Self-Esteem and College Dating Experience as Factors in Mate Selection and Marital Happiness: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Self-esteem test scores and reports of dating experience, collected from college women in 1956, are compared with the same women's 1968 reports of the timing and success of their marriages. From the original 1956 data, it was found that high self-esteem young women did significantly more dating and tended to go steady less often while in college. From the 1968 data and the present comparisons, it is now found that the young women who had dated more often tended to be married earlier, that there was a tendency for both the very high and the very low self-esteems to be inversely related to marital happiness. The results suggest self-esteem and early dating experience may deserve more attention in mate selection theory.