Publication Date

1970

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Cavan, Ruth Shonle, 1896-1993||Moore, Douglas J.||Vedder, Clyde B. (Clyde Bennett), 1903-

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

LCSH

Student ethics; Interfaith marriage

Abstract

The objective of this study is to discover variables that are associated with religious endogamy or Interfaith dating and marriage. The attitudes of over two hundred Catholic college students toward dating and marrying persons of the Protestant faith were analyzed. The questionnaire is from a survey of college students at a midwestern University, designed to show their attitudes toward interfaith dating and marriage. The student attitudes on interfaith dating and marriage were examined as to how they corresponded to those of the Catholic Church. The following hypotheses were tested: 1. Religiosity is positively related to attitudes favoring endogamy; also, the Catholic students who favor endogamy will be the ones who worship most often and who associate most frequently with other Catholics. 2. Catholic students will want their spouses to change religion more often than will the Protestant students. Also, the Protestant students will allow their children to be brought up in the Catholic religion more often than the Catholic partners will allow their children to be brought up as Protestants. 3. Females will be more religious and worship more often than will the males. 4. Males, more than females, will feel that mutual love, harmony, happiness, and psychological needs are more important than having the same religion. Also, males, more than females, will feel that problems involved in an interfaith marriage can be worked out after marriage. 5. Concerning the Catholic Church's policy towards interfaith marriage, the females will be more conservative than will the males. 6. Catholics will be dating endogamously more than Protestants and the female Catholics will be dating endogamously more than the male. The results showed that among the students who replied to the questionnaire, there is no relationship between endogamy and the degree of religiosity; females who favor endogamy are not more apt to worship more often than females who do not favor endogamy; in the male sample, the student worshipping the most often, does favor endogamy. Catholic students do want their spouses to change religion more than do the Protestants; in addition, the Catholic does want the children raised as Catholics more than the Protestant requires the children to be raised as Protestants. The female is found to be more aware of the problems of an interfaith marriage than is the male. The female Catholic is not more conservative than is the male on endogamous questions; the male is both more liberal and more conservative than the female. Catholic college students were found to be dating out of their religion as often as Protestant students and more often than Jewish students. And finally, the Catholic female is dating out of her faith at a rate as high as is the male.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

viii, 71 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS