Partnerwahl und Wertewandel —

The rapid change, which happened in the last decades in developed industrialized societies, is described by Ronald Inglehart (1977, 1989 and 1998) as an evolution from a materialistic a postmaterialistic dimension. Values with materialistic preferences related to periods of existential insecurity change to such with post-materialistic preferences related to periods of existential security in which living seems to be natural and in which post-materialistic values gain more importance. This study investigates whether a similar shift of values can be observed, from a materialistic to a post-materialistic dimension of values, in the area of personal partnerships, specifically concerning the partner selection. To test this assumption a new measuring tool based upon the Inglehart-Index has been developed which allowed recording the data of 525 persons for a cross sectional analysis. The results principally confirm the hypothesis that the preferences in the partner selection have changed from materialistic to post-materialistic values. The results clearly demonstrate as well that the level of education has a significant influence on partner selection preferences.