Filial piety is a concept deeply rooted in Confucianism and has a significant impact on the people belonging to East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. It comprises ideas related to how children should behave towards and treat their parents. Honouring, respecting and obeying elders is at the crux of filial piety and children are socialized to obey their superiors, follow their commands, bring honor to the family, avoid disgracing the family name, continue the family line, and show care for them financially, emotionally, and physically. In return for this dedication, elders provide advice, comfort, teaching and help to their younger generations.
Filial piety can be distinguished as: reciprocal filial piety and authoritarian filial piety. Reciprocal filial piety is also based on the Confucian principle of favoring the intimate and is characterized by loving and caring behaviors guided by spontaneous affection resulting from long-term interaction with parents. In contrast, authoritarian filial piety is based on the Confucian principle of respecting the superior and characterized by obedience and respect for authority guided by adherence to role obligations based on family hierarchy with a focus on the father’s role. The former is generated from intimacy and mutual relatedness within the family dyad whereas the latter is guided by obedience toward a normative authority embedded in a hierarchical family system. Therefore, authoritarian filial piety
Lack of Self-Esteem and Perceived Social Competence
As authoritarian filial piety inculcates submission to hierarchical authority and oppression of self-autonomy, children are socialized to respect authority and never question it. As a result, they may learn to suppress their own will. While this may be helpful when interacting with older adults, they may have difficulties establishing intimate social relations and obtaining social support. This may be because higher levels of authoritative filial piety form a communication style in parent-child communication that is not conducive to cultivating social ability and establishing a good social relationship. Additionally, such suppression of personal wants and needs may later result in feelings of frustration, incompetence and helplessness. Ultimately, it may negatively impact the child’s self-esteem and perceived social competence. Moreover, restrictive control may also negatively impact an individual’s self-esteem and perceptions of wellbeing.
Internet Addiction
Self-repression and sacrifice makes it difficult for children to obtain psychological satisfaction and support in real life. As a result, they may develop a distorted cognition where they believe that the online world is better than the real world and the virtual self is better than the offline self, ultimately leading to internet addiction, especially, social media addiction. The Internet can help people with poor social skills achieve interpersonal harmony. Accordingly, individuals may think that the internet can meet their social needs and rely on the Internet to meet their psychological goals.
Depressive Symptoms, Self-Harm & Suicidality
Rigid filial expectations increase distress among children, especially women. Parental expectations of frequent calls, strict suppositions about respect, forbidden norms about expression of opinions and extreme measures to control their kids can make it difficult for them to fulfil filial obligations and experience depressive signs and symptoms. Some children rebel against these rigid practices, leading to more punitive consequences for them. Parents become stricter in response to rebellion, thereby furthering distress among children that may sometimes manifest in self-harm. In some cases, children may also feel guilty for disobeying their parents and engage in self-harm as a way of punishment. Such prolonged distress can lead to individuals feeling inferior, burdened by these obligations and increase their inner pressure, thereby leading to suicidal ideation. On the other hand, when parents have higher expectations of filial piety from their children but receive disobedience from them, they may experience a low mood, loss of interest and functional impairment.
Delinquent Behaviours
Blinding obeying authority and chronic self-constraint may lead children to commit some mistakes, disregard others or easily be negatively influenced by others. Therefore, higher authoritarian filial piety is associated with increased delinquent behaviour. Moreover, increased parental monitoring and control may lead children to rebel and engage in externalizing behaviors such as aggression, rule-breaking, violence, oppositionality and impulsivity. Moreover, hierarchy and submission are likely to relate to inadequate child rearing, which may result in criminal behavior.
While filial piety has traditionally served as a moral compass for family harmony in many Asian societies, its authoritarian form can have unintended psychological costs. The pressure to be the “good child” often leads to guilt, emotional repression, and difficulty forming a secure sense of self. In its extreme form, it can contribute to intergenerational trauma, social withdrawal, depression, and even self-harm or delinquency. Recognizing these impacts doesn’t mean abandoning family values—it means re-evaluating them in ways that balance respect with autonomy, obligation with emotional authenticity.
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Second image: freepik
References
Han, X., & Cheung, M. C. (2025). The relationship between dual filial piety and mental disorders and symptoms among adolescents: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Adolescent Research Review, 10(1), 31-45.
Jin, C. C., Zhao, B. B., & Zou, H. (2019). Chinese delinquent and non-delinquent juveniles: An exploration of the relations among interparental intimacy, interparental conflict, filial piety and interpersonal adjustment. Children and Youth Services Review, 103, 148-155.
Lam, J. S. H., Links, P. S., Eynan, R., Shera, W., Tsang, A. K. T., Law, S., … & Zaheer, J. (2022). “I thought that I had to be alive to repay my parents”: Filial piety as a risk and protective factor for suicidal behavior in a qualitative study of Chinese women. Transcultural psychiatry, 59(1), 13-27.
Leung, A. N. M., Wong, S. S. F., Wong, I. W. Y., & McBride-Chang, C. (2010). Filial piety and psychosocial adjustment in Hong Kong Chinese early adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 30(5), 651-667.
Wan, J., Zhang, Q., & Mao, Y. (2024). How filial piety affects Chinese college students’ social networking addiction——A chain-mediated effect analysis. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 14, 100378.
Sakshi
About the author
Sakshi is a clinical psychologist with a deep passion for understanding human behavior, a strong drive for research, and a keen eye for psychological intricacies. Committed to continuous learning, she seeks to explore every facet of psychology, from theory to practice, to better support and empower individuals. With a curiosity that fuels her pursuit of knowledge, she strives to bridge the gap between research and real-world applications, making psychology more accessible and impactful.
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