Lifestyle - Marriage not regarded as 'best relationship' by young adults

Marriage, the age-old social bond, is no longer regarded as the best form of relationship by young adults, a new study has revealed.

Researchers at the National Centre for Social Research have found that most young adults in Britain don't share views of their parents' generation on the importance of marrying a long-term partner or the role of women in the household.

In fact, they have based their findings on a survey of 4,000 people in Britain.

According to the survey, fewer than four out of ten adults, aged between 18 and 34, actually believe that marriage is the best kind of relationship, compared with just more than eight out of ten pensioners.

Younger adults are also twice as likely as over-65s to believe that mothers should get a full-time job as soon as their children start school, with few thinking that a home and kids are what women want, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

Only 27 per cent of younger adults think family life suffers when the woman works. A similar proportion believes that what women really want is a home and children - compared with 43 per cent of pensioners.

In addition, only 38 per cent of young adults think marriage is the best kind of relationship - compared with 84 per cent of over-65s - and only 22 per cent think married couples make better parents than unmarried ones.

Lead author of British Social Attitudes study Geoff Dench said: "Since the middle of the last century, attitudes in Britain towards parents and parenthood have changed a great deal.

"Parents used to be regarded as central to society. Becoming a good citizen was seen as assisted by parenthood and by the experience of taking responsibility for others that this entailed. But it is different now