Satisfying friendships make single people happy as they enter adulthood.
- Singles who are satisfied with their friendships tend to be happy with their lives.
- However, young adults without a romantic partner who were dissatisfied with their friendships were less fulfilled.
- The researchers believe additional research is needed to clarify any cause-and-effect relationship between happiness and the five predictors they studied.
“Whether it’s going to college, entering the workforce, or finding a partner, young single adults are going through a pivotal stage in their lives,” according to researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (United States). Previous research suggests that Americans in their early 20s may be less happy, on average, than at other times in their lives. At the same time, a growing percentage of young adults are not in long-term romantic relationships. This is why single people are increasingly studied as a separate group, without making conventional comparisons with people in relationships.
Five predictors of happiness were measured
So far, few cohorts have focused on distinct categories of single people, such as young adults. To better understand the experiences of these people, Californian scientists decided to conduct a study published in the journal Plos One. Their goal? Assessing the heterogeneity of factors related to happiness among singles entering adulthood. For the purposes of the research, the team recruited 1,073 single Americans aged 18 to 24. Participants answered a questionnaire measuring their general happiness as well as five factors predicting happiness: satisfaction with family, satisfaction with friends, self-esteem, neuroticism and extroversion . From the responses, the authors identified five distinct profiles of young single people, which were ranked in order of favorable or unfavorable indicators.
Friendship satisfaction is particularly linked to the happiness of young single people
“The profiles, classified in order of favorable or unfavorable indicators, presented differences in form and level which corresponded to different levels of happiness,” can we read in the results. Profile 1 singles with the most favorable indicators (e.g., high friendship satisfaction, low neuroticism) are the happiest. In contrast, those in profile 5, who were the most unhappy, had unfavorable levels for all five predictor variables.
According to scientists, in intermediate profiles, singles often compensate for disadvantages in one area (e.g., high neuroticism) with advantages in other areas (e.g., high friendship satisfaction) to achieve levels of average or rather high happiness. “Importantly, friendship satisfaction has emerged as a key indicator that often helps distinguish happy singles from those who are not. In short, the quality of your friendships is a key factor in your well-being. be, especially if you are single”they concluded.
