Personal, family and societal factors associated with Lebanese youth's attitudes toward the roles of women (Doctoral dissertation)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate Lebanese youth''s attitudes toward the roles of women and to identify the factors associated with them. In view of the growing interest of both national and international organizations in the roles and status of women in the Arab world, the study attempted to provide empirically validated evidence from one Arab country that could substantiate the general and specific hypotheses advanced on this topic.

The review of relatively recent literature on sex role attitudes along with some background information on the roles and status of Arab Lebanese women suggested that a multiplicity of factors are associated with sex role attitudes. The factors selected for this study were grouped in three catagories: personal factors, family factors and societal factors.

A 30-item Likert-type summated rating scale was developed for the purpose of this study. Based on three socialization theories, twenty hypotheses were tested. The hypothesis testing was based on data collected by means of personal interviews with 345 young Lebanese selected from the west side of Beirut and from one of its suburbs.

Several parametric statistical procedures were used to analyze the data. The study results indicated that among the personal factors, sex had a definite contributing effect on Lebanese youth''s attitudes toward women''s roles. The degree of religiosity and educational attainment had significant effects. Other personal factors were either found to be weakly associated with attitudes toward women''s roles or to be completely independent. From among the selected family factors studied, only parents'' educational levels, father''s occupational status, and mother''s work experience seemed to have significant relationships with "attitudes." Societal factors such as peer group attitudes, support of secularized movements, religious affiliation and peer group sex composition appeard also to contribute significantly to the variations in these "attitudes."

However, when attempting to determine which variable(s) could best predict the attitudes of Lebanese youth toward the roles of women, two different prediction equations, one for males and one for females, were obtained. A substantial proportion of the variations in the attitudes of each group was accounted for by these equations.

Theoretical implications and implications for future research were discussed.