Where does our satisfaction lie?

A new study has revealed that starting a new life with a partner satisfies us most.

According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, both in men and women there is a marked improvement in satisfaction when they start living with a partner and found that there was a sharp decline in life satisfaction from the age of 15 to the early 20s, News.com.au reports.

Researchers found that there was a gradual decline from the early 20s to the mid 30s and that people experienced stable but lower satisfaction with life from the mid 30s to the early 50s, the period of lowest life satisfaction.

Researcher David de Vaus said that life satisfaction begins to improve steadily and substantially from the early 50s, until the late 60s.

The study focused on seven key stages in life such as leaving the parental home; moving in with a partner; childbirth; separation from a live-in relationship; becoming empty nesters retirement and widowhood.

The zeal of starting a new life with a partner and having a child made people more satisfied, while satisfaction hit a low point immediately following relationship separation and becoming widowed.

The study also claimed that in the year immediately after retirement there was no change in life satisfaction for men and only a marginal boost for women.