Courtship and personality.

Abstract

About five hundred students in an eastern coeducational college supplied information regarding their courtship behavior and completed the Bell Adjustment Inventory. Analysis of the data shows that the onset and frequency of dating are more closely related to the social than to the emotional factor in personality. On the other hand, in accounting for the onset and frequency of "going steady," the emotional factor plays a bigger part. Students who start "going steady" in junior high school or earlier and who change "steadies" frequently are likely to be the emotionally maladjusted. Also, irrespective of educational level, students who "go steady" contrary to the wishes of their parents are inclined to be emotionally maladjusted.