2024/10/24 by Elaine Hoan, Geoff MacDonald · 2 voices · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Work-Family Balance Challenges #Gender Roles and Identity Studies #Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/19485506241287960
The experience of singles has been largely overlooked in relationship science, garnering a need for understanding correlates of singles’ well-being. Gender is an important focus of well-being research, and qualitative work on singlehood has suggested that men and women may have experiences of singlehood that differ in important ways. In this study ( N = 5941; 50% men; M age = 31.74), we provide the first comprehensive, descriptive profile of gender differences on a suite of variables with important ties to well-being in singlehood; satisfaction with relationship status, life satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and desire for a partner. Our results suggest that single women, on average, report higher levels of satisfaction with relationship status, life satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and lower desire for a partner. Exploratory analyses showed significant gender interactions with age and ethnicity. Overall, these findings suggest that women are, on average, happier in singlehood than men.