Marriage

It was interesting to me how Berger (2011) discusses marriage and relationships and dialectical thinking. I began thinking about the select few couples that I know that made it together as a couple since high school. I actually have a best friend who's parents met in middle school. What a rare thing to see anymore! So what I was thinking was that, I wonder, how much religion or an deeply embedded value system played into that for my friends parents. Knowing what we know about how much the brain changes over time, it seems young couple would have to stick out some tough disagreements with not as much ability to reason. Like Berger (2011) states, teenage marriages are more likely to fall apart than adult marriages. And, I do know that for myself, it was certainly harder to see someone else's viewpoint as an adolescent. Like we read in the text "neurological immaturity makes a young person overcome by jealousy or despair unable to find the synthesis" (Fisher, 2006).

It makes me wonder, if one is not able to complete certain stages of development in childhood, how does this affect future ability to maintain a stable relationship? Then, combine with that lack of an education or, rather, the lack of income of resources to even attend any sort of education past high school, how can this affect relationships? I would assume that a strong moral foundation would help someone like this going forward, or even a strong religious faith would help guide this person.