The authors see decreases in anger, impulsivity, shyness/social anxiety, and depression as indicative of greater maturity. They hypothesized that people in their 20s who transitioned into a long-term romantic relationship would show more maturity (so defined) than people who stayed single.

Why? Because, according to the authors, those who became partnered had "succeeded" in their "social investment."

In this 2-part review, I'll address the following questions in this order:

I. WHO WERE THE PARTICIPANTS?
II. HOW WAS PERSONALITY AND MATURITY MEASURED?
III. WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY?
IV. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? THE AUTHORS' VIEW
V. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? MY VIEW

Parts I, II, and III are discussed in this first post. You can read it and see what you think of the findings. Then in the next post, I'll address Parts IV and V, so you can see what the authors think the results mean and what I think.

I. WHO WERE THE PARTICIPANTS?

The participants were all from southeastern Michigan. They were born around 1972 and followed since they were in the 5th or 6th grade. This study is based on data from three points in time:

1992/1993 (when they were 20 or 21 years old),
1995/1996 (when they were 23 or 24 years old), and
1999/2000 (when they were 27 or 28 years old)

The authors focused on three groups:

"Stable singles:" They started out single and stayed that way during the 8 years of the study.

"Beginners:" They started out single, and transitioned to a long-term romantic relationship (not necessarily marriage) sometime between the ages of 20/21 and 23/24.

"Late bloomers:" They were single the first two times they were contacted, and transitioned to a long-term romantic relationship between the ages of 23/24 and 27/28. ("Late bloomers" may be a bit misleading as a designation for those who became partnered between the ages of 23 and 28. In the year 2000, the median age at first marriage was 25.1 for women and 26.8 for men.)

There was another group, too, but they were mostly set aside. The "early beginners" were already in a committed relationship when they were 20 or 21. Over time, some stayed in that relationship, others split and stayed single, and still others split and later entered a new long-term romantic relationship.

II. HOW WAS PERSONALITY AND MATURITY MEASURED?

Here are some sample items showing how the authors measured the various aspects of personality. Participants indicated for each one how often they experienced it, from never to daily.

Self-esteem: "I am satisfied with myself."

Neuroticism measures:

Anger: "I have a hot temper."
Impulsivity: "I give in to impulses."
Shyness/social anxiety: "I feel shy."
Depression: "I feel sad, unhappy, or depressed."

The authors see increases in self-esteem and decreases in anger, impulsivity, shyness, and depression as indicative of greater maturity.

III. WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY?

(A summary of the results is at the end of this section.)

APPROACHING THE MID-20s

Between the ages of 20/21 and 23/24:

Self-esteem:
There was no statistically significant change in self-esteem for either group.

For the four measures of NEUROTICISM (anger, impulsiveness, depression and shyness/social anxiety):

Anger was totally unrelated to relationship status; it decreased the same amount for the singles as for the people who became partnered.

Shyness/social anxiety, depression, and impulsiveness decreased for both the singles and the people who became partnered, but it decreased more for the partnered. (For the singles, the decrease in impulsiveness was not statistically significant.)

APPROACHING THE LATE 20s

Between the ages of 23/24 and 27/28:

Self-esteem:
Those who became partnered showed an increase in self-esteem. The first analysis seemed to show a decrease in self-esteem for singles. However, subsequent analyses testing for sex differences showed that self-esteem decreased only for single men; for single women, it stayed the same. (To test for sex differences, the authors combined the data from both sets of transitions, 20 to 23 and 23 to 27.)

For the measures of NEUROTICISM:

Anger, again, did not differ according to relationship status. It decreased for both the singles and the people who became partnered.

Impulsivity didn't change either. It stayed about the same for the singles and for those who became partnered.

Shyness/social anxiety and depression decreased for those who became partnered and stayed the same for those who stayed single.

ONE MORE THING - EDUCATION

In the very last sentence of the results section, the authors mention one more finding, then never say another word about it. By the time the time the participants were 27/28 years old (the last year of the study), 71% of the single men and 77% of the single women had a college degree. The average for the entire set of participants (including the singles) was 51%.

SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS

During their 20s, did people who transitioned into a long-term romantic partnership do "better," while those who stayed single did worse? Only for one of the 5 measures, self-esteem, and even then, the decrease only occurred for the single men. For the other measures, there was either no difference at all between those who became partnered and those who stayed single, or both groups did "better" over time, but the changes were bigger for those who became partnered. Those were the results for personality. For education, the people who stayed single were far more likely than the others to have earned a college degree.

[In Part 2, I'll tell you how the authors interpreted the results and what I make of them.]