http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11549798

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.