Cultural change and attitude change: An assessment of postrevolutionary marriage and family attitudes in Iran

This report is aimed at investigating beliefs and intentions of Iranian adolescents regarding marriage and family building approximately four years after the Islamic Revolution, which brought substantial political and cultural changes. Differences associated with gender and parental education were found in beliefs and intentions regarding marriage and family building. Also, the sample seemed to hold more traditional cultural values than did a comparable prerevolutionary sample of youth who were from the same geographical location and were of the same sex and parental educational background. However, it was found that even the groups from the lowest educational background showed some degree of nontraditional attitudes and intentions regarding marriage and family. Interpreting the findings in light of cultural observations and attitude change theory, it is argued that a certain degree of “real” attitude change has occurred, and is continuing, in the nontraditional direction among educated youth. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1988