Abstract

This paper deals with the intergenerational process of teaching and learning of values in the family; particular attention is focused on parental authority and the "conjoint regulation" among parents and children, inside which this process is incessantly developed. An examination of qualitative and quantitative data, coming from a recent national research program on Youth and Socialization, brings us to reject the widespread thesis about the crisis of the family as socializa¬tion agency. In a non-authoritarian climate - mainly characterized by mutual listening, satisfaction of reciprocal obligations, growing commitment and autonomy of children in the daily regulation of family life - parental responsibility and authority are not denied; nevertheless, children do not automatically acknowledge their legiti¬macy but demand to their parents to act congruently with the values professed and, in case, to make self-criticism. Finally, data show that this climate is not prerogative of a specific social class, status or religious habit.