Generational Differences and Predictors of Variance in Marital Attitudes among Men

Abstract

The rise of cohabitation, premarital sex, childbearing outside of marriage, and a higher average age for first marriage allude to changes in the institution of marriage, and perhaps a changing society. According to a 2010 Pew Research Center report, 22% of Millennials are married, while a third of Generation X’s and over 40% of the Baby Boomers were married when they were the same age. Much of the literature groups men homogenously, so this study chose to focus on men and the potential differences between them, specifically regarding marital attitudes. Literature suggests that marital attitudes may have changed due to a transformation in gender ideology, and that there are differences between generations regarding marital attitudes. The most talked about difference in the literature is that of between the newest generation of adults, the Millennials, and all previous generations that are still living. The main purpose of this study was to see if there are differences in marital attitudes between the Millennial men, men of Generation X, the Baby Boomer men, and men of the Silent Generation. Using data from the 2010 Changing American Family Survey, statistical analyses were conducted to determine if a real difference exists between men of Millennial generation and men of all previous generations, and to see how marital attitudes may vary between different social groups of men. Bivariate analyses found that the Millennials are evenly divided on how they feel about the institution of marriage, while multivariate analyses found that the Millennials aren’t significantly different from the Generation X’s. The significant difference is between Generation X and the combined Silent/Boomer generation. This difference is maintained across all regression models. While gender ideology does predict attitudes about marriage, it does not explain the generational differences in attitudes among men suggesting that other factors are at play.