The American Journal of Family Therapy ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uaft20 Marriage or Career? Young Adults’ Priorities in Their Life Plans Gökay Keldal & Gürcan Şeker To cite this article: Gökay Keldal & Gürcan Şeker (2022) Marriage or Career? Young Adults’ Priorities in Their Life Plans, The American Journal of Family Therapy, 50:5, 459-474, DOI: 10.1080/01926187.2021.1915213 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2021.1915213 Published online: 22 Apr 2021. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1249 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 3 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uaft20 The American Journal of Family Therapy 2022, VOL. 50, NO. 5, 459–474 https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2021.1915213 Marriage or Career? Young Adults’ Priorities in Their Life Plans Gökay Keldala and Gürcan Şekerb Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of Psychology, Avrasya University, Trabzon, Turkey; Faculty of Education, Department of Guidance and Psychological Counseling, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Niğde, Turkey a b ABSTRACT This study explored whether young adults’ priorities in their life plans (career or marriage) are predicted by marital salience, marital readiness status, self-efficacy in making a career plan and well-being. The study utilized a sample of 878 never married Turkish young adults. The findings put forth that young adults’ priorities in their life plans are significantly predicted by marital salience, marital readiness status and self-efficacy in making career plan. As a results, greater belief in marital salience was associated with an increased likelihood of prioritizing marriage in the life plan. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 25 January 2021 Revised 3 April 2021 Accepted 3 April 2021 KEYWORDS Marriage; career; marital salience; self-efficacy in making a career plan; well-being Introduction Among all the close relationships, marriage is perceived as the most sincere and permanent relationship by many people (Levenson et al., 1993). Previous studies reported that young people attach importance to marriage (Carroll et al., 2007; Willoughby & Carroll, 2010) and want to get married (Bener & Günay, 2013; Cassinat & Jensen, 2020; Manning et al., 2019). Researchers revealed that the importance given to marriage is associated with a number of risky behaviors. Carroll et al. (2007) determined that young people seeing marriage as an important goal is negatively associated with having children out of wedlock. Willoughby and Dworkin (2009) put that there is a negative relationship between young people’s desire to marry, and marijuana use and binge drinking. Kretsch and Harden (2014) argued that transition into marriage in young adults is associated with a reduction in alcohol consumption. Arocho and Kamp-Dush (2016) revealed that higher level of marital expectations is related to lower delinquent behavior. Although young people attach importance to marriage and the importance attached to marriage predicts certain negative behaviors, there has been a decrease in marriage rates and a rise in the age at first marriage (OECD Family Database, 2019). Moreover, Willoughby et al. (2012) CONTACT Gökay Keldal gokay.keldal@inonu.edu.tr Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of Psychology, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey. This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 460 G. KELDAL AND G. ŞEKER determined that the emerging adults agreed more with the statement of “there are more advantages to being single than to being married” compared to their own parents (p. 975). These findings indicate that young people’s priorities in life have changed, although marriage is still a valued concept for them. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to understand the factors associated with young adults’ priorities in their life plans. Economic factors and marriage Many studies revealed that economic factors are associated with marriage. In their study conducted with low-income couples, Gibson-Davis et al. (2005) stated that financial concerns have an important place among the challenges before marriage. Sassler and Goldscheider (2004) determined that there is a relationship between young men having a job and getting married. In his study with men in European countries, Kalmijn (2011) revealed that the likelihood of employed men getting married is higher than them cohabiting, and that men with a temporary job are less likely to choose marriage when forming a union than those who have a permanent job. The study of Shafer and James (2013) showed that having a full-time employment increase the likelihood of marriage for both men and women compared being unemployed. In the same study, it was concluded that the increase in the income of men increases the likelihood of marriage, while in women there is no significant relationship between income and marriage. Gibson-Davis et al. (2018) put forth that meeting the economic bar (a set of multiple markers of economic success) is related to the increase in likelihood of marriage. Gassanov et al. (2008) determined that the increase in weekly working hours increases the likelihood