TL;DR: A 2026 Sex Roles study using NLSY97 data found that the gender friendship gap in best-friend closeness was driven mainly by white men, while Black men, Latino men, and women across groups reported more similar closeness after controls. Key Findings NLSY97 cohort: The study analyzed 1,765 young adults from the National Longitudinal Survey of …
TL;DR: A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Scientific Reports pooled 10 social media abstinence experiments (N = 4,674 adults; abstinence 1–28 days) and found no significant effect on positive affect, negative affect, or life satisfaction. Key Findings Positive affect was unchanged: pooled Hedges’ g = 0.03 (95% CI [−0.11, 0.16], p = 0.69) across 9 studies and 14 …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Scientific Reports used the German TwinLife panel (228 monozygotic and 212 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs) to show that intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 23 predicted four socioeconomic status (SES) outcomes at age 27, with genetic factors explaining 69-98% of the IQ-SES association. Key Findings IQ at age 23 predicted SES …
TL;DR: A 2026 longitudinal study in Personality and Individual Differences followed 346 Turkish young adults across two survey waves three months apart and found that childhood psychological abuse predicted lower adult relationship satisfaction, with a reduced sense of belonging acting as the statistical mediator linking the early adversity to the later romantic outcome. Key Findings …
TL;DR: A 12-month four-wave longitudinal study in Psychological Science (N=2,149 adults across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia) found that feeling more emotionally isolated predicted higher chatbot use four months later — and that higher chatbot use, in turn, predicted further increases in emotional isolation at the next wave. Key Findings Bidirectional link with emotional …
Childhood Loneliness Multiplied Psychosis Risk in EU-GEI TL;DR: Loneliness that started before age 12 and persisted into adolescence tracked with sharply higher schizophrenia-spectrum risk, especially when it stacked on top of genetic liability. Key Findings Persistent loneliness carried the risk signal: The EU-GEI analysis included 1,261 people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, 1,282 unaffected siblings, and 1,525 …
Loneliness Lowered Memory Without Speeding Decline TL;DR: In 10,217 older Europeans, loneliness was linked to lower immediate and delayed recall at baseline, but it did not make memory decline faster over 6 years. Key Findings 10,217 SHARE participants: The analysis included adults aged 65 to 94 from 12 European countries who participated in waves 5, …
In Borderline Personality Disorder, Loneliness Tracked a Gap Between Self-View and Expectations TL;DR: In borderline personality disorder, loneliness was higher when patients rated themselves as especially prosocial and justice-sensitive but did not expect the same level of fairness or concern from other people. Key Findings Self-view and expectations diverged in BPD: Treatment-seeking patients showed bigger …
The Hidden Postpartum Crisis Nobody Screens For: Paternal Depression Peaks at 10-12 Months TL;DR: Fathers experience a protective period early postpartum (depression drops by 26%), but depression and stress surge at months 10-11, creating a 30-36% elevated risk when no one is screening for it. Perinatal psychiatry has a crisis of attention. Mothers are screened …
Savoring Together: The Secret Couples Overlook TL;DR: Couples who deliberately focus attention on shared positive experiences—a practice called joint savoring—report higher relationship satisfaction, greater confidence in their future together, and better protection from stress, even when controlling for general optimism. Most relationship advice emphasizes managing conflict or deepening communication. But researchers at the University of …
