The U Shape of Happiness Across the Life Course: Expanding the Discussion

Abstract

<jats:p> The notion of a U shape in happiness—that well-being is highest for people in their 20s, decreases to its nadir in midlife, and then rises into old age—has captured the attention of the media, which often cite it as evidence for a midlife crisis. We argue that support for the purported U shape is not as robust and generalizable as is often assumed and present our case with the following arguments: (a) Cross-sectional studies are inadequate for drawing conclusions about within-person change in happiness across the life span; (b) cross-sectional evidence with respect to the ubiquity and robustness of the U shape in general levels of happiness and life satisfaction is mixed; (c) longitudinal support for the U shape in happiness and life satisfaction is also mixed; (d) longitudinal research on subjective indicators of well-being other than general levels of happiness and life satisfaction challenges the U shape; (e) when asked to reflect on their lives, older adults tend to recall midlife as one of the more positive periods; and (f) a focus on a single trajectory of well-being is of limited scientific and applied value because it obscures the diversity in pathways throughout life as well as its sources. Understanding happiness across the life course and moving the research field forward require a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach. </jats:p>

Changes in excessive alcohol use among older women across the menopausal transition: a longitudinal analysis of the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation

“…Surprisingly, depressive symptoms were not related to transitions in drinking status in the present study. This finding is inconsistent with the large body of evidence that women are more likely to drink to regulate negative affect, including depressive symptoms; however, it is consistent with the existing evidence that happiness may increase as one ages [14]. However, the SWAN dataset only evaluated past week depressive symptoms at one time point annually in the present study.…”

“…Additionally, among older adults, "reactive" drinking may be excessive, in that as psychosocial stressors connected to later life stages (e.g., retirement and widowing) emerge, and they are more likely to regularly consume alcohol [4]. However, there is some mixed evidence indicating that happiness occurs in a "U-Shape" across the lifespan, with an increase in contentment occurring initially in young adulthood and then again in "old age" (for review, see [14]). This warrants additional research into the connection between negative affect and alcohol use in older women.…”

Trajectories of adolescent life satisfaction

“…This curve has been observed in samples from many different coun-tries (Cheng et al, 2017). Some have argued, however, that the U-shaped curve of life satisfaction is not as universal as widely presumed (Galambos et al, 2020), e.g. Glenn (2009) notes that some of the initial evidence only emerges after questionable controls and Steptoe et al (2015) argues that it is not universal across all countries.…”

Age Advantages in Emotional Experience Persist Even Under Threat From the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…When faced with serious diseases such as cancer, older patients report better affective states than younger patients (Hart & Charles, 2013). Life satisfaction also increases from mid- to late life (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2008; Galambos, Krahn, Johnson, & Lachman, 2020); and while there is some evidence that satisfaction begins to decline after 70 (Baird, Lucas, & Donnellan, 2010), the decline is better predicted by closeness to death than chronological age (Gerstorf, Ram, Rocke, Lindenberger, & Smith, 2008).…”