At Weber State Lm LON Aa LiLo studies indicate La rR shifting away from hearth mT Vary towards careers Tipping the Scales: Marriage and family take a backseat (0 careers and individual wealth arriage and raising a family is much less important to the average college freshman today than is having plenty of money and succeeding in a career, and the consequences could be disturbing. According to a national survey recently released by the University of California at Los Angeles freshmen nationwide list being very well off financially and being an authority in their chosen career as much more important than marriage and raising a family. “Many are delaying marriage or not marrying at all. They are opting for the cellular phone lifestyle. They do not want home and hearth,” said Dr. S. Craig Campbell, an assistant professor of child and family studies at Weber State. And that trend, Dr. Campbell said, “is a bit spooky.” He noted that today’s youth are reluctant to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. They are stuck in an adolescent mode of self-absorption and self-gratification. The “Me generation,” started in the 1970’s has come to full bloom in many youth of the 1990’s. Family life, as the ideal and goal of Western civilization, has been replaced with a me-first, instant-gratification attitude, he said. “The prognosis of how we do as a society is in jeopardy. If we march this out for the next generation or two we’ll become people who are fragmented and isolated,” Dr. Campbell said. | If current trends continue the WSC educator predicts families will become disjointed with parents providing less of a positive role modei. “We'll have a looser structure of society, a more insecure, diversely focused population. That’s what happens when you take the base of society and shake it up,” he said. Dr. Campbell placed part of the blame for the shift from sacrifice and hard work to selfcenteredness and instant fulfillment, on the shoulders of mothers and fathers. More and more families have dual-career parents, which sends a strong message to children, he said. “Tf that’s what kids see modeled that’s what they are going to go after. My hell, that’s what they are seeing,” he said. “My guess is that many parents are into heavy duty careers to get money so they don’t have to delay gratification. It’s a kind of craziness.” But the problem does have its silver lining, said Dr. Michael Toth, a WSC professor of sociology. As parents increase their economic base they have more to offer their children in terms of educational experiences. “Studies indicate that both single and two-child families have higher levels of education. Parents are investing more resources in fewer children, and the quality of the growing-up experience is enriched,”| Dr. Toth said. Two-income families are often, in today’s economic climate, more a necessity than choice, he said. But even when the choice is made to delay and limit the family for the sake of careers, the outcome is not always bad. “My own experience with people who put off family for career is that the decision to have a family becomes more conscious. It’s attended to with a lot more thoughtfulness,” he said.