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An Examination of the Impact of Parental Divorce on Students' Attitudes About Marriage
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by Camille Spink and Michelle E. Boyer-Pennington* - Middle Tennessee State University
Category: Social
The present study examined the effects of parental divorce on college students' attitudes toward marriage. Two hundred and five college students from intact, single-divorce, and multiple-divorce homes completed a version of Wallin (1954) and Kinnaird and Gerrard's (1986) Attitudes Toward Marriage Scale (ATMS) and answered questions about their age, sex, and parents' marital status. Students from divorced homes did not have less favorable attitudes toward marriage, and students from single- and multiple-divorce homes did not differ in their personal reactions to their biological parents' divorce(s). Thus, the hypothesis that students who experienced multiple parental divorces would have more negative attitudes toward marriage was not supported.