of expectations to marry. Barr and Simons (2012) argued that unemployment reduces the likelihood of expecting to marry the partner. Arocho (2019) determined that unemployment and part time work decreases the odds of higher marital expectations compared to employment. For young people, financial concerns are considered as one of the reasons for delaying marriage (Muraco & Curran, 2012). In addition, achieving economic freedom is reported as an important factor for marriage for young people (Ondaş, 2007). In a study examining young people’s criteria for marital readiness, 91% of the young people marked the criterion of “for a man, become capable of supporting a family financially” and 78 of them marked the criterion of “for a woman, become capable of supporting a family financially” (Carroll et al., 2009, p. 365-366). Economic factors are also effective in mate selection. Buss (1989) reported that having good earnings is important in mate selection. Similarly, The American Journal of Family Therapy 461 Bacanlı (2001) determined that financial income is a criterion that young people value in selecting a mate. Buss et al. (2001), stated that the importance given to mates with good financial prospects has increased in time. In their study examining mate selection strategies, Altuntaş and Atli (2015) determined that the economic status has an important place in mate selection. As summarized above, economic factors are important for marriage. It is likely for young people to give importance to their career development in order to gain a certain economic income. Therefore, it can be stated that it is important to focus on young adults’ priorities in their life plans. In particular, it can be stated that the relative importance given to marriage and career roles by young adults will have an impact on the decisions they will make in their life course. Career and marriage centralities Willoughby et al. (2015b) determined that young people attach importance to marriage (about 30%) as the highest priority among their future roles. Marriage is followed by parenting (about 28%) and career (about 27%) roles. However, Ranta et al. (2014) reported that money and financial issues are a major concern for young people in their early 20 s, while work and education are important personal goals. This can enable young people to focus on their careers and therefore give importance to their education. It can cause changes in the relative importance given to marriage and career centralities. Indeed, Thornton et al. (1995) revealed that school enrollment reduces marital rate. Similarly, Kim (2017) put forth that school enrollment reduces the odds of transition to first marriage in a study with young Korean adults. Compernolle and Axinn (2019) determined that the increase in educational attainment is associated with the increase in the preferred marital timing. In addition to these findings, it is known that young people consider completing their education as a prerequisite for marriage (Köroğlu, 2013; Ondaş, 2007). In particular, it was determined that some women with university education give more importance to their careers than marriage (Hoffnung, 2004; Oliver, 2016) and that pursuing a career is among the reasons why they do not want to get married (Özteke-Kozan et al., 2019). These findings can be considered as an indication that career centrality has an important place among adult roles. Researchers (Cinamon, 2010; Hall & Willoughby, 2016; Kerpelman & Schvaneveldt, 1999) focused on the relative importance that young people place in their future marital, career and parental roles. Kerpelman and Schvaneveldt (1999) created four typologies according to the importance 462 G. KELDAL AND G. ŞEKER young people attach to marital, career and parental roles. They named these typologies as balanced oriented (equal orientations toward career, marital and parenting roles), family oriented (strong orientations toward marital and parenthood roles), career oriented, and career/marriage oriented (strong orientations toward career and marriage). Cinamon (2010) formed four groups according to the importance given to work and family roles. These groups were dual high (those who attach high importance to both work and family roles), work, family, and dual low (those who attach low importance to both work and family roles). Cinamon compared these profiles in terms of expected age at marriage and desired number of children and found that those in the work profile wanted to marry at a later age and want to have fewer children than those in the family profile. In addition, she stated that those in the work profile anticipated more work-family conflicts than those in the family profile. Hall and Willoughby (2016) created five centrality groups based on career, marital and parenthood roles. These groups were named child centered, marriage centered, child and marriage, career centered, and family and career. Hall and Willoughby compared a range of beliefs about marriage, sexuality and cohabitation among these centrality groups. According to these comparisons, compared to the marriage centered group, the career centered group believed in marital salience and marital permanence less, believed that age expect to marry should be at a later age, accepted