Exploring Social and Subjective Well-Being Among Married and Unmarried Students at a Latter-day Saints University

Marriage and religion often reinforce one another, though both are individually related to improved health and well-being across many domains. Moreover, emerging adulthood is a foundational period in which many religious beliefs crystallize, and behavioral patterns solidify, often coinciding with decisions to marry and attend college. However, it is unclear how social and subjective well-being may be different between those emerging adults who are religious and married and those who are religious but not married. Moreover, gender differences have yet to be explored in this domain. The current study addressed these issues by administering an online survey to 2352 religiously active emerging adult students at a Latter-day Saint university in the USA, with 182 (7.7%) being married. Results demonstrated a consistent pattern, with married participants indicating significantly (p < .05) higher subjective well-being along with lower loneliness, interpersonal conflict, and time spent on social media. However, unmarried students had higher levels of social interaction with their peers. Gender differences emerged, such that married men fared better in terms of lower loneliness, more close friendships, and less negative affect than married women. These results support marriage as a strong protective factor for social and subjective well-being while supporting religious affiliation as a health protection factor for both married and unmarried students. Gender differences suggest that religious men, at least early in their marriage, may benefit in their social well-being disproportionately more than women. Some implications for these findings in religious universities are explored.