46 PARENTAL VALUES, BELIEFS, AND BEHAVIOR: A REVIEW AND PROMULGA FOR RESEARCH INTO THE NEW CENTURY 1 Duane F. Alwin ABSTRACT In this chapter the author reviews the research literature on parental values, beliefs and behavior over the past several decades and turns his attention to issues that can be profitably addressed in future research on this topic. This review is framed against the backdrop of the massive changes experienced by the family in its makeup and functioning over that time in Europe and North America, and the implications of these changes for understanding the lives of children and their parents. The chapter emphasizes the importance of conceptualizing values within a social psychological framework of cultural and cognitive organization, which views parental behavior as activity organized to satisfy basic material, psychological and social needs, and parental values as the standards of desirability that govern the choices that parents make in choosing approaches to child-rearing. This framework is coupled with Bronfen- brenner' s conceptualization of the social environment as a dynamic sel of interconnections of social settings, embedded in a multi-layered social and cultural context, that have major implications for child-rearing behavior. A review of the literature on parental values identifies several Children at the Millennium: Where Have We Come From, Where Are We Going? Volume 6, pages 97-139. Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN: 0-7623-0776-5 97