ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows marriage values, patterns of communication and expressing affection, the nature of the couple’s social life and leisure time activities, the division of chores and decision-making, and even the nature of marital problems only differ modestly between younger and older women. It suggests that a measure of the degree of romantic love experienced at the time of marriage was clearly related to all three measures of marital success. If the evidence from the Detroit survey points to premarital relations changing in ways that are only partly revolutionary, the evidence in regard to marriage itself points to an even less dramatic shift. The book also suggests that such stages may now be rarer and briefer than they were for people entering the dating stages of “playing the field” by dating several people.
