Centre for Integrated Human Studies

Young women face many lifestyle choices such as choosing to live away from home, career selection, motherhood, and forming new social relationships.

In making their choices, young women generally hope to enhance their personal goals; but do their choices also enhance their health and general wellbeing?

Young women today face many stressors as a result of rapidly changing social, economic and technological conditions. Many factors will affect how women respond to such stressors.

Karen Woods undertook a study to assess how romantic relationships affect other aspects of women's lives. Romantic relationships can certainly have powerful emotional effects, but whether they also affect other aspects of health and wellbeing is poorly understood.

Karen sought female volunteers aged from 18 to 35 to complete an electronic questionnaire on their romantic situation, health and lifestyle choices.

Volunteers included women in a relationship, women who have had a relationship in the past, and women who have never had a romantic relationship.