Changing Attitudes toward Marriage and Children in Six Countries

Abstract

This article examines changes in attitudes toward marriage and children in Austria, (West) Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the U.S. using the data from the 1988, 1994, and 2002 waves of the International Social Survey Programe (ISSP). Consistent with the ideas of the second demographic transition and the rise of post-materialism, public opinion in these countries is shifting away from traditional norms of universal marriage and childbearing. Female, never married, better educated, employed, and relatively secularized individuals hold less traditional views about marriage and children in all countries. Furthermore, attitudes of married and never married in Austria and Germany, males and females in the U.S. became more polarized, which might be attributed to public policies to increase fertility and promote traditional marriage in these countries. Large unexplained cross-national differences also point at the importance of contextual factors for understanding recent changes in support for marriage and children.