Do married and/or cohabiting individuals fare better during the COVID-19 pandemic? Satisfaction with life and depression among adult twins in the United States

ABSTRACT

Due to social distancing measures implemented to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals are spending more time isolated at home with limited physical social interactions. The current study investigated whether marriage and/or cohabitation is associated with satisfaction with life and depression among 732 adult same-sex twin pairs (monozygotic and dizygotic) in the US using online survey data. Twin analysis showed that married and/or cohabiting individuals were more satisfied with life and less depressed than those not married and/or cohabiting. The association between marriage and/or cohabiting and satisfaction with life was not confounded by between-family factors, whereas that between depression was mediated by familial factors. These findings suggest that being in a close relationship may mitigate some of the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Close relationships may be an essential source of support as individuals rely on their intimate partners when faced with the uncertainty and stress of the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• relationship status
• cohabiting
• satisfaction with life
• depression

Acknowledgments

We thank the twin members of the Washington State Twin Registry for their participation in our research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.