Abstract
This literature review provides an overview of the theoretical and empirical research in several disciplines on the relation between ageing and subjective well-being, i.e., how subjective well-being evolves across the lifespan. Because of the different methodologies, data sets and samples used, comparison among disciplines and studies is difficult. However, extant studies do show either a U-shaped, inverted U-shaped or linear relation between ageing and subjective well-being.
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This paper is based on a keynote address held at the 2nd International Workshop on the Socio-Economics of Ageing at the Technical University of Lisbon (2011), as well as lectures held at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (2012) and the Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Aging at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2012). We are thankful for valuable comments made by the participants and by three anonymous referees. The usual disclaimer applies.
Appendix
Appendix
Study | Data | Cross-sectional (CS)/longitudinal (L) | Controls | Selected highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Literature surveys | ||||
Myers and Diener 1996 | No time in life is notably happiest or most satisfying. | |||
Happiness does not appear to depend significantly on outside circumstances. | ||||
Frey and Stutzer 2002 | Age affects happiness in a U-shaped way. | |||
Young and old people are happier than middle-aged people. | ||||
The least happy people are between 30 and 35 years old. | ||||
Studies with evidence for U-shape | ||||
British Household Panel Survey and General Health Questionnaire | L | Yes | Clear evidence of a U-shape. | |
Minimum life satisfaction reached in the band between 40 to 49 years. | ||||
Clark 2007 | British Household Panel Survey | L | Yes | Confirms U-shaped relation after controlling for cohort effects. |
Blanchflower and Oswald 2008 | US General Social Surveys, Eurobarometer, UK Labour Force Survey, World Values Survey, Latinobarometer, Asiabarometer | CS | Yes | Well defined U-shape in age. |
Well-being in the U.S. reaches its minimum for men in the early 50s, for women in the late 30s. In Europe, life satisfaction for both men and women minimises in the mid 40s. | ||||
German Socio-Economic Panel 1985–2007 | L | Yes | U-shape in age. | |
Minimum life satisfaction between 42 and 52 years. | ||||
U-shape vanishes after controlling for individuals fixed effects. | ||||
Blanchflower and Oswald 2011 | Eurobarometer 2010 | CS | Yes | Inverted U-shape relation between the probability of taking antidepressants and age. |
Lang et al. 2011 | Health Survey for England 1997–2006 | CS | Yes | Prevalence of psychological distress, diagnoses and treatments rise with age until early middle age and then declined subsequently in low-income groups. |
McAdams et al. 2012 | British Household Panel 1996–2000 and 2002–2004 | L | No | Analyses eight individual domains of life satisfaction. |
Age trajectories diverge considerably across these domains. | ||||
When aggregating all eight domains, a pattern resembling the U-shape of overall life satisfaction emerges. | ||||
Weiss et al. 2012 | Sample of caretakers’ evaluation of great apes’ well-being in 4 countries | CS | No | U-shape relation between well-being and age can be observed. |
Studies with evidence for linear relation or inverted U-shape | ||||
Costa et al. 1987 | National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey | L | Yes | Total well-being shows no significant age, birth cohort or time effects in any of the analyses. |
Strong evidence of the stability of mean levels of psychological well-being in adulthood. | ||||
Mroczek and Spiro 2005 | Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study | L | Yes | Inverted U-shaped relation between age in life satisfaction. |
Life satisfaction peaks around 65 years. | ||||
One year before death, life satisfaction dramatically decreases. | ||||
Easterlin 2006b | US General Social Surveys 1973–1994 | L | Yes | Happiness increases in midlife, but “not by a great deal”. |
Highest life satisfaction at age 51. | ||||
Easterlin and Sawangfa 2007 | US General Social Surveys 1973–1994 | L | Yes | Shows an inverted U-shape. |
Effect of age on individual domains of life satisfaction are analysed. | ||||
Deaton 2007 | 2006 World Gallup Poll (132 countries) | CS | No | Age-profile of life satisfaction differs among countries. |
There seems to be a U-shaped relation only among rich English-speaking countries. | ||||
Gwozdz and Sousa-Poza 2010 | German Socio-Economic Panel 1994–2006 | L | Yes | Estimating pooled regressions, most age dummies are significant and produce a U-shape. |
Using fixed effects estimation, the U-shape vanishes. | ||||
Strong decline in satisfaction among the oldest old. | ||||
Stone et al. 2010 | Gallup Poll 2008 | CS | Yes | Although global as well as positive hedonic well-being is U-shaped, negative hedonic well-being is not. |
Feelings of stress and anger decline with age, feelings of worry are elevated through middle age and then decline, and feelings of sadness are in essence flat. | ||||
Carmel 2011 | Four data sets on elderly Israelis | CS | Yes | Willingness to live can be used as a proxy for life satisfaction. |
Willingness to live declines with age. | ||||
Kassenboehmer and Haisken-DeNew 2012 | German Socio-Economic Panel 1994–2006 | L | Yes | The U-shape effect on life satisfaction in pooled OLS regressions is refuted when controlling for fixed effects and respondent experience in the panel. |
Frijters and Beatton 2012 | German Socio-Economic Panel, British Household | L | Yes | The weak U-shape in middle age becomes more pronounced when allowing for socio-economic variables. |
Panel Survey, Household Income Labour Dynamics Australia. | When selection effects via fixed-effects are accounted for, the dominant age-effect in all three panels is a strong happiness increase around the age of 60 followed by a major decline after 75, with the U-shape in middle age disappearing. | |||
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López Ulloa, B.F., Møller, V. & Sousa-Poza, A. How Does Subjective Well-Being Evolve with Age? A Literature Review. Population Ageing 6, 227–246 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-013-9085-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-013-9085-0