Young People and Marriage in Serbia In Gender Dimension – Experiences, Preconditions and Perceptions

The characteristics of marriage among young people in Serbia show similarities with contemporary European trends of postponing marriage, the decline in the universality of marriage, and the de-standardization of partnerships. These changes are interpreted in the broader context of societies affected by the process of the second demographic transition. This paper offers an empirical validation of the second demographic transition model in the domain of marriage, focusing on the analysis of the experiences, preconditions and perceptions of marriage among young people in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Serbia), from a gender perspective. The research was conducted in the spring of 2024, on a sample of 989 young participants. The data was collected using an electronic questionnaire. The results confirmed gender differences in the perception and experience of marriage among young people, which were expressed in the domain of perceptions of prerequisites for marriage, the advantages and disadvantages of married life, and the best years for entering marriage. This confirmed the main hypothesis, as well as most of the secondary hypotheses related to specific aspects of the analysis. The presented data suggests a partial de-standardization of partnerships and marriage practices among young people in our society, marked by a combination of traditional elements and postmodern values.