Generation Gap Between Mothers and Daughters: Examining the Factors Affecting the Difference of Their Attitudes Towards Family Values

The present paper aims to study the factors affecting the difference of attitudes between mothers and daughters towards family values. Margaret Mead and Carl Manheim’s historical theories of generation gap are used in the review of literature. Four independent variables, including age difference, difference in education level, difference in using the international media (i.e. Internet and Media), and difference in religiosity were considered. Using proportional sampling, 260 female students of Allameh Tabataba’i University and their mothers were selected.The data were collected using survey questionnaires. Kendall’s tau-c and tau-bcoeficients were used for analyzing the data in SPSS program. The face validity and reliability of the measurement tool were achieved through test-retest. Among the four independent variables, it was the level of religiosity that had a significant relationship with the difference betweenthe attitudesof mothers and daughters towards family values;the more the differences in their level of religiosity are, the higher their differences in family values will be. Examining the effect of control variable (economic-socialstatus) on the relationship between the level of religiosity and the attitudinal differences in family values showed that this relationship remains significant in high and middle socio- economic statuses.