Values, Attitudes and Models of the Youth Actions in Choosing Spouses and Premarital Relations; Case of Study: Students of Universities of Khorasan Razavi Province

The main thrust of this paper is to identify the values, attitudes and actions of the young students in their style of choosing spouses and premarital relations as well as studying the level of homogeneity of these values, attitudes and actions with those of the previous generation. Qualitative and survey methods were used and given the sensitivity of the problem, exploratory studies and in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted to prepare the grounds for the implementation of the survey. The students of the universities of Khorasan Razavi constituted the statistical population of the research; sampling method was stratified cluster sampling. The sample constituted 1,400 students of the said universities. The findings of this research indicate that there exist intergenerational and intra-generational differences about the values of choosing one’s spouse and relations with the opposite sex. The students are inclined to choose their spouses themselves. About one-third of the young generation would not agree with friendship of the opposite sexes, while the figure for the previous generation was almost twice this figure (57.2 percent of their families). Half of the youth would accept such a relationship under certain conditions, while the rest would easily accept it. Profounder studies indicate that these ratios acknowledge both intergenerational and intra-generational differences on this issue. The results regarding the kind of relationship with the opposite sex show a gap and polarization of values among the young generation of students. Also there is a significant intergenerational difference in this regard. 40 percent of the young students, besides having positive attitude towards friendship with the opposite sex, have experienced this friendship.