Marriage. The dream of a life of companionship and fun. Well, at least that’s what it ideally stands for. Marriages come in all shapes and sizes these days. Speaking of the stigma around marriage being a fairytale start, my mother would always tell me, “newly married couples only looked great when both the man and woman are young!”
Well, this brainwashing started pretty early on.
Logically speaking, yes youth is beautiful and even more so in wedding attire. However, it was a weak attempt to make me think that marriage was something meant to happen in your early twenties at the max. It’s a weird and funny notion if you ask me. However, setting aside personal opinions here’s what psychology has to say.
An unbiased look into marriage in your early twenties
Psychology has a lot to say about marrying early. It’s widely known and accepted that most early marriages lead to divorce. This is based on a scientific study conducted by bu Sociological researcher Nicholas Wolfinger. The same goes for marriages late into your thirties. While exceptions do exist to this data, most early marriages were found heading for splitsville down the line.
There could be a number of reasons for this.
- When you’re in you’re the early twenties, you may have not had much experience regarding life
- The early twenties is a time when your opinions and personality are still forming
- You may not be the same person you were at 22 when you hit 28
- Maturity factor
So what is the right time to get married?
The optimum age for marriage is somewhere between 28-32 for both sexes. This optimum age was not something formulated or crafted, rather, this is based on recent research on today’s marriage scene.
The study revealed that to ensure a happy and stable marriage, you must wait but not wait too long. Marriages after 35, while bearing the notion of higher stability and maturity, faired way lower than marriages in the early twenties.
This steep fall of stability and life long partnership post 35, was something unexpected almost. Some of the reasons for this could be:
- Men and women post 35 are usually financially settled and well to do. Thus reducing the notion of needing someone to lean on or for partnerships.
- People in this age group also preferred to just live in with their partners or have their own say in life, greatly reducing the marriage numbers.
- Also, another factor is women’s bodies age. It was found that when looking for a suitable mate/life partner, men gravitated towards younger women more often than not. It has something to do with fertility. While yes, love may not be completely about reproduction, post 35 most women did seem to lose their charm in the eyes of the male species. Maybe it’s natural aging or just men looking out for women that they deem more fertile. Truth be told, the dating scene does get hard post 35 for ladies.
- Most men at the 35 mark have already decided to not settle down or are not settling down due to financial constraints.
Whereas when looking into the optimum age group of 28-32, the woman is in her sexual prime and the man generally has his mind and intentions on life clear. Maybe it does make sense why this is a great time to get hitched. While yes, marriage is something you can’t force upon yourself simply based on research; in the end, trust your gut and go by what feels right. This way you’ll always make the right decision.
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