Attitudes of young adults towards marriage

Mehzabin Alik Disha

1711039030

ENG105, Section: 8

Musharrat Hossain

21st of April, 2019

Contents
Introduction:..............................................................................................................3

Research Questions:..................................................................................................3

Hypothesis:................................................................................................................4

Methodology:............................................................................................................4

Literature review:......................................................................................................4

Data analysis:.............................................................................................................5

Conclusion:..............................................................................................................11

References:..............................................................................................................12
Introduction:
Marriage is a tie between two people, done based on one’s religion and set of rituals. It carries
legal, social and religious rights and responsibility via which two people can give birth to a new
generation. It is a universal phenomenon. It has been the backbone of human civilization. Human
beings have certain urges like hungers, thirst and sex. Society works out certain rules and
regulation for satisfaction of these urges. William Stephens, the anthropologist, says that
marriage is:

(1) A socially legitimate sexual union begun with

(2) A public announcement, undertaken with

(3) Some idea of performance and assumed with a more or less explicit.

The focus of this research is how young adults see marriage nowadays. In Bangladesh, marriage
is something that is considered to be a part of life. This research is to find out whether the young
adults see it in the same way or the view towards the importance of marriage has changed;
whether they have evolved a sense of going into a living relationship or rather want to stay
single.

This research will be covering the following questions:

 What is marriage?

 What is the purpose of marriage?

 Can marriage end loneliness?

 Does marriage make a person more responsible?

 Is it possible to lead a happy life without marriage?

 Is dowry acceptable?

 Which one’s better? Marriage or living relationships?

 Is marriage mandatory in Bangladesh?

Hypothesis:
From the primary research it is expected that marriage plays an important role in life and young
adults are not interested towards marriage any longer like it used to happen before. Often people
are forced to get married and if the marriage life doesn’t turn out to be happy it will create
problems in life. It is also expected that this can be resolved by taking proper decisions and
counseling with elders. Also, increase in living relationships can be another way, replacing
marriage. It can be assumed that if people are not happy in their marriage life it is bound to
break.

Methodology:
For the primary research, an online survey among 47 people of Dhaka, followed by a designed
questionnaire contenting different sort of questions, has been done. It has helped to find the
research questions. Out of these, 26 participants were males and 21 participant were females.

For the secondary research, the resources of the library and autobiographies of people who have
talked about marriage have been used. It will also include browsing through internet and usage of
common search engines like Google and various web sites.

Literature review:
According to huang and Lin (2014), attitudes of young adults towards marriage is deteriorating
due to rise in marriage problems, leading to late marriages and increasing divorce rates. (pp: 3).
On the other hand, parker, Hoon and Raihani (n.d.) stated that, in Indonesia, high school students
are open about friendship with people coming from different ethnic groups but not inter-religious
marriage because their religion forbad it. (pp: 467-468)

Then again, Liefbrorer (1991), in Netherland, finds that young adults who are dependent are
likely get married soon than the one who are independent and religious adults are more likely to
marry whereas the non-religious ones are onto consensual unions. (pp: 273-298). Moreover, Wel
and Knijn (2012) mentions that married young adults tend to support less to their parents than
single young adults. (pp: 101-115). Additionally, according to Goldberg and Kuvalanka (2012),
their studies talked about the debate on same-sex couple entering into a marriage. There in a
survey, it was found that more than two-thirds are deprived from the benefits and supports from
their families on this matter. (pp: 34-52)
Data Analysis:
A total of 47 people responded to the survey, where 26 were male and 21 were female. It was an
online survey, and some questions were made mandatory and some optional. Therefore, not all
questions were answered by every participant. The survey began by asking about which age
group they belong to, ranging from 18-21 (18 people), 22-25 (23 people), and 25-27 (6 people).

The second question was asked about their relationship status, from which 28 people were single
and 19 people were in a relationship. The third question about their occupation, the following
pie-chart represents the information:

Fig: 1

From Fig:1, we can see that majority of the participants (blue) are students i.e. 78.7% and 14.9%
are part time/full time job-holder. A few number of people are seen to be running a small
business and fresh graduates.
  If you’re unmarried currently, when do you plan to get married?

Fig: 2

Fig 2 shows 46.8% participants are planning to get married after getting a job and 23.4%
participants after their undergrad. On the other side, 23.4% participants are interested to get
married right after their undergrad and 10.6% participant’s decision will be based on their
parent’s will. Surprisingly, 19.1% participants are not interested in getting married. The reason
for the highest number of participant wanting to marry after getting a job could be because young
adults have become more practical about their life and they are more focused in being
established initially and then get married.
  What do you think marriage is?

Fig : 3

Fig: 3 represents that, 55.3% participants understands marriage as finding a partner to share joy
and sorrow and 19.1% thinks it’s a part of life. Only 12.8% participant thinks it as a
responsibility and 8.5% thinks it’s a waste of money. The reason for the majority of them
thinking it as finding a partner to share joy and happiness could be that young-adults have slowly
started to change their view point from thinking it as a part of life or necessity to this. And for
those who thinks it’s a part of life are the one who is carrying the traditional mindset. Moreover,
for those who thinks it’s about taking responsibility, may have meant to take the responsibility of
their partner, his/her family and the children. Lastly for those who thinks it’s a waste of money,
may have meant the huge sums of money spent on functions or during celebrations.

 Do you think marriage can end loneliness?

