ABSTRACT
Objective This study investigates the effect of collectivism-individualism on parenting goals of middle school students' parents. Methods COLINDEX and Kohn's Parental Values Survey were used. 378 parents participated in the study. Results Fathers had higher score(3.23±0.73) on individualism than do mothers (3.05±0.44,F(1,359)=5.25,P <0.05);and highly educated (college or above) parents had higher scores(4.00±0.86) than do those with less education(for senior high school:3.91±0.81; junior high school or below:3.83±0.97,F(2,363)=4.72,P <0.01). Regression analysis indicated that collectivism had significant effects on goals of "take responsibilities and adapt to environment" ( P <0.01) and "conform to norm and obey parent" ( P <0.01). Both collectivism and individualism had significant effects on goal of "explore and be enterprising" ( P <0.05;P <0.01). Conclusion Parents with high collectivistic value expected their children to assume responsibilities,to adapt to the society,to adhere to norms and to obey authority. However,parents with high individualistic value encouraged their children to be independent and enterprising.