Kasal o Sakal:

An Empirical Study on the views of UPLB Students, Faculty, and Staff Regarding the Significance of Marriage in the Modern Society

Lomarda, Randall Cahn Rodriguez, Cecille Tapia, Sharlene Vias, Kimberly

Introduction

Background of the Study

Throughout history, the institution of marriage has been one of the strongest binders of relationships. It has become the end-goal of certain individuals as it has been regarded as the starting point of families. Such union has varied throughout cultures (Gough 1959 as cited by Schwimmer 2003) as it faces different contexts such as same-sex marriage and polygamy. It has been influenced by religion. Moreover, the possibility of opting out such commitment has been granted in different states as well through the presence of divorce and annulments. It has been one of the most discussed relationships (Kim 2011 & Becker 1974) as it changes lives dramatically in terms of identity, choices, and priorities. In modern contemporary society, marriage has faced many criticisms: the disability of people to opt out such option (in countries where divorce is illegal), the failure of certain religious institutions to grant same-sex marriage, and the rise of the disregard for such institution through cohabitation. Moreover, the exclusivity of state benefits towards married individuals has sparked discourse in resource allocation and social behaviour (i.e. the utility level by which individuals choose to be single, the marriage market in which people compete for partners and the economic considerations of people deciding to get married). In regard to the importance of marriage in individual lives and its criticisms, the researchers ask the question: In the context of the modern society, does it still play a significant role in the partnership of individuals here in the Philippines? In a relatively conservative society where the Church has much influence (Gonzalez & Romualdez 2013) and at the same time,

modernizing towards a relatively liberal point of view (i.e. toleration of gays, the rise of cohabitation, the large appreciation of Western culture, etc.) the Philippines carries a diverse pool of opinion regarding the matter. Also, considerations must be given to the fact that the Philippines has varied demographic composition and topographic characteristics such as islands and in terms of location (urban-rural). From this, there is a relative difference with the kind of culture a particular society imposes. In a national university guided with academic freedom and the free flow of discourse, there is a possibility that the University of the Philippines Los Baos will play a significant role in shaping the future of Filipino social behaviour. Students and staff of the university come from varying regional and cultural backgrounds, their opinions from the university trickle down from their home towns. The attitudes that the university produce are key elements in determining the stance of the youth approaching the age of marriage. As future leaders and critical thinkers, UPLB holds a special role given its location and reputation.

Significance of the Study

The research contributes to the enforcement of the decisions individuals take. Individual accountability and responsibility are performed with informed decisions. Through this, it seeks to be a reference point for individuals, particularly UPLB students, faculty and staff, in the choices they make or have made once they reach that particular point in time.

This research also seeks to solve the problem in the lack of understanding by which the government enact policies such as domestic laws, separation arrangements, the consideration of same-sex marriage, and the benefits we grant to married individuals. This research may serve as a reference material for future research that is likely to tackle similar issues about sexuality, gender, family and marriage in which this paper will be focusing on.

Objectives of the Study

This research in general seeks to identify the level of importance students, faculty, and staff attach to the institution of marriage. It seeks to identify the significance of marriage in individual lives in modern contemporary society. Moreover, it aims to determine the various factors that shape their decisions regarding their entry into such durable relationship and how it led to their look towards such union. It intends to identify how an individual decides with the multiple discourses that exist in such environment of a national university. This research will tackle the different meanings people attach to such institution and their opinion regarding its structure and its relevance towards the vision of people at certain points in their lives. Lastly, it seeks to explore the expectations of people with the changes, and the conditions that marriage demands out of individuals to further explain the various considerations of individuals in entering such relationship.

Scopes and Limitation This study was conducted to determine whether UPLB students, faculty and staffs still believe in the institution of marriage. Information will be gathered via prepared questionnaire. Respondents will be coming from UPLB students, faculty and staffs. The limitation of the study is that the conclusions that will be obtained shall reflect only the students of UPLB students, faculty and staffs not other universities and from any levelelementary and high school. This was conducted at the University of the Philippines Los Baos from July 2013 to October 2013.

Review of Related Literature

Marriage Trends Marriage trends across the globe have changed through the years. In the past decade, marriage rate in the United States dropped from 8.2 in 2001 to 6.8 in 2011 (CDC/NHS National Vital Statistics System). According to Jayson (2013), recent data shows that the U.S. marriage rate hits its lowest point in more than a century. It is expected to remain low as recession accelerates the pace of marriage rate decline (National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau). University of Virginia's National Marriage Project reports that marrying age is at its peak: 26.5 for women and 28.7 for men. There is also a decline in the number of registered marriages in the Philippines (National Statistics Office, Republic of the Philippines). In 2006, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reports that 17% of the total registered marriage were teenage marriage.

