Stay sane, girls, and give men a pause

Sydney Morning Herald
December 23, 2003

By Lyndsay Moss in London

The key to happiness - and sanity - for women could be to spend the whole of their lives single, new British research suggests.

 
A survey of almost 4500 men and women found that women who stayed single enjoyed much better mental health than those who had married or suffered a relationship split.
 
But the same was not true for men, who fared better mentally if they were in a relationship.
 
The research, published yesterday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, is at odds with the Bridget Jones generation of women who believe they can only be truly happy once they have nabbed a man.
 
Researchers at the University of London based their findings on the response to a mental health questionnaire of adults under 65 taking part in the British Household Panel Survey.
 
The team, led by Dr Michaela Benzeval, also found that serial relationships were good for men's mental health, but were bad for women.
 
While men did better mentally if they simply lived with a partner, marriage was more beneficial to a woman's mental health.
 
Break-ups were also painful for both sexes, but women generally took longer to recover.
 
Women's mental health also got progressively worse the more break-ups they had and the more new relationships they had to start.
 
And women who remained alone after a marriage split had the worst mental health of all those surveyed, apart from those who were alone immediately after breaking up with a partner.
 
The researchers said: "Men in first partnerships displayed better mental health than those who remained single, whereas women who remained single displayed equally good mental health to those in their first partnership and better health than those who had experienced a partnership spilt.
 
"This is further support for the finding that single men display more distress than married men and vice versa for women."
 
One recommendation put forward by the team was that separation and divorce support organisations should target women who experienced multiple splits.
 
Press Association
 
ends
 

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