MADRID, 1 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
At what age are people happiest? This question has apparently been studied extensively over the past few decades, but it has long been difficult to find a definitive answer since well-being and happiness are subjective. However, Swiss researchers seem to have found the answer.
A research team from the German Sports University in Cologne, the Ruhr University in Bochum, the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and the universities of Bern and Basel in Switzerland has shed light on the issue in a comprehensive meta-analytic review published in
In their study, the researchers examined trends in subjective well-being across the lifespan based on 443 longitudinal study samples with a total of 460,902 participants. “We focused on changes in three core components of subjective well-being. Life satisfaction, positive emotional states and negative emotional states,” explains Professor Susanne Bücker, who initially worked on the study in Bochum.
The findings show that life satisfaction decreased between ages 9 and 16, then increased slightly until age 70, and then decreased again until age 96. Positive emotional states showed an overall decline from age 9 to age 94. while negative emotional states fluctuated slightly between ages 9 and 22, then decreased until age 60, and then increased again. The authors identified greater median changes in positive and negative emotional states than in life satisfaction.
“Overall, the study showed a positive trend over a broad period of life, if we consider life satisfaction and negative emotional states,” Susanne Bücker summarizes the results. Researchers attribute the slight decline in life satisfaction between ages 9 and 16, for example, to changes in the body and social life that occur during puberty. Satisfaction increases again starting in early adulthood.
Positive feelings tend to decline from childhood to late adulthood. By late adulthood, all components of subjective well-being tended to get worse rather than better. “This could be related to the fact that in very old people, physical performance decreases, health often deteriorates and social contacts decrease; especially because their peers die,” the researcher speculates.
The study highlights the need to consider and promote subjective well-being with its various components throughout life, as the study authors conclude. Their findings could provide important guidance for the development of intervention programs, especially those aimed at maintaining or improving subjective well-being later in life.
