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Abstract Background Global climate change is recognized as a major and irreversible challenge for humanity, requiring people’s responsible and sustainable behaviors toward the environment. So far, the literature has widely investigated the role of cognitive determinants of ecological outcomes (e.g., pro-environmental behaviors and climate change perception), while less attention has been devoted to emotional processes, such as trait emotional intelligence (TEI). The current double study investigates whether TEI is directly and indirectly associated with climate change perception (CCP, Study 1) and pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs, Study 2) among young adults. Furthermore, the mediating role of connectedness to nature (CN), both as cognitive and emotional factors, was also analyzed. We hypothesized that CN (i.e., cognitive mediator) would positively mediate the relationship between TEI and CCP (H1), and Love and Care for Nature (LCN, i.e., emotional mediator) would positively mediate the relationship between TEI and PEBs (H2). Methods The study involved 342 young adults (F = 60.7%; age 19–40; Mage=22.99; SD = 2.66) in Study 1 and 365 young adults (F = 71.2%; age 17–35; Mage=22.2; SD = 3.98) in Study 2. Data were collected through an online tool shared by the snowball method. We administered the following self-reports: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire- Short Form (TEIQue- SF), Global Climate Change (GCC), and Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) (Study 1); Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire- Short Form (TEIQue-SF), General Environmental Behaviors Scale (GEB), and Love and Care for Nature (LCN) (Study 2). Results Findings from Study 1 showed that higher TEI levels enhance CN (i.e., cognitive mediator), positively influencing CCP (estimate = 0.14; 95% CI = 0.07 to 0.23). Findings from Study 2 showed that higher TEI levels are associated with higher LCN levels (i.e., emotional mediator), influencing people’s engagement in PEBs (estimate = 0.7; 95% CI = 0.03 to 0.11). Conclusion It is crucial to design environmental education programs that promote greater emotional intelligence ability and encourage individuals’ involvement in ecological outcomes.

Prejudice against immigrants is a relevant research topic within social psychology. Researchers identified several individual variables affecting anti-immigrant prejudice, such as morality and personality. However, until now, prejudice has never been studied in relation to kindness, which might be a significant protective factor against prejudice. Based on Kohlberg’s theory of moral judgement, four stage dimensions of kindness were identified, from egocentric to authentic kindness (i.e., a means for social progress and improvement). This study aims to explore the relationship between the four kindness dimensions and blatant and subtle prejudice against immigrants in adolescence, by also considering the moderating role of adolescents’ sex. It involved 215 Italian participants (77% girls), who were asked to fill in a self-report questionnaire. Results showed that boys scored higher on egocentric kindness than girls, but no sex differences emerged for prejudice. Egocentric and extrinsically motivated kindness appeared to be risk factors for prejudice, whereas the most authentic form of kindness was a protective factor. In addition, adolescents’ sex moderated the relationship between egocentric kindness and blatant prejudice, whereby this association was stronger for boys. The implications of these findings, the study’s limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Background Personal values have been extensively found to be relevant variables linked to prosociality; they are desirable and trans-situational goals that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives to select modes, means and actions, these reflecting what people consider relevant and worthy. Research has investigated how cultural background influences people’s personal values and prosociality, but little is known about the influence of the perception of the values en-dorsed by significant others, namely the people belonging to the micro-relational context with whom daily interac-tions and exchanges are possible. Based on Schwartz’s theory of basic human values, we analyzed the moderating role of the perceptions of significant others’ values in the relationship between personal values and self-reported prosociality. Participants and procedure Two hundred and forty-five Italian young adults (66.9% women) aged between 18 and 30 years (M = 22.58, SD = 2.53) completed a self-report questionnaire. Results Specifically, openness to change values were a significant positive predictor of self-reported prosociality when re-spondents perceived low importance assigned both to openness to change and self-transcendence by significant oth-ers, whereas conservation values were a significant positive predictor of self-reported prosociality when respondents perceived low importance assigned to self-enhancement by significant others. Conclusions Our findings show a complex interplay between personal values and perceived significant others’ values in shaping young adults’ self-reported prosociality.

