How does your partnership history affect your well-being?

New CPC research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, has found that the partnership experiences of those who are living alone in late mid-life can affect their psychological well-being.

People's partnership histories are becoming increasingly diverse and complex as a result of the historical increases in separation and divorce and the rise in cohabitation. Added to this, as has been reported in previous research, rising numbers of people in mid-life are living on their own. These trends have lead to some concern, because previous studies have found that those who are separated, divorced, widowed or are living alone have lower well-being than those who are living with a partner.

Previous research has shown that the break-up of a partnership can have both a short-term and a long-term impact on someone's psychological well-being. But, it has rarely been investigated in a single study whether a partnership break-up is associated with well-being in the short- and longer term. Also, well-being is a multidimensional concept. It can refer to negative aspects, such as loneliness or depression, and to positive aspects, such as happiness or self-esteem. But so far, most studies have only looked at one particular aspect of well-being.

CPC researchers Dieter Demey, Ann Berrington, Maria Evandrou and Jane Falkingham therefore investigated how two indicators of psychological well-being are associated with partnership histories among those living alone in late mid-life (ages 50 to 64).

The researchers used data from the first wave of Understanding Society, containing responses on life satisfaction and several questions on 'psychological distress', current and previous partnerships, family life and socio-economic characteristics. The research considered 'GHQ-12 caseness', an indicator of psychological distress which is based on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The answers to these questions are used to calculate a score ranging from 0 (the least distressed) to 12 (the most distressed). Values of 0 to 3 indicate no poor psychological well-being (or 'no case') and values of 4 to 12 indicate poor psychological well-being (or 'case').

The results suggest that the experience of partnership dissolution can have a short-term impact on psychological well-being.

They also suggest that experiencing several partnership break-ups can have a long-term negative impact on someone's psychological well-being.

Another important finding is that partnership histories seem to be more strongly related with GHQ-12 caseness than with life satisfaction. This could be because these two indicators measure different aspects of well-being. It could also be due to the design of the questions on well-being and to how aspects of well-being change differently during the life course. Therefore the research illustrates that it is important to take into account more than one indicator of psychological well-being.


Read the full article published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Further CPC research in this area can be found in the 'Household dynamics and living arrangements across the life course' section of this website.

Posted 14/01/2014 11:07