Parents Values on Child Socialization and Changes toward Modernization in Vietnam

This article presents a comparison of data in two surveys in 2003 and 2015 on Vietnam Family Change (N=3192) about the traits or qualities Vietnamese parents want to teach their children and how it changes towards modernization since Doi Moi in 1986. The findings show that majority of Vietnam parents ranked obedience, to work hard, and to be responsible while over one third ranked to think for oneself as very important qualities. There is slight change of parents values on desired traits toward modernization during this period. Vietnam parents values on child socialization emphasized on obedience or conformity rather than autonomy or self-direction. The factors significantly impacted on changes of parents values which are competing forces explained for the little change on Vietnamese parental values on child socialization and raise the issues for context change in interrelationship between the family and key institutions on the way towards modernization in Vietnam.