Happy you, healthy me? Having a happy partner is independently associated with better health in oneself.

OBJECTIVE

Happy people are healthy people. However, past research has largely overlooked the influence of romantic partners' happiness on physical health, particularly how a person's own emotional and physical well-being might also be affected by the happiness and health of their partner.

METHOD

The current study helps fill this gap. In a large nationally representative sample (N = 1,981 couples), a multilevel modeling procedure was employed to explore whether spousal life satisfaction contributes to self-health over and above the contribution of one's own life satisfaction.

RESULTS

First, own happiness predicted better self-health and exercise (r values > .07), consistent with previous studies. Importantly, spousal happiness also uniquely predicted better self-health (r values > .06), above and beyond own happiness and critical covariates.

CONCLUSIONS

This finding significantly broadens extant assumptions about the link between happiness and health, suggesting novel social mechanisms: simply having a happy partner may enhance health as much as striving to being happy oneself. Candidate pathways that could account for this unique boost are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record