Married mothers are nearly twice as likely to report being “very happy” as single childless women, according to a YouGov poll released Tuesday.
Conducted in March, the survey found that 47% of married mothers and 43% of married childless women described life as enjoyable, compared to 40% of unmarried mothers and 34% of unmarried childless women.
Another 19% of married mothers described themselves as “very happy,” compared with 10% of single women without kids.
“Pop culture portrayals, online forums and media headlines declaring single women without children are happier than married mothers are simply not true,” Jean Twenge, a co-author of the report and psychology professor at San Diego State University, said in a statement. “Our study challenges prominent cultural narratives by revealing that marriage and motherhood provide deep emotional and social benefits.”
The conservative Institute for Family Studies and Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute commissioned the national survey of 3,000 women aged 25-55, including 1,551 with children under 18.
It found that married mothers also reported experiencing more physical touch, less loneliness and more meaning and purpose in their lives than their unmarried or childless peers.
Asked if they “regularly receive physical attention from someone,” 51% of married women with children and 52% of married women without children said the phrase describes them “very well.”
That share dropped to 29% of single mothers and just 17% of childless single women who said the same.
Report co-author Brad Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociology professor, said the survey is the first to link physical touch with loneliness in women. He noted that loneliness has soared alongside screen time in public health surveys as fewer adults engage in regular handshakes, hugs, kisses or snuggling.
“Married women enjoy a physical touch premium that hasn’t been studied to this extent before.” Mr. Wilcox said in a phone interview. “It points to a connection between physical touch and happiness that we don’t fully understand.”
Only about 1 in 10 married survey respondents described themselves as lonely most or all the time, compared with 23% of unmarried mothers and 20% of unmarried childless women.
Women who reported high levels of physical affection were over three times more likely to describe themselves as “very happy” (22%) than women who reported low levels of touch (7%).
Overall, 58% of married mothers and 61% of married childless women often received hugs or kisses, compared to 36% of unmarried mothers and 18% of childless singles.
The survey comes as U.S. birth rates have plunged to new lows, and record numbers of Americans live alone.
The Census Bureau reported this month that just 21% of Americans aged 25 to 34 in 2024 were working, married, had children and had moved out of their parents’ homes.
That’s a sharp drop from the 48% of people in the age group who reported achieving these four traditional milestones of adulthood in 1975.
The federal agency found that 28% of young adults lived away from their parents and participated in the labor force without a spouse or children last year, making financial independence the most common adult milestone today.
YouGov conducted the Women’s Well-Being Survey of 3,000 U.S. women between 25 and 55 years old in early March. It did not provide an estimate for the survey’s margin of error.
Elika Dadsetan-Foley, a social worker and executive director of Visions Inc., a Massachusetts mental health nonprofit, said young women are redefining personal fulfillment as they navigate a more complex world.
“The real opportunity is to shift how we define success and adulthood in ways that reflect the realities and values of this generation,” Ms. Dadsetan-Foley said in an email. “Our challenge is to build systems — educational, economic, and relational — that meet people where they are, not where we assume they should be.”
