ORIGINAL PAPER
Filial piety and subjective well-being across adult age groups: evidence from Vietnamese adults
1
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
2
University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2026-06-09
Final revision date: 2026-09-14
Acceptance date: 2026-09-17
Online publication date: 2026-11-05
Corresponding author
Thi Linh Trinh
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background:
This study examines the relationship between filial piety and subjective well-being (SWB) among adult children in Vietnam, addressing the limited body of research that has compared the psychological implications of filial piety across different stages of adulthood.
Participants and procedure:
Drawing on the Dual Filial Piety Model, two developmental cohorts were investigated: emerging adults aged 18-23 and adults aged 29-59. Data were collected from a sample of 1,085 participants and assessed using the Dual Filial Piety Scale (DFPS) and the Mental Health Continuum–Short Form (MHC-SF).
Results:
The findings indicated that both reciprocal filial piety (RFP) and authoritarian filial piety (AFP) were positively associated with, and served as meaningful predictors of, overall SWB as well as its three constituent domains, namely emotional well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being. These results suggest that filial piety continues to function as an important value orientation that is associated with positive psychological functioning among Vietnamese adults. Further-more, notable age-related differences emerged. Older adults reported higher levels of both RFP and AFP than emerging adults, indicating a stronger endorsement of filial values in later stages of life. In addition, the associations between filial piety and well-being were more pronounced among older adults, suggesting that the psychological benefits of filial piety may strengthen with age and life experience.
Conclusions:
While filial piety remains a relevant moral compass across adulthood in Vietnam, its contribution to well-being appears to be most substantial when these values are deeply internalized and integrated into individuals’ sense of self. The findings are discussed within Vietnam’s sociocultural context, and directions for future research are proposed to further clarify the devel-opmental and cultural dynamics underlying the link between filial piety and well-being.
This study examines the relationship between filial piety and subjective well-being (SWB) among adult children in Vietnam, addressing the limited body of research that has compared the psychological implications of filial piety across different stages of adulthood.
Participants and procedure:
Drawing on the Dual Filial Piety Model, two developmental cohorts were investigated: emerging adults aged 18-23 and adults aged 29-59. Data were collected from a sample of 1,085 participants and assessed using the Dual Filial Piety Scale (DFPS) and the Mental Health Continuum–Short Form (MHC-SF).
Results:
The findings indicated that both reciprocal filial piety (RFP) and authoritarian filial piety (AFP) were positively associated with, and served as meaningful predictors of, overall SWB as well as its three constituent domains, namely emotional well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being. These results suggest that filial piety continues to function as an important value orientation that is associated with positive psychological functioning among Vietnamese adults. Further-more, notable age-related differences emerged. Older adults reported higher levels of both RFP and AFP than emerging adults, indicating a stronger endorsement of filial values in later stages of life. In addition, the associations between filial piety and well-being were more pronounced among older adults, suggesting that the psychological benefits of filial piety may strengthen with age and life experience.
Conclusions:
While filial piety remains a relevant moral compass across adulthood in Vietnam, its contribution to well-being appears to be most substantial when these values are deeply internalized and integrated into individuals’ sense of self. The findings are discussed within Vietnam’s sociocultural context, and directions for future research are proposed to further clarify the devel-opmental and cultural dynamics underlying the link between filial piety and well-being.
REFERENCES (43)
1.
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. Ameri-can Psychologist, 55, 469–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-0....
2.
Arnett, J. J. (2011). New horizons in research on emerging and young adulthood. In A. Booth, S. Brown, N. Lan-dale, W. Manning, & S. McHale (Eds.), Early adulthood in a family context (pp. 231–244). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-....
3.
Bedford, O., & Yeh, K. H. (2019). The history and the future of the psychology of filial piety: Chinese norms to contextualized personality construct. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 100. htps://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00100.
4.
Cao, T. H. B. (2018). Biến đổi nhận thức về đạo hiếu: nghiên cứu so sánh giữa Việt nam và Hàn quốc [Changes of filial piety: a comparative study of Vietnamese and Korean societies]. Journal of Foreign Studies, 34, 11–23.
5.
Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking time seriously: a theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54, 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-0....
6.
