Adults with long-lasting relationships have much better mental health than unattached people – even if they are not married, researchers report today.
A new study finds that co-habiting is as effective as marriage at staving off the blues, provided it involves a stable relationship.
Good relationships reduce rates of depression and dependency on alcohol or drugs, according to the report in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
The findings come from a study of 1,000 people in their late 20s in Christchurch, New Zealand.
By the age of 30, some 15.6 per cent of those who were unattached showed signs of depression – and this rose to 23 per cent among those who had been in a relationship for less than two years.
But the rate of depression fell to nine per cent among those who had relationships lasting longer than five years. And just 2.9 per cent of these people had problems with alcohol.
In the past marriage has been linked to improved mental health but not cohabitation.
Researcher Dr Sheree Gibb, of the University of Otago, New Zealand, said: "Our study suggests that partner relationships are protective for mental health, with the protective effect increasing as the length of the relationship increases. This could be because emotional support and financial stability tends to increase over the course of a relationship.
"Interestingly, we found that the legal status of the relationship did not make a difference."
Gibb SJ, Fergusson DM and Horwood LJ. Relationship duration and mental health outcomes: findings from a 30-year longitudinal study. British Journal of Psychiatry 2011; 198: 24-30
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