The worst time of your life

Researchers have announced that the forties are the worst period of your life. In the first study to monitor human happiness and wellbeing across a life cycle, the study published in the Economic Journal was based on research tracking 50,000 adults in Australia, Britain, and Germany throughout their lives (Irish Independent, November 22, 2015). It tracks thousands of people over decades and in several countries, and therefore the researchers maintain that their results can be universally applied to everyone.

University of Warwick researchers in England, economists Terence Cheng, Nick Powdthavee, and Andrew Oswald, conducted the study. They selected participants at random and compared the data sets from three countries. They followed the same people throughout their lives.

Male and female participants were asked to complete a conventional life-satisfaction questionnaire in which they rated how happy they were with their lives on a scale from 0 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied).

The study found that a person’s happiness is U-shaped. Life satisfaction gradually declines from early adulthood to its lowest point between 40—42 years of age, then happiness levels rise again until the age of 70.

Adjusting for the number and ages of offspring leaves the results unchanged – in other words, having children or not having children made no difference to the results. The researchers did not seek to determine why people responded – they did not ask why they were satisfied or dissatisfied – but only to record their levels of happiness at different ages. The results support the theory that mid-life (at 40-42 years of age) is stressful with a lot of responsibility. “The burdens of life fall on the middle-aged. You are looking after your children, your parents, yourselves. You are working as you will probably never work again in older age and probably harder than you did when you were younger. You are also having to be on call a lot, time-wise, so your days are long and your purse is stretched. This is almost universally the case, regardless of whether you live in Venezuela or England.’

Life may begin at 40 – as the adage states – but happiness is highest before and after the 40s.

http://www.independent.ie/life/health-wellbeing/forties-are-the-worst-period-of-your-life-according-to-new-research-34222961.html

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