Horton Calen J, Walsh Lisa C, Rodriguez Anthony, Kaufman Victor A
Arkoda Research Group, Anchorage, AK, United States.
Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 21;16:1509349. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1509349. eCollection 2025.
Researchers have begun to address heterogeneity in the single population. Historically, singles have been differentiated either by their marital history (e.g., widowed, divorced, never-married) or by whether they considered their singlehood voluntary. However, these approaches leave many unanswered questions about heterogeneity among singles. Addressing heterogeneity is important in light of recent interest in understanding how well-being varies across categories of singles. In the present study, we address this question by using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) on a large cross-sectional sample of American singles ( = 4,835). Using LPA, we identified nine distinct profiles of singles differentiated by their romantic relationship goals (partner-seekers, casual-daters, and non-daters) and the perceived pressure they report experiencing from others to find a romantic partner (low-pressure, medium-pressure, and high-pressure). We then compared the profiles on levels of well-being, ill-being, personality, and socialization, as well as demographic, socioeconomic, and relationship history variables. Our analysis reveals several patterns of cross-category variability in outcomes, including some outcomes that vary primarily by romantic relationship goals, some that vary primarily by pressure, and others that vary according to a combination of both. Our results also suggest that two groups (low-pressure casual-daters and low-pressure non-daters) fare particularly well. They are also relatively common, comprising 30% of the sample. A third group-high-pressure non-daters-fare very poorly, and though they comprise only a small proportion of the sample (1.5%) the implications of this group are substantial when considered at national scale. The implications of these findings for research on singlehood and well-being are discussed.
研究人员已开始关注单一人群中的异质性问题。从历史上看，单身者要么根据其婚姻史（例如，丧偶、离异、未婚）来区分，要么根据他们是否认为自己的单身状态是自愿的来区分。然而，这些方法留下了许多关于单身者异质性的未解答问题。鉴于最近人们对了解幸福感如何在不同类型的单身者中变化的兴趣，解决异质性问题很重要。在本研究中，我们通过对一个大型美国单身者横截面样本（(n = 4835)）进行潜在剖面分析（LPA）来解决这个问题。通过LPA，我们识别出了九种不同类型的单身者，他们根据浪漫关系目标（寻找伴侣者、随意约会者和非约会者）以及他们报告所感受到的来自他人寻找浪漫伴侣的压力（低压力、中等压力和高压力）而有所不同。然后，我们比较了这些类型在幸福感、不幸福感、个性和社交方面的水平，以及人口统计学、社会经济和关系史变量。我们的分析揭示了结果中跨类别变异性的几种模式，包括一些主要因浪漫关系目标而变化的结果，一些主要因压力而变化的结果，以及其他因两者结合而变化的结果。我们的结果还表明，两组（低压力随意约会者和低压力非约会者）的情况特别好。他们也相对常见，占样本的30%。第三组——高压力非约会者——情况非常糟糕，尽管他们在样本中只占一小部分（1.5%），但从全国范围来看，这一组的影响却很大。我们讨论了这些发现对单身和幸福感研究的意义。
