Lifelong single people have lower life satisfaction and different personality traits compared to partnered people, prompting calls for improved support for those who choose the single life.
A new study found that more people were staying single for life, bringing economic and medical challenges, especially as people became older.
Senior researcher Julia Stern, from the University of Bern, in Germany, said that lifelong singles had lower scores on life satisfaction measures and different personality traits compared to partnered people.
Dr Stern said the findings pointed to the need for both helpful networks and ways to create those networks that were better catered to single people.
“When there are differences, they might be especially important in elderly people who face more health issues and financial issues,” she said.
“They need more help, and the help is usually the partner.”
Dr Stern and colleagues compared single people and partnered individuals on life satisfaction ratings and the Big Five personality traits of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
She said in addition to lower life satisfaction scores, the study found lifelong singles were less extraverted, less conscientious, and less open to experience, compared to partnered people.
“Previous studies used different definitions of being single, sometimes considering only current status and other times drawing the line at having never married or, alternatively, at never living with a partner.
“But people who have been in a serious relationship in the past, even if it has ended. might have different personality traits than those who have never been that committed.”
Read the full study: Differences Between Lifelong Singles and Ever-Partnered Individuals in Big Five Personality Traits and Life Satisfaction.
