Life Satisfaction across Four Stages of Adult Life

Abstract

This investigation examines, via multivariate analysis, the effect of financial situation, health, standard of living and family life upon the life satisfaction of adult men and women. The stages of adulthood examined here include: Early Adulthood (ages 22–34), Early Middle Age (ages 35–44), Late Middle Age (ages 45–64), and Late Adulthood (ages 65 and older). The data used in this analysis were collected from a national probability sample (N=2164), but the present study includes only persons twenty-two years or older with a response for each item under investigation (N=1786). Life satisfaction was relatively high for both men and women at each stage across the lifespan. It was noted, however, that for men life satisfaction is related to age stage in a monotonic increasing fashion. On the other hand, life satisfaction scores remained relatively constant across the age stages for women. Family life and standard of living were found to be significant determinants of life satisfaction, for both sexes at each stage of adulthood.