What's the secret to health and happiness? For some, it's an optimistic outlook. Others might say your experiences matter, or perhaps your personality is paramount.
There is no single formula, but in recent decades, positive psychology has increasingly focused on a theory of well-being that encompasses the quality of our lives, our sense of purpose and meaning, our personal environment, and our relationships with others.
Numerous studies have shown that positive well-being is associated with significant improvements in health and life expectancy and can help protect mental health, including reducing the risk of depression.
But while we understand much about well-being, we also don't know much, including how it develops over the years. Does well-being change over decades, or is it a fixed psychological baseline that persists into the future?
The truth is, we don't really know, as previous research offers mixed views that don't always agree with each other.
«The extent to which adults maintain psychological well-being across decades, and the role of depression in shaping these trajectories, remains poorly understood,» psychologists explain in a new study published in the journal Nature Mental Health , authored by pioneering mental health researcher Cassondra Lyman of Cornell University.
«Surprisingly, very little is known about what factors predict the achievement of high levels of well-being over decades.».
Researchers found that well-being can change over time and is more likely to improve if well-being is low. (maks_d/Unsplash)
To examine how well-being might change over time and how it interacts with depression, Lyman and her co-authors analyzed data from 2,420 participants in the Changing Lives of Americans study, a longitudinal study of a nationally representative cohort that began in 1986 with 3,617 adults.
Tracking a variety of measures, including life satisfaction, emotional well-being, self-acceptance, sense of control, and positive relationships, the researchers found that participants' well-being underwent four distinct changes over 25 years.
For most participants in the analysis, about 60 percent, levels of well-being generally remained stable over time.
People in this group tended to report moderate levels of well-being at baseline, and these levels remained relatively stable, but it's worth noting that stable well-being does not mean high levels – about a quarter of the group maintained consistently low levels of well-being.
The next largest group included about 30 percent of the participants, people who began the study with low levels of well-being but showed gradual improvement over time.
The third group, representing about 8 percent of the population, initially had a high level of well-being, which then declined sharply and then stabilized.
The final segment, representing only about 2 percent of the total group, started with very low levels of well-being but then showed significant improvement, although half of this group failed to sustain their gains in well-being, which declined over time.
Overall, the researchers found that people's level of well-being at baseline was the strongest predictor of whether their well-being would change direction (i.e., from high to low or vice versa).
«"People with lower baseline well-being were more likely to experience improvements in well-being, and people with higher baseline depressive symptoms were more likely to experience changes in well-being," the researchers wrote.
«"Thus, people with low well-being and elevated depressive symptoms at baseline had the highest chance of experiencing significant improvements in well-being.".
See also: A biological mechanism linking childhood trauma to future health has been discovered.
One of the most promising findings of the study, especially for people with depression, is that well-being can improve over time, and in fact, the likelihood of this happening is higher if your well-being is low.
Among study participants, 57 percent of people who reported low well-being and elevated depressive symptoms at baseline reported improved well-being over the 25-year follow-up.
As for next steps, the researchers suggest that identifying people's well-being trajectories could help identify when therapeutic interventions might benefit them, serving as a sort of screening tool for choosing future treatments.
The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Mental Health .
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