A Comparative Study of Family Values Between China and America - Family Values
Family values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution.[1]
Although the phrase is vague and has shifting meanings, it is most often associated with social and religious conservatives. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term has been frequently used in political debate, to claim that the world has seen a decline in family values since the end of the Second World War.[2]
Definition
[edit] In the United States
Typically, the term is used by the media to refer to Christian values, but in a 1998 Harris survey it was defined as "loving, taking care of, and supporting each other" by 52% of women and 42% of men, as "knowing right from wrong and having good values" by 38% of women and 35% of men, and as the traditional family by 2% of women and 1% men. The survey also noted that 93% of women thought that society should value all types of families.[3]
[edit] Conservative definitions
Since 1980, the Republican Party has used the issue of family values to attract socially conservative voters.[4] While family values remains a rather vague concept, social conservatives usually understand the term to include some combination of the following principles (also referenced in the 2004 Republican Party platform):[5] ▪ Promotion of "traditional marriage" and opposition to sex outside of conventional marriage, including pre-marital sex, adultery, polygamy, bestiality, and incest[6][7][8][9] ▪ Support for a roll back of aspects of feminism and support for a traditional role for women in the family.[10][citation needed] ▪ Opposition to same-sex marriage[5] ▪ Support for traditional education and parental involvement in that education, including such things as vouchers for private, non-secular education.[11] ▪ Support for complementarianism[12][13][14] ▪ Opposition to legalization of abortion and
Although the phrase is vague and has shifting meanings, it is most often associated with social and religious conservatives. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term has been frequently used in political debate, to claim that the world has seen a decline in family values since the end of the Second World War.[2]
Definition
[edit] In the United States
Typically, the term is used by the media to refer to Christian values, but in a 1998 Harris survey it was defined as "loving, taking care of, and supporting each other" by 52% of women and 42% of men, as "knowing right from wrong and having good values" by 38% of women and 35% of men, and as the traditional family by 2% of women and 1% men. The survey also noted that 93% of women thought that society should value all types of families.[3]
[edit] Conservative definitions
Since 1980, the Republican Party has used the issue of family values to attract socially conservative voters.[4] While family values remains a rather vague concept, social conservatives usually understand the term to include some combination of the following principles (also referenced in the 2004 Republican Party platform):[5] ▪ Promotion of "traditional marriage" and opposition to sex outside of conventional marriage, including pre-marital sex, adultery, polygamy, bestiality, and incest[6][7][8][9] ▪ Support for a roll back of aspects of feminism and support for a traditional role for women in the family.[10][citation needed] ▪ Opposition to same-sex marriage[5] ▪ Support for traditional education and parental involvement in that education, including such things as vouchers for private, non-secular education.[11] ▪ Support for complementarianism[12][13][14] ▪ Opposition to legalization of abortion and