Marital Beliefs and Concerns of Spanish Emerging Adults

Young adults' beliefs about life-long commitment such as marriage are decisive when making decisions and setting life priorities. Using a representative sample of Spanish emerging adults (ages 18-29), we explored the relationship between beliefs about marriage and life priorities (also called ultimate concerns). Using latent class analysis, we found six different marital paradigms among the population: indifferent, reject, contextual, hesitant, convinced, and traditionalist. These groups were significantly different in their life priorities-for example, in the importance they assign to parenting or their professional career. The traits of emerging adults in each paradigm helped explain differences in risk-taking and sexual behaviors, particularly for men. In sum, marital beliefs are relevant when seeking to understand the commitments, decisions, and behaviors of emerging adults.