Study of deep singles reveals surprising fact about romantic loners

Singles, no need to mingle.A new research study published in the Personal and Social Psychology Bulletin found that those who remain unmarried and unpartnered in a committed relationship reported high levels of contentment with their lives overall, even as they continue to face various ongoing romantic and sexual experiences throughout their singlehood. “We found that while relationship-focused outcomes, like sexual satisfaction and desire for a partner, varied more between participants, singles’ overall satisfaction with their lives remained remarkably robust,” Elaine Hoan, a University of Toronto PhD candidate and lead author of the study, told PsyPost.She also emphasized a growing public and academic interest in singles’ wellbeing as the unpartnered population grows and “people are increasingly delaying marriage,” paying increasing attention to internal factors like singles’ own personalities, age and sexual fulfilment status, rather than comparing them to their coupled-up peers.“In light of this rise, much is unknown regarding how singles’ psychological well-being changes over time, with some individuals arguing that singles report generally low well-being across the life span,” said Hoan.The study involved data from the German Family Panel, tracking 2,930 never-married German singles over an 11-year period between 2009 and 2021.

Participants were divided into three distinct groups: singles who began the study around age 18 (“emerging adults”), those who started around age 26 (“young adults”) and those who entered around age 36 (“middle-aged adults”).There was one main requirement: to continue to be eligible for the study, participants had to still be loveless at every one of the yearly check-ins.This proved to be more of an issue for the middle-aged cohort, as many partnered up with age — only 14% of this group qualified, as opposed to 67% of the emerging adults.Singles in the study answered regular questions about three main...