Lower-Class Attitudes Toward "Deviant" Family Patterns: A Cross-Cultural Study.

In the lower class there are environmental pressures to modify conventional middle-class values and attitudes. There are also social pressures to conform to the conventional patterns. These social pressures point to one source of variability in lower-class attitude, toward "deviant" behavior. The hypothesis tested is: The greater the pressure upon a group so adhere to conventional values, the lower the likelihood that members of the group will normatively accept "deviant" patterns of behavior. This hypothesis is confirmed for data on Trinidad and Detroit on nonlegal marriage, but not for the data on premarital sexual intercourse. The complementary nature of the data on nonlegal marriage and on premarital sexual intercourse is discussed, as well as related data on attitudes toward illegitimacy in Detroit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]