Chen, W. W. (2014). The relationship between parenting style, filial piety, and life satisfaction in Hong Kong. Jour-nal of Family Psychology, 28, 308–314. htps://doi.org/10.1037/a0036819.
7.
Chen, W. W., Wu, C. W., & Yeh, K. H. (2016). How parenting and filial piety influence happiness, parent-child rela-tionships and quality of family life in Taiwanese adult children. Journal of Family Studies, 22, 80–96. htps://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2015.1027154.
8.
Do, L. H., & Phan, T. M. H. (Eds.) (2002). Tính cộng đồng, tính cá nhân và cái Tôi của người Việt Nam [Collectivism-individualism and the self of the Vietnamese]. National Political Publishing House.
9.
Dong, X., & Xu, Y. (2016). Filial piety among global Chinese adult children: a systematic review. Research & Reviews, 2, 46–55.
10.
Guo, X., Li, J., Niu, Y., & Luo, L. (2022). The relationship between filial piety and the academic achievement and subjective wellbeing of Chinese early adolescents: The moderated mediation effect of educational expecta-tions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 747296. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.....
11.
Ho, D. Y. (2013). Fatherhood in Chinese culture. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The father’s role: Cross cultural perspectives (pp. 227–245). Routledge.
12.
Ho, D. Y. F. (1994). Filial piety, authoritarian moralism, and cognitive conservatism in Chinese societies. Genetic, Social and General Psychology Monographs, 120, 349–365.
13.
Hwang, K. K. (1999). Filial piety and loyalty: Two types of social identification in Confucianism. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2, 163–183. htps://doi.org/10.1111/1467-839X.00031.
14.
Ishii-Kuntz, M. (1997). Intergenerational relationships among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans. Family Relations, 46, 23–32. htps://doi.org/10.2307/585603.
15.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43, 207–222. https://doi.org/10.2307/309019....
16.
Le, V. H. (2016). Bổn phận và kỳ vọng về hiếu thảo: Quan điểm của thanh niên và người già ở Hà Nội [Filial obliga-tions and filial expectations: Current views of young and old people in Hanoi]. Journal of Psychology, 6, 16–28.
17.
Leung, A. N. M., Wong, S. S. F., Wong, I. W. Y., & McBride-Chang, C. (2010). Filial piety and psychosocial ad-justment in Hong Kong Chinese early adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 30, 651–667. https://doi.org/10.1177/027243....
18.
Liu, F., Chui, H., & Chung, M. C. (2022). Reciprocal/authoritarian filial piety and mental well-being in the Chinese LGB population: The roles of LGB-specific and general interpersonal factors. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51, 3513–3527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508....
19.
Low, K. C. P., & Ang, S. L. (2012). Confucian leadership and corporate social responsibility (CSR), the way for-ward. Asian Journal of Business Research, 2, 85–108. https://doi.org/10.14707/ajbr.....
20.
Mehta, C. M., Arnett, J. J., Palmer, C. G., & Nelson, L. J. (2020). Established adulthood: a new conception of ages 30 to 45. American Psychologist, 75, 431–444. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp000....
21.
Pan, Y., Chen, R., & Yang, D. (2022). The relationship between filial piety and caregiver burden among adult chil-dren: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Geriatric Nursing, 43, 113–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geri....
22.
Ren, P., Emiliussen, J., Christiansen, R., Engelsen, S., & Klausen, S. H. (2022). Filial piety, generativity and older adults’ wellbeing and loneliness in Denmark and China. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 17, 3069–3090. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482....
23.
Rogoza, R., Truong Thi, K. H., Różycka‐Tran, J., Piotrowski, J., & Żemojtel‐Piotrowska, M. (2018). Psychometric properties of the MHC‐SF: an integration of the existing measurement approaches. Journal of Clinical Psychol-ogy, 74, 1742–1758. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.2....
24.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social de-velopment, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-0....
25.
Sagiv, L., & Schwartz, H. S. (2000). Value priorities and subjective well-being: Direct relations and congruity ef-fects. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 177–198. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)...<177::AID-EJSP982>3.0.CO;2-Z.
26.
Schwartz, S. J., Weisskirch, R. S., Hurley, E. A., Zamboanga, B. L., Park, I. J. K., Kim, S. Y., Umaña-.
27.
