25/02/2023
“Everybody needs at least one solid relationship, someone whom they feel they can count on in times of need,” says Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of adult life ever conducted.
The research began in 1938 with 724 participants: 268 Harvard College sophomores and 456 young adults from Boston. It now includes 1,300 descendants of its original participants. Researchers followed the first generation of participants through their entire adult lives, from teenage years into old age. When they reached age 80, researchers looked back at the participants’ lives in middle age to try to see what the biggest predictors were of who would be happy and healthy at age 80. "We thought that cholesterol level or blood pressure at age 50 would be more important. They were not," Robert said. "It was satisfaction in their relationships, particularly in their marriages, that was the best predictor of a happy and healthy life."
All kinds of relationships have the ability to make us healthier and happier, the research shows. And it's never too late to start.
"What we find in following thousands of people is that many people who thought it was too late for them, found relationships at a time when they didn’t expect to." One man, Robert said, joined a gym later in life and found a group of friends "who became his tribe." "Based on our science, we can say that it’s never too late,” he added.
Read more: https://hrvd.me/Happy342f
