New research published in the latest edition of the Economic Journal suggests that there is some truth behind the concept of the midlife crisis.
According to the paper, a person's happiness is 'U-shaped' throughout their lives - that the average human's wellbeing hits a low-point in their early 40s before rising again until they reach their 70s - the Guardian reports.
The research tracked 50,000 Australian, British and German adults throughout their lives. Participants were asked to complete life-satisfaction surveys in which they rated their happiness on a scale from 0: very dissatisfied, to 10: very satisfied.
"Following the same men and women through the years of their evolving lives, we show that there is multi-country evidence for a U-shape in the level of human wellbeing," concluded the study's authors, economists Terence Cheng, Nick Powdthavee and Andrew Oswald.
The research contradicts a previous study conducted in the US, which suggested that people's wellbeing was highest in midlife, and that they in fact experience happiness on a 'reverse-U-shaped' scale over their lifetimes.
While the exact cause of the midlife dip in happiness is not known, the researchers ruled out the possibility it has anything to do with the presence of children. "The existence of this midlife nadir is not because of the presence of young children in the household. Adjusting for the number, and the ages, of any dependent offspring leaves the pattern unchanged," the report claims.
