Life Satisfaction Across the Lifespan: Findings from Two Nationally Representative Panel Studies
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Two large-scale, nationally representative panel studies (the German Socio Economic Panel Study and the British Household Panel Study) were used to assess changes in life satisfaction over the lifespan. The cross-sectional and longitudinal features of these studies were used to isolate age-related changes from confounding factors including instrumentation effects and cohort effects. Although estimated satisfaction trajectories varied somewhat across studies, two consistent findings emerged. First, both studies show that life satisfaction does not decline over much of adulthood. Second, there is a steep decline in life satisfaction among those older than 70. The British data also showed a relatively large increase in satisfaction from the 40s to the early 70s. Thus, age differences in well-being can be quite large and deserve increased empirical and theoretical attention.
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Some studies find no change in life satisfaction during this period.
“Lastly, some studies find no change in life satisfaction (Baird et al. 2010) or loneliness (Mund et al. 2020) during this period.”
From Patterns of Romantic Relationship Experiences and Psychosocial Adjustment From Adolescence to Young Adulthood (2021) · cites this paper as Baird et al. 2010
Several studies have shown that life satisfaction increases with older age in adulthood.
“Furthermore, several studies have also shown that life satisfaction increases with older age in adulthood [30].”
From Worry and mental health in the Covid-19 pandemic: vulnerability factors in the general Norwegian population (2021) · cites this paper as [30]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Baird, B. M., Lucas, R. E., & Donnellan, M. B.
- Affiliations
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- German Institute for Economic Research (DE)
- Michigan State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lucas, Richard E.
- ORCID
- Lucas, Richard E.
- Venue
- Social Indicators Research
- Published
- 2010-02-11
- Volume
- 99
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 183-203
- ISSN
- 0303-8300 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-0921
- PMC
- PMC2990956
- OpenAlex
- W2065182777
- Cited by
- 440
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 18.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Social Indicators Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R03AG026028, R03AG028744)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Keywords
- life satisfaction, lifespan development, age differences in well-being, subjective well-being, older adults, cohort effects, German Socio-Economic Panel, British Household Panel Survey
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