Are you happy? Very happy? If you're in your 30s or older, a recent study has found that you're less presumably to answer "yes" than your parents were.
According to the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, that was published on Thursday, the conclusions come on the heels of another current account that has found that the mortality rates of middle-aged white Americans have been increasing, broadly because of substance abuse and suicide.
Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University who is the study's lead author claims that age is assumed to contribute to happiness and contentment. For that not to be appropriate anymore is kind of awful. Twenge has also written the book "Generation Me," which is a glimpse at young adults and the demeanors and influences that have helped mold them.
Beginning with statistics in the early 70s, Twenge and her colleagues discovered that adults 30 and above used to be happier than younger adults and teens. However, that "happiness advantage" has consistently decreased as the older adults have expressed less contentment with their lives and the younger contingent has gotten a little happier.
As reported by CBS News, other researchers who study happiness said that the conclusions fit with their own research. They associate the change to everything from the increasing financial pressures - and what some would entitle as "economic insecurity" - to the factual idea that real life has been a rough awakening for an era of young adults who were informed that they could do anything and are realizing that frequently isn't true.
Mona Hines, a 43-year-old pharmacist in Chicago, says that appreciation has helped her, too. She has gone through rough times in her adult life, such as being divorced. Now remarried, she is caring for her elderly parents and thankful for the time with them.
It's still not always easy, Hines said.
With the question "Am I happy? Sometimes," she adds. "Always (when) on vacation though!"
