A Cross-National Investigation into the Filial Piety and Motivations for Parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean College Students

Duong Thi Nhat Anh; Gyesook Yoo

doi:10.6115/fer.2016.045

Fam. Environ. Res > Volume 54(6); 2016 > Article

베트남과 한국 대학생의 효의식과 부모됨의 동기에 관한 비교국가연구

Original Article

Fam. Environ. Res 2016;54(6):575-588.

Published online: December 16, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6115/fer.2016.045

베트남과 한국 대학생의 효의식과 부모됨의 동기에 관한 비교국가연구

Duong Thi Nhat Anh, 유계숙

경희대학교 아동가족학과

A Cross-National Investigation into the Filial Piety and Motivations for Parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean College Students

Duong Thi Nhat Anh, Gyesook Yoo

Department of Child & Family Studies, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding Author: Gyesook Yoo Department of Child & Family Studies, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Korea Tel: +82-2-961-0257 Fax: +82-2-961-0257 E-mail: dongrazi@khu.ac.kr

This article is a part of Duong Thi Nhat Anh’s master’s thesis submitted in 2016.

Received June 30, 2016 Revised September 7, 2016 Accepted September 9, 2016

Abstract

This study empirically examined the effects of filial piety on motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college students, who represent a generation of young adults and prospective parents in both countries. The Vietnamese data were collected from 325 college students enrolled in three universities located in Hanoi and Korean data were collected from 216 students from a single large university in Seoul. Student respondents were asked to complete the self-administered questionnaire including ‘Filial Piety Scale’ and ‘Motivations for Parenthood Scale.’ The results revealed that the Vietnamese students reported a significantly higher level of ‘general filial piety’ than their Korean counterparts. Vietnamese and Korean participants showed no significant difference in total motivations for parenthood. Among the five sub-factors of motivations for parenthood, however, the Vietnamese students were more likely to place a value on the expansion of self-motivation while their Korean counterparts considered the motivation to strengthen biological family ties to be more salient. Finally, after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the more filial Vietnamese and Korean college students were towards their parents, the more child-related motives they held in general. The results are discussed in relation to each country’s degree of modernization and to recommend prospective family planning and population policies in Vietnam based on the experiences of Korea industrialization.

Keywords: filial piety, motivations for parenthood, Vietnam, Korea

Introduction

Vietnam and Korea share traditional values and normative family dynamics rooted in Chinese Confucianism [10, 46]. Filial piety, which generally means one’s love and respect for one’s parents, is considered to be family-related and the central Confucian principle. Mencius, one of Confucius’s descendants, stated that “there are three vices that violate principles of filial piety, and the biggest is being without an offspring [28].” Thus, having children is regarded as a social norm and failing to produce offspring is considered a disgrace to the ancestors and shame of the family [28] in Confucian cultures such as Vietnam and Korea.

Although they share a culture that highlights the salience of procreation, Vietnam and Korea are both witnessing decline in fertility rates. Korea experienced the transitional period in fertility rates to a bare replacement level and then hit the record low level of 1.08 children per woman in 2005 [59]. From 2001, the country’s total fertility rate (TFR) has continued to be below the level of 1.3 children per woman, which leaves the country in the group of lowest low-fertility countries [49]. Statistics from Vietnam show that the country is enjoying a stable TFR that slightly fluctuates around the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. In comparison with other developing countries, however, Vietnam has a relatively low TFR, which indicates that Vietnam’s TFR has declined [5, 39].

Amid reasons for this fertility decline, rapid economic change is found to be the main reason [6]. In Korea, population growth figures show clear decline in fertility rates associated with economic development [41]. The younger generation in Korea that enjoys the developed economy tends to see Confucian values as old-fashioned and unacceptable [15, 24]. Hyun [24] revealed that younger Korean women between the ages of 24 to 36 showed less enthusiasm about Confucian values. This erosion of Confucianism in Korea may be one of many reasons why Korea has experienced a sharp decrease in fertility as its economic development level accelerated. This study mainly discusses the question of whether, as Vietnam follows Korea’s path to become a developed country, Confucian values, filial piety in particular, will become undermined, leading Vietnamese people to delay or give up on childbirth as their Korean counterparts have.

As planned parenthood gains its popularity and birthrate markedly diminishes in countries, one essential question that arises in this connect is that of people’s motivations to become parents. This question is especially pertinent in societies where planning to have a child is becoming a norm. Recently, studies on never married young adults have showed that motivations for parenthood appear to be important for individuals emerging into young adulthood during their transitional developmental period. For example, the more child-related motives young adults held, the more likely they were to become parents later on [19, 43]; young adults in their twenties expressed a greater desire to become parents than the adults in their thirties [18]; contemporary young adults considered parenthood as a choice of lifestyle [60]. As becoming parents has now become a personal choice and a statement of social maturation [60], and young adults’ values are salient indicators of a society’s future, it is of vital importance that motivations for parenthood among young adults are investigated.

