On the other hand, our results differ from Wang et al. (2020) and Tian et al. (2020), who found no differences related to marital status on perceived stress, and higher levels of distress among single (vs. married) Chinese citizens, respectively. However, the sample analysed by Wang et al. (2020) may have been underpowered to detect the effect of being in a relationship, as it had 1,210 participants, and tested numerous relationships between various variables. Moreover, Tian et al. (2020) did not control for other relevant factors that could have accounted for the differences (e.g. age, gender). Our study used a high‐powered sample from different countries and areas as well as multivariate analysis techniques to control for several confundings.