On attitudes toward marital and intergenerational relationships
Suzuki, T.
Jinko Mondai Kenkyu 47(3): 28-41
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0387-2793 PMID: 12155021 Document Number: 317988
Structures and determinants of normative attitudes concerning marital and intergenerational relationships were studied. The data are based on the Public Opinion Survey on Population Issues carried out by the Institute of Population Problems in June 1990. 3 principal components were extracted from 11 questions on attitudes toward marriage and conjugal unions. The 1st is interpreted as the conservative attitude toward universal marriage and traditional sex-role differentiation. The 2nd is though to be intolerance for premarital and extramarital sexual intercourse, and the 3rd is the positive attitude toward such current issues as divorce or preservation of wife's surname. Regression analysis shows that such factors as age, education, marital status, and ideal family size have statistically significant effects on the 1st primary component, an index of universal marriage and extramarital sex measured by the 2nd component, the effect of community size is also statistically significant as well as the variables mentioned above. Only a small portion of the 3rd component which indicates attitude toward recent issues on marriage is explained by the regression model. From 8 questions concerning intergenerational relationships, 2 meaningful principal components have emerged. These are interpreted as the norm of supporting aging parents and the avoidance of frequent daily contact between parents and married children. Married people who are highly educated, living in urban areas, not living with their parents, or have a small family tended to have low scores on the 1st principal component and seem to hold the value of intergenerational independence. In addition to education, urban residence, living with parents, and ideal family size, the effect of living with married children is also significant on the 2nd component which indicates partition of daily life. (author's modified)