ArticleJournal of personality2026
Mapping Life Satisfaction Over the First Years of Cohabitation Among Former Singles Living Alone in UK and Germany.
Article in Journal of personality, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Mapping Life Satisfaction Over the First Years of Cohabitation Among Former Singles Living Alone in UK and Germany.Journal of personality · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveAs social norms and relationship dynamics evolve, it is important to examine how transitions from singlehood to partnership, cohabitation, and marriage relate to well-being.
methodUsing data from two large panel studies in the UK and Germany (1984-2019), we identified N = 27,459 individuals who reported being single and living alone at least once. Analyses focused on a subset (N = 1103; M
resultsLife satisfaction increased over the short to medium term after cohabitation across most socio-demographic groups. The increase peaked in the year of moving in (Δ ≈ 0.48 SD) and remained above pre-transition levels for the 2 subsequent years analyzed. Those who had found a partner one year before had already achieved significantly higher life satisfaction, while cohabitation showed no additional effect. Marriage showed a short-lived additional effect in the early 1990s, but not more recently. Lower-income individuals experienced a stronger post-peak decline.
conclusionFindings suggest that well-being increases are more closely aligned with relationship formation than with cohabitation or marriage. Among participants already in a relationship, increases in well-being were observed prior to cohabitation, suggesting anticipatory effects.
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