A study of the relationship between the attitude of college students toward college-level family life education and a set of familial and individual variables.

摘要

Problem. The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between the attitude of college students toward college-level family life education and the following variables: (1) unrealistic relationship beliefs, (2) students' perception of home environment, (3) parents' relational status, (4) students' relational status, (5) gender, and (6) race.; Procedures. Participants of this study completed three inventories: a relationship beliefs inventory designed to measure false marital beliefs, an inventory created to assess participants' attitude toward taking a family life education course on a college campus, and an inventory measuring participants' perception of their home environment. In addition, each participant completed a demographics questionnaire (n = 231).; Findings and conclusions. Chi-square analysis revealed that gender and attitude toward family life education are not independent, with females demonstrating more favorable attitudes toward family life education (p .001). Though not significant, the relationship between the relational status of the subjects' parents and subjects' attitude toward family life education seems to warrant further investigation (p = .052). Those whose parents remained married demonstrated more favorable attitudes toward family life education.; Pearson's r computations revealed only a slight (almost negligible) relationship between attitude toward family life education and students' perception of home environment (.109). Three of the four subscales, as well as the total scores on the Relationship Beliefs Inventory, showed slight (almost negligible) correlations or no correlations with attitude toward family life education ("Disagreement is Destructive" = .000; "Mindreading is Expected" = -.028; "Partners Cannot Change" = -.157; "The Sexes are Different" = -.034; RBI Total = -.091).; Though not to the strength hypothesized, several of the relationships under study were in the direction given to these relationships. Future studies should include more variation among participants and possibly a modified tool for assessing attitude toward family life education. In addition, future consideration should be given to the relationship of the variables under study to premarital counseling.