It's Not Urban Myth, It's Science: Midlife Really Is Unhappy

People have long debated whether there's something about middle age that makes it a uniquely trying time, and now a pair of researchers say they can show that around the world, happiness bottoms out in midlife.

In their paper "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?," David Blanchflower of Dartmouth and Andrew Oswald of the UK's Warwick University found that in the U.S., men's happiness -- after controlling for income, education, and everything else they could think of -- bottoms out at 53. That's significantly older than in many other countries. For women, the worst year is fifteen years earlier, at 38.

They found a similar pattern in European, Latin American, and Asian nations. When men and women are pooled, Europeans are at their least happy 2.5 years later than Americans.

Blanchflower and Oswald look at other data as well. They point out that, according to a survey of almost one million Britons, the probability of depression is at a maximum in the forties. The peak age: 44.

Their analysis of various other surveys using different measures and techniques showed minimum happiness or maximum distress between the ages of 46 and 49.

The authors believe their work is some of the first proof that the U-shape isn't the result of "cohort effects" -- for instance, if today's older people consider themselves fairly happy compared to the Depression years they remember from childhood, or if forty-somethings as a group view today as a step down from the good times of the eighties.

So why would happiness bottom out in midlife? They briefly advance some ideas:

1) people's aspirations are 'quenched' in midlife, and after that they learn to deal with it
2) cheerful people live longer (so in part, the increasing happiness past midlife is because only the happy people are left)
3) people become grateful for the relatively long time they've lived.

Some other explanations that we've covered in the past:

4) stress and negative life events could be at a peak at midlife. Child raising, divorce or separation, your own or your parent's health problems, or a feeling that things are out of one's control could decrease happiness (and / or be tied to the increase in depressions Blanchflower and Oswald report). The counter argument is that there are different, but equally stressful, issues throughout life.

5) there could be changes in brain function, perhaps led by declining physical health.

6) the existential midlife crisis could be real -- "I'm going to die in twenty (or thirty, or forty, years, and I haven't done what I wanted to do yet." And recent research shows that, even if not as dramatic as a full-blown midlife crisis, midlife is frequently a time of reassessment.

Keep in mind that this data doesn't mean you have to be unhappy. Their earlier research and the work of others has shown that increased happiness is correlated to many factors, including marriage, higher education, higher income (or not, depending on the study), and increased frequency of sex. Just because you're a 38 year old woman or 53 year old man doesn't mean you can't have above-average happiness.

(You can embark on your own happiness-improvement plan at our "How To Be Happy" page)

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Some other posts about Blanchflower and Oswald's research:

• Are You A 49 Year Old Man? Welcome to the Unhappiest Year of Your ...
• How Do You Compare Happiness? First, Check Your Blood Pressure ...
• The Not-So-Surprising Link Between Sex and Happiness | LifeTwo

We reported on a similar study here: Not So Happy? You Must Be Middle-Aged.