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• Posted October 3, 2024

Good Friendships Crucial to Young Adults' Happiness, Study Finds

If you're a 20-something who is unattached, having good friends is a key to happiness, new research shows. 

"The quality of your friendships is a key factor for your well-being, especially if you're single," a team led by Lisa Walsh, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California, Los Angeles, reported Oct. 2 in the journal PLOS One. 

"We found that singles who were satisfied with their friendships tended to be happy with their lives, while those dissatisfied with their friendships were less happy," they added in a journal news release.

Other research has found that Americans in their early 20s tend to be less happy than at other times of life -- and a growing percentage of folks in that age group are not in long-term relationships. 

While researchers are increasingly looking at single folks as a group, few studies have zeroed in on sub-groups, such as younger adults. This one analyzed responses to a survey of 1,073 single adults between the ages of 18 and 24.

They were asked about their overall happiness as well as five factors that predict happiness: self-esteem, neuroticism, outgoingness, satisfaction with family and satisfaction with friends. 

The study was built on what is known as latent profile analysis -- an assumption that individuals aren't all the same and that differences among them fit diverse categories.

Researchers found that differences among the young, single adults they surveyed fell into five categories, corresponding to different levels of happiness — from most happy to least. 

The upshot: Respondents who were happiest were the least neurotic and most satisfied with their friendships. Those who were least happy had poor scores on all five happiness predictors. 

"Higher scores on some of the five predictors appeared to offset lower scores on others, with friendship satisfaction being particularly strongly linked to participants' happiness," the researchers wrote.

Based on these findings, they suggest that young, single adults make it a priority to forge meaningful, long-term friendships. 

They added that more research is needed to understand the cause-and-effect relationship between the five predictors and happiness.

More information

Psychology Today has more about happiness, including its benefits for health and well-being.

SOURCE: PLOS, news release, Oct. 2, 2024