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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Happiness across age groups
— results from the 2007 National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey | | Author(s) | C Cooper, P Bebbington, M King |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 26, no 6, June 2011 |
| Pages | pp 608-614 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/gps |
| Keywords | Well being ; Attitude ; Emotions ; Age groups [elderly] ; Adults ; Young adults [20-25] ; Middle aged ; Comparison ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | The objective of the study was to test the hypotheses that happiness declines with age, and that age moderates the relationship of other influences on happiness, so that they vary in different age groups. Data was analysed from adults interviewed for the 2007 English National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, representative of people living in private homes. 7,399 (57%) of people approached completed information about the main outcome measure, a single item measure of happiness. Happiness was then compared between younger adults (aged 16-59) and those aged 60-69, 70-79 and 80+. 2,746 (39.6%) of people said that they were currently `very happy', 3,956 (52.4%) were `fairly happy' and 697 (8.0%) were `not too happy'. Levels of happiness did not vary with age. Social capital and participation predicted happiness across the age span. However the impact of several variables was moderated by age. Compared with younger people, living with a partner more strongly predicted happiness in people in their 70s. Religious attendance and having qualifications were more important predictors of happiness in the oldest old, whereas having a social network of at least three people was relatively less important in this age group. Overall, four out of 10 people reported being very happy, and five out of 10 were fairly happy. Findings suggest that interventions that increase social capital and participation may augment general happiness, health and recovery from illness and this would be an interesting area for future study. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-110822006 A |
| Classmark | D:F:5HH: DP: DL: BB: SD: SD6: SE: 48: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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