Background: Stable parent-infant relationships and adequate ordinary care significantly support children’s development since the very early stages of life. Principal models of intervention sustain parental skills and foster quality of parent-infant interactions since the early infancy. Standardized programs, with a well-defined focus, of short duration, based on specific methods and techniques, represent an effective tool in supporting parental effort. The present pilot study provides a description and an initial evaluation of the brief online “Con i Genitori” (CiG) Intervention, aimed to enhance parental sensitivity, self-efficacy and reduce stress in parents of typically-developed children aging 0-6 years. Methods: The intervention involved parents of typically-developed children aging 0-6 years. Four interactive group sessions, based on well-known empirically-based programs’ assumptions were delivered. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires at baseline (T0) and after CiG (T1). The assessment included the Tool to measure Parenting Self-Efficacy (TOPSE; Kendall Bloomfield, 2005), Parenting Stress Index-SF for parental distress (PSI; Abidin, 1996), Emotional Regulation Checklist for children’s emotional regulation (ERC; Shields Cicchetti et al., 1997) and Social Provision Scale for social support (SPS; Cutrona and Russell, 1987). A weekly “ad-hoc” questionnaire evaluated parental sensitivity. Moreover, a semi-structured interview measured participants’ satisfaction and acceptability with the intervention one month after its end. Results: Twelve parents completed all the sessions of the CiG (10 mothers, 2 fathers with mean age = 42.7; SD= 6.3). Children mean age was 3.9 (SD=1.9), 58.3% male. Our results showed statistically significant decrease in parental distress and increased social support after attending CiG. No statistically significant variations were detected considering parental self-efficacy. Conclusions: Our findings confirm the potential value of online-delivered interventions targeting parenthood in infancy, supporting parent-infant relationship and positive parenting from early infancy in a public health community approach. Online delivered programs constitute an important resource for addressing unmet parent mental health needs, which may be particularly widespread following the COVID-19 pandemic, representing a valuable alternative to traditional face-to-face interventions targeting parental wellbeing in infancy.

Objectives. The main purposes of this study were to: examine possible existing relationships between couple values and coparenting quality reported by both partners of cohabitants heterosexual couples; investigate whether couple values explain coparenting quality reported by both partners of cohabitants heterosexual couples. Material and methods. 94 Italian heterosexual couples with at least one child under the age of 13 years were enrolled. Both mothers (Mage = 41.25, SD = 6.82) and fathers (Mage = 44.21, SD = 6.97) were asked to fill in two self-report questionnaires: The Portrait Values ​​Questionnaire [PVQ] for couple values and The Coparenting Relationship Scale for the coparenting quality. Results. The main findings of regression model analysis conducted showed that Self-Transcendence resulted the most important predictor (β = .412, t = 4.253, p = .000) for coparenting quality perceived by fathers. In contrast, Conservation resulted the most important predictor (β = .239, t = 2.086, p = .040) for coparenting quality perceived by mothers. Conclusions. From the results obtained, the authors found an important preference for parents of respecting one’s cultural traditions, respecting the rules, being tolerant, ensuring the well-being of others by mitigating impulsive behaviors that could harm others physically and emotionally. The presence of these values ​​could allow both partners to implement supportive and collaborative behaviors, agree on education-related issues for their children, and feel close and allied in upbringing their child.

According to the Theory of Basic Human Values, values are relatively stable, but not immutable, abstract goals which strongly influence peoples’ lives. Since their relative stability, psychosocial research is attempting to understand the extent to which it is possible to induce a voluntary change in people’s personal values. The main aim of this study was to systematically review the existing literature on experiments to induce a value change, also highlighting the theoretical perspectives used to develop the experimental tasks. We conducted a literature search of five databases (SCOPUS, ProQuest, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science). After the screening and the eligibility phase, we included a total of 14 articles (25 experiments). Most of these studies involved university students and adopted a pre-and post-test design, using different manipulation tasks. The results highlighted the possibility of inducing a voluntary value change, assessed in terms of mean levels and/or rank order. These findings provide new insights regarding the stability of values in the light of the Theory of Basic Human Values. The practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Young adulthood is the life stage during which people are more prone to develop problematic smartphone use (PSU). Only one study investigated the relationship among attachment styles, family functioning, and PSU, but thus far, no research has shown the relative importance that such dimensions may have on PSU. The main aim of this study was to analyze to what extent insecure attachment styles and unbalanced family functioning are related to PSU, investigating the specific weight of each dimension in a sample of young adults (N = 301; 82.7% females; Mage = 22.89; SD = 3.02). Participants completed a self-report questionnaire, including the Relationship Questionnaire, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale IV, and the Smartphone Addiction Scale. The regression and relative weight analyses results showed that preoccupied attachment style and disengaged, chaotic, and enmeshed family functioning were positively related to PSU. Implications for future research and interventions were discussed.

