Cohort- and age-related decline in elder's life satisfaction: is there really a paradox?

Absence of age-related decline in elder's life satisfaction (LS), found in several studies from the last quarter of the twentieth century, has been labelled a "paradox", as it contrasts with increasing psycho-social and health risks in old age. To explain these findings, the present study was based on the hypothesis of a cohort effect on the LS of those born in the first half of the twentieth century, which might have overlayed and thus obscured the age-related decline in cross-sectional studies. In addition, it was hypothesized that the age-related decline in LS accelerates over the old age period such that the "paradox" would not hold for old-old subjects. Longitudinal analysis was conducted by means of multilevel mixed models, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Analyzing single-item measures of LS from 16 panel waves (1984-1999), the findings confirm both hypotheses. For the young-old, cohort- and age-related decline was found with about equal decrements in LS per year of birth or age, neutralizing age-group differences in cross-sectional comparisons. For the old-old, the age-related decline appeared accelerated, outnumbering the cohort effect.