61 Girls with Absolute Celibacy in Iran: Why-ness and their comparative adjustment in life with married counterparts Maliheh Golfam,1 Ebrahim Talaee ,2 Kazem Rasoulzadeh Tabatabaee3Received: 2015/3/23 Accepted:2016/2/1Abstract 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, 1962) was applied on 40 girls with absolute celibacy and 40 married . The two groups were matched in demographic features and the findings, which are all discussed in Iranian 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.

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