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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Some scientists have argued that married people are happier than those who are single, while others contend happier people are more likely to get married in general.
Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, researchers studied premarital well-being and found that marriage causes more happiness in people than being single, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Researchers also obtained data from the Gallup World Poll and concluded that marriage reduces stress during a midlife crisis in all regions of the world, apart from Sub-Saharan Africa.
“We find that the married have a less deep U-shape in life satisfaction across age groups than do the unmarried, indicating that marriage may help ease the causes of the midlife dip in life satisfaction and that the benefits of marriage are unlikely to be short-lived,” study authors Shawn Grover and John F. Helliwell wrote.
Previous researchers argued that life satisfaction was only boosted a few years prior to and after a wedding, the paper said. To test these claims, Grover and Helliwell compared the well-being levels of married people and single people at different ages and stages of marriage and found marital happiness lingered much longer.
An important role that a spouse continues to play in a successful marriage is that of a close friend and confidant.
–John F. Helliwell, Shawn Grover
One factor of marital happiness was friendship. Spousal friendship greatly impacts well-being, the researchers found. Men and women who reported their spouse was their best friend showed double the happiness than those who didn’t.
“An important role that a spouse continues to play in a successful marriage is that of a close friend and confidant,” Grover and Helliwell wrote.
One of the researchers’ hypothesis that could predict why married people are happier than those that are unmarried is the social support that reduces stress, the paper explained.
Previous data has shown the positive and negative emotions unmarried people feel are more extreme on weekends than on weekdays. The results were similar for married couples. However, the social support provided by a spouse was more likely to yield positive emotions on weekends.
Though women are more likely to find satisfaction in being married to their best friend than men, they are less likely to call their spouse their best friend, according to Grover and Helliwell.
"This paper provides evidence that the long-term benefits of marriage are substantial and worth further exploration,” Grover and Helliwell wrote. “While all friends are important for happiness, those who share beliefs or are married to each other are super-friends, with well-being effects apparently much larger than for friends on average.”