Fig : 4
From the Fig: 4, 51.1% participants are supporting that marriage can end loneliness and 34% do
not support it. On the other hand, a very niche number of people thinks it will always end
loneliness and equal number of people thinks it will never end loneliness. The reason behind
majority of the participants to support it maybe because they get to find someone who is always
around. For those who do not support it maybe because they think loneliness cannot be ended if
the significant other fails to be a good partner.

 Marriage makes a person:

Fig: 5

Fig: 5 shows that 72.3% participants think marriage makes a person more responsible. 14.9%
think “not as happy as they think they will be”. 8.5% participants think it adds more stress in life
and fewer think it makes them happy. The reason behind majority of them to think that it makes
people more responsible because they may think that people come across a lot of new
responsibilities which they learn to handle during the time, example- in-laws, kids. For the group
of people who thinks it does not make them as happy as they think maybe because they are only
seeing the negative side of it. For those who think it adds up stress maybe because they think that
it becomes tough on the partner’s part to settle down around a whole new environment since they
were not used to it. And for the rest who think it makes them maybe because they are more
optimistic and hopeful about having a happier life after marriage.
  Do you think dowry is acceptable?

Fig: 6

Fig 6 tells that 95.7% of the participants are against the idea of “dowry” maybe because they find
it irrelevant of the purpose of marriage. Whereas, around 4.3% are still unsure.

 Do you think living relationships should be encouraged instead of marriage in

Bangladesh?

Fig: 7
Fig 7 shows that 59.6% of the participants do not support the idea of living-relationships
whereas on the other side, 40.4% of them support it.
Participants who did not support it had their own valid causes. One of the participants
explained that “Since Bangladesh is a Muslim country. According to religious
perspectives I don't agree in living relationships”, another said, “Hurt our cultural
sentiments that we have been preserving for ever since”, and “Judging by the
 current status quo of Bangladesh, our country mainly consists of conservative and
religious people in most societies. In order to maintain harmony I don't think now is
the apt time to promulgate the concept of living relationships. However in the near
future, MAYBE, living relationship would be highly appreciated.” In summary, it
means that they are bounded by the social, cultural and religious values of Bangladeshis.

Participants who supported living-relationships also had their own valid causes. One of
the participants explained that, “Living relationships could be helpful for
understanding each other If it doesn't work, the partners could move out without
any serious issues. But in a society like Bangladesh, a broken marriage is a disaster.
Apart from religious perspective of course! Because not even living together, people
are having sex. So what's wrong in living together?”, another said, “Because I just
want to live with my partner peacefully without having to sign ‘legal marriage
papers’ just for the sake of the society”, and another further reasoned, “wedding is
extremely costly. The average traditional 4 event wedding series costs ranging from
half a million to hilarious amounts that I don't even want to talk about. Secondly, it
comes with the burden of having to stay with one person for thr rest of your life,
which might not be as enjoyable as it might sound on the latter stages of life, when
few incidents might sour the bond.” In summary, it means that marriage is expensive
and people who get married are not necessarily going to have a successful married life,
therefore living-relationships could be encouraged instead.
 Do you think marriage in Bangladesh is mandatory?

Fig 8
Fig 8 shows that 61.7% participants think marriage is mandatory and 38.3% think it’s not.

Those who clicked Ýes had their own valid reasoning. One of them said, “This is because it's
the society we are living in. Especially the neighbourhoods are more concerned about
marriage”, another explained that, “Well as per our religion marriage is a mandatory part of
life! Bangladesh is a Muslim country. Besides marriage is a crucial stage of life that
everyone has to live through”. In summary, it explains that it is done due to society’s pressure.
Also because religion tells you to do so.

Those who clicked No had also their own valid reasoning. One of them said, “Marriage itself is
not mandatory lest alone country. It's a personal choice. No goes to jail doing/not doing it”,
another said that, “it is not there in the constitution”. In summary, it describes that it’s a choice
and can depend from person to person. Also, not doing it will not be a crime.

Conclusion:
To recapitulate, it is quite evident that young adults are still interested towards marriage.
However, they no longer think it as a part of life or responsibility but finding a partner during
joys and sorrows. Moreover, living-relationships are still seen to be unpopular among the
majority of the young adults, yet there were quite a large number of people voting for it. This can
be an indication that living-relationships will be seen to be very common in the near future.

The hypothesis of this research was that, young adults are no longer interested towards marriage
and are moving towards the idea of living-relationships. The findings from the research does not
support the hypothesis.

Having said that, this research has some limitations. First, the sample size of the research/the
number of participants is small. The information could have been more accurate if there were
more participants responding to it. Moreover, a lot of people have not answered the open-ended
questions seriously.
References:

Bucx, F. (2012). Life Course Status and Exchange of Support Between Young Adults and
Parents. Marriage and Family, pp-101-115.

Goldberg, A.E. & Kuvalanka, K.A. (2011). Marriage Inequality: The Perspectives of
Adolescents and Emerging Adults with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Parents. Marriage
and Family, pp- 34-52.

Goldscheider, F.K. & Goldscheider, C., (1992). Gender roles, Marriage and Residential
Independence [Abstract]. 7(4), pp-679.

Huang, Y.C. & Lin, S.H., (2004). Attitudes of Taiwanese College Students toward marriage: A
Comparative Study of Different Family types and Gender [Abstract]. Comparative
Family Studies, XLV(3).

Parker, L., Hoon, C.Y. & Raihani. (2014). Young people’s attitudes towards interethnic and
inter-religious socializing and marriage in Indonesia. South East Asia Research, 22(4),
pp. 467-486.