Loved and lost or never loved at all? Lifelong marital histories and their links with subjective well-being

Abstract

<p>Marriage has been linked to higher well-being. However, previous research has generally examined marital status at one point in time or over a relatively short window of time. In order to determine if different marital histories have unique impacts on well-being in later life, we conducted a marital sequence analysis of 7,532 participants from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (54.2% women; Mage = 66.68, SD = 8.50; 68.7% White/Caucasian). Three different marital sequence types emerged: a “consistently-married” group (79%), a “consistently-single” group (8%), and a “varied histories” group (13%), in which individuals had moved in and out of various relationships throughout life. The consistently-married group was slightly higher in well-being at the end of life than the consistently-single and varied histories groups; the latter two groups did not differ in their well-being. The results are discussed in the context of why marriage is linked to well-being across the lifespan.</p>

Expanding relationship science to unpartnered singles: What predicts life satisfaction?

“…Most relevant psychological studies that sample singles compare their happiness to that of partnered counterparts. Such studies tend to find that single people are less happy than partnered people (Coombs, 1991;Myers and Diener, 1995;Stack and Eshleman, 1998;Stutzer and Frey, 2006); but the effects are relatively small (e.g., β < 0.05, d = 0.13, r = 0.14) and inconsistent across countries and time points (ranging from d = −0.34 in Latvia in 1995 to d = 0.60 in Sweden in 1981; Haring-Hidore et al, 1985;Lucas and Dyrenforth, 2005;Purol et al, 2020). A few studies suggest that partnered and unpartnered people may even have similar levels of happiness (Greitemeyer, 2009;Musick and Bumpass, 2012).…”

“…To our knowledge, the present study is one of a handful to use latent profile analysis (or other person-centered techniques like cluster analysis) to directly study single adults. Although unpartnered people have been included in similar analyses previously, they usually are not the primary focus (Purol et al, 2020;Park J. H. et al, 2021). However, previous research has used similar techniques to study spouses.…”

Unsupported and Stigmatized? The Association Between Relationship Status and Well-Being Is Mediated by Social Support and Social Discrimination

“…These between-group differences have also been corroborated by longitudinal evidence. Purol and colleagues (2020) utilized a large nationally representative sample to illustrate that adults who were consistently coupled across their life span reported greater well-being compared to adults who were consistently single across their life span. Similarly, adults experience reductions in loneliness across time following marriage and increases in loneliness following marital separation/divorce ( Buecker et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The increasing rates of solo-living and single status suggest that singlehood across the lifespan is becoming more socially acceptable. Despite this, meta-analytic ( Diener et al, 2000 ; Haring-Hidore et al, 1985 ) and longitudinal ( Buecker et al, 2020 ; Purol et al, 2020 ) studies suggest that, on average, single adults experience worse life satisfaction and subjective well-being compared to coupled adults.…”

A cross-sectional study of Malaysian low-income drug addict wives: Relationship between family impact, coping and mental wellbeing

“…According to a prior study, married individuals had a higher sense of wellbeing than unmarried, divorced, or widowed individuals. [34][35][36][37] However, the problems that married couples have because their husbands are addicted to drugs have a negative effect on the quality of their marriage. [38][39][40] Numerous previous studies have examined the relationship between family impact such as marital conflict and various aspects of wellbeing.…”