socialization goal if he is from individualistic society than if he is from a collectivistic society. In the case of
highest education level it refers to how likely is a parent to mention a socialization goal if he has higher education than if he has lower
education.
a
N = 40519
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***P <.001

High Power Distance

Highest education level

Highest education level

2(df)

OR

2(df)

OR

Hard Work

1.97

0.94

54.42***

0.84

Feelings of Responsibility

2.01

0.94

30.66***

1.16

Imagination

60.64***

1.45

34.77***

1.20

Unselfishness

10.53**

1.17

Obedience

24.50***

0.79

15.94***

0.91

Self-expression

5.37*

1.12

169.45***

1.44

1.23

(1)

Low Power Distance

1.60

1.03

Note. N = 40519. OR=odds ratio; In the case of highest education level it refers to how likely is a parent to
mention a socialization goal if he has higher education than if he has lower education. N = 40519
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***P <.001

Selective Bibliography
CONCLUSIONS
Results confirm conclusions of former studies by indicating that parents from individualistic cultures were more
likely than parents form collectivistic cultures o value independence, imagination and self-expression as
socialization goals and less likely to mention obedience as a socialization goals\. Parents from individualistic
cultures also valued determination, responsibility and tolerance more and unselfishness, hard work and thrift less
than parents from collectivistic cultures.
Power distance showed a similar pattern of association to socialization goals to that of individualism collectivism,
questioning the utility of focusing on this dimension in the investigation of cross-cultural differences in
socialization goals.
Our results also suggest that power distance moderates the relationship between education level and certain
socialization goals. As such the association between education and obedience and education and self expression
is stronger in higher power distance cultures while the asociation between education level and imagination and
education level and unselfishness is stronger in low power distance countries. Also, the association between
education and hard work and education and responsibility is significant only in high power distance countries

Correspondence should be sent to: mone.ionut@gmail.ro

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Hoftede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: software of the mind: intercultural cooperation and its importance
for survival. McGraw-Hill.
Keller, H., & Kartner, J. (2013). DevelopmentThe cultural solution of universal developmental tasks. In M. Gelfand, C.-Y. Chiu, & Y.-Y. Hong
(Eds.), Advances in culture and psychology . New York, NY: Oxford University Press

Aknowledgements
This paper is a result of a doctoral research made possible by the financial support of the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources
Development 2007-2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the project POSDRU/187/1.5/S/155383 Quality, excellence, transnational mobility in doctoral research.