Premium
Intimacy in young adulthood as a predictor of divorce in midlife
Author(s) -
WEINBERGER MARK I.,
HOFSTEIN YARIV,
WHITBOURNE SUSAN KRAUSS
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2008.00215.x
Subject(s) - closeness , psychology , psychosocial , erikson's stages of psychosocial development , marital status , logistic regression , developmental psychology , graduation (instrument) , adult development , early adulthood , young adult , clinical psychology , demography , psychiatry , medicine , mathematical analysis , population , mathematics , geometry , sociology
Using an Eriksonian‐based measure (E. H. Erikson, 1963), the Inventory of Psychosocial Development (A. Constantinople, 1969), this longitudinal U.S. study explored the extent to which an individual’s potential for intimacy in young adulthood predicted divorce by midlife. Intimacy was defined as the potential to establish close relationships involving high levels of communication, closeness, and commitment. Marital status 34 years after college graduation was obtained from 167 participants ( M age = 55.1 years, 60% male, 30% divorced) originally tested in college in 1966–1968 in the United States. Hierarchical logistic regression revealed a significant Gender × Intimacy interaction in predicting marital status at midlife. Women but not men with low intimacy in college had higher risk of divorce in midlife in the sample.