Family Education and Adolescent Values: A Review in Developmental Psychology and Family Socialization

Abstract

Family education serves as a crucial socializing environment for the formation of adolescents' values. This study employs a literature review method, integrating findings from developmental psychology, family socialization theory, and self-determination theory, to analyze the primary mechanisms through which family education influences adolescents' values as well as the applicable boundaries of these influences. The results indicate that parental behavioral modeling, emotional warmth, family functioning, rule explanation, and autonomy support are consistently associated with adolescents' moral values, fairness beliefs, prosocial behavior, self-concept, and school adaptation. The development of adolescents' cognitive abilities, autonomy needs, and social relationships facilitates the gradual transformation of rules — once primarily dependent on external constraints—into value judgments that can be understood, evaluated, and internalized by the individual. Family education practices should ensure consistency between words and actions, provide stable relationships and appropriate boundaries, and progressively expand adolescents' range of choices and responsibilities according to their developmental stage. The existing evidence is predominantly derived from relevant studies; however, cultural background, family socioeconomic conditions, and individual differences can influence the strength of these effects. Therefore, the conclusions drawn should avoid causal or simplistic interpretations.