Girls with Absolute Celibacy in Iran: Why-ness and their comparative adjustment in life with married counterparts

Recent statistics showed that larger number  of Iranian girls are being pushed to the state of absolute celibacy. This is in clear contrast with social, cultural and religious values in the country; therefore, it has made serious concerns for both policy makers and the public. The present study aimed to a) explore why do girls prefer to stay unmarried and what their perception and feeling is in regard to marriage and b) investigate the social adjustment of these girls as a significant facet of mental and social health. An open-ended questionnaire was used for the first aim and Bell Adjustment Inventory (Bell, ۱۹۶۲) was applied on ۴۰ girls with absolute celibacy and ۴۰ married  . The two groups were matched in demographic features and the  findings, which are all discussed in Iranina society along with its existed values, showed  that remaining  celibacy is an undesirable  status occurred mainly due to not finding and  the right person. The other contributing reasons leading to girls’ celibacy are their imaginary and sort of perfectionistic attitude about their future partner, family’s  arrangements and interferences, financial limitations and physical attractions.  The statistical results indicated that girls with absolute celibacy scored less in total adjustment score and two of the subscales of adjustment at home and social adjustment.

کلیدواژه ها:

adjustment ، social health ، girls with absolute celibacy ، Iran ، unmarried