To begin our discussion we will first give a definition of an adolescent. The term adolescent "refers to the post pubertal population younger than twenty years of age who have a distinctive life-style; for those immediately younger the term young adults is used"(John and Pat Caldwell, 1998). Adolescence is socially defined. It is seen there as an instrument for social change and prepares you for adult life in societies where adolescence is found. Adolescence is associated with the following: going to school, trying to achieve occupational positions, and creating boy- girl friendships. Adolescence is associated with the moving away from agrarian society to full-time education which is needed in complex societies (John and Pat Caldwell,1998).

In the study of adolescence there has been a hug

We are now going to look at different marital roles. There are the instrumental or traditional model and the companionship or egalitarian model. The difference between the two is the difference between husband and wife relationship. In the instrumental model the husband brings in the majority of the household income and takes care of the finances, the wife on the other hand, stays home and takes care of the children. The companionship model stresses more of a friendship and mutual sharing of responsibilities between spouses. In this model the roles for spouses can be reversible (Pollock, Die, and Marriott, 1989). We feel that the companionship model works because it allows open lines of communication, which we feel is very important to a marriage.

Upon looking at our research material, we feel that couples should get married in college. In college you learn greater responsibilities and how to make life choices, which enables you to live a more mature adult life. After learning about these things in college you are able to take on the responsibilities of a married life. We have found that colleges are flexible with working with the married couple.

In our five-question survey on marriage we polled a college sociology class which consisted of a sample size of 31. We broke up our age groups from 18-21, 22-25, 26-29, and 30 and above. Our first question was on the most acceptable age to get married. The majority of the students chose 18-21 to be the most acceptable at 47 percent. The minority, however came out to be 30 and above at 3 percent. * Note: One student survey was discarded because they indicated all answers as being correct.

The majority of the students surveyed agreed that you should not get married in college, but the it was only a very narrow margin between those who said that it was alright to get married in college compared to those who thought that you should not. Once married you have to be ready to start a family and of course be open to the possibility of having children. Children take up a lot of a parent's time as well as a lot of a family's income. Having children while in college could very well hurt your chances of getting an education as we saw in the data presented about adolescent mothers. At the age of 22-25 years many college students have a bachelor's degree and are then ready to start their new careers. Their jobs would also bring along the financial stability needed to maintain the needs of a family. The age bracket of 22-25 would have the better financial ability to support a family and we are sure that the students took this into consideration when they filled out this survey.

The question that we looked at in this paper was should people get married in college. After reviewing the data on adolescent marriages, we would have to agree with the information that we collected from our survey that 22-25 was the best age to get married. People in the 18-21 range are still considered as adolescents and still have a lot of growing up to do. By the ages of 22-25 students have learned how to live by themselves and have possibly even earned a degree to support themselves and a new family if it were their choice to get married. I guess we should really say that we agree with getting married later in your college years after you have learned how to take care of yourself so that you in turn can take care of someone else.

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Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)