According to Williams, Kabamalan and Ogena (2006), Smock said in a recent symposium on marriage that marriage has retreated because of complex and interrelated set of social forces such as changing gender roles within and outside marriage, low fertility norms, norms tolerating alternatives to marriage, including allowance for child bearing outside marriage, norms tolerating divorce when marriage proves unsatisfactory. Quisumbing and Hallman (2003), states that there is a greater personal choice in marriage as indicated in the increasing correlation between personal characteristics compared to the correlation between parental characteristics of an individual. Couples are also better educated and older in more recent marriage (Quisumbing and Hallman). Major social-structural changes such as increases in educational attainment, urbanization and the emergence of new roles for single women are associated with the increase in age at marriage (Quisumbing and Hallman). Retherford, Westley, Choe, Brown, Mason, and Mishra (2002) said in The Future Population in Asia that late marriage trends tend to occur in two phases of economic development: early stages and later stages of economic development. There is difference between the young adults with education and work experience and teenagers who are still dependent on their families regarding their decision to marry and who to marry (Retherford, et. al.).They state that because premarital sex is becoming increasingly acceptable, young people may find marriage unimportant. They also state that the rise of divorce rates decreases the likability of people marrying. Beliefs about marriage are brought by different factors such as gender inequality. Subordination of women over men may affect values and beliefs that are attributed to marriage (Mooney, 2002).

Materials and Methodology

Qualitative method was used by the researches in obtaining and measuring the respondent's perception regarding marriage as an important institution. Interviews were conducted for the data collection. Questions in the interview were about their perceptions on marriage as an important institution. Answers were then analysed by the researchers using a theoretical and conceptual framework. The population considered is the list of all students, faculty and staff in the University of the Philippines at Los Baos in this A.Y. 2013 - 2014. The list of all the students, faculty and staff was obtained to determine the total sample size and the total number of respondents will be determined using stratified random sampling of the different colleges and departments. Simple random sampling will be used for each stratum in order to determine the desired number of respondents.

The formula used to get the sample size is

Where:

The was set to be 0.05 for the researchers to be 95% confident that the true proportion of the students, faculty and staff still attach a high level of significance to the concept of marriage. The value of was set to be 0.10 for the researchers to have a minimal error of estimate. The p considered in the formula used in determining the sample size is equal to 0.40. The researchers also used a Spearmans Rho Correlation in determining association between ones rating of the significance of marriage and the various indices that may have an effect on such rating such as: religion, media, experiences of break-ups, and current relationship experiences. Spearmans Rho was used because the data considered is in the ordinal level.

DATA AND ANALYSIS Date Presentation

v Yes No

Number of Respondents 86 9

UPLBs belief in marriage: NO = 0.094736842 YES = 0.90526315

Numbers of observation = 95

Distribution of those who believe and do not believe in marriage

9.47%

90.52%

No

Yes

Out of 95 respondents, 90.52% say that they believe in marriage while 9.47% do not.

Believes in Marriage yes no

Devout

Nominal

Uncommitted

Doubting

Non-believer

29 1

13 0

40 2

2 3

2 3

YES Devout = 0.337209302 Nominal = 0.15116279 Uncommitted = 0.465116279

Doubting = 0.023255813 Non-believer = 0.023255813

Religious Commitment of those who believe in Marriage

2.32% 2.32%

33.72%

46.51%

15.11%

Devout

Nominal

Uncommitted

Doubting

Non-believer

Out of 90.52% who believes in Marriage, 46. 51% are Uncommitted, 33.72% are devout, 15.11% are nominal and 2.32% are both doubting and nonbeliever

NO Devout= 0.1111 Nominal = 0 Uncommitted = 0.2222

Doubting = 0.33333 Non-believer = 0.33333

Religious Commitment of those people who do not believe in marriage

11% 0

33% 22%

33% Devout Nominal Uncommitted Doubting Non-believer

Out of 9.47% of those who do not believe in marriage, 33% are doubting and non-believer, 22% are uncommitted, 11% are devout and 0% are nominal.

Believes in Marriage Yes No

Roman Catholic

Born Again

Baptist

Iglesia ni Cristo 7 0

Protestant

Christian

Agnostic

Atheist

Methodist

54 4

12 0

4 0

2 0

1 0

3 3

2 0

3 0

YES Roman Catholic = 0.627906976 Born Again = 0.139534883

Protestant= 0.023255813 Baptist = 0.046511627

INC= 0.081395348 Christian= 0.011627906 Methodist=0.03488372 Agnostic=0.03488372

Atheist=0.023255813

Religion of those who believe in marriage

3.48% 1.16% 3.48% 2.32%

8.13% 4.65% 2.32% 13.95% 62.79%

Roman Catholic Christian

Born Again Methodist

Protestant Agnostic

Baptist Atheist

INC

Out of 90.52% who believes in marriage, 62.79% are Roman Catholic, 13.95% are born again, 8.13% are INC, 4.65% are Baptists, 3.48% are both Methodist and Agnostic, 2.32% are Atheist, and 1.16% are Christian.

