Study: Self-esteem grows with age

In our youth-obsessed culture, where ageism has never been stronger and looking younger is next to godliness, it may be easy to assume young people feel happier than older ones. Nope. According to science, at least one thing gets better with age and that’s your self-esteem.

According to a recent paper in the journal Psychological Bulletin, self-esteem seems to peak around age 60 and that uplifting feeling may last an entire decade. So maybe 60 really is the new 40?

“Midlife is, for many adults, a time of highly stable life circumstances in domains such as relationships and work. Moreover, during middle adulthood, most individuals further invest in the social roles they hold, which might promote their self-esteem,” study co-author Ulrich Orth told Time. “People take on managerial roles at work, maintain a satisfying relationship with their spouse or partner, and help their children to become responsible and independent adults.”

Sadly, it appears people in happy relationships experience the same drop in selfesteem during old age as peo- ple in unhappy relationships.

“Although they enter old age with higher self-esteem and continue to have higher self-esteem as they age, they decline in self-esteem to the same extent as people in unhappy relationships,” said coauthor Kali H. Trzesniewski. “Thus, being in a happy relationship does not protect a person against the decline in self-esteem that typically oc- curs in old age.”

The upside is that the years between 60 and 70, generally speaking, appear to be as golden as they have been made out to be.