No description available.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the current culture of marriage preparation among emerging adults and the primary factors that influence their attitudes about marriage and family life. A total of 254 students from five universities in the United States completed questionnaires on criteria for marriage readiness and criteria for adulthood. The results indicate that we are witnessing the formation of a unique culture of marriage preparation in the rising generation of educated young adults in comparison to the one experienced by their parents and grandparents. This study supports the notion that marriage still matters for the majority of young people and that they are both planning and expecting to marry in the future. Although they continue to maintain a strong marriage ideal, it appears that a growing number of emerging adults believe that they will not be ready for marriage until they go through an extended period of single adulthood that permits them to explore and experiment in various areas of life. In addition, the results indicate that emerging adults may be as much preparing for divorce as they are preparing for marriage during this period of exploration and experimentation. Most importantly, the findings from this study present evidence that some emerging adults are taking certain pathways to marriage readiness that result in unintended consequences. Indeed, this study suggests that the single period of life known as emerging adulthood may be contributing to attitudes and behaviors that will be problematic for marriage readiness. Emerging adults may be establishing unstable foundations for their later marriages and scholars need to pay more attention to this critical period in order to prepare better emerging adults for marital success and family life.

Researchers have studied emerging adults' attitudes regarding the three components of the marital horizon theory, namely their desired age for marriage, the importance they place on marriage, and the criteria they endorse as necessary before being marriage ready. Up to this point, no studies have looked at parents' marital horizons nor have comparisons been made with their emerging adult children. The goal of this study was to determine parents' views regarding the three components of the marital horizon theory. Using hierarchal linear modeling, parents' responses were compared with their emerging adult children regarding ideal timing of marriage, marital importance, and criteria for marriage readiness. The participants for this study were 536 emerging adults, 360 fathers and 446 mothers. On average, parents' ideal age for marriage was later than emerging adults. Parents and emerging adults did not statistically differ regarding the sequencing of specific events (e.g., career, college) relative to marriage—they agreed that education or a career should come before marriage at this time of their life. However, emerging adults placed more importance on overall importance of marriage. Mothers consistently placed a greater premium on fulfilling certain criteria (e.g., interpersonal competence, role transitions, family capacities) when compared with fathers and emerging adults. Fathers placed more importance on these criteria compared to their emerging adult children, but were lower than mothers. Implications for clinicians are discussed.