The effect of birth cohort on well-being: the legacy of economic hard times.
In the present research, we examined the effects of age, cohort, and time of measurement on well-being across adulthood. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of two independent samples-one with more than 10,000 repeated assessments across 30 years (mean assessments per participant = 4.44, SD = 3.47) and one with nationally representative data-suggested that well-being declines with age. This decline, however, reversed when we controlled for birth cohort. That is, once we accounted for the fact that older cohorts had lower levels of well-being, all cohorts increased in well-being with age relative to their own baseline. Participants tested more recently had higher well-being, but time of measurement, unlike cohort, did not change the shape of the trajectory. Although well-being increased with age for everyone, cohorts that lived through the economic challenges of the early 20th century had lower well-being than those born during more prosperous times.
National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. angelina.sutin@med.fsu.edu
Angelina R
AR
Sutin
Antonio
A
Terracciano
Yuri
Y
Milaneschi
Yang
Y
An
Luigi
L
Ferrucci
Alan B
AB
Zonderman
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D015988:Cohort Effect; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004467:Economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006803:Human Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult