The article I chose from the University of Phoenix University Library for this week’s assignment is titled, Intimacy in young adulthood as a predictor of divorce. I chose this article for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost the title alone created interest for me as I have recently gotten married and I would like to know if the intimacy level I experienced as a young adult would somehow have an effect on the success of my marriage. Another reason I chose this article is because it uses Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development as a baseline for the study which was introduced in this week’s course materials.
This article focuses on a longitudinal study that spanned from the mid 60’s up into the early 2000’s. Before getting into the methods involved in study methods and results the article begins with a background of why this study took place. The predominant reason is the rise in the divorce rate “from approximately 10% of people in their 30’s to approximately 40% of current midlife adults (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007)”. It is also stated that previous divorce rate studies have focused on couples as opposed to the individuals, which was the focus of this study.
The method section of the article describes the participants, the measures taken, and the procedure. Some 349 students from the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY.) served as participants for the initial data gathering. In 2000 – 2002, 167 participants made up the final sample pool which consisted of people from the original group which had married at least one time. Of the 167 participants, 51 of them had gone through at least one divorce. The measures were collected by using questionnaires which allowed for the collection of data which focused on education, work history, family history. Additional data was collected which consisted of a scoring mechanism which focused on Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development. I believe this was in hopes of determining the...