A Lifecourse Perspective on Singlehood

Abstract

A growing number of adults are spending more of their lifetime as single. Nevertheless, existing relationship research still generally positions singlehood as something to avoid, limiting our understanding of the rapidly evolving position of singlehood within the lifecourse. This special issue includes four articles that collectively offer theoretical and empirical inquiries of developmental and historical trends in singlehood and relationship histories. We hope that the papers in this special issue will encourage scholars to revise and expand their perspective on relationships to include singlehood alongside committed relationships as a potentially viable and healthy status as well as a vallid point of destination.

Disclosure Statement

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

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [R01AA026861].