Gender inequalities are still persistent despite the growing policy efforts to combat them. Sexism, which is an evaluative tendency leading to different treatment of people based on their sex and to denigration (hostile sexism) or enhancement (benevolent sexism) of certain dispositions as gendered attributes, plays a significant role in strengthening these social inequalities. As it happens with many other attitudes, sexism is mainly transmitted by influencing parental styles and socialization practices. This study focused on the association between parents' hostile and benevolent sexism toward women and their socialization values (specifically, conservation and self-transcendence), that are the values parents would like their children to endorse. We took both parents' and children's sex into account in the analyses. One-hundred-sixty-five Italian parental couples with young adult children participated in the study. Parents, both the mother and the father, individually filled in a self-report questionnaire composed of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Findings showed that mothers' benevolent sexism was positively related to their desire to transmit conservation values to their sons and daughters. This result was also found for fathers, but with a moderation effect of children's sex. Indeed, the positive relationship between fathers' benevolent sexism and conservation was stronger in the case of sons than of daughters. Moreover, fathers' benevolent sexism was positively associated with self-transcendence values. Finally, fathers' hostile sexism was positively associated with conservation and negatively with self-transcendence. Limitations of the study, future research developments, and practical implications of the results are discussed.

The possibility of inducing value change has attracted interest among scholars and practitioners in developmental and social psychology. This study proposes a new web-based intervention aimed at enhancing the importance adolescents ascribe to social-focused values (i.e., self-transcendence and conservation), which was implemented and evaluated in the context of online schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social-focused values primarily regulate how one relates to others and preserve cooperative relations. These values were found to predict positive outcomes, such as adolescents' well-being, school performance, prosocial behavior, and, most recently, COVID-19 preventive behaviors. The intervention was carried out with a group of 140 high school students (Age: M = 16.53, SD = 0.95) living in Italy during the pandemic. The intervention group (N = 84) completed four tasks, which were based on the value-changing mechanisms of priming, consistency maintenance (raising awareness and knowledge of prosociality), or direct persuasion (trying to convince another person to act prosocially). The intervention significantly increased the importance of conservation values (i.e., tradition, conformity, security) but not of self-transcendence values (i.e., universalism, benevolence) in the intervention group in comparison to the control group (N = 56). This result reflects the reality during the pandemic, where prosociality was more easily expressed through behaviors consistent with conservation values instead of self-transcendence values, which emphasize (physical) proximity to others. The effectiveness of the intervention was further supported by a qualitative analysis of adolescents' writings while completing the tasks. Limitations of the study, future research developments, and practical implications for values education in secondary schools are discussed.

Parents play a key role in young athletes’ sport experience. In particular, parents’ sport goals for children may influence young athletes’ morally relevant sport behaviors. The present study involves 172 Italian adolescents (female = 51.7%; age M = 15.41, SD = 1.73) practicing team sports and analyzed whether and the extent to which parents’ sport socialization values, those values adolescents perceived their parents wanted them to endorse (i.e., moral, competence, status values), were associated with young athletes’ antisocial behaviors towards teammates and opponents. Adolescents’ perceptions of the prominent motivational climate (i.e., mastery and performance) within their team were also considered. Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires, including the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire-2, adapted to measure adolescents’ perceptions of parental socialization values, the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire and the Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Sport Scale. The results of multiple linear regression analysis and relative weight analysis showed that mastery motivational climate, as protective factor, and mothers’ status values, as risk factor, were the most important variables in predicting adolescents’ antisocial behavior towards teammates. As far as adolescents’ antisocial behavior towards opponents was concerned, performance motivational climate and mothers’ status values were the most relevant predictors: the more adolescents perceived their coaches and mothers as giving importance to performance and status, the higher was the frequency of their antisocial behavior in sport. Implications and further developments of the study are discussed.

