August 30, 2018
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Study reveals the 'golden age' of stability, experience, and blossoming relationships
It's hard to spot a moment of relief for our self-esteem. Each generation seems to have an existential battle on their hands - whether it's the angst of teens, the 'quarter life crisis', the panic of the 30th birthday, the mid-life crisis or the 'loneliness epidemic' commonly associated with old age.
But a study by the University of Bern in Switzerland has identified when adults are happiest in their own skin: at 60. The researchers say their meta-analysis is the first to show that while self-esteem is a highly personal battle, it does appear to follow a general pattern in all people - a theory that has been gaining traction in the last couple of decades.
Self-esteem, they acknowledge, is 'by no means an immutable characteristic of individuals'. It fluctuates significantly in everyone, derailed or stabilized by all kinds of things, from interactions and relationships to achievements and losses, weight gain, weight loss, medical issues - to name a few.
Until the 1980s, psychologists generally agreed that adults don't experience any significant changes in self-esteem. However, in the last 40 years, that idea has been called into question. It was already widely accepted that, over time, our sense of control - both physical and emotional - strengthened over time, peaked around 60, then weakened.
Psychologists who study the Big Five personality traits have found the same: our openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness strengthen over time, then wane, as our neuroticism does the opposite. While those things may sound obviously linked to self-esteem, studies confirming that have been few and far between.
In particular: studies started to show an arc-like pattern to self-esteem, but had not studied broad enough populations to pinpoint a general 'peak'. To map out the pattern of self-esteem, researchers analyzed data from almost 200 previously published research articles, which included 165,000 people aged four to 94.
Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk
