Although being married or in a long-term relationship is often considered the norm, more and more people are staying single for life. But being single can bring economic and medical disadvantages, especially as people age and may become more dependent on others.
New research in Psychological Science reveals that lifelong singles have lower scores on measures of life satisfaction and different personality traits compared to people in relationships, findings that point to the need for both useful networks and ways to create such networks that They are better suited to single people.
“When there are differences, they could be especially important in older people who face more health and financial problems,” Julia Stern, one of the lead authors and a senior researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany, said in an interview with APS. . “They need more help, and the help is usually the partner.”
Stern and his colleagues compared single people and couples on their life satisfaction ratings and Big Five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). The study used a survey of more than 77,000 Europeans over 50 and was the first of its kind to look at cultures and people who had been single their entire lives. The findings revealed that, in addition to having lower life satisfaction scores, lifelong singles are less outgoing, less conscientious, and less open to experience, compared to people in relationships.
Previous studies used different definitions of being single, sometimes considering only current status and other times drawing the line between never having married or, alternatively, never having lived with a partner. But people who have been in a serious relationship in the past (even if it’s already over) may have different personality traits than those who have never been that committed. To investigate this, Stern and her colleagues grouped respondents according to different definitions: currently in a relationship, never living with a partner, never married, or never having been in a long-term relationship. People who had never been in a serious long-term relationship scored lower on extraversion, openness, and life satisfaction than those who were currently single but had lived with a partner or been married in the past. All singles scored lower on these measures than people in current relationships.
Although this study cannot definitively decipher whether personality differences are due to selection (people with certain personality types may be more likely to enter into relationships) or socialization (long-term relationships may change personalities), the evidence Aim for the first. Stern said that changes in personality due to a relationship are small and temporary. For example, although an extrovert who begins a new relationship may be willing to stay with his or her partner, over time his or her extraversion returns.
“These selection effects are more likely to occur: For example, people who are more extroverted are more likely to get into a relationship,” Stern said. But he warned that the results are average effects and not necessarily descriptive of all; Of course, there are single extroverts and introverts in committed relationships.
For singles, living in a society where the expectation is marriage can affect their life satisfaction. Because the large sample included people from 27 European countries, the researchers were able to ask if there were cultural differences. In countries with higher marriage rates (such as southern European countries), being single resulted in even lower life satisfaction scores, but the effects were small. However, the country’s religiosity did not seem to matter.
When comparing gender and age, single women scored higher on life satisfaction than single men, and older people tended to be happier with their single status than middle-aged singles. Stern speculated that, with the era in which their peers were marrying and starting families, older singles might accept their circumstances and be happier.
Singles may become happier with age, but their lower scores compared to people in relationships remain concerning. Previous research has shown that life satisfaction and particular personality traits (including extraversion and conscientiousness) can predict health and mortality, emphasizing the need to find ways to promote the well-being of older singles.
“There are differences between people who remain single all their lives and those who have a partner, and to me this means that we have to take more care of these people,” Stern said. He suggested developing new types of loneliness prevention programs that take these personality traits into account and help older singles meet like-minded people. “If they have people looking after them or taking care of them regularly, this could help.”