Family Values in South Korean Society: Marital and Sexual Values in Gender, Age, and Protestantism Contexts

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in marital and sexual values according to gender, age, and Protestantism contexts using the 2012 and 2018 Korea General Social Surveys. Samples for marital values were from the 2012 survey (N=797 adults aged 20 and over), and those for sexual values were from the 2018 survey (N=550 adults aged 20 and over). There were four domains in marital values (happiness, child, cohabitation, and divorce) and three domains in sexual values (premarital intercourse, extramarital intercourse, and same-sex intercourse). We applied ANCOVA and post hoc analysis to examine the differences in each domain via gender, age, and Protestantism contexts. Results on marital values did not show significant interactions between gender, age group, and Protestantism contexts, while age differences were consistently significant in all domains of marital values. In results about sexual values, there were significant interactions between gender, age, and Protestantism contexts in all domains of sexual values. The findings of this study may promote an understanding of the dynamics and diversity of Korean contexts on marital and sexual values.