Abstract

This study is a replication of Canning's 1955 survey of family life in Provo, Utah. The original sample consisted of 239 couples who were married and currently living there. The replication was a 1983 mail survey that used many of Canning's original questions and included a sample of 255 Provo families.

This study measured changes in several courtship and family variables using the companionship family as an ideal type. Findings included increases in the emphasis on the role of romantic love in mate selection, handsomeness as an attractive quality that women seek in a spouse, family members seeking recreation outside the home, and wives in the labor force. There was no change in the incidence of chaperonage. Results also indicated decreases in religiousness as an attractive qualtiy that women seek in a spouse, and the incidence of couples asking the girl's father's permission to marry.

Degree

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology

Rights

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