This article contributes to the debate on gender convergence in time use by highlighting the heuristic potential of multiple factor analysis and cluster analysis in identifying distinct profiles and tendencies. By applying these methodological approaches, it offers new insights into the slow and uneven process of narrowing the gender gap, shedding light on the social complexity that underlies statistical data. The findings present a typology of sociological profiles in terms of change, continuity, and ambivalence. These allow for a characterisation of heterogeneity in terms of perceived responsibility of care work, as well as responsibility taken for, and time spent on, domestic work. Furthermore, an analysis of how these profiles have evolved over the past decade shows that the persistence of continuity- and ambivalence-oriented clusters helps explain the overall slow pace of gender convergence.
We examine how filial piety beliefs and gender role attitudes shape marital attitudes among never-married adults in Taiwan. Drawing on three repeated cross-sections of the Taiwan Social Change Survey, fielded in 2011, 2016, and the 2021 module round ( N = 1,518), we analyze three dimensions of marital attitudes: sentiment, traditional norms, and modern alternatives. Men report stronger marital sentiment and firmer traditional norms, while women lean toward autonomy-oriented views. Authoritarian filial piety and traditional gender role attitudes are positively associated with sentiment and traditional norms, and negatively with modern alternatives. Gender moderates one association: among women, authoritarian filial belief relates to traditional marital values about twice as steeply as among men, although women remain less supportive of those values across almost the entire scale. The findings show how gendered cultural scripts sustain marital ambivalence, with implications for family policy and gender equity in East Asia.
Guided by Marital Horizon Theory and Marital Paradigms Theory, this study examined how personal characteristics, relationship experiences and perspectives, romantic beliefs, and relationship intentions relate to the gap between college students' current age and their perceived ideal age of marriage. Data were drawn from a large sample of 5,703 unmarried college students aged 18-30 from two U.S. universities. Multiple regression analyses indicated that predictors from the tested categories were associated with the size of the ideal marriage age gap, though most were nominal in magnitude. Importantly, several associations were nonlinear, revealing curvilinear patterns between marital timing gaps and desires to marry, marital centrality, and parenthood intentions. Age-related trajectories of ideal marital timing were also nonlinear as they associated with race, sexual identity, willingness to cohabit, and willingness to hook up. Findings highlight marital timing as a relational expectation shaped by psychological and developmental processes.
Declining fertility rates in the United States have increased interest in the factors shaping young adults' fertility intentions. Guided by a life course perspective, this study examined how individual characteristics, relationship orientations, and family-of-origin dynamics are associated with the preferences young adults have for their ideal number of children. Using survey data from 1,139 unmarried U.S. adults ages 18-30, multinomial logistic regression models compared preferences for no children, one child, or multiple children. Results indicated that sibling experiences were among the strongest predictors of fertility intentions. Relative to only children, individuals with one or multiple siblings were substantially more likely to prefer either childlessness or multiple children rather than a single child. Parental centrality also differentiated fertility preferences. Findings highlight the complex role of sibling experience and socialization in shaping contemporary fertility ideals including how these factors may contribute to polarized fertility intentions among young adults.
Aim of this paper is to investigate (i) whether working women are likely to experience more spousal violence; (ii) whether working women with higher education or husbands have a high level of education are less prone to spousal violence compared to women engaged in domestic activities only. To examine above mentioned hypotheses, we have used data from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) in India. This study shows that women in nearly all occupations have a higher chance of facing spousal violence. Nevertheless, when working women possess a minimum of 12 years of schooling, or husbands possess at least 12 years of education, they have a lower probability of experiencing spousal violence compared to non-working women, irrespective of their job categories. Nonetheless, this beneficial effect of higher education disappears as we control the influence of other variables like the household’s wealth and place of residence.
