Investigating developmental idealism and attitude towards marriage in Shiraz (case study of youth 18-34 years old)

Aliyar Ahmadi, Shiraz University
Atefeh Ghorbanpour Dashtaki, Shiraz University
Shafieh Ghodrati, Hakim Sabzevari University

Developmental idealism subsumes sets of beliefs and values stating that modern families outperform traditional ones, modern societies are formed by modern families, and modern families facilitate the achievement of modern societies, freedom, and equality. Developmental idealism is being an important starting point for social changes throughout many parts of the world. That is, family characteristics such as gender equality, optional marriage, delayed marriage, and low fertility rate could be deemed as both causes and consequences of development, simultaneously. The present multifaceted study aims at investigating the youth's attitudes in the metropolitan Shiraz, south of Iran, toward developmental idealism and the extent to which developmental idealism has influenced their attitudes toward marriage. Data has been collected from four hundred 18-34 youths in Shiraz through survey. Findings suggest that a vast majority of the participants look positively upon developmental idealism. Results from multivariate analysis revealed that gender, marital status, birthplace, ideal age for boys'/ girls' marriage, and religiosity are closely associated with the attitude toward marriage. So were gender, birthplace, and ideal age for boys' / girls' marriage, use of social communication venues, social trust, and social capital with developmental idealism. Furthermore, complexities of modern life and modern sexual relations were significantly associated with attitude toward marriage. Results from multivariate linear regression suggest that religiosity, complexities of modern life, developmental idealism concerning modern sexual relations, determine the attitude toward marriage. Causal path analysis was carried out to identify the direct and indirect impact of independent variables on the attitude toward marriage. It revealed that complexities of modern life, and modern sexual relations had direct impact; gender, social trust, marital status, and ideal age for boys'/ girls' marriage had indirect impact; and religiosity had both direct and indirect impact on the attitude toward marriage.