The above-discussed context reveals that decreasing fertility rates in societies embracing normative filial piety, which emphasizes procreation and the continuity of family bloodline, is a paradoxical phenomenon. In order to understand this paradox, this research aims to study the influence of filial piety on motivations for parenthood in Vietnam and Korea. The first purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of filial piety on motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college students, who represent the young adults and parentsto-be generation in both countries. The second purpose of this study is to compare the association between filial piety and motivations for parenthood of Vietnamese college students and their counterparts in industrialized Korea in order to recommend prospective family planning policies and population policies in Vietnam. To address the research purposes, we intend to answer the following research questions:

Question 1. Are there national differences in filial piety and motivations for parenthood between Vietnamese and Korean college students?

Question 2. Is there an association between filial piety and motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college students?

Literature Review

1. Filial Piety

Vietnam and Korea have long been under the influence of Chinese Confucianism culture, which places high value on filial piety [10, 13, 23, 46, 53, 56]. According to Confucianism, filial piety is the root of men’s moral values and is considered as one important aspect of human behavior. Filial piety is the central concept of Confucianism; it highly values children’s respect and love for parents, and children’s obedience towards parents [23, 57].

In Vietnamese society, since ancient times, filial piety has been highly valued. The concept of filial piety in the Vietnamese traditional family was the highest idea of being a good child. In the Vietnamese traditional family, filial piety was considered the root of humaneness. For Vietnamese people, being filial meant the child should respect and support their parents and grandparents wholeheartedly in their everyday life. When their parents did something wrong, the children should find appropriate ways to calmly and gently persuade them. Besides that, taking good care of parents and grandparents’ health was also the children’s responsibility. Filial behaviors of children should be maintained even when the parents or grandparents passed away. Organizing funeral or memorial services and upholding ancestors worship every year were considered important filial behaviors in Vietnamese society, and those who failed to do these things were considered unfilial children.

Filial piety, which is called “hyodo” in Korean, is defined as serving and supporting one’s parents, and is a natural responsibility of an individual. In Korea, with the predominance of nuclear families, the percentage of families of the traditional family structure with grandparents-parent-child has declined to below 10% [48]. In this context, filial piety toward ancestors, grandparents, and parents, which used to be a pillar of Korean family relations, has weakened [58]. With the nation’s changing family structure and expensive cost of housing and education that often burden young Koreans, more elderly citizens in Korea are unable to rely on their children to take care of them. In 2015, more than 75% of South Koreans surveyed by a local pollster thought ‘filial duty contracts’ are necessary should they receive any gifts such as real estate or stocks from them [27]. The notion of being filial and providing unconditional care and support for parents has changed in Korean society. Chung and Yoo [11] found that concepts of filial piety have changed among young people. Korea’s young generation was found to be more engaged in expressive filial piety (deep concern, sympathy, and communication with parents) rather than the material support for their parents (providing for one’s dependent parents).

2. Motivations for Parenthood

Rindfuss [42] defined parenthood as “the actions involved in raising a child, ranging from the physical nurturing necessary in infancy to the financial costs of the college years.” Bigner and Gerhardt [3] argued that motives to become parents existed even before an individual decided to get pregnant, and these motives influenced an individual’s decision on whether to become a parent or not in the future. According to the motivational theory of life-span development, becoming a parent was one of the developmental goals that social norms have identified as a maturing task for an individual’s given period of life-course transition [20].

In the traditional Vietnamese family, producing offspring was the first and foremost desire of married couples. Having many children was especially viewed as a great social value because a large family could meet the vital demands of one’s life. According to Van Bich [53], in Vietnam, each gender has its motivations and aspirations in having children. For women, children are an indispensable part of their identity, their comfort, and the guarantee of stable marital status. For men, children provide a sense of identity and their fulfilled duty to ancestors. Both genders share a common motivation for having children and they both want to give birth to at least one boy because of the notion that male children are the providers of security for parents in old age, as well as the organizers of proper worship after death. Studies on fertility intentions in Vietnamese society are limited to several research studies on the value of children in the family. Ho [21] conducted a mixed research in a rural area about people’s perceptions of the value of children. In general, children in Vietnamese rural families had three meanings: children brought joy and happiness to the family and strengthened the couple’s relationship; children were the labors of families and caretakers of parents; and children worshiped their ancestors and guaranteed the continuity of family lineage. Among three meanings, the first one was rated the most important. Ngo [38] and Vu [55] found congruent results in their research.

