Psychological Patterns in Marital Timing and Divorce

Abstract

Using a longitudinal sample of 83 women who married between the late 1930's and the early 1950's, we compare adolescent and adult (midlife) personality traits in six domains for early marriers (19 and younger) and ontime marriers (20-22), and for the still married and the divorced, using analysis of variance with adjustment of means for selected covariates. Early marriers differ little from ontime marriers in terms of adolescent personality (and not at all in adult personality), although the observed differences tend to be consistent with the literature. Adolescent personality differences are far more pronounced between women whose marriages remained intact and those who experienced divorce by midlife. Personal growth from adolescence to midlife characterizes the psychologicalfunctioning of both the young brides and the divorced.