Is Marriage Still Outdated? The Attitudes towards Marriage in Czechia, Estonia, and Norway

Dominika Perdoch Sladka , Masaryk University

This study focuses on the recent development of marital attitudes in Czechia, Estonia, and Norway. Using cross-sectional data from the first round (GGS1; collected 2004-2008) and the second round (GGS2; collected 2020-2022) of the Generations and Gender Survey, I analyze how the attitudes of unmarried men and women towards marriage have changed between the 2000s and the 2020s. The sample consists of 8,011 respondents from GGS1 and 8,115 from GGS2 aged 21-54 (M = 35, SD = 9.7). The preliminary analysis showed a massive decrease in negative attitudes towards marriage in Estonia and a smaller decline in negative marital attitudes in Czechia. In GGS2, respondents from these two countries were less likely to agree that marriage is an outdated institution than in GGS1. While the share of men and women disagreeing with the statement “marriage is an outdated institution” increased in Estonia, so has the proportion of respondents feeling indifferent towards marriage (especially among men). In Norway, the change in marital attitudes was not significant. The attitudes of Norwegian respondents in GGS2 were more similar to those of Estonian respondents, with a relatively high proportion of people feeling indifferent towards marriage. An analysis of marital plans of Czech and Estonian respondents with co-resident partners suggested a decrease in conformists who plan to marry despite their negative/indifferent attitudes to marriage.

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 Presented in Session 39. Flash session Values and Attitudes about Family and Gender