Covenantal or Contractual Marriage?

The best part about researching is when you LOVE what you're learning. Every research article I read gives me a different idea of what exactly I want to study and how exactly to go about studying it. While I really enjoy learning about values, my main interest is marriages and family processes. Which is why I'm excited for the last couple articles I read that addressed that very topic. Martial value research has identified two main types of marriages.

1. Covenantal Marriage--this type of marriage prioritizes values such as
1. the individual sacrificing for the collective good (marital and family) to promote marital health
2. traditional interventions--such as religiosity 
2. Contractual Marriage--this type of marriage prioritizes values such as
1. the individual reaching self-actualization to promote marital health
2. marriage being seen as a contract, where both are expected to fulfill their side of the contract

Contractual marriages are becoming increasingly more common in the United States. The covenantal marriage is much more traditional, and I feel that given the Italian family (at least in Southern Italy) is quite traditional, that more marriages there will focus on covenantal aspects. However, the world is a place of shifting values and it would be interesting to see if young adults in Italy--who are married--expect to enter into a covenantal or contractual marriage. A covenantal marriage is associated with a willingness to sacrifice for the relationship, communalism, and collectivism. I was shocked to read that males has a slightly higher tendency to be more covenantal in their marriage attitudes on values. Basically I am doing a little bit of a full circle--I think I will stick with studying premarital perceptions, but have them somewhat more value based than I originally planned on.