Life seems rosier after 50, as revealed by a study published in the journalPNAS. Specifically, adults who are more than half a century old are generallyhappier, less stressed, and less worried than twentysomethings.
A team of American scientists has reached this conclusion after interviewing more than 340,000 Americans. The study took into account bothoverall happiness (“global well-being”)such as daily experiences about feelings such as stress or fun (“hedonistic wellness”). Although these two dimensions of well-being are rarely studied at the same time, according to Arthur Stone, a psychologist at Stony Brook University in New York and co-author of the study, they are just as important, because “global well-being provides a more reflective view of life while that hedonistic well-being speaks to us of an immediate vision, which includes feelings such as fun, worry, stress, anger, sadness? “
According to Stone, anger and stress progressively descend from youth (20) to maturity (50) , while happiness and the ability to have fun increase after half a century . As for concerns, they remain fairly constant until age 50, at which point they begin to decline. And all this regardless of factors such as having or not having a job, or the presence of children at home. The results were similar in men and women.
Asked why we are happier as we age , Stone argues that adults possibly control their emotions better than young people. Or perhaps it has to do with nostalgia: adults have fewer negative memories , hence they are happier. In addition, as time passes we focus less on what we have or have not achieved and more on “making the most of the rest of our lives,” adds the researcher.
