Parents and teachers of young children under conditions of sociopolitical change

Socialization settings before and after the unification of Berlin were inve stigated in two cohorts for young children who entered the newly united ele mentary school system in 1992 or 1995 and/or 1996. Differences in East and West child-rearing and educational values in preschool, family, and school were partly compatible with hypotheses about individualistic and collectivi st societies The adults in all three settings were apprehensive of the rapi d societal changes in the East more than in the West. Cohort changes howeve r; were mon pronounced in the children's behavior than in that of the adult s, were gender specific, and were more marked in the West rather than in th e East Berlin children.