SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 94, 21 April 1945, Page 9

SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

APPLYING PREDICTION TESTS

Is it true that there is less chance of successful marriage now than there was a hundred years ago, and if so is there anything that can be done about it? This is the question that many young people are asking to-day, and is one of the chief reasons for setting up a Family Guidance Centre in Auckland.

Human relationships, or getting along happily with other people, is a science which has developed rapidly in the last ten years, and which could be used to a much greater extent by young people preparing for marriage. To those seeking guidance in marriage matters the first advice of the Family Guidance Centre would be "don't choose a partner with whom there is very little chance of happy marHere they apply marriage prediction tests similar to those used by marriage counselling services in America, but adopted to New Zealand conditions.

A similarity of background of religious beliefs, tastes and ambitions are ingredients for successful marriage, but marriage experts agree that the most important factor is emotional maturity, because people possessing it are free from complexes, neuroses, and phobias.

Happiness in marriage runs in families and the boy and the girl from happy homes have a much greater chance of emotional maturity and married happiness than those from broken and unhappy homes. Marriage counsels in the United States claim high percentages of successful marriages among those who took their advice, so that if similar advice can be sought and taken here a great boom will be conferred on young people in Auckland.