INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNICATION OF VALUES IN LATVIA: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH RESULTS
INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNICATION OF VALUES IN LATVIA: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH RESULTS

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes value transmission within multi-generational families and considers inter-generational communication as a means for minimizing the exclusion of ethical and moral values both within the family and society. Value sharing has been approached in the frame of such social relationships as “the self ” – “the family” and “the family” – “others”. The study on intergenerational relationships in families was conducted in the Latgale region – the south-eastern part of Latvia – by applying qualitative research tools and collecting the data from semi-structured in-depth interviews. Subjective experiences shared by 34 individual family members in ten families revealed that family members’ bi-directional interactions ensure not only the transmission of values but, depending on family lifestyles, impact the processes of value (including family as a value) re-semanticization and re-interpretation. By performing essential family functions (upbringing, recreational, regulatory, communicative, etc.), as well as by sharing the inherited wisdom and accumulated knowledge across generations, the communicative procedures that result in dynamic functionalism among multiple systems may occur, in the frame of which diverse and contradictory value systems get connected and either undergo transformations or co-exist. Such factors as a strong bond between generations and mutual family practices result in the system of established values, norms, and goals that contribute to the quality of life of families, both socially and economically, and ensure the future of the country.

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