Adolescents' concepts of marriage: A structural-developmental analysis

This study involved the construction of a theory and scoring manual for assessing the developmental stages of individuals' concepts of marriage. Four stages (Magical, Idealized Conventional, Individualistic, Affirmational) were identified. The reliability of the scoring procedure (interrater and item-total protocol) was judged to be acceptable. Correlations with age, schooling, ego development, and years of marriage support the marriage concepts stage sequence. Adolescents (N=162) scored at the first two stages of marriage concepts. However, in ego development, their mean score was above the Conformist level, thus suggesting that the adolescents were more advanced in their overall personality development than in their developmental stages of marriage concepts.This study was supported in part by a grant from The Spencer Foundation and conducted at the Social Science Institute, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.Received his Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. Current research interests include personality development in adolescents and young adults.