Friends, not family, bring us more happiness
HANGING out with friends is more likely to make you happy than spending time with your partner or children, according to psychologists.
While the findings support the old adage “you can choose your friends but not your family” the real reason may be down to what adults do with their pals compared to what they do with their family.
Most activities with friends involve fun – such as going to a pub, restaurant or concert – and do not involve the kind of mundane chores that go with family life such as childcare school runs, housework or DIY.
Professor Nathan Hudson, of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, discovered that activities such as eating out or socialising took up 68 per cent of the time spent with friends but just 28 per cent of the time spent with family. The lowest level of happiness came when people spent time with just a partner, his team found.
He said: “It’s important to create opportunities for positive experiences with romantic partners and children and to really mentally savour those positive times.
“In contrast, family relationships that involve nothing but chores, housework and childcare, likely won’t predict a lot of happiness.” But he optimistically added that the study did show “people genuinely enjoy their romantic partners and children”.
Prof Hudson studied the self- reported wellbeing of 400 adults in different situations for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He analysed the mental happiness as the participants recalled activities with friends or with their partners or children.