cohabitation more and had more sexual permissiveness. These findings obtained by scholars point out that both career and marriage are valuable for young adults, and the relative importance given to adult roles affects the development of attitudes and behaviors. Present study The purpose of this study is to examine the role of marital belief, career belief, and well-being variables in distinguishing young adults’ priorities in career or marriage. Previous studies (Cinamon, 2010; Hall & Willoughby, 2016; Kerpelman & Schvaneveldt, 1999), created profiles according to the importance given to marriage and career roles, and examined the relationships of these profiles with a range of beliefs (e.g. belief, work-family conflict, acceptance of cohabitation). However, previous studies did not focus on variables that have a role in distinguishing the importance given to career or marriage. In this respect, this study can fill an important gap in the literature. In this study, we aimed to explore the role of marital salience and marital readiness, constructs within the Marital Paradigm Theory (Willoughby et al., 2015a), in classifying the roles young adults relatively attach importance to their life plans. In addition, we believe that the self-efficacy of young people in making a career plan are important in The American Journal of Family Therapy 463 this classification. Finally, we discussed the well-being variable. The literature put forth the finding that well-being and career decision making processes are associated (Viola et al., 2017). This finding can be considered as an indicator of the well-being variable being associated with young adults’ priorities in their life plans. In this study, we sought the answer to the following question by focusing on the variables summarized above: Research question: Are the likelihood of young adults giving importance to marriage in their life plans predicted by marital salience, marital context, self-efficacy in making a career plan and well-being? Method Participants The study participants comprised of 878 young never married young adults. Convenience sampling strategy was used while collecting data. 68% of the participants were female. The individuals’ age in the sample group ranged between 18 and 35 (M = 24.18, SD = 3.18). 39% of the participants had a romantic relationship. 43% of the participants were university students, 45% were university graduates, and 12% were graduate students. 90% of the participants’ parents were married, 4% were divorced, and 6% were deceased. 36% of the participants had a full time job. Procedure Before the study data was collected, the necessary approval was received from the Research Ethics Committee of Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University. The data were collected via the internet. In order to include university graduates into the sample group, it was decided to collect data via the internet. The participants were reached by personal e-mail and WhatsApp by the researchers. Detailed information about the study was provided to the individuals reached. Informed consent form was collected from the individuals who agreed to participate in the study. The participants who wanted to get information about the study results were given feedback by email. The participants completed 44 items on the form. It took the participants about 20 minutes to complete the survey. Measures Priority in life plan The priority in life plan was measured with one item. The participants were asked what was their priority in their life plans, and marriage and career (coded career = 0, marriage = 1) were given as a response. 464 G. KELDAL AND G. ŞEKER Marital beliefs Marital salience was assessed with three items. While developing these items, items in previous studies (Hall & Willoughby, 2016; Willoughby & Hall, 2015) were utilized. The items used in this study were listed as follows: “I see marriage as an important goal” (factor loading: .85), “Getting married comes before my other life goals” (factor loading: .71), and “I believe marriage has many advantages over being single” (factor loading: .55). A five-point Likert rating scale (strongly disagree-strongly agree) was used to determine the participants’ response levels. The reliability calculation was carried out with internal consistency coefficient and was calculated as .74. Higher score indicated that grater belief in marital salience. Marital context was assessed with a single item. In order to measure participants’ marital readiness perceptions, they were asked if they felt ready for marriage. The responses were “Yes, I feel ready”, “Yes, on some issues; No, on some issues”, and “No, I do not feel ready”. Marital timing was assessed with one item. In this item, the participants were asked about the ideal marital age. Career belief We measured career belief with self-efficacy in making a career plan. Ways to make a career plan is one of the subscales of the Career DecisionMaking Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Ulaş and Yıldırım (2016). This scale consists of 14 items (sample item: knowing what the priorities are for career development). The response format of the scale is a five-point Likert scale ranging fromI am not adequate at all” to “I am quite adequate”. The