Abstract Background Around the age of 6 months, difficulties in settling to sleep and frequent night awakenings are generally occurring in 20 to 30% of infants. According to the transactional model parental factors can play a significant role in influencing infant sleep development. The purpose of the current study was to explore the combined effect of infants’ factors (temperament and sleep onset problems), and parental factors (parental mental health in terms of post-partum affective disorders, consistent bedtime routines and fathers’ involvement at bedtime), on infant bedtime difficulties (e.g. fussing, crying or protesting), including both maternal and paternal perspectives. Methods Sixty Italian intact two-parent families of infants (34 boys and 26 girls) ageing from 8 to 12 months (M = 10.73, SD = 2.54) were enrolled in the study. The parents filled out self-report questionnaires to measure the aforementioned variables. To investigate which infant and parental factors predicted infants’ bedtime difficulties, two multiple linear regressions (MR), one for fathers and one for mothers, and relative weight analyses (RWA) were conducted. Results With regard to infants’ bedtime difficulties reported by fathers (R2 = .35) they were explained by infant involvement in constant bedtime routines (β = −.35, p = .030) and paternal involvement at bedtime (β = −.45, p = .007). Instead infants’ bedtime difficulties reported by mothers (R2 = .32) were explained by minutes the child taken to fall asleep (β = .24, p = .04), infant involvement in constant bedtime routines (β = −.31, p = .01) and bedtime paternal involvement (β = −.27, p = .05). Conclusions The main results of this study emphasized the protective role of consistent bedtime routines and bedtime paternal involvement in reducing infants’ bedtime difficulties perceived both from mothers and fathers. Future research could help to raise awareness and improve understanding of the familial influences on children’s sleep, providing recommendations for educating families, school professionals, healthcare providers, and the general public on risk and protective factors that could play a meaningful role in infants and children’s developing sleep patterns.

Background: Substance addiction is a psychosocial problem facing many people today. While the previous trend in addiction treatment was the harm reduction approach, nowadays it is fully recognized the importance of promoting human resources in order to help people to face the rehabilitation process, to prevent the risk of treatment dropout and future relapses, and to positively re-integrate them into the society. During the process of recovery from substance addiction, resilience is one of the most important protective factors against both dropouts and relapses. This study analyzed for the first time whether and the extent to which self-transcendence values (i.e., benevolence and universalism) promote resilience, considering the mediating role of hope, among patients in residential substance abuse treatment. Method: Seventy-six Italian patients in residential treatment for substance addiction (86.5% males and 13.5% females; Mage = 40.23, SD = 10.88) participated to the study. Participants were asked to complete the Self-transcendence subscale from the Portrait Values Questionnaire, the Hope Scale, and the Connor Davidson Resilience Scale. Results: Findings showed that self-transcendence values were positively related to resilience and that hope fully mediated (in a positive direction) this relationship. Self-transcendence values promoted resilience through the mediating role of hope. Conclusions: This complex relationship suggests a holistic model of resilience during the process of recovery from substance addiction. Limitations of the study, practical implications, and future research developments are discussed.

The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the ensuing pandemic, and the related containment measures pose considerable challenges to psychological resilience and well-being. Researchers are now forced to look for resources to cope with negative experiences linked to this health emergency. According to the salutogenic approach proposed by Antonovsky, the sense of coherence (SOC) is a major source of resilience. Thus, this study aimed at assessing the role of SOC in moderating the link between illness experiences (in terms of knowing persons diagnosed with COVID-19 and fear of contracting COVID-19) and psychological well-being. 2,784 participants, taken from a large sample of the Italian population (65.4% females) and aged between 18 and 85 years, filled in an anonymous online survey during the 3rd week of the lockdown. Findings supported the moderating role of SOC in shaping the link between illness experiences and psychological well-being. Specifically, participants who knew at least one person diagnosed with COVID-19 showed lower levels of psychological well-being at low levels of SOC. The negative relation between participants’ fear of contracting COVID-19 and psychological well-being was stronger for those who showed higher levels of SOC. This study discusses the implications of these results for interventions aimed at reducing the pandemic’s detrimental effects and promoting resilience.

