Jeff Zisselman sharing Happiness Grows With Age, Researchers Say

In analyzing the data, the researchers exposed two interesting trends. The first: Life satisfaction increased with age. Second, the year a person is born plays a role in their well-being later in life.

Their findings, published in Physiological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, build on previous research suggesting happiness increases with age, generally moving in a U-shaped curve over the course of a lifetime.

A 2012 study, led by Saverio Stranges, MD, PhD, of the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, found disposition improves after middle age despite declining physical ability. In a Gallup poll from 2008, self-reported happiness levels were higher among people over 50. The findings of that poll were later analyzed and confirmed in a study led by Arthur A. Stone, PhD, of Stony Brook University in New York.

Experts theorize that the greater happiness observed in older adults may have something to do with their better ability to cope with life’s little disappointments, and the fact that they may feel less pressure and have lower expectations, and may be better at just letting things go.

But the authors of this most recent study also discovered that overall well-being depended on the year in which a person was born. People born early in the 20th century, for example — most notably those who lived through the Great Depression — scored lower levels of well-being compared to people born in later years. This trend suggests that factors like economic prosperity and educational opportunities play a long-term role in a person’s well-being, even as things get better.

Mood researchers also says happiness has a hand in physical health — it’s linked to lower stress and better decision-making and memory skills, for example. And in seniors, positive feelings benefit brain power, according to an Ohio State University study published earlier this week Cognition and Emotion.