internal consistency reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as .93. For this study, it was determined as .92. High scores from this subscale indicate high belief in self-efficacy in making career plans. Well-Being Well-being was measured by Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, developed by Tennant et al. (2007) and adapted to Turkish culture by Keldal (2015). This one-dimensional scale consists of 14 items (sample item: I’ve been feeling cheerful). The scale has a five-point Likert rating (response format: 1= none of the time, 5 = all of the time). The internal consistency reliability coefficient of the scale was .92. For this study, the internal consistency reliability coefficient was calculated as .91. High scores from the scale indicate higher level of well-being. Other beliefs In this study, the participants were asked whether they would want their spouse candidate to work and whether they would their spouse candidate The American Journal of Family Therapy 465 to have a job with similar status to theirs. Furthermore, the participants were asked to rate the degree to which marriage impedes career development. The responses were none, little, medium and a lot. Controls In this study, gender, age, romantic relationship status and work status were used as control variables. The dichotomous variables were codes as gender (0 = female, 1 = male), relationship status (0 = I do not have a romantic relationship, 1 = I have a romantic relationship) and work status (0 = I do not have a full time job, 1 = I work full time). Data analysis plan In this study, hierarchical logistic regression technique was employed to answer the research question. The analysis was carried out in two stages. In the first block, gender, age, romantic relationship and work status, which were the control variables, were included in the model. In the second block, marital beliefs, career belief and well-being, which were the main interests of the study, were added to the model. In the study, the significance level was taken as .05. Results The descriptive statistics regarding the variables are presented in Table 1. The results regarding the prediction of priorities in the life plan are given in Table 2. According to Table 1, 76% of the young people considered career as the priority in their life plans. While 17% of the participants felt ready for marriage, 55% responded with “Yes, on some issues; No, on some issues”, and 28% did not feel ready for marriage. 57% of the young adults wanted their spouse candidates’ professional status to be similar to theirs. 94% of the participants wanted to marry someone who works. The average ideal marital age of the participants was 26.97. 20% of the young people believed that marriage would not impede their career development, whereas 10% stated that marriage would impede their career development a lot. The relationship between gender and the desire to want professional status similarity in the spouse candidate was examined by chi square test. This examination put forth that there was a significant relationship (χ2(1)=22.80) between these two variables. The proportion of females (63%) wanting their spouse candidate to have similar professional status was higher than males (46%). The relationship between gender and marital readiness was also examined. This examination revealed a significant relationship 466 G. KELDAL AND G. ŞEKER Table 1. Descriptive Statistics regarding the Variables. Variable Priority in life plan Career Marriage marital readiness status Yes Yes, on some issues; No, on some issues No Similarity in profession status Yes No Desire to marry a working person Yes No Ideal marital age Female Male Marital salience Self-efficacy in making a career plan well-being Marriage being an obstacle for career development none little medium A lot M SD Proportion (%) 76 24 17 55 28 57 43 26.97 26.78 27.38 7.95 50.85 52.88 94 6 2.42 2.20 2.79 2.49 8.22 8.63 20 36 34 10 Table 2. Logistic regression analysis results. Model I Predictor variables B Gender (ref: female) .81 Relationship status (ref. I .58 do not have a romantic relationship) Age .00 Work status (ref. I do not .54 have a full time job) Marital salience – Marital readiness status (ref: no) Yes – Yes, on some issues; No, – on some issues Self-efficacy in making a – career plan Well-being – Constant 2 Nagelkerke R * p<.05, areference category is career. Model IIa SE .17 .16 OR (95% CI) 2.24*(1.61-3.11) 1.79*(1.29-2.47) B .15 .41 SE .20 .19 OR (95% CI) 1.17(.79-1.73) 1.51*(1.04-2.18) .03 .21 1.00(.94-1.07) 1.72*(1.14-2.58) .01 .55 .04 .23 1.01(.94-1.08) 1.73*(1.10-2.74) – – .38 .05 1.47*(1.34-1.61) – – – – .1.35 .48 .34 .27 3.85*(1.98-7.50) 1.61(.95-2.72) – – -.05 .01 .95*(.92-.98) – .00 .01 1.00(.97-1.03) – −1.98* .08 −3.10* .31 ((χ2(2)=9.76) between the two variables. The In sub-analyses showed that the proportion of males (48%) who felt ready for marriage was higher than females (32%). It was determined that the model with four control variables was statistically significant against the constant-only model (χ2(4)=47.47, p<.001). The variables added to the model in the second block significantly (χ2(5)=151.99, p<.001) improved the model. The model explained 31% of The American Journal of Family Therapy 467 the variance of the priorities in the life plan. The classification table showed that 81% of the cases were correctly classified. In the first step, gender (wald χ2(1)=23.01, p<.001), relationship status (wald χ2(1)=12.28, p<.001) and work status (wald χ2(1)=6.68, p<. 