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Intergenerational Communication Across Cultures: Young People's Perceptions of Conversations with Family Elders, Non-family Elders and Same-Age Peers

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Abstract

Young adults from three Western (Canada, U.S.A., and New Zealand) and three East Asian (The Philippines, South Korea and Japan) nations completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of interactions with family elders, non-family elders, and same-age peers. Results showed that East Asians perceived family elders to be as accommodating as same-age peers, whereas Westerners perceived family elders as more accommodating than their same-age peers. Participants in both cultural blocks indicated an obligation to be most deferential towards non-family elders, followed by family elders, followed by same-age peers. Whereas both groups perceived interactions with same-age peers more positively than with the two older groups, the Western group perceived the older age groups more positively than did East Asians. Intergenerational communication is reportedly be more problematic than intragenerational communication and, consistent with previous findings, this pattern is more evident in East Asian nations on some variables.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

    Howard Giles

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Kimberly A. Noels

  3. Center for Language & Communication, Cardiff University, Wales, UK

    Angie Williams

  4. Foreign Language Department, Aichi Shukutoku University, Nagoya, Japan

    Hiroshi Ota

  5. Department of Communication, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, South Korea

    Tae-Seop Lim

  6. School of Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

    Sik Hung Ng

  7. Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

    Ellen B. Ryan

  8. Department of Anthropology, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines

    Lilnabeth Somera

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  1. Howard Giles
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Giles, H., Noels, K.A., Williams, A. et al. Intergenerational Communication Across Cultures: Young People's Perceptions of Conversations with Family Elders, Non-family Elders and Same-Age Peers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 18, 1–32 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024854211638

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