Taylor, A., Castillo, L. G., Brown, E., & Greene, A. D. (2010). Communalism, familism, and filial piety: Are they birds of a collectivist feather? Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16, 548–560. https://doi.org/10.1037/a00213....
28.
Sun, P., Fan, X., Sun, Y., Jiang, H., & Wang, L. (2019). Relations between dual filial piety and life satisfaction: The mediating roles of individuating autonomy and relating autonomy. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 25–49. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.....
29.
Truong, T. K. H. (2009). Tìm hiểu một số mục tiêu phấn đấu của người trưởng thành Việt Nam [Explore some of the goals Vietnamese adults strive for]. Journal of Psychology, 3, 20–32.
30.
Truong, T. K. H. (2015a). Hệ giá trị của người trưởng thành ở Việt Nam theo lý thuyết của Schwartz [The value system of Vietnamese adults according to Schwartz’s theory]. VNU Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2, 114–126.
31.
Truong, T. K. H. (2015b). Cảm nhận hạnh phúc chủ quan của người trưởng thành Việt Nam [Subjective well-being of Vietnamese adults]. Journal of Psychology, 11, 34–48.
32.
Truong, T. K. H., & Różycka, J. (2013). Ứng dụng lý thuyết của Schwartz để tìm hiểu các giá trị cơ bản của sinh viên Việt Nam và Ba Lan [Applying Schwartz’s theory to understand the basic values of Vietnamese and Polish students]. Journal of Psychology, 11, 25–37.
33.
Truong, T. K. H., Różycka-Tran, J., Jurek, P., Tran, H. T., & Le, V. H. (2020). Vietnamese version of the Dual Filial Piety Scale: Preliminary validation in a student sample. Health Psychology Report, 8, 263–272. https://doi.org/10.5114/hpr.20....
34.
Tsao, W. C., & Yeh, K. H. (2018). Indigenous implications and global applications of the Dual Filial Piety Model: a psychological re-conceptualization of ‘Xiao’. In K. H. Yeh (Ed.), Asian indigenous psychologies in the global context (pp. 195–219). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-....
35.
Van Mai, H., & Van Le, H. (2023). The interdependence of happiness and filial piety within the family: a study in Vietnam. Health Psychology Report, 12, 124–132. https://doi.org/10.5114/hpr/17....
36.
Wu, M., Chang, S., & Chou, F. (2018). Systematic literature review and meta-analysis of filial piety and depression in older people. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 29, 369–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/104365....
37.
Yan, J., & Chen, W. W. (2018). The relationships between filial piety, self-esteem, and life satisfaction among emerging adults in Taiwan. In M. Demir & N. Sümer (Eds.), Close relationships and happiness across cultures (pp. 151–164). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-....
38.
Yeh, K. H. (1997). Changes in the Taiwanese people’s concept of filial piety. In L. Y. Cheng, Y. H. Lu, & F. C. Wang (Eds.), Taiwanese society in the 1990s (pp. 171–214). Institute of Sociology/Academia Sinica.
39.
Yeh, K. H. (2003). The beneficial and harmful effects of filial piety: an integrative analysis. In K. S. Yang, K. K. Hwang, P. B. Pedersen, & I. Daibo (Eds.), Progress in Asian social psychology: Conceptual and empirical contribu-tions (pp. 67–82). Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.
40.
Yeh, K. H. (2009). The dual filial piety model in Chinese culture: Retrospect and prospects. Indigenous Psychologi-cal Research in Chinese Societies, 32, 101–148.
41.
Yeh, K. H., & Bedford, O. (2003). Filial piety: a test of the Dual Filial Piety model. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 6, 215–228. htps://doi.org/10.1046/j.1467-839X.2003.00122.x.
42.
Yeh, K. H., & Bedford, O. (2004). Filial belief and parent-child conflict. International Journal of Psychology, 39, 132–144. htps://doi.org/10.1080/00207590344000312.
43.
Yeh, K. H., Yi, C. C., Tsao, W. C., & Wan, P. S. (2013). Filial piety in contemporary Chinese societies: a comparative study of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. International Sociology, 28, 277–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/026858....
Copyright: © Institute of Psychology, University of Gdansk This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
Share
RELATED ARTICLE
| eISSN: | 2353-5571 |
| ISSN: | 2353-4184 |
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