05), which were control variables added in the model, were found significant. The contribution of gender (wald χ2(1)=.58, p>.05) to the model was not significant with the variables added to the model in the second step. The contributions of marital salience (wald χ2(1)=64.14, p<.001), marital readiness (wald χ2(1)=15.69, p<.001) and self-efficacy in making a career plan (wald χ2(1) =12.70, p<.001), which were the variables of interest in this study found in the second model, were significant. Well-being did not make a significant contribution to the model (wald χ2(1)= .01, p>.05). According to these results, when gender, age, relationship status and work status variables were controlled, the one unit increase in marital salience is associated with a 47% increase in the odds of giving importance to marriage in the life plan. The odds of those who feel ready for marriage giving importance to marriage in the life plan are 285% more compared to those who do not feel ready. The one unit increase in self-efficacy in making career plan is associated with a 5% decrease odds of giving importance to marriage in the life plan. According to the control variables in the final model, the odds of those who have a romantic relationship giving importance to marriage in the life plan are 51% more compared to those who do not have a romantic relationship. Similarly, the odds of those who have a full time job giving importance to marriage in the life plan are 73% more compared to those who do not work. Discussion This study addressed the variables of marital beliefs, career beliefs and well-being in the classification of young adults’ priorities in their life plans. It was revealed that the majority of the young adults’ priority in their life plans was their career. It was concluded that marital salience, marital readiness status and self-efficacy in making a career plan are associated with priorities in the life plan. As expected, the greater belief in marital salience is associated with the possibility of giving priority to marriage in the life plan. Finding three marital paradigm classes in their study, Willoughby and Hall (2015) determined that the overall importance given to marriage by the enthusiast group is higher than that of hesitant and delayer groups. In their study with young people, Hall and Willoughby (2016) revealed that the marriage centered group believes in marital salience more than the career centered group and get married at an earlier age. These findings support the results 468 G. KELDAL AND G. ŞEKER of this study. The importance given to marriage by young people can cause their other goals in life to be kept in the background and increase their desire to marry. Those who feel ready for marriage are more likely to prioritize marriage in their life plan than those who do not feel ready. In his study with young adults, Hall and Willoughby (2019) determined that there is a positive relationship between being marriage centered and being ready for marriage. Hurt (2014) revealed in a qualitative study with married men that readiness to marry is one of the factors that facilitate marriage. When evaluated from this point of view, it can be stated that being ready for marriage is effective in young people’s life course choices. In particular, feeling ready for marriage can enable young people to give priority to marriage in their life plans in order to make it easier for them to make a marriage decision. Those who feel ready for marriage are more likely to prioritize marriage in their life plan than those who do not feel ready. In their study conducted with young adults, Hall and Willoughby (2019) put forth that there is a positive relationship between being marriage centered and being ready for marriage. Hurt (2014) revealed in a qualitative study with married men that marital readiness is one of the factors facilitating marriage. From this perspective, being ready for marriage is effective in young people’s choices in their life courses. In particular, feeling ready for marriage can enable young people to give priority to marriage in their life plans since it makes it easier for them to decide getting married. Another important finding of this study is that self-efficacy in making a career plan reduces the possibility of young people to give importance to marriage in their life plan. Previous studies showed that economic factors are important for marriage. Researchers determined that financial concerns hinder marriage (Gibson-Davis et al., 2005; Muraco & Curran, 2012), economic indicators are among the criteria for marital readiness (Carroll et al., 2009) and economic independence is necessary for making the decision to get married (Akbaş et al., 2019; Ondaş, 2007). These findings showed that economic gains are important for making the decision to get married. Career advancement is important for young people in terms of employment conditions and economically achieving some gains. Attaining efficacies that will contribute positively to their careers can