Overview
- Researchers analyzed three large representative surveys, following participants annually from age 16 to 29 and compiling over 110,000 observations.
- Young adults who remained unpartnered showed steeper declines in life satisfaction and sharper increases in loneliness, with gaps most pronounced in the late twenties.
- A divergence in depressive symptoms emerged around age 23, yet transitioning into a first relationship did not yield a statistically significant change in depression.
- Being male and having higher education were linked to longer singlehood, while living alone or with parents reduced partnering odds compared with living with roommates.
- Lower initial well-being predicted staying single, and the authors emphasize the observational design, Western European samples, and age-29 cutoff limit causal claims and broader generalization.