Marriage Age Views of BYU Students

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One topic that seems often to be on the minds of students at Brigham Young University is marriage. We were interested in seeing if there is a difference in opinion between students from Utah and those from outside of Utah on what the ideal age of marriage should be. We used a Qualtrics survey online to gather data from a variety of BYU students of different areas of study including family life, European studies, engineering, exercise science, geography, and religion. We had 259 participants. This included 82 males and 177 females, both married and single. Our survey asked background questions, opinions on the ideal age of marriage, and ratings of “marriage readiness” characteristics. We analyzed the data using correlation coefficients. There was a very weak positive relationship between state of origin and view on ideal age of marriage. We did find that BYU students rate financial independence and a college degree as important characteristics to prepare someone for marriage.

Introduction
The population we decided to study was students at Brigham Young University, married and unmarried, male and female. We used a convenience sample; however, we tried our best to get responses from a variety of students. We surveyed students from family life, European studies, engineering, exercise science, geography, and religion. We also surveyed three singles’ wards, including one freshman ward.
There are a few different reasons we were interested in conducting this study. First, students at Brigham Young University seem to be more focused on marriage and dating than students at other universities. There is pressure coming from family, religious leaders, and peers to get married. The age that these people think is ideal may vary depending on...

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