Since Korea entered the era of low-fertility, studies in Korea have focused on fertility intentions and motivations for parenthood. Yoo and Chung [60] studied a sample of 311 university students, and their results revealed that young adults perceived parenthood as an individual lifestyle and as a statement of social maturation. Chung et al. [12] conducted a research on 432 university students to examine the differences in their motivations for parenthood. In their study, a gender gap was reported: male students placed higher importance on “traditional motives for parenthood,” which highlighted the concepts of carrying on the family career, linage, and social recognition as an adult. In an exceptional research study, Yoo et al. [59] studied emerging adult undergraduate students’ motivations for having children between two cohorts, 1999 and 2011, in Korea. Their study yielded results highlighting that cohort was significantly associated with emerging adults’ motivations for parenthood, in particular, participants in 2011 cohort possessed stronger motivations than their counterparts in 1999 cohort.

3. Relationship between Filial Piety and Motivations for Parenthood

In developing countries, family-size norms were found to influence an individual’s desire for children [31]. Social norms were observed to induce fertility decline [14]. Social norms regarding fertility, when added to the model of fertility, were reported to have moderating effects on the relationship between child mortality and fertility rate declines [2]. Munshi and Myaux [37] reported the effects of social norms on two features of fertility transition, which were slow response to changes in contraceptive prevalence (external intervention) and widely varied response to the same intervention.

The recent trend in studying fertility has been to apply the theory of planned behavior (TPB) [1] to examine the antecedents of fertility motivations. According to the TPB, actual behaviors can be predicted from intentions to execute the actions with considerable accuracy. Attitudes towards behavior, social norms, and perceived behavioral control are determinants of an individual’s intention to perform an actual behavior. Billari et al. [4] employed the TPB to study 10,003 Bulgarian single individuals and individuals in partnerships aged 18 to 34 years. Their results showed that fertility intentions were directly dependent on attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control among the sample. Subjective norms had the highest association for becoming parents, which could demonstrate the high value society places on parents and the desire to comply with those values. Other studies [29, 32, 33], which also implemented the TPB to look at the determinants of fertility intentions, yielded results in line with the TPB that attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioral control were primary antecedents of individual fertility preferences and intentions.

The above-discussed context suggests that social norms are salient to an understanding of fertility and it provides indirect evidence for the relationship between filial piety, a social norm in Vietnam and Korea that highlights the salience of producing offspring to carry on the family lineage, and motivations for parenthood. Thus, this study aims to empirically examine the direct relationship between filial piety and motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college students.

4. A Comparison on Socio-Cultural and Family Characteristics between Vietnam and Korea

Socio-cultural and family characteristics of each country provide rationale for this comparative study. Vietnam and Korea share similarities in traditional values and family norms based on Confucianism, which stresses the importance of filial piety [10, 46]. The culture in both countries highlights familism, collectivism more than individualism, and the families are child-centered. Despite having a higher TFR than Korea, Vietnam’s TFR is declining modestly [39]. Thus, both countries have experienced a decrease in TFR [10]. The crude rates of marriage in Vietnam and Korea in the year 2002 were 6.24 and 6.4, respectively; in 2007 they were 5.7 and 7.0, respectively [16, 47]. This indicates that marriage is still regarded as the normative way to form partnership in both countries. In a comparative study by Chin [10], results revealed that the two countries shared similar patterns in managing everyday household expenditures: more than 70% of the families reported that the wives were in charge of decision-making processes.

Despite holding similarities in socio-cultural and family-related characteristics, there are still differences between Vietnam and Korea. While both countries consider marriage as the primary partnership formation, there is a discrepancy regarding attitudes towards divorce between Vietnam and Korea. The crude rates of divorce in the year 2002 and 2007 of Vietnam were .5 and .2, respectively, whereas in Korea they were 3.05 and 2.5, respectively. This indicates that divorce seems to be more socially acceptable in Korea than in Vietnam, which was empirically proven in a study by Chin [10]. Wives have primary duties in childcare and child education in both countries, but Vietnamese husbands play more of a role in child discipline and child education than their Korean counterparts [10]. In terms of economic development and political systems, Vietnam is a socialist and developing country, whereas Korea is a capitalist and developed country. In the year 2015, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and gross national income (GNI) per capita of Vietnam were 2,109.00 United States Dollar (USD) and 1,730.00 USD [17] while that of Korea were 28,338.00 USD and 27,340.00 USD [50, 52]. Statistics data clearly show that irrespective of temporal difference, the discrepancy is substantial between Vietnam and Korea in terms of economic development and fertility rate.

