Romanticism and Motivation to Marry in the United States, Singapore, Burma, and India

Attitudes toward marriage of 3,847 American, Singapore Chinese, Burmese, and Indian students are analyzed to determine whether there is evidence of acceptance of the American type romantic orientation to marriage among the most highly educated and Westernized classes in Chinese Singapore, Burma, and India. It is found that the three groups of Asian respondents while all showing a persistence of a contractual orientation to marriage may be ranked by degree of contractualism. This ranking is related to the interaction of two analytical variables—contractualism of the traditional culture and degree of cultural change. Motivation to marry in the four cultures is then analyzed, and found to follow the same rank order as degree of romanticism.