SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH 18, 195-236 (1989) Changes in Qualities Valued in Children in the United States, 1964 to 1984 DUANE F. ALWIN Institute for Social Research and Department of Sociology, University of Michigan This paper examines changes that have occurred over the past few decades in parental assessments of qualities valued in children. Data are examined from eight NORC national surveys to assess the degree of change experienced in these parental values, and several explanations are considered for the observed changes. The major finding of this research supports earlier observations re- garding changes in parental values. Those child qualities generally thought to be associated with obedience or conformity (to obey parents, to have good manners, to be neat and clean, and to act according to sex-role norms) are seen to have declined in importance, and the qualities generally associated with autonomy or self-direction (good sense and sound judgement, honesty, responsible, and con- siderate) have increased in their assessed importance to parents during this period. The potential sources of these changes are considered, and several ex- planations are examined. The results of these considerations suggest that changes in levels of schooling, a primary antecedent of parental autonomy versus con- formity values, explains some of the change, and there appears to be support for the role of other cohort-related or “generational” factors. The results also provide evidence, as hypothesized, that an important source of change in parental autonomy vs. conformity values over this period is among persons of Catholic background, especially those persons born after the Great Depression. o 1989 Academic Press, Inc. Over the past several centuries in industrial Western societies, the relationships within the nuclear family, especially those between parents and their children, have changed in important ways. This change has generally been in the direction of the greater expression of affection toward children and a greater interest in their development (Stone, 1977; This is the basis for part of a paper presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, held in Atlanta, GA. This research was supported in part by grant funds from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH37289, MH39761). 1 ac- knowledge the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research for providing access to the data from the General Social Surveys, and Melvin L. Kohn, Carmi Schooler, and Carrie Schoenbach for their assistance in providing the 1964 NIH-NORC data. I also acknowledge the assistance of Lynn Dielman, Evelyn Caviani, and Susan Sherry in data analysis and manuscript preparation. I95 0049-089x/89 $3 .OO Copyright 8 1989 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.