Effect of Family Structure on Family Attitudes and Expectations

This study examines the effects of family structure and family integration on high school and college students attitudes toward marriage marriage roles and divorce. The sample consists of 867 subjects from intact 91 from stepfather 35 from stepmother 170 from mother-only and 28 from father-only families. A questionnaire incorporating Hills Attitude toward Marriage Scale the Hardy Divorce Scale 6 marriage role expectations items 2 Orientation to Parent Scales and several demographic items was used to collect data. Results show that 1) family structure affects divorce attitudes with children from mother stepfather and mother-only families having more positive attitudes than children from intact families; 2) family integration affects marriage attitudes only--subjects from all family types who indicated high family integration had more positive attitudes towards marriage than those reporting moderate or low family integration; 3) neither family structure family integration nor sex had an influence on marriage role expectations; 4) stepchildren only exhibit no differences between those from stepmother or stepfather households regardless of the cause of the dissolution of parents previous marriage; and 5) length of time of residence in the stepfamily household had no effect on attitudes. These findings provide minimal support for a role model or social learning perspective. The development of attitudes toward marriage may be a more complex process than is often hypothesized; childhood experiences within the family may be only part of the influence of such attitudes. (authors modified)