Study claims satisfying friendships key to happiness for single young adults

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Satisfying friendships is the key to happiness for single young adults, according to a new study.

Analysis of factors linked with happiness among single people just entering adulthood found a "particularly strong" link between happiness and satisfying friendships, say scientists.

Study lead author Doctor Lisa Walsh said: "Prior research suggests that Americans in their early 20s may be less happy, on average, than at other points in their lives.

"Meanwhile, a growing percentage of young adults are not in long-term romantic relationships."

She said researchers are increasingly studying single people as a distinct group, without conventional comparisons to coupled people.

However, few previous studies have focused on distinct categories of single people, such as younger adults.

To better understand the individuals' experiences, Dr. Walsh and her colleagues analyzed online survey data from 1,073 single American adults aged 18 to 24.

The poll included questions assessing participants' overall happiness as well as five predictors of happiness: satisfaction with family, satisfaction with friends, self-esteem, neuroticism, and extraversion.

To analyze the participants' answers, the research team applied latent profile analysis - a research approach that assumes individuals fall into diverse subgroups within a population, instead of assuming a more homogeneous population, as traditional approaches often do.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS One , showed that the heterogeneity of the young, single adults in their dataset was best represented by dividing them into five subgroups, or profiles, each with distinctive combinations of the five measured predictors, and each corresponding to a different level of happiness.

Dr. Walsh, of the University of California, Los Angeles , said: "For instance, people in profile one were happiest and had favorable levels of all five predictors, including high friendship satisfaction and low neuroticism.

"Meanwhile, people in profile five, who were least happy, had unfavorable levels of all five predictors.

"Higher scores on some of the five predictors appeared to offset lower scores on others, with friendship satisfaction being particularly strongly linked to participants' happiness."

On the basis of their findings, the research team suggests that young, single adults might benefit from deliberately creating meaningful, long-term friendships.

However, they noted that further research is needed to clarify any cause-effect relationship between happiness and the five predictors they studied.

Dr. Walsh added: "One of the standout findings from our study is how deeply friendships shape happiness for single emerging adults.

"We found that singles who were satisfied with their friendships tended to be happy with their lives, while those dissatisfied with their friendships were less happy.

"In short, the quality of your friendships is a key factor for your well-being, especially if you're single."