How many times have you heard the question, are you happy or are you? Well, we have a reason to believe that if they ask it, it is definitely for something and science will clarify it for us.
Society believes that living and sharing as a couple is the best, or at least this is what studies that measure health and psychological variables between married and single people say.
But it is definitely not like that, that is why we are going to tell you what the scientists conclude on this subject, so take note because if you are, it will not be so bad after all.
1. They have more satisfying jobs
A follow-up of university students showed in a study by the University of the State of Washington that those who attributed a lower intrinsic value to work —the one related to the satisfaction obtained by the tasks themselves— they ended up getting married or having children within nine years of graduating. Once in a relationship, women gave less importance to extrinsic rewards —salary, security, prestige, opportunities to learn— and both downplayed intrinsic rewards, such as challenges or responsibilities. When they had children, men lost even more interest in the values of their own tasks to focus on security or salary. Ultimately, singles ended up enjoying the work itself more.
2. They are more connected to their family and friends
An analysis of the relationships of Americans with their environment, carried out by the University of Massachusetts, concluded that single people tend to be more in contact with, help and receive help from parents, siblings, neighbors and friends than married people, who They live on their family island. Not taking care of social relationships can be as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to the meta-study with data from more than 300,000 people led by the psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad. Another subsequent report supports this: happiness and good health in adults are also related to a strong friendship environment, which resulted in fewer chronic diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, psychiatric problems and coronary complications.
3. They develop more as people
Although the longitudinal study developed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison concluded that marriage brought well-being to both men and women, there were a number of aspects such as autonomy and personal growth in which singles of both sexes scored significantly better than those who had a partner. It is something that develops over time: while young people were worse off being single, middle-aged adults were psychologically more resilient. «Those who remained single over time had greater determination and a sense of continued personal growth than those who remained married»DePaulo commented in his speech.
4. They are more self-sufficient, also emotionally
An investigation published in the National Institute of Health of the United States, and conducted by two professors of the Faculty of Psychology of Lafayette College, reached the conclusion, after comparing the psychological resources of married people with those of single people, that although the former felt more integrated into society, the singles had developed their own tools and were notably more self-sufficient than their fellow students with a partner. A quality that they used to combat the negative effects and enhance the positive ones, for which the couples tended to rely on their family ties.
5. They are as long-lived as those who never part
The longest study ever done on longevity is the Terman Life-Cycle Study, which was started by Lewis Terman with 1,077 11-year-old boys and girls in 1921 and ended when the participants died. A lifetime measuring various variables, but above all two: in a first control, in 1950, his marital status —whether they remained single, married, divorced or widowed—in a second moment, in 1991, mortality.
Conclusion? Those who never married or mated enjoyed just as long lives as those who married and never parted ways. Does this mean that once you get married you have to stay in that state forever if you want to live longer? “Unfortunately”, explains Bella DePaulo, “it is something that we will never be able to know, because for this it would be necessary to carry out a study in which each participant was randomly assigned a state. —’You have had to get a divorce’—; perhaps that way we could check, for example, whether someone who wanted to separate, but who was assigned to remain married, had led a short and miserable life.”
6. They have fewer heart problems
Against the myth that singles spend the holidays and this negatively affects their cardiovascular health, a study that lasted eight years, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family and that was carried out with more than 9,000 participants during eight years (from 1992 to 2000). After analyzing men and women with different marital status —married once, married a second time or more, widowed, divorced/separated, always single—, found that at the beginning of the study, single men and women had healthier hearts. Over the years, only single men turned out to be, at the end of the investigation, those who were less likely to suffer from heart disease.
Another investigation in which none other than 3.5 million people was presented by the media as “marriage is good for your heart”. In fact, married people scored better in almost all the variables, except, for example, in coronary diseases than the rest, less frequent among single people. Problems: it was only measured once and, as is known, correlation does not imply causality; and the sample was not random, but based on who saw an ad.
With information from El País