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Longitudinal study with adults in Germany indicates that emotional well-being does not depend solely on being single or in a relationship. Data analyzed over 13 waves show that low or medium quality bonds may be associated with lower life satisfaction.
A longitudinal study with more than 12,000 adults in Germany indicates that being in a romantic relationship does not guarantee, by itself, more happiness or emotional well-being, according to research published in 2026 in the scientific journal Personality and Individual Differences.
The analysis concluded that the quality of the relationship had a significant impact on well-being indicators, above the simple fact of being single, dating, married, or in another type of affective bond.
The investigation was conducted by Menelaos Apostolou, from the University of Nicosia, and Elyakim Kislev, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, based on data from the German study Pairfam.
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In total, the researchers examined 13 waves of follow-up, which allowed them to observe changes in marital status, life satisfaction, and emotions reported by the same participants over the years.
The results indicated that bad or merely average relationships were associated with lower life satisfaction and fewer positive emotions than being single, according to the bond quality classification used in the survey.
In another segment, participants in relationships evaluated as good showed more favorable indicators of emotional well-being when compared to both singles and those in low or medium quality relationships.
Quality of the relationship weighs more than marital status
The research does not confirm the idea that any relationship is necessarily more favorable to well-being than being single, because the results varied according to the declared quality of the intimate relationship.
In the general data, participants reported greater emotional well-being in waves in which they were in a relationship, but this difference changed when the authors separated the bonds by quality.
When the relationship was classified as bad or moderate, the advantage associated with the relationship disappeared or reversed, with lower rates than those observed during periods of being single.
This result led the researchers to emphasize that marital status alone does not explain the variation in emotional well-being with the same precision as the quality of the affective bond.
A relevant methodological point is that the analysis compared changes experienced by the same people over time, rather than observing only differences between distinct groups at a single moment.
With this design, the study evaluated how well-being varied when someone entered a relationship, left it, or remained in a relationship perceived as good, moderate, or bad.
Kislev stated, in a communication about the research, that the follow-up over several years allowed for observing changes in happiness as the participants’ relationship status changed.
In the interpretation presented by the authors, the central data point is not just being accompanied, but under what conditions this bond is maintained and how it relates to everyday emotional experience.
Singleness had different effects between men and women
The survey also identified differences between men and women, although the researchers indicated that not all observed effects were significant within the set of results.
Among men, singleness was associated with more negative emotions compared to the experience reported by single women, but the study described this difference as small.
This result does not make singleness a uniform experience, because the emotional well-being analyzed by the authors involves different dimensions, such as positive emotions, negative emotions, loneliness, and life satisfaction.
Depending on the social context, support network, and personal trajectory, being single can be experienced in different ways, without the data authorizing a single rule for all participants.
Even so, the comparison made by the authors shows that the condition of being single did not always have the worst outcome in the evaluated indicators, especially when compared with low or medium quality relationships.
The research also pointed out that relationships considered bad or moderate can reduce the feeling of loneliness compared to singleness, although this was not enough to raise other well-being indicators.
This point helps to separate two dimensions evaluated in the study: a relationship can decrease loneliness and, at the same time, be associated with lower life satisfaction and fewer positive emotions.
Good relationships concentrated better well-being indicators
The study does not state that being single is always better, nor that relationships are harmful by definition, but it shows an important difference between emotional bonds and the quality of those bonds.
According to the results, good relationships were associated with the highest levels of emotional well-being, while bad or average relationships appeared in a lower position than singleness in some of the indicators.
In practice, the data shifts the analysis from the simple contrast between singles and people in relationships to the evaluation of the conditions in which that relationship occurs.
The answer found by the researchers indicates that support, satisfaction, and perceived stability within the relationship are relevant elements to understand the connection between affective life and well-being.
For this reason as well, being single does not appear in the study as a universal solution, but as a condition that can produce different results depending on individual and social circumstances.
The survey itself works with multiple dimensions of emotional well-being, which limits simplified readings about romantic happiness or the automatic superiority of one marital status over another.
Another relevant limitation is that the study does not detail all types of singleness, such as the situation of those who are single by choice, after a recent separation, or due to difficulty finding partners.
Without this separation, the analysis allows for a comparison of singleness and relationships of different qualities, but does not fully explain the reasons why each participant was without a partner at a given time.
Even with this limitation, the data relativizes the notion that life as a couple automatically represents emotional improvement, by indicating that the emotional bond needs to have quality to be associated with greater well-being.
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