Age, Mental Health and Well-being

By : Uma Gupta

Page No: 147-156

Abstract
Assessments on mental health (stress, anxiety, depression) and well-being (life satisfaction, optimism, hope, meaning in life) were done on participants in six age-groups, viz., young (25-29 years), middle age (30-39 years and 40-58 years), preretirement age (59-64 years), young-old (65-74 years), and the old-old (75 years and above). In each age-group there were 40 participants. The study supports the following conclusions: (1) people in the age-group of 40-58 years had the lowest levels of stress and anxiety compared to participants in the young and older age-groups; (2) people in the middle age-groups had lower levels of stress and anxiety than those in the older age-groups; (3) people in various age-groups did not significantly differ from one another in terms of depression; (4) people in the agegroup of 40-58 years had higher levels of life satisfaction and meaning in life compared to participants in the young, young-old, and the old-old age-groups, they also had higher levels of optimism than those in the young-old age-group; (5) people in various age-groups did not significantly differ from one another on the hope scale.

Author :
Uma Gupta : Professor, (Psychology), Department of Siddhant Darshan, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221005