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Best Health Blog
Happiness improves with age Like fine wine and stinky cheese, we just get better with age. Or happier, anyway, as new research out of the U.S. suggests.The study, conducted at the University of Chicago and published in the American Sociological Review, was based on data from the General Social Survey, conducted each year by the U.S. National Opinion Research Center. Some 1,500 to 3,000 people are polled each year and asked the question, "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days -- would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?"
While between 15 and 33 percent of 18-year-olds reported feeling happy, the numbers climbed to 50 percent by the time people reached their 80s. Boomers, however, reported lower levels of happiness.
“Understanding happiness is important to understanding quality of life. The happiness measure is a guide to how well society is meeting people’s needs,” said Yang Yang, author of the article, in a press release.
Yang speculates that the age-related happiness increase has to do with positive psychosocial traits, such as self-esteem and self-integration, increase with maturity.
Other research has suggested that happiness patterns over the course of our lifespan takes on a U-shaped curve, and that we bottom out at age 44 (which could explain the boomers finding in this study).
What about you? How does your current level of happiness rate compared to when you were younger? (Reuters) 3 Comments
Wow! I can understand the bottoming out in the 40's. Careers, family, health, aging parents etc. all seem to be happening then. I tcan reach quite a crescendo.
When I was a teen, friends and realtionships could make me happy or unhappy, in my 20's children and relationships, in my 30's family certainly held its share of happiness but as I have aged 40's and 50's, I realize I am responsible for my happiness and I make or break it in my attitude and how I react to situations and people. Perhaps this is why we are seen to be on the upswing. There isn't as much time left to us to waste on unhappiness and we start to appreciate how to avoid unhappy thoughts and situations.
I don't doubt the study's findings but I do think the conclusions it drew are wrong. Do people really get happier with age? Doubtful. There's a much likelier explanation: different generations have different expectations of life, and therefore different definitions of happiness.
As a 20-something, I'm a member of a generation that is notoriously "me-first". We've been raised to want it all, expect it all, and feel like we deserve it all. If our jobs aren't going just right, or our relationships get rocky, we bail and move on, feeling like we "deserve better". We've been raised on Disney ideals of happily-ever-after, which are so unachievable that they result in us being perpetually unhappy. Also, as posted in http://www.besthealthmag.ca/blog/post/too-many-choices-are-hard-on-the-brain, we have more choices than any generation in history, which can lead to more stress than ever.
My grandparents came from a generation that was completely different. Most of them were immigrants trying to make a new life in a new country. They often came from little or nothing, and worked extremely hard to provide their children with something better than what they had. They knew more hardships than most of us ever will, and they were part of a generation that worked more and complained less. They didn't have all the choices and luxuries that we have, but ironically, they took more pleasure in the things that truly matter in life. They valued family, community and achievement more, and material possessions less. Plus, they had a lot less tendency to blame the world for their problems. Research shows that internal locus of control is a big factor contributing to happiness. (See http://ezinearticles.com/?Locus-of-Control-and-its-Role-in-Your-Happiness&id=575609, for instance).
Sure, this is all based on generalization. But if you look at the socioeconomic indicators and the societal values of how we were raised compared to how our grandparents were raised, I think you'll find that there's a lot of truth to it.
So do the same people get happier as they age, as this post implies? I doubt it. I think it's more likely that the current older generation is happier because they were raised with different expectations of life and happiness.
With every year that passes, I become more aware of the many blessings in my life, and less focused on shortcomings. So, this research makes sense to me.