MYTH OF THE UNMARRIED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31017, 24 March 1966, Page 2

MYTH OF THE UNMARRIED

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright} WASHINGTON,

The myth of the gay bachelor and the bitter old maid has been destroyed by a research project carried out in the United States.

According to the survey, published by the Public Health Service, the bachelor is far from gay and the old maid is anything but bitter. The study covers an investigation of 785 adults aged 23 or over conducted by Dr.

Genevieve Knupfer, a psychiatrist of the Mental Research Institute in Berkeley, California. She reported that in accordance with the popular view of marriage as a triumph for women and a defeat for men, she expected to find men who have escaped marriage better adjusted than women who have failed to marry. But in fact the opposite was the case. The unmarried man turned ' out to be more unhappy and j maladjusted than either the ' single or the married woman ’ "i

and the married man was the happiest of ail four. Out of Step In the main, the bachelor was likely to be dissatisfied and out of step with the rest of the world. He was the most unhappy in his work, and ranked highest in the four groups in anti-social tenden- . ties. Nearly a third of the single 1 men interviewed had been in j trouble with the law. In addition, the bachelor would 1 probably grow increasingly i grim as he got older. In contrast, the old maid < was listed as having the hap- 1

piest childhood of all four groups. The doctor also suggested that the spinster might be the victim of her own intelligence. “It could be that because most men want to feel superior to their wives, the girls with strong, independent personalities and other gifted traits may be bypassed in favour of the more pliant females.” The married man scored the highest in happiness, high spirits and job satisfaction. In addition, he worried less and was least likely to feel lonely ot depressed. S