5. Sociodemographic Factors that Influence Motivations for Parenthood

Factors such as gender, age, number of siblings, and socio-economic status were found to affect one’s motivations for parenthood. Studies on the effect of gender on fertility motivations yielded mixed results. Several studies found gender differences [18, 51] while studies by Miller et al. [35] and Schoen et al. [45] found no such differences. Young people in their twenties were found to show more motivations to become parents than people in their thirties [18]; however, Liefbroer [30] reported that the older the respondents were, the higher their fertility intentions were. Chasiotis et al. [7] revealed that number of siblings affected the childbearing motivation in cross-cultural samples from Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Other studies reported that the existence of younger siblings appeared to delay reproductive development in females [8, 22]. A study by Miettinen and Szalma [34] found that a weaker individual socioeconomic position such as unemployment or low socioeconomic status influenced an individual’s fertility intentions. Stobel-Richter et al. [51] found that younger people aspire to a certain socioeconomic status before making the transition to parenthood.

Methods

1. Procedure

The paper-pencil questionnaire was employed to assess perceptions about filial piety and motivations for parenthood among college students in Hanoi, Vietnam and Seoul, Korea. The original questionnaire was developed in Korean; thus, in order to be distributed among Vietnamese college students, it was translated into Vietnamese with back-translation to check for consistency and accuracy by two translators. The final Vietnamese language version was created by the first author (Duong Thi Nhat Anh). The first author conveniently approached participants when they were taking a break or sitting at university canteens with their friends. In addition to the written explanations in the questionnaire, student respondents were informed about the research purpose and requirements by the authors. Student participants were also informed that they could withdraw from participation anytime without penalty. After agreeing to participate in the survey and provide their consent, the students were asked to complete the questionnaire. After filling out the questionnaire, each participant was given a bottle of drink as a present. Questionnaires were distributed by the first author in June 2015 in Vietnam. The compared data of 215 Korean college students were collected from June 1, 2011 to June 17, 2011 by the second author (Gyesook Yoo).

2. Participants

The participants in this study were undergraduate students enrolled in various courses at universities from Hanoi, Vietnam and Seoul, Korea (Table 1). The respondents had never been married, had never had children, and had an intention to have children in the future. Young adult years, as Rindfuss [42] defined, are from 18 to 30 years of age. He reasoned that people between the ages of 18 and 30 years had taken on all the major adult roles; they had left schools and were responsible for their financial situation, marriage, and producing offspring. This provides a premise that in order to have a fertility outcome in their late twenties and early thirties young adults should have motives to become parents during their early twenties, when some of them are still in universities.

Vietnamese data were collected at three Hanoi-based large universities with highly selective admissions, using a convenient sampling method. Three hundred forty questionnaires were distributed and completed by 338 students, resulting in a high response rate of 93.89%. After excluding missing cases, the final sample of Vietnamese data were composed of 157 females (48.3%) and 168 males (51.7%), and their mean age was 20.45 years (SD=1.29). The average number of siblings including participants themselves was 2.39 (SD=.88). Approximately 89.5% of Vietnamese student respondents reported their socio-economic status as middle class. One hundred forty-eight (45.5%) and 20 (6.2%) student participants were the eldest child and the only child in the family, respectively.

Korean data were collected from a large university in Seoul, using a convenient sampling method. Two hundred fifty questionnaires were distributed, and 222 students completed the survey, resulting in a high response rate of 88.8%. After excluding incomplete cases, the final sample consisted of 216 students with 112 females (51.9%) and 104 males (48.1%). Their mean age was 22.19 years (SD=2.29), and the average number of siblings including respondents themselves was 1.81 (SD=.69). Approximately 74.1% of Korean student participants reported their socio-economic status as middle class. One hundred twelve (51.9%) and 11 (5.1%) student participants were the eldest child and the only child in the family, respectively.

3. Measures

1) Filial piety

Student participants’ filial piety was assessed with 17 items from the “Filial Piety Scale [11].” Student participants were asked to what extent they agree or disagree with a series of specific statements about their attitudes towards their parents, using a 5-point Likert scale (from 1, strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree). The higher score represents a higher level of filial piety. The Cronbach α for 17 items was .90 for the Vietnamese college students’ sample and .89 for the Korean college students’ sample.

