Secondary School Students’ Attitudes towards Marital-Family Morality an Assensing Synthesis of Empirical Studies and Pastoral Postulates

Abstract

Care for the good of marriage and family requires complying with moral norms regulating sexual and procreative behaviors. Review studies of students attending the third class of secondary school conducted in 1992, 2000, 2003 and 2007 show that only prohibition of marital unfaithfulness is accepted by a majority of young people. In 2000 more than half of all the respondents accepted the ban on abortion. Towards the remaining norms the young people showed more or less disacceptance. In 2007 only 3% of catechized Catholics approved of the prohibition of using contraceptives, 6% of students were in favor of a ban on premarital sex, and a ban on divorces was accepted by 11% of the reviewed young people. The incompatibility of the moral attitudes with the teaching of the Church requires undertaking prophylactic-remedying actions. The present article contains numerous pastoral postulates whose fulfillment may contribute to the proper moral formation of the young generation.