NO Roman Catholic = 0.44444 Protestant= 0 INC= 0 Methodist=0 Atheist=0 Born Again = 0 Baptist = 0 Christian= 0 Agnostic=0.33333

Religious group of those who do not believe in Marriage

0

33%

44%

0 0 Roman Catholic Born Again

00 INC Christian Methodist Agnostic Atheist

Baptist

Out of 9.47% of those who do not believe in marriage, only 44% are Roman Catholic and 33% are Agnostic. Moreover there are no respondents who are Born Again, Baptist, INC, Christian, Methodist, and Atheist that do not believe in marriage.

Believes in Marriage yes no

Single 76 9

Married 10 0

Single
10.59%

89.41%

Yes

No

Out of the 89.47% respondents who are single, 89.41% believes in marriage, while 10.53% of the respondents who are married, all of them believes in the concept of marriage.

Believes in Marriage

Believes they will have a successful marriage 81 6

Believes they will not have a successful marriage 5 3

Yes No

Believes in marriage
8.05%

Did not believe in marriage

30%

91.95%

70%

Yes

No

Yes

No

Out of 90.52% who believes in marriage, 91.95% believes they will have a successful marriage in the future while 8.05% do not. While out of 9.47% who do not believe in marriage 70% believes they will have a successful marriage in the future while 30% do not.

Parents have successful marriage 78 7

Parents did not have a successful marriage 6 1

Not applicable* 2 1

Yes

No

Parents have successful marriage Parents did not have a successful marriage Not applicable*

Parents have successful marriage Parents did not have a successful marriage Not applicable*

The majority of the marriage of the parents of respondents who do and dont believe in marriage is successful. Printed media 31 6 Social Media 30 7 None or others* 6 1

TV 41 3

Documentaries 46 4

Movies 32 3

yes
6 32 41 4 46 30 31 3

no
1 3

TV Social Media Movies

Printed media Documentaries None or others*

TV Social Media Movies

Printed media Documentaries None or others*

The beliefs of those who believe in marriage are affected mostly by TV however for those who do not believe they are mostly affected by social media.

The correlation ones rating of the significance of marriage with religion, media, experiences of break-up, and current relationship experience -Correlation of rating and religion Number of obs = Spearman's rho = 95 0.3508

Test of Ho: Rating and Religion are independent Prob > |t| = 0.0005

-There is a weak and direct relationship between ones ratings of the significance of marriage with ones religion -Correlation of rating and media Number of obs = Spearman's rho = 95 -0.1352

Test of Ho: RATING and MEDIA are independent Prob > |t| = 0.1913

-There is a very weak and inverse relationship between ones ratings of the significance of marriage with media

-Correlation of rating and experiences of break-up

Number of obs = Spearman's rho =

59 0.1326

Test of Ho: Rating and Breakup are independent Prob > |t| = 0.3166

-There is a very weak and direct relationship between ones ratings of the significance of marriage and ones experiences with break-ups

-Correlation of rating and current relationship experiences Number of obs = Spearman's rho = 44 0.3003

Test of Ho: Rating and Relationship are independent Prob > |t| = 0.0476

-There is a weak and direct relationship between ones ratings of the significance of marriage and ones current relationship experiences.

CONCLUSION The research showed that most of the UPLB population composed mostly of students, faculties and staffs still believe in marriage but it cant be denied that some people also do not believe in marriage at all. Such situation is due to certain factors. First is through their religious beliefs, those that are still devoted to their respective religious groups still have a strong perception about marriage probably because of the customs and values that are instilled with them by their religion. This can be seen through the result in the survey; people think that marriage is a religious sacrament thats why they believe in marriage. Second are the expectations attributed by the population about marriage, most of them expects a family in entering a married life, therefore people nowadays still desire of having someone, particularly a partner and children throughout their life. Although some people might think that it is useless and only give one a financial burden, the possibility of having a family still emerge. Third, those people who believes

in marriage are mainly affected by the television as a form of media, this because everything in TV is romanticized and so people always think that things will always be perfect no matter what happens. While those who do not believe in marriage are mainly affected by social media because of the fact that cheating, deceiving and loss of own identity have a great tendency in this form of media, and this may be a factor why most people lacks trust with other people and so through marriage. Fourth is the success of the marriage of ones parents. However in the research it is shown that the parents marriage of both respondents who believe and do not believe in marriage are successful; this only shows that the success of the marriage of parents does not affect the perception of their children regarding marriage. In terms of gender, heterosexual respondents (either male or female) are more open to the idea of marriage since the society is more accepting in terms of them engaging in such activity or practice compared to homosexuals or queers. Lastly, results show that 89.41% of the respondents who are single still believe in the concept and possibility of marriage. In general, people still attach a high level of significance to the concept of marriage mainly due to factors such as expectations, gender, acceptance of the society to the practice and some other factors such as religion, media, and personal experiences which can be associated with marriage itself.

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