RESEARCH AIM(S): We want to find out if International LondonMet students have different ideas about marriage and children depending on their culture/nationality.IntroductionEver since time began, people all over the world have determined to live together, which is called “getting married” in another word, so that they depend on living each other. Nevertheless, some couples are unable to maintain their relationship; therefore they choose divorce. Furthermore, most people think carefully before they get marriage. However, the divorce rates trend to continually increase nowadays (UN, 2003). Moreover, it was found that, on average, having been divorced had negative consequences for income in older age for both men and women (AIFS, Feb 2007). Not only increase of divorce rate, but also increase of living expenses that obstruct for the new generations to think of getting marriage. So it is considerable that what student’s ideas about “marriage and children” are in modern times.
The purpose of this research is to find out if International London Metropolitan students have different ideas about marriage and children depending on their culture or nationality.
Method
The Sample
The sample size was 31. These respondents were of different ages and genders, and from different countries. They were all international students of London Metropolitan University.
Data Collection
The information was gathered through the input of responses to a research instrument containing nine questions (Multiple Choices). The researchers enquired these questions to the international students who are studying Pre-sessional English course at London Metropolitan University and then they noted by themselves.
FindingsAccording to the results, a majority of the respondents (74%) want to be married and about 13% of the respondents want to be single, similarly to the respondents who want to live with someone out of wedlock (10%). When we asked about if the respondents want to be married, nearly 70% said that they want to be married in the age group 26-30, while just over 20% want to married when they are over 30.
As can be seen from the bar graph (Figure 2), most of the interviewees (80%) affirmed personality as the most important for choosing partner and some interviewees (10%) give priority to a good-looking partner as well as a highly educated partner.
In addition, approximately 42% of the students predicted that they would like to have two children as many as the students who would like to have more than two children. It is interesting that almost students from China would like to have more than one child in spite of the fact that Chinese government has a limiting child policy. Less than 10% of students would like to have only one child.
When asked their view about “living together before marriage”, it is surprising that nearly half of the students reported that they had no opinion, followed by students who believed this was good for society (30%). The remainders felt that it was bad for society.
Another topic was “idea regarding who had children without wedlock”, more than third of representatives (38%) demonstrated it was bad, whereas around 13% told that it was good. Furthermore, just below 30% stated it was acceptable.
Another topic was “idea regarding who had children out of wedlock”, more than third of representatives (38%) demonstrated it was bad, whereas around 13% told that it was good. Furthermore, just below 30% stated it was acceptable.
DiscussionThe result shows that most of the international students needed to be married. This may possibly indicate that people who are married are more likely to have emotionally and physically satisfying sex lives than single people or those who just live together. A large number of the respondents alleged personality as the most important for choosing their partner. This seems to suggest that people who share common backgrounds and similar social networks are better suited as marriage partners than people who are very different in their backgrounds and networks. A great number of the respondents would like to have more than one child. Perhaps they have their sibling and they think that children with a sibling will better able to make and maintain friendships or will tend to comfort and help other children more than an only child. Just under third of the students believed that “living together before marriage” is good for society. May be people who have multiple cohabiting relationships before marriage are more likely to experience marital conflict, marital unhappiness and eventual divorce than people who do not cohabit before marriage.
Conclusion
The new generations are facing many difficulties to get marriage in the modern times such as an increase of living expenses, much more tension. But, referring to this research, many mature people need to be married. Besides they would like to have more than one child. Generally, most people think to get marriage in the age group 26-30 which confirm to the scientific data that the most suitable period for conceiving is 21-30 years old. However, living together before marriage and having children out of wedlock must have to debate for a long time because there are a lot of different ideas. It is challenging for the further research to point out that living together before marriage or having children out of wedlock make spouses will not absolutely divorce.
