Relationship desire and life satisfaction among never-married and divorced men and women

Abstract

Very little attention has been paid to relationship desire and its consequences. The existing literature on relationship desire and life satisfaction among singles provides mixed findings from a limited range of datasets. To address this significant gap in the literature, this study uses the Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (Pairfam) dataset to investigate patterns of relationship desire and life satisfaction among divorced and never-married adults. The results of cross-sectional analyses showed that never-married men and women, as well as divorced women, depicted a negative correlation between relationship desire and life satisfaction. In addition, the perceived benefits of singlehood are a stronger correlate of relationship desire than life satisfaction, thus reducing the likelihood of a halo effect argument. The implications of the negative association of relationship desire with life satisfaction are discussed.

Lay Summary

The existing literature on the various aspects of relationship desire is rare and previous results show mixed findings and are mostly based on small samples. The results of the analyses herein determine that relationship desire has a significant, negative correlation with life satisfaction for most of the unmarried groups.

Keywords:

• Life satisfaction
• relationships desire
• divorce
• singlehood

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elyakim Kislev

Elyakim Kislev is an assistant professor at the Hebrew University and heads the School of Public Policy and Governance’s Honors Program. His research articles are on the subjects of population studies and relationships. Kislev’s first book is Happy Singlehood: The Rising Acceptance and Celebration of Solo Living, published by the University of California Press and translated into eight other languages. His second book is Relationships 5.0: How AI, VR, and Robots will Reshape our Emotional Lives, published by Oxford University Press, to be translated into several languages as well.