Happiness is anything but academic

You might expect the benefits of education – such as a higher income and better health – to translate into a happier life; but older people with high academic qualifications are the least happy of all their peers, a new study shows.

People born in 1955 or earlier who hold a masters or doctorate degree express much less satisfaction with their lives than the less academic. Those who had left school in year 11 or earlier, or had gained a graduate certificate or diploma, were reported as the happiest.

“It’s been suggested that highly educated people are more likely to have higher expectations … and experience greater disappointment when these expectations aren’t met,” the lead author of the study, Cathy Gong, says.

The satisfaction study was based on a sample of 9,000 people drawn from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Dr Gong, from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, presented preliminary findings at the HILDA research conference last month.

However, among those born after 1955, happiness generally increased with education. The least satisfied with life were those who had left school in year 11 or earlier and the happiest were those with a bachelor, honours, masters or doctoral degree, or a graduate diploma.

Dr Gong says the younger generation now need a higher level of education than in the past to get good, secure jobs; and thus to feel satisfied in their lives.

“Before the 1970s, education didn’t make such a big difference and there was less inequality,” she says.

But the research also shows the secret of happiness may be unrelated to education – or money – and more to do with simply growing older.

Though the younger generation was, on the whole, much better educated than the post-1955 group, they were significantly less happy. At every level of education, the young and middle-aged were not as satisfied with their lives as older people.

“It might be that older Australians have a sunnier outlook and, because of what they’ve gone through, are more grateful; or it might be that younger people have a more demanding lifestyle and higher expectations,” Dr Gong says.