Researchers of a new study found that women are happier and more satisfied after their divorces come through.
Divorces can get ugly and leave a negative impression on both parties. Hence, researchers from Kingston University conducted a study to analyze the negative impact divorces have on both men and women and were surprised with the findings.
For the study, researchers surveyed 10,000 people in U.K. aged between 16 and 60 years. The survey asked the participants to rate their own happiness before and after major milestones in their lives. The surveys were continued for two decades.
Researchers were surprised to find that women were happier and more satisfied with their lives after their divorces came through. This happiness was most prominent in the five years following the divorce. During this time, women were observed to be happier than they had been their entire life. Men also felt slightly happier after their divorces came through but the increase in happiness was much lower than that observed in women.
"In the study we took into account the fact that divorce can sometimes have a negative financial impact on women, but despite that it still makes them much happier than men," Professor Yannis Georgellis, Director of the Centre for Research in Employment, Skills and Society (CRESS) at Kingston Business School, said in a press statement. "One possible explanation could be that women who enter into an unhappy marriage feel much more liberated after divorce than their male counterparts."
The study went on to analyze the "adaptation" capabilities of people. Researchers found that it didn't take very long for most people to bounce back from tragic events that were presumed to be traumatic. However, unemployment took a longer recovery time and left a bigger negative impact on the person. Men seemed more affected by this and their unhappiness over losing their jobs could last up to five years.
"Men are deeply affected by unemployment, especially if they are used to being the breadwinners in their homes," Professor Georgellis explained. "With both sexes, the old adage 'time heals' just doesn't seem to apply to losing your job. In fact the negative effect of being made unemployed also persists even if the person finds a new job because being made unemployed has a 'scarring' effect."
