Page 117 - IJPS-11-3

International Journal of
Population Studies Family policy from a global perspective

Figure 1. Importance of family in a person’s life. Note: Higher score: Lower importance. Source: World Values Survey.

WVS question, “How would you feel about the following has one of the highest rates of disagreement regarding
statements? Do you agree or disagree with them? Adult the obligation of adult children to provide long-term
children have the duty to provide long-term care for their care for their parents. This higher rate of disagreement
parents,” was measured on a 5-point scale: agree strongly may be attributed to shifting intergenerational contracts
(1), agree (2), neither agree nor disagree (3), disagree within urban Japanese families in response to the growing
(4), and disagree strongly (5), expressing the degree of availability of public care services for the elderly (Jenike,
disagreement, i.e., defamiliarization. This scale was also 2003), which could explain the comparatively high score
rescaled to a range of 0 – 1. All African and a significant in the WVS. Nevertheless, many countries in Asia and
proportion of Asian countries strongly agree that adult Africa still adhere to familialism, reinforcing the primacy
children are responsible for the long-term care of their of familial responsibility, a concept widely accepted by the
elderly parents (Figure 2). New Zealand and Australia population and seldom questioned.
are the only countries where the mean of standardized
respondents’ scores slightly exceeds the 0.5 threshold, 3.2. Secularization and emancipative values
indicating a tendency to disagree. Other countries with A high degree of secularization in society and a
a relatively high level of disagreement include Japan, propensity toward emancipation indicate a shift
Germany, and the USA. away from traditional values. It can be expected that
Overall, the two indicators of defamiliarization suggest countries whose populations, on average, hold more
that Asian and African societies tend to exhibit familialism progressive or conservative values are more likely to
and intergenerational family solidarity. However, it is adopt correspondingly progressive or conservative family
important to note that this is a very general statement. policy models. Evidence of such a relationship has been
There is considerable variation within world regions discovered in East and Southeast Asian countries, where
and cultural spheres, with important exceptions. For a discernible alignment between the clustering of family
example, Japan, despite its prevailing Confucian values policies and the cultural fabric of their respective societies
and culturally grounded intergenerational solidarity, was observed (Tonelli et al., 2021).

Volume 11 Issue 3 (2025) 111 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1993