Married people have many reasons to be satisfied: they can share expenses, can live freely without the fear of dying alone and can spend time with other smug married people.
And now married people have yet another reason to feel good about themselves.
According to a new study, individuals who have tied the knot boast better well-being and overall life satisfaction.
In a paper published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, researchers collected data from two UK surveys in order to examine the benefits of marriage and marital friendship.
Lead authors Shawn Grover and John Helliwell of the Vancouver School of Economics in Canada looked at the British Household Panel Survey, which collected data from 30,000 people between 1991 and 2009, to get a sense of how overall life satisfaction measured in the UK.
After careful examination, the study found that marriage can significantly boost life satisfaction, particularly for those approaching middle-age.
“We find that the married have a less deep U-shape in life satisfaction across age groups than do the unmarried, indicating that marriage may help ease the causes of the mid-life dip in life satisfaction and that the benefits of marriage are unlikely to be short-lived,” the study stated.
The researchers also looked at the effects that friendship can have between spouses and found that this could be the key to true long term marital bliss.
“The well-being benefits of marriage are much greater for those who also regard their spouse as their best friend,” the authors concluded.
