TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between external contact and unmarried adolescents' and young adults' traditional beliefs in Three East Asian Cities
T2 - A cross-sectional analysis
AU - Cheng, Yan
AU - Lou, Chaohua
AU - Gao, Ersheng
AU - Emerson, Mark R.
AU - Zabin, Laurie S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States. The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. David Bishai and Prof. Robert Blum for their hard work and important help in the study design, sampling, data clearing, and suggestions regarding the final article. The authors would also like to thank their colleagues at the Hanoi Institute of Family and Gender Studies, the Health Research Center in Taiwan's Bureau of Health Promotion, and the Shanghai Institute for Planned Parenthood Research for their work and commitment to the project.
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - Purpose: There is growing contact with the outside world among adolescents and young adults in the three Asian cities of Hanoi, Vietnam, Shanghai, mainland China, and Taipei, Taiwan because of the open policies implemented by the national governments of each of these cities. Because these policies were enacted at different points in time, their concomitant social impact has not been simultaneous, with the result that these societies are at different stages of change. The goal of this current analysis is to examine the dimensions of external contact and respondents' departures from Confucian valuesfor example, embracing individualism, a woman's taking the initiative in expressing affection to a man, and permissiveness toward premarital sexamong unmarried adolescents and young adults in these three cities and the potential relationship between them. This will contribute to our understanding of contemporary Asian adolescents' and young adults' attitudes during different social transition periods, attitudes that are frequently contrary to traditional Confucian principles. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The multicenter survey of 17,016 male and female adolescents and young adults aged 1524 years from three cities with Confucian-influenced culturesShanghai, Hanoi, and Taipeiwas conducted from May 2006 to January 2007 through face-to-face interviews coupled with computer-assisted self-interviews for sensitive questions; 16,554 unmarried respondents were included in this analysis. Binary logistic regression and general linear models were used to explore the associations between respondents' external contact and their nontraditional attitudes. All the analyses were done through SAS 9.1. Results: There were significant differences in the positive association between respondents' external contact and non-Confucian values among adolescents in the three cities. More respondents in Taipei and Shanghai had external contact and identified with nontraditional values than those in Hanoi. The percentages of respondents reporting non-Confucian values were the highest in Taipei and the lowest in Hanoi. The analysis presented significant associations between respondents' exposure to Western culture and their adoption of nontraditional values across the three cities. Respondents who spoke Western languages and who preferred Western videos/actors/singers were more likely to exhibit Western individualism, concurrence with women taking the initiative in a romantic relationship with a man, and permissiveness toward premarital sexual behavior. Conclusions: Although these Asian cities are at different stages of social transition, exposure to Western culture is associated with unmarried adolescents' and young adults' departure from traditional Confucian social rules in all three.
AB - Purpose: There is growing contact with the outside world among adolescents and young adults in the three Asian cities of Hanoi, Vietnam, Shanghai, mainland China, and Taipei, Taiwan because of the open policies implemented by the national governments of each of these cities. Because these policies were enacted at different points in time, their concomitant social impact has not been simultaneous, with the result that these societies are at different stages of change. The goal of this current analysis is to examine the dimensions of external contact and respondents' departures from Confucian valuesfor example, embracing individualism, a woman's taking the initiative in expressing affection to a man, and permissiveness toward premarital sexamong unmarried adolescents and young adults in these three cities and the potential relationship between them. This will contribute to our understanding of contemporary Asian adolescents' and young adults' attitudes during different social transition periods, attitudes that are frequently contrary to traditional Confucian principles. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The multicenter survey of 17,016 male and female adolescents and young adults aged 1524 years from three cities with Confucian-influenced culturesShanghai, Hanoi, and Taipeiwas conducted from May 2006 to January 2007 through face-to-face interviews coupled with computer-assisted self-interviews for sensitive questions; 16,554 unmarried respondents were included in this analysis. Binary logistic regression and general linear models were used to explore the associations between respondents' external contact and their nontraditional attitudes. All the analyses were done through SAS 9.1. Results: There were significant differences in the positive association between respondents' external contact and non-Confucian values among adolescents in the three cities. More respondents in Taipei and Shanghai had external contact and identified with nontraditional values than those in Hanoi. The percentages of respondents reporting non-Confucian values were the highest in Taipei and the lowest in Hanoi. The analysis presented significant associations between respondents' exposure to Western culture and their adoption of nontraditional values across the three cities. Respondents who spoke Western languages and who preferred Western videos/actors/singers were more likely to exhibit Western individualism, concurrence with women taking the initiative in a romantic relationship with a man, and permissiveness toward premarital sexual behavior. Conclusions: Although these Asian cities are at different stages of social transition, exposure to Western culture is associated with unmarried adolescents' and young adults' departure from traditional Confucian social rules in all three.
KW - Asian city
KW - Confucian values
KW - External contact
KW - Multicenter study
KW - Unmarried adolescents and young adults
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.12.011
DO - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.12.011
M3 - Article
C2 - 22340855
AN - SCOPUS:84857343640
SN - 1054-139X
VL - 50
SP - S4-S11
JO - Journal of Adolescent Health
JF - Journal of Adolescent Health
IS - 3 SUPPL.
ER -