2) Motivations for parenthood

Student participants’ perceptions of motivations for parenthood were assessed with 20 items from the “Motivations for Parenthood Scale [60].” Participants were asked to what extent they agree or disagree with a series of specific reasons for wanting to have children in the future, using a 5-point Likert scale (from 1, strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree). This scale has five sub-factors: emotional and altruistic motivation (“I want to have children because I love kids”), strengthening marital bonds (“to be closer with my spouse and share the goals and experiences of life”), strengthening biological family ties (“to give grandchildren to my parents”), expansion of self (“I want to have children because childlessness in abnormal and unnatural”), and traditional norms (“I want to have children because most people have children on average”). The higher score represents a higher level of motivations for parenthood. The Cronbach α for 20 items of total motivations for parenthood and for items of five sub-factors for Vietnamese and Korean college students are displayed in Table 2.

3) Sociodemographic characteristics

The questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, age, academic major, number of siblings including the respondents themselves, birth order, monthly family income, perceived socio-economic status, and fertility intention.

4. Data Analysis

Independent sample t-tests were performed to answer the research question 1, and hierarchical regression analyses were used to answer research questions 2, after controlling for sociodemographic factors.

Results

1. Comparison of Filial Piety and Motivations for Parenthood between Vietnamese and Korean Students

Levels of filial piety and motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college student respondents are summarized in Table 3. Overall, both Vietnamese and Korean college students showed high levels of filial piety with mean scores of 4.20 (SD=.55) and 4.06 (SD=.49), respectively. Vietnamese students reported significantly higher levels of filial piety than their Korean counterparts.

Regarding motivations for parenthood, there was no significant difference between the two groups on the overall index; however, there were significant differences in two sub-factors. On the strengthening biological family ties subfactor, Korean college students reported higher scores than their Vietnamese counterparts (M=3.33, SD=.91 vs. M=3.13, SD=.89). Meanwhile, a higher score (M=2.95, SD=.97) was significantly observed among Vietnamese students on the expansion-of-self factor compared to Korean students (M=2.58, SD=.85).

2. Association between Filial Piety and Motivations for Parenthood

To answer questions 2, hierarchical regression analyses were performed on total motivations for parenthood and five sub-factors (emotional and altruistic motivation, strengthening marital bonds, strengthening family biological ties, expansion of self, and traditional norms) as outcome variables and sociodemographic characteristics and filial piety as predictor variables. The results are summarized in Tables 4, 5, respectively. The sociodemographic characteristics were entered in the first step, and the filial piety variable was entered in second step.

As seen in Table 4, in step 1, sociodemographic characteristics were not significant predictors of total motivations for parenthood, strengthening marital bonds, strengthening biological family ties, expansion of self, or traditional norms among Vietnamese college students. Specifically, however, gender was a significant predictor of emotional and altruistic motivation (F=3.67, p＜.01). In step 2, filial piety was a significant predictor of total motivations for parenthood (F=38.99, p＜.001) and explained 10.9% of the variances in total motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese students. Filial piety was also a significant predictor of all five sub-factors. The filial piety variable’s predictive powers for all five sub-factors were in the order as follows: emotional and altruistic motivation (β=.35, p＜.001), strengthening marital bonds (β=.34, p＜.001), traditional norms (β=.21, p＜.001), strengthening biological family ties (β=.17, p＜.01), and expansion of self (β=.17, p＜.01). Tests to see if the data met the assumption of collinearity indicated that multicollinearity was not a concern (VIF=1.00-1.05).

As seen in Table 5, in step 1, sociodemographic characteristics were not significant predictors of outcome variables among Korean college students. In step 2, filial piety was a significant predictor of total motivations for parenthood (F=17.10, p＜.001) and explained 7.5% of the variances in total motivations for parenthood among Korean students. Filial piety was also a significant predictor of all five sub-factors of motivations for parenthood. The predictive powers of filial piety for all five sub-factors were in the order of emotional and altruistic motivation (β=.32, p＜.001), strengthening marital bonds (β=.25, p＜.001), strengthening biological family ties (β=.23, p＜.01), expansion of self (β=.22, p＜.01), and traditional norms (β=.15, p＜.05). Tests to see if the data met the assumption of collinearity indicated that multicollinearity was not a concern (VIF=1.03-1.44).

Tables 4, 5 reveal that the more filial Vietnamese and Korean students were towards their parents, the more motivated they were to have children in the future in general. Vietnamese female students with higher levels of filial piety held more child-related emotional and altruistic motives than male students. The filial piety variable’s predictive powers for total motivations for parenthood, emotional and altruistic motivation, motivation of strengthening marital bonds, and motivation of traditional norms were higher for Vietnamese college students than Korean college students after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. However, filial piety’s predictive powers for motivation of strengthening biological family ties and motivation of expansion of self were higher for Korean students than that of their Vietnamese counterparts. Filial piety predicted traditional norms motivation at a moderate level for Vietnamese students while Korean students’ filial piety predicted this variable the least among five sub-factors.

