Filial Piety and Life Satisfaction Among Malaysian Adolescents in a Multi-Ethnic, Collectivist Society

DOI

10.2991/iciap-18.2019.12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

life satisfaction, reciprocal filial piety, authoritarian filial piety, multi-ethnic, adolescents

Abstract

Past studies have generated assorted results about the link between filial piety and psychological outcomes among adolescents in Asia. Reciprocal filial piety was associated with positive psychological adjustment while authoritarian filial piety was allied to negative developmental outcomes. Differences between ethnicity and gender in life satisfaction have been observed, in addition to the possibility of variations in the endorsement of filial piety values across ethnicity and gender in a multi-ethnic, collectivist society like Malaysia. Thus, we examined the unique associations between reciprocal and authoritarian filial piety with adolescents’ life satisfaction, alongside the interaction of ethnicity and gender with these relationships in Malaysia. The sample comprised of 583 adolescents (Mage=15.07; 47.9% males; 52.1% females; 48.4% Malays, 27.1% Chinese, 24.5% Indians) located in three states of the Malaysian Peninsular. The respondents were selected using cluster sampling methods and were required to complete a self-report questionnaire. Pearson correlation analysis results indicated that a higher level of filial piety (both reciprocal and authoritarian) is linked with higher life satisfaction. Meanwhile, a three-way moderation analysis revealed that gender and ethnic groups were not significantly associated with filial piety and life satisfaction. However, ethnicity alone was significantly associated with reciprocal filial piety and life satisfaction. This study provides a foundation for understanding life satisfaction in relation to filial piety among adolescents in a multi-ethnic setting. The findings revealed that different facets of filial piety tend to have a distinct association with life satisfaction. Thus, there is a need to understand the different constructs of traditional family values, such as filial piety, in promoting positive life satisfaction among adolescents in a changing society like Malaysia.

Copyright

© 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Soon Aun Tan
AU  - Sarvarubini Nainee
AU  - Chee Seng Tan
PY  - 2019/08
DA  - 2019/08
TI  - Filial Piety and Life Satisfaction Among Malaysian Adolescents in a Multi-Ethnic, Collectivist Society
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Intervention and Applied Psychology (ICIAP 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 144
EP  - 155
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/iciap-18.2019.12
DO  - 10.2991/iciap-18.2019.12
ID  - Tan2019/08
ER  -