UCL Department of Mental Health Sciences (Bloomsbury Campus), 67-73 Riding House Street, 2nd Floor, Charles Bell House, London, UK.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2011 Jun;26(6):608-14. doi: 10.1002/gps.2570. Epub 2010 Dec 9.
To test our 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.
We analysed data from adults interviewed for the 2007 English National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, representative of people living in private homes. 7399 (57%) of people approached completed information about our main outcome measure, a single item measure of happiness. We compared happiness between younger adults (aged 16-59) and those aged 60-69, 70-79 and 80+.
2746 (39.6%) of people said that they were currently 'very happy', 3956 (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. Attendance at religious services or places 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.
Four out of 10 people reported being very happy, and five out of 10 were fairly happy. This is higher than levels reported in earlier surveys. Our 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.
验证我们的假设，即幸福感随年龄增长而下降，并且年龄会调节其他影响幸福感的因素的关系，因此它们在不同的年龄组中有所不同。
我们分析了 2007 年英国全国精神疾病发病率调查中接受采访的成年人的数据，这些数据代表了居住在私人住宅中的人群。有 7399 人（57%）完成了我们主要结果衡量指标的信息，即一项幸福感单项衡量指标。我们比较了年轻人（16-59 岁）和 60-69 岁、70-79 岁和 80 岁以上的人群的幸福感。
2746 人（39.6%）表示他们目前“非常幸福”，3956 人（52.4%）“相当幸福”，697 人（8.0%）“不太幸福”。幸福感与年龄无关。社会资本和参与度预测了整个年龄段的幸福感。然而，几个变量的影响受到年龄的调节。与年轻人相比，与伴侣一起生活在 70 多岁的人群中更能预测幸福感。参加宗教仪式或场所和拥有资格证书对最年长的老年人的幸福感预测更为重要，而在这个年龄组中，拥有至少三个社交网络的人则相对不那么重要。
每 10 个人中有 4 人表示非常幸福，每 10 个人中有 5 人表示相当幸福。这高于早期调查中报告的水平。我们的研究结果表明，增加社会资本和参与度的干预措施可能会增强普遍幸福感、健康和从疾病中康复，这将是未来研究的一个有趣领域。
