ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Descriptive & Survey Study

Authors

Ghazanfari   E. (1)
Kazemnejad   A. (*)
Gholami Fesharaki   M. (1)






(*) Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
(1) Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Nasr Bridge, Jalal Al Ahmad Street, Tehran, Iran. Postal Code: 14115-111
Phone: +98 (21) 82883875
Fax: +98 (21) 82884555
kazem_an@modares.ac.ir

Article History

Received:  May  7, 2017
Accepted:  October 31, 2017
ePublished:  June 3, 2018

BRIEF TEXT


… [1, 2]. In recent years, the changes in marriage patterns, unwillingness to marriage, and the reduction of marriage statistics have significantly increased [3].

The formation of attitude to marriage can be justified from two theoretical approaches. In the first approach based on the attachment theory, the relationship of parents or preliminary caretakers (especially mothers) plays a role in creating internal working models [4]. … [5, 6]. In the second approach, the attitude of children to intimacy is modeled through observing the parents and the relationships between them [5, 7]. Children use the experience of the relationships between them and their parents as a basis for creating an intimacy in relationships. This learning is conducted from other sources such as media, school, or friends [5]. Previous studies show that the family structure and environment play a role in the attitude to marriage and family life of children [8].

Marriage can improve the mental relaxation of individuals especially the police personnel having an important and difficult job. The result of this mental relaxation will be the increase of efficiency the police personnel. Identifying the factors affecting the positive attitude to marriage can increase the willingness to marriage in these personnel. This study aimed at investigating the factors affecting the attitude to marriage by using the path analysis model among the police personnel.

This study is of cross-sectional type.

This study was conducted among all Tehran, Iran, police personnel during 2014-15.

A number of 750 subjects were selected by using the equation of correlation sample size estimate and two-stage cluster sampling method [9].

The questionnaire of attitude to marriage was used for data collection. The internal consistency of questionnaire was obtained as 0.78 by using the Cronbach’s alpha method. The construct validity of the questionnaire was studied by the exploratory factor analysis and correlation coefficient of the studied parameters was studied by using the Spearman correlation coefficient in SPSS 23 software. The goodness of fit of the model was considered based on RMSEA, GFI, NFI, and CMIN/DF indices. AMOS 23 software was used in the structural equations modeling for the path analysis.

The participants in this study included 353 females (47.1%) and 397 males with the mean age of 30.6 years and average work experience of 8.34 years. The number of 389 subjects (51.8%) had the education level of less than bachelor, 318 subjects (42.4%) had bachelor degree, and 43 subjects (5.8%) had an education higher than bachelor. The number of siblings, work experience, and ideal number of children had a positive significant correlation with attitude to marriage (Table 1) . the correlation of age and economic status with attitude to marriage was not significant (p>0.05). In the exploratory analysis, the single-factor feature of willingness to marriage was confirmed by analyzing the principal component with varimax rotation in addition to confirming the construct validity. The goodness of fit with values of RMSEA=0.00, GFI=0.99, NFI=0.99, and CMIN/DF=0.73 indicated the appropriate path model. The path analysis test showed that gender, ideal age for marriage, and number of siblings had a direct effect on attitude to marriage while age, work experience, ideal number of children, and economic status had an indirect effect on attitude to marriage (Table 2). Females had fewer attitudes to marriage than males. The attitude to marriage increased with the reduction of ideal age for marriage, increase of siblings in family, and increase of ideal number of children. Work experience reduced the ideal age for marriage and increased the attitude to marriage. High age increased the ideal age for marriage and reduced the attitude to marriage. Economic status had an indirect effect on the attitude to marriage (Figure 1).

In the study of Chu et al. age, gender, geographical place, and social-economic status are mentioned as the factors creating the new ideas and attitudes to marriage [10]. In the study of Dasgopta, in line with this study, there is no significant relationship between age and attitude to marriage [11]. Attitude to marriage is significant because it shows the consequences and satisfaction with marital relationships in the future [12]. The study of Radervad et al. showsthat the attitude of females and males to marriage and the roles after marriage is different from each other. As a result, the distance between theory and practice in females is more than in males [13]. The study of Sha and Lum shows that education, gender and geographical place are related to attitude to marriage and there is a difference between the two groups of males and females in terms of the attitude to sexual roles, so that males accept the traditional roles in comparison to females [10]. In this study, the increase of ideal age and economic status reduce the attitude to marriage that has been observed in the previous studies [9,14,15]. Thus, delaying the marriage for achieving more income has no positive effect not only on attitude to marriage but also reduces it that is consistent with the study of Nux et al. [16]. Rigio et al. show that attitude to life affects the quality of relationships and predicts the judgment of individuals on experiencing a happy or unhappy life. Internalized attitudes are correlated to conflict, commitment, tendency, and hope to success in marital relationships and affect the indirect attitude of the person [17]. As a principle, individuals act according to their expectations from each other. In other words, the expectations of individuals affect whatever happens really in their relationships [18]. Attitude to marriage is related to work experience that is mentioned in previous studies [19]. As the economic situation improves, the attitude toward marriage decreases [20-22]. The findings of this study were consistent with the results of the studies on the effect of family based on formation of attitudes [23], and the effect of social–cultural factors on the attitudes formation process and marriage values evolution [24, 25].

It is suggested to improve the attitude to marriage among the police personnel by considering the facilities at the beginning of employment and implementing the incentive measures for the marriage of personnel in lower ages. Since this study was conducted among the Tehran police personnel, it is suggested to conduct it among the police personnel throughout the country.

One of the limitations of this study was the lack of complete answers with integrity which is used in questionnaire-based studies. In addition, due to the field of occupation of some police personnel, the full access to all individuals was impossible.

Creating the culture of having more children in family, stabilizing the employment status of individuals and having an appropriate work experience increases the attitude to marriage.

The authors of this study would like to appreciate the Tarbiat Modares University, the Department of Health, Rescue and Treatment of I.r.Iran Police Force, Applied Research Center, and all participants in this study.

No case was reported.

This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Department of Health, Rescue and Treatment of I.r.Iran Police Force, Applied Research Center.

The financial support of this study was made by Tarbiat Modares University and the Department of Health, Rescue and Treatment of I.r.Iran Police Force, Applied Research Center.

TABLES and CHARTS

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