Gendered Cultural Scripts and Marital Ambivalence: Filial Piety, Gender Role Attitudes, and Value Shifts Among Never-Married Adults in Taiwan

We examine how filial piety beliefs and gender role attitudes shape marital attitudes among never-married adults in Taiwan. Drawing on three repeated cross-sections of the Taiwan Social Change Survey, fielded in 2011, 2016, and the 2021 module round ( N = 1,518), we analyze three dimensions of marital attitudes: sentiment, traditional norms, and modern alternatives. Men report stronger marital sentiment and firmer traditional norms, while women lean toward autonomy-oriented views. Authoritarian filial piety and traditional gender role attitudes are positively associated with sentiment and traditional norms, and negatively with modern alternatives. Gender moderates one association: among women, authoritarian filial belief relates to traditional marital values about twice as steeply as among men, although women remain less supportive of those values across almost the entire scale. The findings show how gendered cultural scripts sustain marital ambivalence, with implications for family policy and gender equity in East Asia.