The key to happiness: Friends or family?
The answer may surprise you

Date:
September 17, 2020
Source:
Southern Methodist University
Summary:
Think spending time with your kids and spouse is the key to your
happiness? You may actually be happier getting together with your
friends, a new study finds.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Think spending time with your kids and spouse is the key to your
happiness? You may actually be happier getting together with your friends,
said SMU psychology professor Nathan Hudson.


========================================================================== Hudson's research finds that people report higher levels of well-being
while hanging with their friends than they do with their romantic partner
or children. In fact, being around romantic partners predicted the least
amount of happiness among these three groups, reveals a study published
in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Hudson stressed, however, that the finding has more to do with the
activity than the person it is shared with. That's because people tend
to spend more of their time doing enjoyable activities with friends than
they do with family members, who occasionally find themselves together
doing unpleasant tasks like chores or caretaking duties.

"Our study suggests that this doesn't have to do with the fundamental
nature of kith versus kin relationships," he said. "When we statistically controlled for activities, the 'mere presence' of children, romantic
partners, and friends predicted similar levels of happiness. Thus, this
paper provides an optimistic view of family and suggests that people
genuinely enjoy their romantic partners and children." More than 400
study participants were asked to think back on times with their friends
or family -- identify the activity they shared -- and rate whether those experiences left them feeling various emotions, such as happy, satisfied,
and with a sense of meaning. Each emotion was rated from 0 (almost never)
to 6 (almost always).

This information and other responses about how study participants felt at different times allowed Hudson and his co-authors, Richard E. Lucas and M.

Brent Donnellan, to estimate rates of happiness with their friends
and family.

Lucas and Donnellan are both from Michigan State University.

The activities people most frequently perform while they're with their
romantic partners include socializing, relaxing, and eating. People tend
to do similar activities when they are with their friends, too. They just
do a lot more of these enjoyable tasks while hanging with their friends
and a lot less housework, the study found. For instance, 65 percent of experiences with friends involved socializing, but only 28 percent of
the time shared with partners.

Spending time with their children also meant more time doing things that
had a negative association, such as housework and commuting.

However, the activity that people reported most often with their offspring
- - childcare -- was viewed positively. And overall, people report feeling similar levels of well-being while in the presence of friends, partners,
and children once the activity was taken out of the equation.

There's a lesson here, Hudson said. "It's important to create
opportunities for positive experiences with romantic partners and children
-- and to really mentally savor those positive times. In contrast,
family relationships that involve nothing but chores, housework, and
childcare likely won't predict a lot of happiness."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Southern_Methodist_University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nathan W. Hudson, Richard E. Lucas, M. Brent Donnellan. Are
we happier
with others? An investigation of the links between spending time
with others and subjective well-being.. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 2020; 119 (3): 672 DOI: 10.1037/pspp0000290 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200917084049.htm

--- up 3 weeks, 3 days, 6 hours, 50 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)