help young people focus more on their careers. In this context, it may be expected that the increase in the self-efficacy in making a career plan will decrease the possibility of giving importance to marriage in the life plan. This study concluded that the well-being variable does not play an important role in predicting young people’s priorities in their life plans. It was previously determined that there is a positive relationship between well-being and marital attitudes (Keldal et al., 2018; Yoo & Lee, 2019). Viola The American Journal of Family Therapy 469 et al. (2017) revealed that there is a negative relationship between career indecision and psychological well-being. From this point of view, the fact that well-being is associated with factors related to both career and marriage can be considered as the reason why well-being does not have an important role in the classification of young people’s priorities in their life plans. Implications for family therapy/practice The results of this study are important in terms of premarital counseling. Especially, these results may be used to develop and practice a theoretical approach to understanding union formation behavior of single young adults. Although Marital Paradigm Theory (Willoughby et al., 2015a) was proposed to explain the marital beliefs of young people, new empirical findings are needed to develop marriage preparation programs based on this theory. The results of this study may be used while forming marriage preparation programs or relationship enhancement programs. When married or cohabitating couples want to benefit from family therapy related to work-family conflict, the importance they attach to career and marriage before marriage may be valuable in resolving these conflicts. In this study, variables related to the priorities of young adults in their life plans (career and marriage) were revealed. Thanks to these findings, family therapists may gain a perspective in solving problems related to work-family conflict. Considering the importance of pre-marital factors in the healthy maintenance of marital relationships of couples, the results of this study may be important for family therapists’ works for the formation of a solid marital union. Limitations This study has several limitations. First, the study data were collected by nonrandom sampling method. In addition, the participants in the sample group are university students or individuals with education above university. In this respect, the study results may not be generalized to all young adults. The future studies can examine whether the results of this study are replicable with the data obtained by using probabilistic sampling technique. In addition, the study can be repeated with individuals who graduated from high school, middle school or elementary school. Another limitation of this study is that it is cross-sectional. In their longitudinal study conducted with young adults, Hall and Willoughby (2019) concluded that the relative role centrality of young people change over time. In this study, changes in young people’s priorities in their life plan over time and the relational relationships could not be examined. By 470 G. KELDAL AND G. ŞEKER doing longitudinal studies, the changes in young people’s priorities in their life plan over time and the relational relationships can be examined. The last limitation of this study is that familial factors were not used as control variables. Previous study (Willoughby et al., 2012) revealed that marital beliefs differ in terms of parents and their children. When assessed in this respect, familial factors may be used as control variables in future studies. Direction for future research Although this study has some limitations, it made significant contributions to the literature by identifying the variables related to young people’s priorities in their life plans. Marital beliefs and self-efficacy in making career plan predicting young people’s priorities in their life plans is important in terms of understanding the decisions young adults will make in their lives. In particular, the results of this study may be a guide for researchers who have been conducting research on the development of young people. Scholars may test the effect of the marriage preparation programs and relationship enhancement programs they will create by using the results of this study. Declaration of conflicting interest The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. Compliance with ethical standards Ethical approval The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University (2020/06-06). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University Ethics Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The American Journal of Family Therapy 471 Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. ORCID Gökay Keldal Gürcan Şeker http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7998-0766 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6633-7859 References Akbaş, M., Sürücü, Ş. G., Köroğlu, C. O., & Öztürk, M. (2019). Factors affecting marriage attitudes of university students. Cukurova Medical Journal, 44(1), 93–100. https://doi. org/10.17826/cumj.441022 Altuntaş, S., & Atli, A. 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