Scholarly Commons

Egalitarian Influences and Views on Marriage and Family Expectations

The purpose of this study is to examine how childhood family structures affect students’ current views on marriage and family. The Egalitarian Sex Role Attitudes Questionnaire was used to measure students’ attitudes toward sex roles, marriage, divorce, premarital sex, cohabitation without marriage, non-marital childbearing, extramarital sex, and bearing children. Demographic information was collected regarding age, gender, graduation year, race/ethnicity, family life, religious affiliation, and parent/parental figures. I predict that the type of family structure a person experienced as a child will influence that person’s beliefs and expectations about their own future marriage and family. Seeing firsthand if young adults are influenced by their parental and family structures will allow researchers to examine possible marriage and family trends in the future. This research is also useful for seeing if Susquehanna students’ expectations align with the expectations found in existing research. Keywords: marriage, family, expectations, egalitarian roles