Emerging Conjugal Role Patterns in a Joint Family System: Correlates of Social Change in Dharwar, India

Abstract

The concept that joint family households will prove a barrier to the emergence of conjugal role patterns was tested for a sample in Dharwar, India. It was found that living with close kin was not highly correlated with a major increase in husband and wife avoiding one another. Urbanization and education, however, resulted in a significant increase in conjugal role patterns. Education and urbanization do not lead to a decline in joint family households. Rather, both seem to lead to changes in the content of roles within all types of household. Goode's concept that education will lead to conjugal family patterns before industrialization is supported.