The myth of the mid-life crisis
If you’re worried about going through a mid-life crisis, fear no more – it turns out that we’re most happy in our 40s.
Researchers at the University of Alberta studied 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 43-years-old for a total of 25 years.
Over the span of those years, the participants were asked the same question: “How happy are you with your life?”
You might think it was the younger set that answered more positively, but it’s actually people in their early 40s that were the happiest.
Psychology professor and a lead researcher in the “Up, Not Down” study, Nancy Galambos, thinks it’s because younger people struggle to find work and figuring out what they want to do with their lives. By the time we hit 40 most people understand “the things we want career wise and family wise.”
Galambos says the term ‘mid-life crisis’ is a stereotype and a way of understanding the lifespan.
“Stereotypes in general help us organize the world, help us interpret behaviour, understand behaviour and explain behaviour. To some extent, when we have these stereotypes about aging it helps us expect certain behaviour.”
The U of A study is more reliable than other ones out there. Previous studies have compared a group of middle-aged people with a group of late adolescents, which Galambos says is an invalid way to draw a conclusion about how people may change over time. With this study, the same people were followed for a number of years, making it more accurate.
Although the 2015 study debunks the cliché about happiness dipping with age, Galambos suggests the belief in the mid-life crisis is no myth. Most people believe that a mid-life crisis is real and can happen to them, but that simply is not the case.
The psychology professor suggests that crises can still happen along the whole life course as we go through various transitions.
“There is no reason that middle age should hold precedence in terms of being a spot for mid life crisis, or crises. I think crises happen all along the way. Happy times happen all along life too and a lot of that depends on the state of ones circumstances.”
While happiness means different things for different people, researchers have found certain commonalities. People in the study were happiest when they were employed, married and in good physical health, all of which typically happens later in life.
