COURTSHIP, ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 1954

A popular edition of the Burgess-Wallin study which appeared in scientific from in 1953, this stresses the conclusions rather than the methods and statistical data of the study. With a goal to seeing whether information secured from persons before marriage would enable prediction of how successful the marriages would be, the social scientists interviewed 1000 engaged couples and reinterviewed almost 700 of these couples after they had been married from three to five years, first in 1937-39, secondly in 1940-43. The groups were white, middle class, mostly college educated, mid-Western, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish. Findings were many, but few were conclusive, as the authors point out -- they are presented here in strictly sociological viewpoint in terms accessible to any person interested. The first section of the book deals with the recently evolved dating system, especially as prevalent on the coed college campus, with its plus values of freedom to know many people as individuals and to withdraw from a relationship without stigma, its defects as a superficial rating system often exclusive in nature -- and the remedies in the hands of young people. The second section on engagement reveals this period as not so binding as originally; the reasons for engagement, the successful handling of the period, the question of the part of premarital intercourse in later adjustments, etc. are discussed. The companionship marriage rather than the status marriage is now characteristic; the factors in marriage success- under intimacy and development of the association and the same as a going concern -- these and many other facets of a fascinating and highly important subject are considered. A pioneering study in the field which PLs may want to stock.

Pub Date: June 16, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1954

Categories: NONFICTION