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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5479994&page=1

Men Become Happier Than Women by Midlife
Men's Happiness Increases While Women's Happiness Decreases as Life Goes On: Study
By SHARON JAYSON
USA TODAY

July 30, 2008—

Women start out as happy young adults but by midlife wind up the sadder sex, says a new study on satisfaction related to financial circumstances and family life, which past research has shown play a significant role in well-being and happiness.

Researchers analyzed decades of national data on 47,000 men and women to create a statistical model that shows women's happiness decreases, while men's increases, exceeding women's by age 48.

"Our approach looks at the aspirations people have and how well they fulfill them," says economist Anke Plagnol, at the University of Cambridge in England, the study's lead author.

"Satisfaction depends on how far people fulfill their aspirations," she says.

Plagnol and co-author Richard Easterlin, an economist at the University of Southern California, used data from Roper surveys and from the General Social Survey at the University of Chicago.

The study, to be published in the next issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies, says that early in adult life, women are more likely than men to fulfill their aspirations for material goods and family life, but later, they may be divorced or separated and less financially secure. Meanwhile, men's finances and family life improve, making them "the happier of the two genders," the study says.

Economist David Blanchflower of Dartmouth University, one of several researchers who have studied the effects of age on happiness, says this new research is "really important work" because it shows how people form aspirations differently.

This study looked only at satisfaction with finances and family; other researchers say future studies need to delve into other factors that might affect happiness, such as divorce and religiosity.

"Marriage and religion are two of the biggest factors in life satisfaction," says Arthur Brooks, a Syracuse University economist.

As the article implies, this is likely because so many women end up in financial trouble due to divorce. Liberalized divorce laws have led to women facing financial insecurity in numbers that were almost unheard of in the past.

I'm not surprised by this at all. All I have to do is look at the women I know. They lament how little time they have to do the things they want to do while their husbands are out playing golf.

This is not surprising.
When men age, they are still considered attractive and desirable. They can date women of any age.
When women age, they are no longer considered attractive. Men their own age are off dating younger women, and most younger men don't want a much older woman.
So there goes your social and romantic life!

Middle-aged men are usually set in their careers. Many have decent jobs and a decent income.
Middle-aged women? Some may have good jobs, but many have dead-end jobs or no jobs at all, especially if they devoted their lives to raising their kids.

Middle age men are often starting on their second family. A younger wife, a new house, a new set of friends and even new children. It's no wonder. They get to dump the old when they are bored and move on and start all over again, all the while maintaining their lifestyle.

I can't count how many friends of my parents, in addition to my own parents, have this scenario. Even if the men don't go on to have bio children with the new woman, they most likely inherit the woman's children.

I also have 2 sets of older couple friends that are CF as a couple but the men have grown children. In both scenarios the children are not a regular fixture in the man's life and the wife is 15+yrs younger than he is. Both couples are VERY happy and secure and they enjoy their lives, but they are an example of a man's ability to change lives when he wants and simply choose a new one.

I agree about divorce laws. Women better wake up and smell the money cause with the rate of divorce now, the laws are set up to be quick and easy. A split down the middle with the assumption that women will be able to support themselves and their kids.