Introduction - To introduce the topic and explain why the research is important - Most people agree that romantic relationships greatly affect how we feel. For example, we typically feel happier when getting married but sadder when breaking up. However, previous research primarily focused on changes in cognitive well-being but less so affective well-being around positive and negative relationship events. Set point theory suggests that subjective well-being might change shortly around such experiences but bounce back in the long run., Method - To describe how the authors conducted the research, with relevant details about participants and variables examined - Using data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, we examined changes in life satisfaction, happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger in the 5 years before and 5 years after moving in with a partner (N = 4,399), marriage (N = 3,731), separation (N = 3,538), and divorce (N = 1,103)., Results or Findings - To describe what the authors found - Life satisfaction and happiness increased slightly in the years before moving in and marriage. For marriage, these effects were short-lived and diminished after 1 year. Separation and divorce were associated with much larger well-being impairments (especially a strong increase of sadness) that were most pronounced shortly before and after the event and attenuated in the following years. Changes in anxiety and anger were much smaller., Discussion or Conclusion - To interpret the results, draw conclusions, describe implications for the real world and future Research - Our findings suggest that romantic relationship events relate to not only substantial changes in life satisfaction but also affective well-being. These changes vary for different well-being facets, are most pronounced for happiness and sadness at the time of the event, and bounce back in the long run. As one of the first studies on this topic, we demonstrate that set-point theory applies to not only cognitive well-being but also affective well-being around romantic relationship events.,

Abstracts

by
Print
Embed

Leaderboard

Visual style

Options

Switch template

Continue editing: ?