Discussion

This study aims to examine the influence of filial piety on motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean students. As Vietnam undergoes the process of industrialization and modernization, this comparative study between developed Korea and developing Vietnam, both of which share Confucian cultural roots, can provide projection of Vietnam’s fertility trend based on Korea’s experience. In this study, the association between filial piety and motivations for parenthood was investigated based on the TPB model. The current study was the first to empirically examine the association between filial piety and motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college students.

The result that Vietnamese students scored higher on filial piety than their Korean counterparts points to the decreasing filial piety among young generation with increasing industrialization. This is consistent with research results by Savelsberg [44], and Cheung and Kwan [9], which reported that industrialization induced the erosion of traditional norms. Kim et al. [25] also reported that Asian families’ traditional notions of filial piety are being adjusted to changing social economic environment. Cheung and Kwan [9], in their exceptional study on relationships between levels of modernization in six Chinese cities and variations in citizens’ expressions of filial piety, found that filial piety was lower when the citizen was in a city with a higher level of modernization. This result is a salient implication for Vietnam that as the country will become more industrialized in the future, a decline in traditional filial piety, the negative impact of modernization, will be inevitable.

The principal finding of this study was that filial piety positively influenced motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college students after controlling for sociodemographic variables, though the degree of influence was minimally observed in the Korean sample. The model was tested after controlling for the perceived socio-economic status, which is a salient factor influencing the childbirth decision. Thus, even though it could only explain 10.9% and 7.5% for the variance in the association between filial piety and motivations for parenthood among Vietnamese and Korean college students, the result provided important significant evidence. The results infer that social norms, in particular the normative filial piety, still exert influence on fertility motivations in Vietnam and especially in developed Korea.

Concerning emotional and altruistic reasons, filial piety’s predictive power was the most substantial for both Vietnamese and Korean students. This could imply that irrespective of levels of modernization, the willing to have children and relationship with parents (‘to love and to take care of someone,’ ‘to have friends for emotional support,’ ‘to be a good parent as my parents’) remain salient to both Vietnamese and Korean student respondents. Regarding filial piety’s influence on the strengthening marital bonds factor, there was a substantial difference between the two study groups. Vietnamese students’ filial piety reportedly showed higher predictive power than that of their Korean counterparts. In Vietnam, marriage and childbirth are expected to happen subsequent to university graduation and job application, and these are universal sequence norms to which young adults are expected to conform. Meanwhile, Korean young adults have gradually abandoned the idea of marriage and childbirth mainly because of economic and other circumstances [56]. These social contexts could explain for the observed discrepancy between the two study groups.

On the contrary, Korean students’ filial piety was observed to have more substantial influence on the factors of strengthening biological family ties and expansion of self than that of Vietnamese students. This could be understood by the difference in social attitudes toward adoption between Vietnam and Korea. Traditional Confucian notions of the bloodline family and aspects of primogeniture still hold sway in Korea. Thus, parents ensure that the baby’s blood type matches their own, which is known as the “pure-blood” notion. All this sends the message that adoption is shameful, in turn discouraging more of it. Statistics showed that in 2014 in Korea, 54.5% of approved adoption cases were domestic adoption [36]. In Vietnam, for a long time, adoption has been regarded as an alternative for Vietnamese families who have no son to continue the lineage and as a solution to secure additional manpower. The scope of choice in the former purpose is limited within the husband’s nephews while that of the latter is not. Domestic adoption in Vietnam illustrated a scenario consistent with those traditional customs. This implies that even though Korea and Vietnam share Confucian notions on maintaining family lineage, adoption has been more acceptable in Vietnam than in Korea. Additionally, Korean participants in this study either are ‘the only child’ children or have one sibling, while their Vietnamese counterparts have from two to three siblings including themselves. This sociodemographic characteristic, together with the longstanding Confucian family values of maintaining and strengthening family blood ties, gives the suggestion that Korean young adults want to have a child because, as the only child, they perceive pressure to maintain family line succession and to inherit family properties while Vietnamese students might feel that they still have their siblings to be the alternative person to complete this family duty. Meanwhile, Korean young adults reportedly are becoming more individualistic in their childbirth motivations for family continuity [59].

