Value Assessment in the Process of Value Transmission: The Portrait Socialization Values Questionnaire-Children’s Perceptions (PSVQ-CP)

Socialization is a key process for the continuity of a society because it allows the transmission of culturally specific knowledge, beliefs, and values over generations. Specifically, parent-child value transmission is considered to be the hallmark of a successful socialization. The values parents would like their children to endorse are known in the literature as socialization values (e.g., Benish-Weisman, Levy, & Knafo, 2013). Children may be accurate or not in perceiving their parents’ values and they actively choose to accept or reject these values (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994). This study aims at testing the factor structure and measurement invariance of the 21-item Portrait Socialization Values Questionnaire - Children’s Perceptions (PSVQ-CP) to measure children’s perceptions of their parents’ socialization values. This scale derived from the short version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) (Schwartz et al., 2001), originally developed to assess personal values according to Schwartz’ value theory (1992). 789 Italian adolescents (54.5% female; age: M =15.30, SD=1.26) were asked to fill in the PSVQ-CP referring to their mothers’ and fathers’ socialization values. Results showed that the PSVQ-CP factor structure was similar to the original PVQ factor structure, including four value dimensions, although two items needed to be eliminated, and it was invariant across child gender. Implications for theories of socialization and assessment of values are discussed.