Midlife Crisis and U

Midlife Crisis and U
A study says most people live a U-shaped life -- happiest when they are young and old, but middle age is emotionally low. Transcript of radio broadcast:
27 February 2008


This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A new study shows that unhappiness in middle age, also known as midlife crisis, is a universal experience.

Two economists did the study: Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. They used information collected earlier on two million people from eighty nations.


They found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life. That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Levels of happiness are highest when people are young and when they are old. In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels drop.

Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others. But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor and to those with and without children.

Generally speaking, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five. But then, as they continue into old age, their happiness starts to climb back up.

What the research does not show is why all this happens. Professor Oswald says one possibility is that people recognize their limitations in middle age and give up on some long-held dreams.

Or perhaps people who are happier live longer, and this is responsible for a growing percentage of happy older people. Or, he says, maybe people have seen others their age die and they value more their own remaining years.

The report is to be published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Last December, government researchers reported a big increase in suicides among middle-aged people in the United States. They looked at injury-related death rates by age group from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four. They found that suicide increased almost twenty percent among people ages forty-five to fifty-four. No one is sure why.

By comparison, rates generally fell for those sixty-five and older. And for people twenty to twenty-nine the suicide rate was nearly unchanged.

The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the findings are subject to some limitations. For example, accidental drug poisonings might sometimes be mistaken for suicides.

Over all, suicides in the United States increased four percent from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four. That year thirty-two thousand four hundred people took their own lives.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Jim Tedder.

----------------------------Google Translate

中年危机和U
一项研究说，大多数人过上U形人生-快乐的时候，他们是青年人和老年人，但中年是情绪低。全文电台广播：
2008年2月27日

这是美国之音特别英语卫生报告。

一项新的研究显示，不快乐，在中年时，又被称为中年危机，是一个普遍的经验。

两位经济学家做研究：安德鲁奥斯瓦尔德的沃里克大学，在英格兰和大卫白孝在达特茅斯学院在美国新罕布什尔州。他们利用所收集的资料早于两百万人，由80国。


他们发现，世界各地的人们似乎分享情感的设计寿命。设计，他们说，是形状像信中，美国各级的幸福是最高的时候，人们是年轻的时候，他们年纪老迈。在中间，然而，大多数人的幸福和生活的满意程度下降。

奥斯瓦尔德教授说，有些人患上抑郁症的中年以上等。但是他说，这样的男人和女人，以单身及已婚的人，富人与穷人和那些与无子女。

一般来说，人们达到最低水平之间的年龄大约四十和55 。但后来，因为它们持续到老年，他们的幸福开始回升，到了。

什么研究，并不表明的是，为什么这一切都发生的。教授奥斯瓦尔德说，其中一个可能的是，人们认识到其局限性，在中年时，放弃对一些长期持有的梦想。

或者人的幸福活得更长寿，这是负责越来越高比例的老年人幸福的人。或者，他说，也许人们看到了别人自己的年龄死亡，他们的价值更多自己的余年。

这份报告将刊登在杂志上的社会科学和医学方面。

去年12月，政府的研究人员报告了较大幅度增长，在自杀者中，中年人在美国。他们期待在损伤有关的死亡率按年龄组，从1999年至2000四年。他们发现，自杀增加了将近百分之二十的人，其中年龄45至54 。没有人知道为什么。

相较之下，利率普遍下跌，为这些65岁以上人员。并为20至29自杀率几乎不变。

该报告由美国疾病控制中心和预防指出，该调查结果受到了一些限制。举例来说，意外中毒的药物有时可能会被误认为自杀。

以上所有，自杀，在美国增加了4个百分点，从1999年至2000四年。那年32400人自己的生命。

这也是该美国之音特别英语卫生报告，写caty维夫。我吉姆tedder 。