The latest study by the University of Melbourne tells us that being married is advantageous, particularly for men!
Researchers have questioned about 17,000 Australians on what makes them happy for its annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey.
What’s good for your general health?
The survey found that people who exercised every day were happier, as were folk who don’t smoke.
People who help out and do things with their neighbours are happier.
Having a good job was another happiness factor. The more people work, the better their health.
Living in a town with a population smaller than 1000 people and non-urban areas increase life satisfaction the most. This may be related to things like the lack of traffic congestion and reduced crime rates.
What is good for your relationship health?
It seems men are more satisfied with their partners than women. Living with a partner increases men’s general health, but not women’s.
Men were happiest if they had a partner, and women reported the highest glee factor from the single life-style. It is not to say that women get nothing out of relationships, but certainly not as much as men it seems.
Children make people less happy in relationships. Children add a source of tension to the relationship. Having a child might cause a decrease in satisfaction with your partner. You can of course gain some satisfaction associated with having a child.
For your children, the best age to move out of home is 21-24 if they want a higher income and wealth later in life.
Happiness wanes the longer a relationship lasts. The longer the duration of a relationship, the lower the satisfaction – except after 20 years or more of marriage.
De facto couples, on average, report higher levels of satisfaction with their partner than married couples. One of the main reasons is that they less likely to have children, the study found that children had a negative impact on relationship satisfaction.
People who are legally married tend to have been in those relationships longer than de facto couples and so there was a negative effect of relationship duration on satisfaction with the relationship.
This is all food for thought and prompts the question… if men are happier (and healthier) being married then wouldn’t it be in their best interests to ensure their wives are also happy and want to stay married?!
Perhaps counseling to help resolve some of those niggly issues sounds like a good idea right now. Make your marriage a win-win for both of you.
The report’s author, Associate Professor Roger Wilkins.
Link: http://cmmw.unimelb.edu.au/
Link: http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/