Young People Are Happier When Out of Abusive Relationships than Expected, a Study Finds

Young people when out of a relationship are actually happier than they thought they would be, revealed a study conducted by Xiema Arriaga, an associate professor of psychological sciences at the University of Purdue.

In summing up the findings of this study on dating and relationships, the professor said, “It wasn’t a surprise that these people were better off than they had expected when their relationship ended, but what was interesting was that there was a disconnect between how they actually felt and how they had anticipated feeling months earlier.”

Almost 80 percent of the 171 young people that were surveyed every two weeks for three months were women who were in an abusive relationship and not only expressed their happiness but also how happy they expected to feel if the relationship ended.

At the end of the study, 46 participants weren’t in a relationship, and they reported feeling much better than what they anticipated only a few months earlier.

The focus of Arriaga’s study was not only to understand what caused people to stay in unhealthy and abusive relationships based on how they would feel later but also the point up to which they were willing to take the abuse until they finally let go.

While this might not be such a difficult situation to deal with if one is in a relationship without any financial or formal bond attached, the same cannot be said of the situation of marriage – which is, rather obviously, for the long haul and things can get very complicated.

Arriaga’s study also revealed that even though there are several instances of aggression, possessiveness and being abusive, young people still don’t look at an abusive relationship as a problem.