Attitudes toward Cohabitation, Family, and Gender Roles: Relationships to Values and Political Ideology

Abstract

This study investigates four hypotheses concerning relationships between values or beliefs and attitudes toward cohabitation, family and gender roles. These are the Social Concerns Hypothesis, the Political Ideology Hypothesis, the Higher Order Needs Hypothesis, and the Consumerism Hypothesis. Each hypothesis has been tested, using data from several nationally representative subsamples of white high school seniors. As predicted by the Social Concerns Hypothesis, students with more social concerns had more favorable attitudes toward gender equality and nontraditional gender roles, particularly among males. This finding suggests that, for males, concern for fairness and the well-being of others may be an important motive for support for gender equality and acceptance of nontraditional gender roles. As predicted by the Political Ideology Hypothesis, conservative political beliefs were associated with traditional attitudes toward cohabitation, family, and gender roles. In contrast, our findings provide only weak support for the Higher Order Needs Hypothesis, and our findings suggest that the Consumerism Hypothesis should be reformulated.