Values Development in Children Raised in Families and in Orphan Asylums

In present study we discuss the sources of the values development in children. Nineteen values of the Schwartz Personal Values Questionnaire and the score of Need for Cognition Scale (Russian version by E. Shepeleva and E. Lapteva) were used as measures. Sample consisted of the two groups: 80 school students parented in families in Orel, age M = 16.3 years old and 39 children raised in orphan asylums from various cities of Russia, age M = 14.4. Children parented in families had higher scores for the individual values of Self-Direction Freedom of Thought and Self-Direction Actions, Stimulation, Achievement, Face, Benevolence Care and Benevolence Dependability. Children raised in orphan asylums had higher scores for the values of Hedonism, Tradition, Safety Personal, Conformity Rules and Humility. On the general level children from families reported higher Openness to changes value and children from the orphan asylums reported higher Conservatism values. Values related to Openness to Changes are known as positive predictors of the social-personal capital of an individual (A. Tatarko), while values of the Conservatism are negatively related to the social-personal capital. Additionally we extracted the data from a subsample of the second group: 29 children taking individual internet lessons for the general education program additionally to the main education course, age M = 14.6. We compared their data with the data of children parented in families. Children raised in orphan asylums taking individual internet lessons did not differ from children parented in families in scores for values of Self-Direction Freedom of Thought, Stimulation and Benevolence Care, and had higher scores as a second group in whole and plus for the value of Universalism-Nature. Thus some values less reported in the group of children raised in orphan asylums did not differ between children taking individual lessons and children parented in families. In terms of social-personal capital it means that children raised in orphan asylums have similar level of this capital as children parented in families. The design of our study does not allow us to make a causal conclusion that individual lessons created this value level. We still may consider the alternative hypothesis that this effect is due to the self-selection effect, as children were free to take part in educational program and their different values might influence their choice. Nonetheless our results should be understood in the context that the need for cognition score was always higher for the family group than for groups from orphan asylums.

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