This study is concerned with the pre-marital environmental factors that might influence the declining birth rate among college women. There have been some studies made on this subject, but none of them has taken into consideration so many variables, to the writer's knowledge, as are recognized in this survey.

With the rise in divorce rate and unstable unmarried cohabitations in recent decades, studies have begun to identify factors contributing to break up or divorce and tried to identify attitudes or behaviour that are destructive to marriage. This thesis deals with this question from the opposite angle, where the aim is to reveal the attitudes of satisfied partners. Since relationship attitudes are often dependent on age and gender, these demographic variables are also taken into account. The thesis has an explorative character and therefore several empirical methods are developed in the empirical part to reveal the above mentioned contexts as well as the identification of latent factors between attitudes. The analysis showed that the more satisfied the respondents were in their relationship the more important were the attitudes for them. The most important attitudes are fidelity, true love and tolerance of the mistakes. Respondents who perceived romantic and internal relationship factors such as love, fidelity and sexual relationship as important were more satisfied that those who perceived as important the traditional values (man works and woman cares about the household) and those who identified as important the practical values (sacrifice for children, managing finances, subordinate). The...

The current study presents findings regarding marital preparation for individuals in great marriages. Data from a national qualitative study of individuals in self-identified great marriages were used. Thirty-eight individuals were identified as being married for 20 years or less, and therefore, chosen as the subsample for the current study. Their rich, narrative responses were analyzed and coded, using a qualitative method, to identify what marriage preparation occurred for these couples prior to marriage and contributed to their successful marriages. Findings from this research provide helpful, descriptive data on the experiences and socialization of individuals that influenced their choice in a marriage partner as well as later marital success. Implications for practitioners, researchers, and individuals are provided.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This study presents results from a survey of 108 African American women. Survey questions covered attitudes towards marriage, qualities of an ideal spouse, and opinions of African American men in general.