If married couples can stay together for 35 years, they're likely to find themselves as happy with each other as newlyweds, according to a University study of marital quality published in the current issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.
The study analyzed links between marital quality, duration and various social and economic factors among 1,470 individuals in first marriages.
"Marital happiness follows a fairly predictable trajectory," said Terri Orbuch, sociologist at the Institute for Social Research and co-author of the study.
The study found that after the first few years of marriage, marital happiness tends to go down for about 20 years. But by the time the couple is married for about 35 years, they are as happy as when first married - during the so-called "honeymoon period."
"Our results show that declines in work and parental responsibilities explain a large portion of the increase in marital satisfaction in later years of marriage," Orbuch said. "Declining income and increasing assets in later life also explain a small portion of the increase."
The study also showed that after 15 or 20 years of marriage, couples don't consider divorce or separation nearly as much as couples who haven't been married as long.
The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Health and National Institute on Aging.
Men and women who have never been sexually active perceive their virgin status differently, according to a study by researchers at Illinois State University.
Women were more likely than men to say they had not engaged in sex because they hadn't been in a relationship long enough, been in love deeply enough, or met the right person. Women were more likely to say they feared parental disapproval or that they simply weren't ready for intercourse. For obvious reasons, women scored higher than men in citing fear of pregnancy as a reason to stay a virgin.
Emotional responses to being a virgin were also varied between men and women. Men were more insecure than women about sex and had more negative emotions such as feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, and guilt associated with their virgin status.
The study reported that though it was once considered socially undesirable for college-aged men and women to remain virgins, this view has changed in recent years.
Both men and women who gave religious or moral reasons for waiting to have sex were usually proud or happy about their virginal status. Fear of sexually transmitted diseases was another reason given for remaining a virgin. The researchers examined whether there had been changes in responses over the past six years, and those virgins questioned in the later part of the study were more likely to report fear of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases as a reason for staying a virgin.
The study was performed on 97 virgin men and 192 virgin women at a midwestern university. The average age of the participants was 19.5 years and 93 percent of the students were between 18 and 21 years old.
Twenty postdoctoral fellowships for minority scholars will be awarded by the National Research Council to give recent doctoral recipients the opportunity for extended study and research.
Sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the fellowships will be given to scholars who show the most promise in a national competition among Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Pacific Islanders and Puerto Ricans.
Each fellow must select a non-for-profit institution of higher education or research for their studies and awards will not be made for the professions.
The fellowship program is open to all U.S. citizens who are members of the designated minority groups, have held a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree for no more than seven years and who plan a career in teaching and research.
The deadline to submit applications is Jan. 3, 1997. Questions regarding application materials can be sent to the Fellowship Office, TJ 2039, National Research Council 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington D.C. 20418.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Brian Campbell
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