Sironi, Maria;
Chanfreau, Jenny;
Palma, Maria;
Zilanawala, Afshin;
(2025)
Young Adults’ Relationship Happiness in England During COVID-19.
Journal of Happiness Studies
, 26
(7)
, Article 126. 10.1007/s10902-025-00928-x.
Preview |
Text
Sironi_et_al-2025-Journal_of_Happiness_Studies.pdf - Published Version Download (815kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Given the relevance of romantic relationships for physical and mental health, it is important to be attentive to how younger adults may have experienced COVID-19 and to explicitly differentiate between being in a romantic relationship and living arrangements (i.e. co-residing or not with the partner). Yet most research during the pandemic has focused on older adults, families, or cohabiting partners. This work investigates relationship happiness among 30-year-olds living with or apart from their partner during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. Using Next Steps, a nationally representative longitudinal study in England, we investigate the role of living arrangements on relationship happiness in 2020–2021 among 2338 30/31-year-olds. Levels of relationship happiness were lowest among those not living together throughout the pandemic, whereas there was no difference between those who were already living together before COVID-19 and those who moved in together during this period. The findings illustrate the importance of not conflating romantic relationships with co-residence to understand levels of relationship happiness among young adults and the role of romantic relationships for physical and mental health. Research and policy should attend to how younger adults were differentially affected by the pandemic lockdown measures.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Young Adults’ Relationship Happiness in England During COVID-19 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10902-025-00928-x |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00928-x |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Relationship happiness; Living arrangements; Young adults; COVID-19; Co-residence; England |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10218559 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
