The Marital Attitudes Among Chinese Females in Emerging Adulthood: The Role of Differentiation of Self and Relationship Self-Efficacy

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-259-0_34How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Differentiation of self; Relationship self-efficacy; Marital attitudes; Emerging adulthood

Abstract

Existing literature has extensively examined the socioeconomic factors leading to a declined marriage rate and an increased average age of first marriage in China. However, there is a paucity of research investigating the impact of individual psychological factors on marital attitudes. The concept of differentiation of self has been found crucial in shaping marital experiences and attitudes among married people, while its influence on the marital attitudes of unmarried individuals has received little attention. Differentiation of self may affect interpersonal experiences and consequently affect individuals’ self-efficacy in maintaining relationships. In an era when romantic love in marriage is increasingly valued by young adults, their self-efficacy in managing romantic partnerships may be another pivotal factor in understanding their marital attitudes. Considering that unmarried females are under great pressure from late marriage, the study mainly focused on the marital attitudes of emerging adult females. It was hypothesized that relationship self-efficacy would mediate the association between self-differentiation level and marital attitudes. Data were collected through WeChat and Credamo platform and 168 never-married participants aged 19-29 who had been in at least one romantic relationship were invited to complete the Chinese version of the differentiation of self-inventory scale (C-DSI), Relationship Self-Efficacy Scale (RSES), and the Marital Attitude Scale (MAS). The results revealed that young females’ marital attitudes were positively associated with their self-differentiation level and relationship self-efficacy, while the mediating role of relationship self-efficacy between self-differentiation and marital attitudes was insignificant when controlling for participants’ relationship status. This study indicated that the young women’s negative marital attitudes may partly stem from a perceived inability or lack of confidence in maintaining romantic intimacy in future marriage. Hence, it could be beneficial to offer educational initiatives aimed at empowering young women with skills to develop comfortable romantic relationships, thereby eliminating maladaptive beliefs about marriage.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yuyang Li
AU  - Chunxi Tang
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/06/21
TI  - The Marital Attitudes Among Chinese Females in Emerging Adulthood: The Role of Differentiation of Self and Relationship Self-Efficacy
BT  - Proceedings of the 2024 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 286
EP  - 304
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-259-0_34
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-259-0_34
ID  - Li2024
ER  -