This dissertation was a comparative study of Asian Americans and Euro-Americans in four different age groups: 5th--6th graders in middle childhood, 9th--10th graders in middle adolescence, undergraduates, and parents. Participants were videotaped and interviewed on various issues relevant to filial piety, a traditional East Asian ethic emphasizing the respect, obedience, and eventual care of parents. Topics of interest included attitudes about respect, obedience, sharing a home with elderly parents, nursing home care, future parent care, and parental attitudes about their children caring for them in the future. In order to learn about how children are socialized about these topics, participants were also asked to speak about how they learned and taught filial issues. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of ethnicity and age differences were performed on subject responses.;In order to make statistical comparison between the various groups, videotaped interviews were coded to identify how positive or negative subjects were about filial piety. Quantitative analyses revealed that on most domains of filial piety, Asian Americans spoke more positively than did Euro-Americans. Statistical differences between the different age groups were minimal. However, qualitative analyses revealed interesting patterns in participants' responses according to both ethnicity and age. Ethnicity analyses revealed differences between Euro-Americans and Asian Americans in individualism vs. collectivism and attitudes about parent-child relations. Age analyses revealed development progressions in cognitive and moral reasoning. Finally, analyses of socialization methods revealed that Asian Americans and Euro-Americans displayed different patterns when speaking of learning about filial piety.
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