Family Authority, Marital Satisfaction, and the Social Network in Yugoslavia

The results obtained by the comparative researches into family authority and satisfaction with marriage, carried out in the U.S.A., France, Greece, and Yugoslavia, have been analysed in this study. Only variations of tendencies in family authority and marital satisfaction regarding these four countries-not their absolute extents-have been compared. The data have shown that similar tendencies exist with regard to authority in Greece and Yugoslavia. The higher the social position of the husband, the lower his traditional authority in the family. The inverse is the case in France and the U.S.A.; i.e., the higher social position of husband, the higher his authority in the family. As regards the satisfaction with marriage, the tendencies in Yugoslavia differ considerably from the ones in other countries. The higher the husband's education, the lower the wife's satisfaction with marriage. The further analysis has shown that this phenomenon is considerably negatively affected by the wife's employment, education, and her family ideology.