When it comes to their mental health over the long term, most people don't need a committed romantic partner. What they do need is this, writes belladepaulo
, or single and unpartnered. There were some nonsignificant trends in the data, but even those were not always consistent with the authors’ predictions. For example, the women who were dating tended to experienceFor the men, having a romantic partner mattered more than it did for the women, but again, not exactly in the ways the authors predicted. The authors thought that the unpartnered single men would do worse than the single men who were dating on every measure, but that never happened.
The cohabiting men were predicted to do less well than the married men, but that never happened, either. The married men werelikely to report frequent depressive symptoms. They were also slightly more likely to experience stress than the cohabiting men.was also no protection against loneliness, as married men were no less lonely than cohabiting men.
In this study, the single people who were not dating were disadvantaged in many significant ways. They were less well off financially than the married or dating people. They were least likely to be employed and least likely to have private health insurance. The uncoupled women were least likely to have some college. In some of their analyses, the authors tried to control statistically for these differences and a few others, but it made little difference.
Those romantic partnerships were supposed to provide the social attachments and commitments that enhance people’s psychological well-being. For the most part, they didn’t. The data the authors reported actually did show the importance of social ties, just not the narrow romantic ones that are most often acknowledged and celebrated., assessing the extent to which they could open up to their friends and family, and rely on friends and family when they have a problem.