Introduction to special section for Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology : Value of children: A concept for better understanding cross-cultural variations in fertility behavior and intergenerational relationships

Abstract

The concept of value of children (VOC) was introduced three decades ago and has recently gained increasing importance due to ongoing significant demographic changes in many parts of the world, namely declining birth rates and increasing life expectancy. Even though the concept of VOC suggests interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research, these methodologies were only recently used as part of a collaborative international enterprise aiming to revise and extend the original VOC study. The extended study is based on psychological and sociological approaches and makes use of more sophisticated methods of cross-cultural comparison and multilevel analyses. The thematic scope has also been expanded beyond childbearing to childrearing and also deals with parent-child relations over the entire lifespan. The present special section provides an overview of ongoing theoretical and methodological progress on the basis of four selected studies on VOC and intergenerational relations in different cultures.