Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 89 No. 2, 2019.
Original scientific paper
The Importance of Marriage and Family in the Croatian Society from 1999 until 2018
Pero Aračić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology in Djakovo, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Djakovo, Croatia
Josip Baloban
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Krunoslav Nikodem
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
One part of the article is based on the results of three empirical studies that were carried out within the framework of the international research project European Values Study in Croatia in 1999, 2008, and 2017. The other part of the article is based on the results of that research in 2017. The main goal of the article is to present and analyse results on the importance of marriage and family in the Croatian society acquired through the three empirical studies. Our initial thesis is that in the Croatian society in the period between 1999 until 2017 and apart from some changes – that are evident in the last twenty years in general and between individual study waves in particular – the high importance of marriage and family is predominantly stable. The article also sets three working hypotheses that address the relation between attitudes on marriage and family with specific social-demographic characteristics of examinees, their religiosity and attitudes on the roles of men and women. Namely, the presupposition was that older, less educated examinees, who live in smaller places, are more religious, and tend towards the traditional division of roles of men and women, would also tend towards thinking that marriage and family constitute life´s meaning and happiness. The acquired results confirm those hypotheses. On the basis of the three last EVS study waves one can conclude that the classical understanding and living of marriage and family between two people (husband and wife) and within the framework of integral family (father and mother and child) is still to a large degree dominant, i.e., predominant marital and family model, in Croatia. At the same time, especially in the last twenty years, »alternative« to marriage and family areemerging. Hence, divorce rates and cohabitation and children born out of wedlock are on the rise. Similarly, the number of citizens who approve of single motherhood and those who do not consider the motherhood as a key part of the identity of the woman are also rising. This (non)acceptance of certain values raises urgent questions for politicians, state institutions, the Catholic Church, media, and all Croatian citizens. Those questions demand short-term and long-term solutions.
Keywords
Croatia; marriage; family; children; religiosity; role of woman and man; values.
Hrčak ID:
223156
URI
Publication date:
23.7.2019.
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