Young Italian Couples and Their New Homes: Gender Differences

This paper comments on the results of two empirical research projects carried out by the authors of the present paper, in fall 2008-09 and winter 2009-10 (still in progress). Aim: The aim of our studies was to discover how males and females with future co-habitation plans (marriage or common-law marriage), imagine and project their new home; how they make plans for the future, and how they see themselves and their relationship with family members. Our research projects looked also into young couples already living together without children and the various aspects of their life. We tried to identify the components that make up love, the relationship between the partners, the current home with its spaces, times and household objects. Methods and data sources: Data were gathered from 250 heterosexual couples who live – or are going to live within little time – together. We used different quantitative and qualitative methods (questionnaires composed of open-end questions and closed, Likert scale, items of Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale, etc.), on wide samplings of Italians chosen on the basis of an experimental framework. The data were elaborated with an SPSS programme, and frequency tables, contingency tables, T-tests were drawn up. Results and conclusions: While results show there is no great difference in the way males and females fall in love and in the feelings they have for each other, the way in which they experience and imagine the situation do not correspond. There still exists a cultural difference in how they dream, how they make plans for the future, and how they see themselves and their relationship with family members. The research project in progress will contribute to expanding the results obtained in 2008-09 survey, focusing especially the area of feelings and emotion in which gender differences occur.