Corroborating the findings of previous studies [9, 44], this result has an important implication that as Vietnam becomes more industrialized, the level of filial piety will decrease and the influence of filial piety on motivations for parenthood among young adults will decrease as observed in the Korean sample. Considering the present sociodemographic and economic context of Vietnam, the present results suggest that Vietnam needs to redefine the framework of fertility and family planning policies. Vietnam has maintained its current “one-or-two child” policy for more than half a decade. In the past, Vietnam received significant international support in implementing the family planning and population programs and remarkably succeeded in fertility reduction. This, however, has now dramatically impacted contemporary Vietnam’s population profile, with the progressive population aging and distortions in the sexual and reproductive health extending into early childhood [40]. As Vietnam’s industrialization process is accelerating, relaxing its birth control policy is one direct adjustment that Vietnamese lawmakers should consider in the agenda to slow down the rapid pace of TFR decline. Vietnam’s TFR is currently fluctuating at replacement level, which suggests appropriate timing for fertility policy relaxation. Experiences of developed Korea show that ignoring the salience of policy modification when TFR reached replacement level would lead to irreversible fertility reduction, and interventions to recover from a low fertility rate are expensive. Furthermore, it could be even more arduous for Vietnam, as the country has no experience in tackling issues related to low fertility.

There are several limitations of the study that warrant and provide implications for future research. First, this study did not use time-matching data sets. The two data sets were collected in different time points. Vietnam and Korea are rapidly changing countries. Perceptions on filial piety and motivations for parenthood can change according to societal changes. Korean data were collected in 2011, and Vietnamese data were collected in 2015. Thus, the temporal effects were inevitable and place the limit on elaborating comprehensive differences between the two study groups.

Second, the results of this study are based on college student participants’ self-report, and they had not yet been married. It is subject to unreliability of the responses because respondents might be more prone to social desirability or cultural norms about childbirth. It is also still unclear whether motivations of never married young adults in this study will result in their fertility behavior later on. The literature review revealed inconsistent results regarding the association between fertility motivations and actual fertility behavior. Kuburovic [26] stated that fertility motivations of the student respondents were one of their varied life aspirations (marriage and career goals) and did not warrant the certainty of their becoming parents in the future. Vohra [54] also reported that women’s stated fertility intentions do not always align with their fertility behaviors or outcomes. On the other hand, the substantial predictive power of motivations for both short-term and long-term fertility outcomes was reported in a longitudinal study in the U. S. using prospective female and male data [35]. The mean age of their study’s respondents was 20.5 years, and 68% of participants had not yet been married. This mixed literature implies that a longitudinal study in the Asian cultural context is necessary for future research to establish the causality between young adults’ motivations for parenthood and their actual fertility outcomes.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.

Table 1.

Sociodemographic Characteristics of College Student Participants (N=541)

Sociodemographic characteristics	Sub-group	N (%)		M (SD)		Range
Sociodemographic characteristics	Sub-group	Vietnam (n=325)	Korea (n=216)	Vietnam (n=325)	Korea (n=216)	Vietnam (n=325)	Korea (n=216)
Gender	Male	168 (51.7)	104 (48.1)	-	-	-	-
	Female	157 (48.3)	112 (51.9)	-	-	-	-
Age (yr)		-	-	20.45 (1.29)	22.19 (2.29)	18-25	18-29
No. of siblings including respondents		-	-	2.39 (.88)	1.81 (.69)	1-6	1-5
Birth order	Eldest child	148 (45.5)	112 (51.9)	-	-	-	-
	Only child	20 (6.2)	11 (5.1)	-	-	-	-
Perceived socio-economic status	High	4 (1.2)	7 (3.2)	-	-	-	-
	Upper middle	11 (3.4)	37 (17.1)	-	-	-	-
	Middle	291 (89.5)	160 (74.1)	-	-	-	-
	Lower middle	6 (1.8)	11 (5.1)	-	-	-	-
	Low	9 (2.8)	-	-	-	-	-
	Missing	4 (1.2)	1 (.5)	-	-	-	-

Table 2.

Reliability of Motivations for Parenthood Scale and Five Sub-Factors for Vietnamese and Korean College Students

Variable	Cronbach α
Variable	Vietnam	Korea
Motivations for parenthood (total)	.88	.92
Emotional and altruistic motivation	.71	.80
Strengthening marital bonds	.78	.80
Strengthening biological family ties	.71	.74
Expansion of self	.65	.65
Traditional norms	.80	.82

Table 3.

