Having a Partner or Living with a Partner: Differences in Life Satisfaction and Mental Health

Ann Evans (), Edith Gray () and Anna Reimondos ()
Additional contact information
Ann Evans: Australian National University
Edith Gray: Australian National University
Anna Reimondos: Australian National University

Applied Research in Quality of Life, 2023, vol. 18, issue 5, No 6, 2295-2313

Abstract: Abstract Using longitudinal data from Australia we compare the wellbeing effects of transitions both into and out relationships, using two different measures of wellbeing: life satisfaction and mental health. We distinguish between the formation, and ending of, three different types of relationships across three years: Living-apart-together (LAT), cohabitations, and marriages. For those in LAT relationships, we find they are quite distinct from other ‘single’ people. Starting, or ending, a LAT relationship has a significant impact on an individual’s wellbeing. We also find that transitions into relationships, and transitions out of relationships, do not have equivalent effects. Generally, moving from a relationship to being single had a more significant negative impact on life satisfaction and mental health, than moving into a relationship had a positive impact. These findings suggest that having an intimate partner, even one who is not co-resident, is related to higher levels of wellbeing compared to having no partner.

Keywords: Relationships; Life satisfaction; Mental health; Marriage; Cohabitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-023-10186-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:5:d:10.1007_s11482-023-10186-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11482

DOI: 10.1007/s11482-023-10186-9

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Research in Quality of Life is currently edited by Daniel Shek

More articles in Applied Research in Quality of Life from Springer, International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().