NEW YORK -- A study that found the longer women wait the slimmer the chance they'll marry has touched off a crisis among women who fear it may be too late to find their Prince Charming, Newsweek reported Saturday.
The magazine reported the study -- conducted by Yale sociologists Neil Bennett and Patricia Craig and Harvard economist David Bloom - 'set off a profound crisis of confidence among America's growing ranks of single women.'
Called 'Marriage Patterns in the United States,' the study found that white, college-educated women born in the mid 1950s who are single by 30 have only a 20 percent chance of marrying. By the age of 35, the odds drop to 5 percent.
National coverage of the study set off a panic, said New York therapist Bonnie Maslin.
'Everybody was talking about it and everybody was hysterical,' Masilin told the magazine. 'Those who weren't sad got mad.'
The magazine quoted several young women who felt pressured to marry because of the study, which was made public in February. It said the problem is made even tougher because the women affected by the study are part of the baby boom generation which has a severe shortage of available single men.
The comments were part of a magazine cover story called, 'Too Late for Prince Charming?'
