"The study is important because it compares patterns of response using two distinct methods for measuring well-being," explains Dr. Stone, Lead Investigator. "One is a single measure of global well-being, as in how satisfied are you with your life, and the other a series of measures of positive and negative aspects of emotional well-being, as in how did you feel yesterday."

Dr. Stone and his colleagues report that the relationships between age and experiences of positive emotions (enjoyment and happiness) are similar to the relationship between age and the assessment of global well being, but that the relationships between age and the negative emotions of stress, worry, anger and sadness exhibit distinctly different patterns. Two of the negative emotions, stress and anger, showed declines throughout life. The pattern for another negative emotion, worry, showed a different pattern. It tended to hold steady until about age fifty, when it took a sharp decline. Sadness showed a slightly inverted U-pattern over age.

An understanding of the components of well-being and the dynamics of their alterations over time take on a new importance as the assessments of well-being becomes more prevalent in the evaluation of public policy.

An excerpt from the abstract:  "Stress and Anger steeply declined from the early 20s, Worry was elevated through middle age and then declined, and Sadness was essentially flat. Unlike a prior study, men and women had very similar age profiles of WB. Several measures that could plausibly covary with the age-WB [Well Being] association (e.g., having children at home) did not alter the age-WB patterns. Global and Hedonic WB measures appear to index different aspects of WB over the lifespan, and the postmidlife increase in WB, especially in Hedonic WB, deserves continued exploration."

The full text of the study can be found at the PNAS for a fee.

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