April 20, 2008
Happiness and Aging
Since 1972, the General Social Survey of the National Opinion Research Center (GSS)has asked a cross section of Americans the same 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?" The question was administered in face-to-face interviews of population samples that ranged from about 1,500 to 3,000.
A study done at the University of Chicago and published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review, the official journal of the American Sociological Association looked at happiness data from 1972-200 found that Americans grow happier as they grow older. The data also suggests that baby boomers are not as content as other generations, African Americans are less happy than whites, men are less happy than women, happiness can rise and fall between eras, and that, with age the differences narrow.
The happiness measure is described as a guide to how well society is meeting people's needs. The lead author Y. Yang charted happiness across age and racial groups and found that among 18-year-olds, white women are the happiest, with a 33 percent probability of being very happy, followed by white men (28 percent), black women (18 percent) and black men (15 percent). Differences diminish over time, however, as happiness increases. Black men and black women have just more than a 50 percent chance of being very happy by their late 80s, while white men and white women are close behind.
The hypothesis called the "age as maturity hypothesis," describes that there is an increase in happiness with age. According the author, 'with age comes positive psychosocial traits, such as self-integration and self-esteem; these signs of maturity could contribute to a better sense of overall well-being.' In addition, group differences in happiness decrease with age due to the equalization of resources that contribute to happiness, such as access to health care, Medicare and Medicaid, and the loss of social support due to the deaths of spouses and friends.
On another measure, Yang found that happiness in the country is not static. Looking over the study's 33-year period, she noticed definite upticks when the nation flourished economically. For example, she found that 1995 was a very good year on the happiness scale.
Source: Medical News Today