Marital Attitudes Of Postgraduate Students: A Mixed Study Of Grounded Theory And Questionnaires

In recent years,the marriage rate has been getting lower and lower,but the divorce rate has been getting higher and higher.The marriage problem of young people has gradually become a hot topic.A mixed research design combining in-depth interview,grounded theory and questionnaire was used in this study,taking postgraduates as the representative group,to extract composition dimensions and main characteristics of marital attitude,to know the main influencing factors and impacts of marital attitude on real life,and to construct a grounded theoretical model of postgraduates' marital attitude.Based on the model,self-worth and subjective well-being were extracted as the most typical influencing factor and influence,and the mediating effect of marital attitude between self-worth and subjective well-being was verified by questionnaire.Study 1 collected data through in-depth interviews and explored the marital attitude of postgraduates based on grounded theory.Considering the proportion of different gender,marital status and disciplinary background,seven typical postgraduates were invited to conduct individual interviews.The total length of the interview recording is about 17 hours,and the written materials are about 186,000 words after being transcribed and sorted out.306 first-level coding nodes are extracted,covering 769 reference points by qualitative analysis software Nvivo11.0.By generic analysis,the composition dimensions and main characteristics of postgraduates' marital attitude were extracted;the influencing factors and influences on reality and future life of marital attitude were analyzed;on the basis of generic analysis,the theoretical model of marital attitude of postgraduates was constructed from bottom to top according to grounded theory.Study 2 explored the relationship of marital attitude,self-worth and subjective well-being of postgraduates,and verified the mediating role of marital attitude.440 students were tested with Marital Attitude Scale,Self-worth Scale for Adolescents and Index of Well-being,and the mediating effect was tested.The results show that the marital attitude of postgraduates is generally positive.The marital attitude of male postgraduates is more positive than female postgraduates;non-single postgraduates is more positive than single postgraduates;science postgraduates is more positive than liberal arts postgraduates.The self-worth of postgraduates positively predicts their marital attitude;the marital attitude positively predicts their subjective well-being;marital attitude partially mediates the relationship between self-worth and subjective well-being.The conclusions of this research are as follows:The marital attitude of postgraduates can be divided into two dimensions:specific marital attitude and general marital attitude.The former includes marital substitutability,marital resilience and ideal marital prospect,while the latter includes marital gender order,the particularity of marital relationship and the duality of marital significance.Among them,marital substitutability is the most representative dimension.The marital attitude of postgraduates is characterized by openness and intrinsic positivity,and there are gender differences.The analysis found that there are 4 categories and 12 factors affect the marital attitude of postgraduates,which are intrinsic tendency(self-worth,cognitive concept,personality characteristics,future planning),past experience(interpersonal experience,postgraduate education experience,love experience),imitation and social learning(marital observation of others,social events,mass media),and realistic pressure and support(realistic pressure,family and emotional support).Among them,self-worth is the most important factor.The marital attitude of postgraduates will affect their daily emotional experience.Because stable intimate relationship can bring happiness,the desire for stable marriage relationship will prompt them to plan their future work and life.The scores of total and two dimensions of postgraduates' marital attitude are both high,so the marital attitude is generally positive.There are significant differences in gender,marital status and disciplinary background of marital attitude.The marital attitude partially mediates the relationship between self-worth and subjective well-being.Qualitative research and empirical research have different attitudes and approaches to literature review,so the literature review of this study was divided into two parts.In order to avoid the pre-set "pollution" caused by the literature,study 1just simply combed the literature related to marital attitude;study 2 followed the tradition of empirical research and raised questions and hypotheses after literature review,and then verifying with survey data.This research focuses on the marital attitude of postgraduates,which can guide them to correctly know their marital attitude,maintain their mental health and improve their happiness;help eliminate the misunderstanding of parents and society on marital problem;it is hoped that the results can provide some reference for the country to formulate marriage and fertility policies.