A new study appears to have cracked the code on a question that has troubled South Asian culture since time immemorial; What is the right age to get married? Surprisingly, the verdict suggests that one must remain there till the age of twenty-eight. Yes we know; We can also hear the neighborhood aunties suffering.
A study by sociologist Nick Wolfinger at the University of Utah shows that people who marry between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-two are the least likely to separate or divorce in the following years. While there has been much speculation about whether waiting to marry leads to greater stability, this is the first study to actually provide solid evidence for this.
Analyzing data from the National Survey of Family Growth from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2011 to 2013, Wolfinger revealed, “As you age from your teens to your twenties and thirties, your chances of divorce go down.” ,” he writes, continuing, “As you approach your late thirties and early forties, your chances of divorce increase again.”
In retrospect, this makes complete sense. The time period of the late twenties and early thirties allows one to discern whether they are making decisions out of pure infatuation – or in our case, out of pure social pressure – or whether they are acting logically. Are able to determine whether they are in a position to understand the severity. of such responsibility. The age limit allows the individual to stand on their feet financially and develop fully the attributes that are relevant to their self. You can also hope that you don’t find a man-child to whom you have to explain the basic ethics of Hygiene 101. At least there is hope.
However, the sociologist in question also believes that as a person gets older, selection bias comes into play. He writes, “Those who wait until their thirties to marry may be the kind of people who are not sensitive to doing well in their marriage,” he later adds, “who People marry late, they have to face many problems. Potential mates are segregated to exclude individuals most vulnerable to successful marriage.
However, other sociologists doubt these findings. Philip Cohen of the University of Maryland uses data from the American Community Survey to conclude that increasing age is not proportional to marriages that are less likely to survive. Instead, he proposes an entirely different time frame, between forty-five and forty-nine, as the best stage to tie the knot if one does not wish to be divorced.
Although a definitive statistical analysis given the difference in findings between these two studies is unclear, it is worth acknowledging that divorce is a difficult metric to measure, especially in the United States. Many states decide not to collect data on this matter, adding to the fact that an increasing number of individuals have started living together without obtaining an official marriage certificate, leading to separation of any kind, Success stories have become difficult to measure.