Ethnic prejudice is one of the most studied topics in social psychology. Empirical research on its development and intergenerational transmission is increasing but still scarce. This systematic review collected and analyzed psychosocial studies focused on the transmission of ethnic prejudice within families with adolescents. Specifically, it aimed at addressing the following research questions: (a) To what extent is there a vertical (between parents and children) and horizontal (between siblings) transmission of ethnic prejudice within the family? (b) Is this process unidirectional (from parents to children) or bidirectional (between parents and children)? (c) Which individual and/or relational variables influence this process? (d) Can adolescents’ intergroup contact experiences affect the family influence on adolescents’ ethnic prejudice? The literature search of four databases (Ebsco, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science), carried out from February 2021 to May 2021, following the PRISMA guidelines, yielded 22 articles that matched the eligibility criteria. The findings highlighted a moderate bidirectional transmission of ethnic prejudice between parents and adolescents, which was influenced by several individual and relational variables (e.g., the adolescents’ age and sex and the family relationship quality). Moreover, the adolescents’ frequent and positive contacts with peers of different ethnicities reduced the parents’ influence on the adolescents’ ethnic prejudice. The findings are discussed, and their limitations and implications for intervention and future research are considered.

The present study aims to expand the understanding of the effects of dispositional happiness and self-esteem, as dispositional traits, on the health of teachers, as well as to understand the role played by the working environment in generating positive affection, thus mediating between the dispositional traits and teachers’ health. Two hundred and eighty-two full-time in-service teachers (93.6% female) from Rome (Italy) took part in this study. Their ages ranged from 26 to 55 (M = 40.49 years, SD = 5.93). Participants’ teaching experience ranged from 1 to 31 years (M = 9.95 years, SD = 5.65). 30.6% of participants taught in kindergarten (for children aged 0–5 years), 42.6% in primary schools (for children aged 6–11 years), 15.8% in middle schools and 10.9% in high schools. A questionnaire was administered, containing: the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS); the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES); The adapted version for teachers of the School Children Happiness Inventory (Ivens, 2007); the Physical and Mental Health Scales (SF12). The data were analyzed using the MPLUS software, version 8. Our results showed that teacher happiness at work partially mediates the relationship between dispositional happiness and teacher health, and fully mediates the relationship between self-esteem and teacher health. To the best of our knowledge, the mediational role of teacher happiness has not been addressed before, concerning these dimensions. At the same time, our findings confirmed the role of self-esteem in endorsing health-related behaviors, thus promoting physical and mental health. Moreover, according to our study findings, when teachers acknowledge their workplace as a context in which they feel happy, the impact of dispositional happiness and self-esteem on health conditions is higher. Effective measures to promote teachers’ well-being are discussed.

Teachers’ personal values drive their goals and behaviors at school. Moreover, values can support subjective well-being and an individual sense of self-efficacy. Teachers’ self-efficacy, namely teachers’ beliefs in their ability to effectively handle the tasks, obligations, and challenges related to their professional activity, plays a key role in influencing important academic outcomes (e.g., students’ achievement and motivation) and well-being in the working environment. Based on Schwartz’s well-known theory of human values, this study sought to examine the relations between teachers’ values (i.e., conservation, openness to change, self-transcendence, and self-enhancement) and their self-efficacy. In particular, it aimed at analyzing the extent to which these relations are moderated by teachers’ controlled and autonomous motivations for teaching. Two hundred and twenty-seven Italian high school teachers (73.6% females; M = 44.77 years, SD = 10.56) were involved in the study and asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. Results showed that teachers’ conservation values were positively associated to sense of self-efficacy regardless of the type and level of motivation for teaching. More interestingly, the relationships between openness to change and self-efficacy on the one hand, and self-transcendence and self-efficacy on the other, varied depending on teachers’ motivations. These relations were stronger when teachers perceived less external pressure and felt to be self-determined toward teaching. Implications of these results for teachers’ practices and well-being in their work environment and further developments of the study are discussed.

Living in today’s complex social world can contribute to the development of a multi-faceted personal identity and to the risk of identity dispersion. This study focused on values, which are conceptualised as the core of one’s personal identity. It aimed to explore the within-person value consistency across relational roles (i.e., relationships with parents, partners, and friends) and to analyse the association between value consistency, self-concept clarity, and basic psychological needs satisfaction. One hundred ninety-five Italian young adults (F = 85%; Mage = 26.65, SD = 3.83) participated in the study. They completed the Values in Context Questionnaire, the Self-Concept Clarity Scale, and the satisfaction subscale from the Basic Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale. Findings showed high value consistencies across the relational roles. Specifically, consistency is higher when values as a partner and values as a friend are considered. Moreover, the relation between value consistency and basic psychological needs satisfaction was fully mediated by self-concept clarity. Limitations of the study, future research developments, and practical implications of the results are discussed.

