A Comparative Study Of Love Attitudes And Adult Attachment Of Post-90s Chinese And Their Parents

In China,many young Chinese born after 1990(the Post-90 s generation)have already married,and those remaining have reached or are going to reach what is considered by society as the marriageable age.At this stage,an increasing number of family conflicts are caused by differing love values between these young adults and their parents.This thesis addresses the increasing critiques of intercultural communication research in recent decades that culture has too often just been treated as between nations and responds to those scholars to examine some of the intercultural differences evident within nations and groups,including gender,geographic regions,and generations.This thesis specifically examines the attitudes regarding love and close relationships of both Post-90 s Chinese and their parents to note what inter-group(intercultural)differences appear in the noted generation gap.A sample of Post-90 s Chinese was collected via snow-ball sampling(N=51),and efforts were made to get responses from one or both of their parents(N=54).This study aimed to explore any divergence between these two generations regarding their love attitudes through quantitative measures: the Love Attitudes Scale Short-Form(with subscales for the love values of Agape,Eros,Ludus,Pragma,and Mania)and Adult Attachment(measures of anxious,avoidant,and secure attachment).These were examined to both to see how differently Post-90 s Chinese and their parents treated close relationships including romantic relationships and explore interactions among factors.For analysis among and between the data gathered from these two generational groups,paired T-tests,one-way ANOVA and two-way ANOVA analyses were conducted.The results showed that the parents’ group generally affirmed the love values of Agape,Ludus,and Pragma,with an interactive effect on Agape between gender and age.However,in the adult sample,no generational or gender differences on adult attachment emerged.Factor interactions among parents included anxious attachment positively and strongly correlating with Mania,avoidant attachment with Ludus,and anxious attachment with Pragma.By comparison,their Post-90 s Chinese children showed a stronger positive correlation between secure attachment and Eros,but a negative correlation between avoidant attachment and Mania(only in the Post-90s).This thesis enhanced previous Post-90 s studies,provided a basis for future research on cross-generational love studies,and information that could potentially help these two groups know and understand each other better to overcome generation gaps.