Marriage Test

One day last week bustling little Sociology Professor Ernest Watson Burgess adjusted his spectacles and began to read a long, technical paper to his class at the University of Chicago. As the 51-year-old bachelor proceeded, his marriageable students became more and more attentive. When he finished, he had given them a test-proof formula for choosing a wife or husband, for predicting whether a marriage would be successful.

Professor Burgess was reporting what he and his colleague, Dr. Leonard S. Cottrell Jr., had learned in one of the most thorough statistical studies of marriage ever made in the U. S. It had taken seven years, and the guinea pigs were 526 young married couples in Illinois. Married from one to six years, they were mostly city folk, college or high-school graduates, Protestants, more than half with an income of $1,800 or more.

Happiness-Each person was asked to estimate the degree of happiness of his marriage:

P: Of the husbands, 55.4% rated their marriages very happy, 24.7% happy, 11.9% average, 5.6%, unhappy and only 2.4% very unhappy.

P: Of the wives, 51.8% thought their marriages were very happy, 27.5%, happy, 12.3% average, 6% unhappy and 2.4% very unhappy.

P: In 71.7%, of the cases, husbands and wives agreed in rating their marriages, and in 24.7% they differed by only one step on the scale.

P: The couples' friends' ratings agreed with their own in 48.5% of the cases, and differed by only one degree in 42.7%.

Harmony, Professor Burgess then examined in detail the relationships of married couples, reported these signs of a successful marriage:

P: Agreement in handling family finances has a high correlation with happiness. Of those who always agree, 61% are very happy and only 3% very unhappy, while of those who always disagree 50%, are very unhappy, none very happy. But 7.1% of those who always disagree nevertheless rate themselves happy.

P: Frequent kissing of the wife by the husband is another sign of a happy family. So is agreement on intimate relations.

P: Agreement concerning friends and dealing with relatives also has a high correlation with marriage success.

P: Relatively unimportant to success in marriage are table manners, agreement about religion or possession of an even temper.

Test. Having developed a method of measuring success after the ceremony, Professor Burgess proceeded to design an objective test to predict success or failure before marriage. This he did by examining significant facts in the background of the successful couples. Good and bad matrimonial risks, according to Professor Burgess:

P: Likely to have a happy marriage is the person whose parents have been happy. P: Contrary to the general belief, the more strongly the husband and wife are attached to their parents, the more likely they are to be happy in marriage.

P: An only or youngest child is a poor risk unless married to an oldest or middle child. Most successful mating is that of an oldest child with another oldest. P:Chances of success are greater if an individual marries another of similar family background.

P: A person is a good risk if he or she attended Sunday school after the age of 10, better if he is still attending.

P: Also a good catch is a person who is a member of three or more organizations. C. More important than the size of income is its regularity and the nature of the occupation of a man for whom a girl sets her cap. The girl who has worked before marriage is a much better risk than one who has not. A teacher or skilled office worker is likely to make a good wife. But swains should shun the girl who has changed jobs frequently.

P:The longer the prospective married couple have known each other, the more likely is their marriage to be successful. Optimum periods: five or more years' acquaintance, three to five years' courtship, at least two years' engagement.

P: "Marriages of affection and companionship are likely on the average to be more successful than those of infatuation and romance." Infatuation does not necessarily indicate a satisfactory sexual adjustment after marriage.

P: Desire for children is a happy augury. But, paradoxically, after children have come married persons are less happy than before. Presence of undesired children is extremely unfavorable to marital happiness.

Reviewing his findings, Professor Burgess declared they furnished "conclusive evidence that by the use of statistical techniques, prediction of success or failure in marriage is feasible, in terms, to be sure, not of the individual couple but of the group into which the couple falls." Observing that success in marriage "now depends more than ever before upon the findings of research in the psychological and social sciences," he proposed establishment of a Marriage Adjustment Research Institute to develop even more reliable methods of prediction.

Most ironical comment on Professor Burgess' effort to eliminate the gamble from marriage had been supplied by the professor himself. Two years ago, after a first-hand study of gambling in Chicago dives, Professor Burgess recommended that gambling be legalized, declared: "Gambling is inherent in human nature and cannot effectively be suppressed."

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