DOI:10.6129/CJP.202303_65(1).0002
中華心理學刊 民 112，65 卷，1 期，19-40
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2023, Vol.65, No.1, 19-40

Szu-Yu Chen(Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica), Chih-Fen Wei(Department of Psychology and Counseling, University of Taipei), Kuang-Hui Yeh(Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica; Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University)

Abstract

The parent-child relationship is the first and most important interpersonal relationship that one develops, and filial piety is an important cultural value in Chinese society. The Dual Filial Piety Model (DFPM) is a proposed indigenous psychological model of Chinese filial piety, wherein the characteristics of Chinese filial piety consist of two aspects, reciprocity and authoritarianism. The DFPM has been examined in a series of empirical studies to test its arguments. However, related research on beliefs about the Chinese parent-child relation and their connection to filial piety beliefs and behaviors is still in its early stages. Chinese society is deeply influenced by Confucianism, and this has shaped beliefs about the parent-child relation. There are two types of Confucian beliefs regarding the parent-child relation, the life origin belief (LOB) and the parent-child as a united entity belief (PUB). The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between Confucian beliefs regarding the parent-child relation and filial behaviors, and the potential mediating role of dual filial piety beliefs among them. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 220 participants, 94 male and 126 female college students. The mean age of the participants was 21.01 (SD = 1.09). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the measures, and hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling analyses. The mediating effect of dual filial piety beliefs was also tested with the bootstrap method. The results showed that: 1. LOB is positively related to caring filial behaviors, while PUB is positively related to caring filial behaviors and compliance filial behaviors simultaneously. 2. Reciprocal filial piety belief could be a mediator of the relationships between LOB and caring filial behaviors, and between PUB and caring filial behaviors. 3. Authoritarian filial piety belief could be a mediator of the relationship between BPU and compliance filial behaviors. In accordance with the results of the research, the discussion makes some suggestions for the future for constructing a parent-child theory with Chinese cultural characteristics.

Keywords: life origin belief, parent-child as a united entity belief, dual filial belief, modern filial behaviors