Educational Level as A Criterion for Choosing Spouse and Comparing It in Male and Female Students

The man and woman who live and get married with each other should adapt with half a century of their growth and Change.Other wise, their marriage relationship will be encountered with problem certainly. As the first and most important stage in marriage is choosing spouse, therefore we should notice and pay attention to the spouse choosing process. Educational level is considered as a criterion for choosing spouse. This research attempts to assess the criterion in university undergraduate students and then considers how much this criterion matters for different sexes. Gender differences in choosing educational degree of spouse is one of the effective factors in raising the marriage age in Iranian young people. Research questions were as follows: 1.Is the education level an imported factor in choosing spouse? 2. Is the criterion of choosing the educational level of spouse different for male and female students? The method of this research was survey. A random sample was selected from students of Isfahan university (in the academic year 2002-2006/ 1381-1385SC), The sample consisted of 107 female and 105 male students. To collect the data, two researchers. made questionnaires were applied. The first questionnaires consisted of 5 questions. The scale was in likert form 1 to 5. These questions evaluated the importance of spouse education form the view point of the students. The reliability coefficient of this questionnaire is according to the test of cronbach's Alpha 0.73. The questionnaires consisted of two questions that can evaluate students ideas about choosing spouse education level in two forms: as less thanMore thanthe same and as diplomabachelormaster. To assure the content validity of the research questionnaires, these were reviewed and cheeked by a group of psychologists in the university. The statistics methods which were used in this research were one sample t-test and keramers V. It was concluded that from the point of view of young students educational level is very important. and it is considered as a criterion for choosing spouse (p<.001).Also, there was a significant difference between male and female students in choosing this criterion (p<.001). Female students rather choosing high levels of education as their criterion but male students conversely showed less intention for their spouse having high levels of education. The results showed that 52.8 percent of girls preferred their spouses having high ring educational levels than themselves, but only 6.8 percent of boys preferred to have higher level of education than their spouses. Also, only 0.9 percent of female students but 17.5 percent of male students, preferred the lower level of education for their spouses. According to the results of this research, these exists this attitude and stereotype in the society that the education level of man should be higher than his wife. Also, the statistics are indicating that the number of girl students, in comparison with boys students, is increasing. This trend may increase the bachelor's age, particularly the educated girls in the society. Therefore, on some effective strategies were emphasized to change the existing attitudes and practices in the society.