Family Ideals in Italy and Spain: Towards the End of the Traditional Southern European Family Model?

Arnstein Aassve, Bocconi University
Alicia Adsera, Princeton University
Elena Bastianelli, Bocconi University
Letizia Mencarini, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy

This study examines whether Italy and Spain still uphold traditional family ideals linked to the Southern European family model, challenging the notion that they are homogeneously traditional family-oriented countries. Furthermore, it explored whether family ideals in the two countries are evolving along similar trajectories or diverging, while also examining differences in family ideals across education and gender. We designed a factorial survey experiment, presenting respondents with various family scenarios to evaluate. Overall, our study shows a significant sign of modernization in family ideals in both countries, however, the analysis of cross-country differences in various family attributes indicates a more deinstitutionalized context in Spain compared to Italy. In Italy, cohabitation is viewed less favorably than marriage only within the context of families with children, regardless of educational and gender differences. In Spain, there is no overall difference in the evaluation of marriage and cohabitation; however, cohabitation is perceived less favorably than marriage among the highly educated. This discrepancy in perception across educational levels may be attributed to the widespread acceptance of cohabitation across all societal strata in Spain, potentially leading marriage to be regarded as a symbol of privilege primarily associated with the upper class (Cherlin, 2020).

Keywords: Families, Unions and Households, Fertility, Comparative methods , Data and Methods

See paper.