Means and t-Values of Filial Piety and Motivations for Parenthood between Vietnamese and Korean Student Participants (N=541)

Variable	M (SD)		t
Variable	Vietnam (n=325)	Korea (n=216)	t
Filial piety	4.20 (.55)	4.06 (.49)	2.99^**
Motivations for parenthood (total)	3.17 (.63)	3.13 (.66)	.84
Emotional and altruistic motivation	3.73 (.74)	3.75 (.72)	-.25
Strengthening marital bonds	3.53 (.94)	3.50 (.92)	.39
Strengthening biological family ties	3.13 (.89)	3.33 (.91)	-2.50^*
Expansion of self	2.95 (.97)	2.58 (.85)	4.56^***
Traditional norms	2.66 (.82)	2.59 (.78)	.97

^* p<.05,

^** p<.01,

^*** p<.001.

Table 4.

Multiple Regression Analyses of Vietnamese Student’s Filial Piety on Motivations for Parenthood (N=321)

Variable	Motivations for parenthood (total)		Emotional and altruistic motivation		Strengthening marital bonds		Strengthening biological family ties		Expansion of self		Traditional norms
Variable	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β
Step 1
Constant	2.01 (.64)	-	.90 (.73)	-	.93 (.95)	-	2.18 (.94)	-	3.39 (1.02)	-	2.71 (.86)	-
Gender^a)	.03 (.07)	.02	.24 (.08)	.16^**	.07 (.10)	.04	.14 (.10)	.08	-.12 (.11)	-.06	-.16 (.09)	-.10
Age	-.03 (.03)	-.06	.02 (.03)	.03	-.01 (.04)	-.02	-.02 (.04)	-.03	-.08 (.04)	-.11	-.05 (.04)	-.08
No. of siblings	.02 (.04)	.03	.01 (.04)	.01	-.01 (.06)	-.01	.01 (.06)	.01	.10 (.06)	.09	.01 (.05)	.01
Perceived SES^b)	.01 (.07)	.01	.05 (.08)	.03	.10 (.11)	.05	-.02 (.11)	-.01	-.04 (.12)	-.02	-.03 (.10)	-.02
Step 2
Filial piety	.38 (.06)	.33^***	.46 (.07)	.35^***	.59 (.09)	.34^***	.27 (.09)	.17^**	.30 (.10)	.17^**	.31 (.08)	.21^***
R²	.12		.15		.13		.04		.05		.06
Adjusted R²	.11		.14		.12		.02		.03		.04
F for change in R²	38.99^***		43.93^***		41.89^***		9.17^**		9.52^**		14.15^***

SES, socio-economic status.

^a) Gender: 0=male, 1=female.

^b) Perceived SES: 1=low, 2=lower middle, 3=middle, 4=upper middle, 5=high.

^** p<.01,

^*** p<.001.

Table 5.

Multiple Regression Analyses of Korean Student’s Filial Piety on Motivations for Parenthood (N=214)

Variable	Motivations for parenthood (total)		Emotional and altruistic motivation		Strengthening marital bonds		Strengthening biological family ties		Expansion of self		Traditional norms
Variable	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β	B (SE)	β
Step 1
Constant	.68 (.70)	-	1.74 (.76)	-	1.12 (.97)	-	-.22 (.98)	-	-.35 (.90)	-	.56 (.86)	-
Gender^a)	.09 (.11)	.07	.00 (.11)	.00	.11 (.15)	.06	.22 (.15)	.12	-.02 (.14)	-.01	.13 (.13)	.08
Age	.02 (.02)	.07	-.01 (.03)	-.04	.00 (.03)	.01	.04 (.03)	.11	.05 (.03)	.13	.03 (.03)	.08
No. of siblings	.00 (.06)	.00	.02 (.07)	.02	.09 (.09)	.07	.02 (.09)	.01	-.04 (.09)	-.03	-.05 (.08)	-.04
Perceived SES^b)	.10 (.08)	.09	.09 (.09)	.07	.01 (.11)	.00	.15 (.11)	.09	.12 (.10)	.08	.13 (.10)	.09
Step 2
Filial piety	.39 (.09)	.28^***	.49 (.10)	.32^***	.48 (.13)	.25^***	.44 (.13)	.23^**	.39 (.12)	.22^**	.23 (.11)	.15^*
R²	.09		.11		.08		.08		.08		.04
Adjusted R²	.07		.10		.06		.05		.06		.02
F for change in R²	17.10^***		22.46^***		13.31^***		11.32^**		10.45^**		4.16^*

SES, socio-economic status.

^a) Gender: 0=male, 1=female.

^b) Perceived SES: 1=low, 2=lower middle, 3=middle, 4=upper middle, 5=high.

^* p<.05,

^** p<.01,

^*** p<.001.

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