Małżeństwo i rodzina w planach młodzieży. Przegląd badań

Abstract

The author seeks to answer the question about the place of marriage and family in the plans of adolescents. Viewing particular studies, she tries to take a closer look at the problem of their attitudes, concerning the above values over the years. The paper considers such issues as: marriage and family as a value, the most important factors conditioning a decision of getting married, the most important goals of marriage and its benefits, expectations of marriage and family, division of roles in marriage, pro-creative plans, accepted methods of conception, fears and anxieties connected with marriage and family, the relationship to the indissolubility of marriage and its institutional form, and the attitudes towards cohabitation. The studies under consideration confirm some of the phenomena, in others there are some discrepancies. One may say that the youth under study was rather positive about marriage and family. On the other hand one finds more and more tolerance towards the phenomena that are contradictory with the interests of marriage and family. The attitudes vary according to worldviews: religious or secular. This is linked with the transformations in the system of the adolescents’ values, and what follows their different ways to look at some problems and their different choices. In order to state how profound these transformations are and what direction they will take it is necessary to do further research on the relationship of the youth to marriage and family.