Does Television Viewing Cultivate Unrealistic Expectations About Marriage

One explanation for the high divorce rate in our society focuses on the idealistic expectations with which many people enter into marriage. The media have been cited as the source of or major contributor to these expectations; however, no empirical evidence exists to support that claim. Based on a survey of 285 never-married university students, this study sought to examine the relationship between television viewing, holding idealistic expectations about marriage, and intentions to marry. Results from regression and path analyses indicate that, although overall television viewing has a negative association with idealistic marriage expectations, viewing of romantic genre programming (e.g., romantic comedies, soap operas) was positively associated with idealistic expectations about marriage. Further, a strong and positive association between these expectations and marital intentions was evidenced. These findings are discussed in terms of both cultivation theory and the uses and gratifications perspective of media influence.

[1]  L. Gross,et al.  Living with television: the violence profile. , 1976, The Journal of communication.

[2]  N. Signorielli.  Adolescents and Ambivalence Toward Marriage , 1991 .

[3]  Jacob J. Wakshlag,et al.  Perceived vulnerability to crime, criminal victimization experience, and television viewing , 1986 .

[4]  Joan B. Levine,et al.  The Feminine Routine , 1976 .

[5]  N. Epstein,et al.  Cognitions in marriage : The relationship between standards and attributions , 1996 .

[6]  William R. Elliott,et al.  Television's influence on social reality , 1982 .

[7]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[8]  L. Gross,et al.  Growing up with television: The cultivation perspective. , 1994 .

[9]  J. S. Long,et al.  Testing Structural Equation Models , 1993 .

[10]  Roy J. Eidelson,et al.  Unrealistic beliefs of clinical couples: Their relationship to expectations, goals and satisfaction , 1981 .

[11]  Eva Illouz.  The Lost Innocence of Love , 1998 .

[12]  Michael Morgan,et al.  Television and the erosion of regional diversity , 1986 .

[13]  J. Larson.  The Marriage Quiz: College Students' Beliefs in Selected Myths about Marriage. , 1988 .

[14]  Robert S. Wyer,et al.  The Effects of Television Consumption on Social Perceptions: The Use of Priming Procedures to Investigate Psychological Processes , 1998 .

[15]  John M. Gottman,et al.  What predicts divorce , 1993 .

[16]  Eva Illouz,et al.  Imagining romance: Young people's cultural models of romance and love , 1996 .

[17]  George Gerbner,et al.  Toward “Cultural Indicators”: The analysis of mass mediated public message systems , 1969 .

[18]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[19]  P. Bentler,et al.  Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures , 1980 .

[20]  E. Katz,et al.  The Uses of Mass Communications: Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research. Sage Annual Reviews of Communication Research Volume III. , 1975 .

[21]  H. Marsh,et al.  Application of confirmatory factor analysis to the study of self-concept: First- and higher order factor models and their invariance across groups. , 1985 .

[22]  W. Potter,et al.  Cultivation Theory and Research: A Conceptual Critique. , 1993 .

[23]  Alan M. Rubin,et al.  An Examination of Television Viewing Motivations , 1981 .

[24]  P. Lachenbruch.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) , 1989 .

[25]  Births, marriages, divorces, and deaths for 1997. , 1998, Monthly vital statistics report.

[26]  L. Tornstam.  Loneliness in Marriage , 1992 .

[27]  Roy J. Eidelson,et al.  Cognition and relationship maladjustment development of a measure of dysfunctional relationship beliefs. , 1982, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[28]  James Benet,et al.  Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media , 1978 .

[29]  Susan S. Hendrick,et al.  A theory and method of love. , 1986 .

[30]  John M. Gottman,et al.  Meta-Emotion: How Families Communicate Emotionally , 1997 .

[31]  J. Bryant,et al.  Media effects : advances in theory and research , 2002 .

[32]  G. Ma,et al.  Expectations of Marriage Among College Students From Intact and Non-Intact Homes , 1997 .

[33]  Marilyn Jackson-Beeck,et al.  TV Violence Profile No. 8: The Highlights , 1977 .

[34]  M. Browne,et al.  Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit , 1992 .

[35]  K. Bollen.  Sample size and bentler and Bonett's nonnormed fit index , 1986 .

[36]  P. McKenry,et al.  Families and Change : coping with stressful events , 1994 .

[37]  J. Radway.  WOMEN READ THE ROMANCE: THE INTERACTION OF TEXT AND CONTEXT , 1983 .

[38]  Michael Morgan,et al.  Charting the Mainstream: Television's Contributions to Political Orientations , 1982 .

[39]  B. gray-Little,et al.  Marital power, marital adjustment, and therapy outcome. , 1996 .