Older is BETTER

Here's some great news... if you are around the age of 60 your self esteem is probably really the highest it has ever been. A new research study shows that our esteem peaks at age 60 and declines slightly as we get older.

Here's some important quotes "“Specifically, we found that people who have higher incomes and better health in later life tend to maintain their self-esteem as they age,” said Orth.

“We cannot know for certain that more wealth and better health directly lead to higher self-esteem, but it does appear to be linked in some way. For example, it is possible that wealth and health are related to feeling more independent and better able to contribute to one’s family and society, which in turn bolsters self-esteem.”

People of all ages in satisfying and supportive relationships tend to have higher self-esteem, according to the findings. However, despite maintaining higher self-esteem throughout their lives, people in happy relationships experienced the same drop in self-esteem during old age as people in unhappy relationships.

“Although they enter old age with higher self-esteem and continue to have higher self-esteem as they age, they decline in self-esteem to the same extent as people in unhappy relationships,” said co-author Kali H. Trzesniewski, PhD, of the University of Western Ontario."

Isn't it great to know that getting older, is getting better :-)

Read the entire article at: http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/02/self-esteem-peaks-in-middle-age/12550.html