An Investigation of the Internal and External Family Factors Affecting Generation Gap in Iranian Families

Today, parents- children relationships in the modern nuclear family has undergone fundamental changes. Some of these changes are natural and necessary for the progress and growth of the society, but when these changes increase rapidly due to generational factors, they turn into important issues and can be the source of many harms in families and consequently in societies. In this case, generation gap cannot be considered as a natural thing to be ignored. Studying sociological and educational sources and referring to verses, traditions and sayings of elders and religious thinkers, this article describes and explains the educational factors of generation gap within and outside the family. The findings showed that intrafamilial educational factors, such as the increasing employment of parents, the large age gap between parents and children, parents and children’s unfamiliarity with each other’s characteristics as well as extra-familial educational factors outside the family such as globalization, modernization, media and mass communication tools lead to generation gap in families.