The transmission of positive values between parents and children is generally considered to be the hallmark of successful socialization. As this issue has been widely discussed but surprisingly little researched - especially with reference to core sport values - in this study we aimed to: 1) analyze adolescent athletes’ acceptance of the sport values their parents want to transmit to them (i.e., parental socialization values) and 2) examine the relationship between parental involvement in children’s sportive activity and adolescents’ acceptance of their parents’ socialization values. One hundred and seventy-two Italian adolescents (48.3% male, 51.7% female) who regularly practice team sports were asked to fill out a questionnaire which included the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire – 2 and the Parental Involvement in Sport Questionnaire. The dyadic correlations revealed that young athletes are in general willing to accept their parents’ socialization values in regards to sport. Moreover, from the relative weight analysis (a relatively new data analysis strategy), it emerged that parental involvement characterized by praise and understanding is the most important predictor of adolescents’ willingness to accept their parents’ sport values. Implications of these results and further expansion of the study are discussed.

Depression in adolescents can lead to social and educational impairment and is a major risk factor for suicide and substance misuse. Thus, predicting and preventing this disorder are extremely important. The current study aimed to analyze the contribution of adolescents’ self-esteem (i.e., quality of interpersonal relationships, control of life events, and management of negative emotions) and interpersonal stressor sources (relationships with parents, teachers, classmates and friends) in predicting several depression manifestations (i.e., depressed mood, sense of inadequacy, and insecurity). Participants were 182 Italian pre-adolescents and adolescents, aged 10–14 years, were recruited from three Italian schools. They were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. Results showed that self-esteem was a major factor to be considered in adolescents’ depression. In particular, adolescents’ perception of negative emotion management was the most important protective factor against depression manifestations. Conversely, sources of interpersonal stressors contributed only marginally to depression. Among these, problems with parents and friends increased adolescents’ depressed mood, while troubles with classmates impacted on their sense of inadequacy and insecurity. Implications of these results for positive practices which could enhance adolescents’ self-esteem and further expansions of the study are discussed.

Teachers potentially are important agents of socialization for their students and teachers’ values drive their goals and desirable behaviors. Teachers’ goals and behaviors are also primary influences on students’ achievement motivation and learning. This study – which referred to Schwartz’s Universal Theory of Human Values and involved 157 Italian high school teachers – focused on the relation between teachers’ personal values (i.e., the values teachers feel to be important for themselves) and socialization values (i.e., the values they would like their students to endorse) on the one hand, and their classroom management styles (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive styles) on the other. Results showed the importance of values in determining the teaching styles, greater in the case of authoritative and authoritarian styles than of permissive style. Implications of these results for teachers’ practices and further expansions of the study are discussed.

This study was focused on parents’ socialization values, namely the values that parents want their children to adopt, and their sources. In a sample of 325 Italian families with one adolescent child (14-18 years), it aimed at comparing fathers’ and mothers’ socialization values and assessing parents’ own personal values and family value climate as antecedents of the values parents would like their children to endorse. For each family both parents and the adolescent were involved and asked to complete the Portrait Values Questionnaire individually. The Anova results showed significant differences between fathers’ and mothers’ socialization values: in particular, fathers gave more importance to openness to change and self-enhancement values in their children’s rearing than mothers did. Using multilevel analysis, as fathers and mothers were nested within families, we found significant and positive relations between parents’ personal values and all their socialization values, as well as between family value climate and some of the parents’ socialization values. Conversely, cross-level interactions between parents’ personal values and family value climate did not contribute to predict the values parents want their children to adopt. Implications of this research and its possible developments are discussed.

In the literature on family transmission of values, parents' value priorities have been often compared to their children's ones in order to reveal intergenerational similarities as well as differences. Most studies have implicitly assumed that parents' and children's value systems are completely comparable; however, evidence is needed that the meaning of certain values is the same for the two generations. The general aim of this study was to examine empirically the meanings of a large set of values to parents and to their adolescent children. Participants were 381 Italian family triads (father, mother and one adolescent child), who were asked to fill in the Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire. Multidimensional scaling analyses revealed that parents and adolescents distinguished a similar number of value dimensions. However, some inconsistencies emerged between parents and adolescents as far as the organization of values (congruencies and conflicts among values) was concerned. The implications of these findings for the study of value transmission were discussed.