British and American Attitudes toward Family Relationships

Abstract

Responses of students in a London university and a midwestern American university to measures of family dynamics yielded significant differences in attitudes toward their families. Although the Americans were more likely to come from divorced families, they were also more likely than the British to describe their families as satisfying, cohesive, and adaptable. The British students were more likely to anticipate cohabitation before marriage. Both American and British students said they eventually plan to marry. The British were somewhat more likely to take an extreme view of sex-role functions, but they were also more likely to describe family sex roles in egalitarian terms.