A recent study from the University of Buffalo concluded that high-quality relationships are strongly associated with better physical and mental health in young adults.
According to Ashley Barr, an assistant professor in UB’s Department of Sociology, millennials are waiting longer than previous generations to get married—and while they wait, they move in and out of relationships, gaining new experiences with a number of different partners.
Barr pointed out that a lot of studies focus on how marriages affect health. But the frequently-changing relationships with significant others that we all have when we’re young—well before marriage—are super important for health, too.
“Health benefits begin to accrue relatively quickly with high-quality relationships and supportive contexts,” Barr said in a press release. “And then we see detrimental effects from low-quality relationships—particularly, those low-quality relationships that last a long time.”
Basically, being in a happy and healthy relationship positively affects your mental and physical health. Predictably, unhappy and destructive relationships lead to negative health effects.
The study, published in the Journal of Family Psychology, was prompted by the findings in a previous report Barr conducted. She found in an earlier study that patterns of instability in relationships seemed to coincide with health problems, like depression and problems with alcohol. The preceding results used an all-African-American sampling group, which led Barr to conduct a similar experiment with different demographics.
In her new study, Barr used a sample of rural all-white youth from Iowa who came from two-parent, married families. Even with the contrasting sample groups, Barr found that the results were nearly identical.
The study took into a consideration partner hostility, satisfaction with the relationship, the presence of criticism, support and kindness, affection and commitment to a partner. The conclusion is simple: Bad relationships are bad for your health.
Long-term and high-quality relationships have now been proven by two studies to be more beneficial for young adults in terms of emotional and physical wellbeing. If you’re not in a happy and supportive relationship, being single may be the best option—not just for your heart, but your health, too!