Recent GC Study Predicts Middle-Age Happiness

A research study on social networks by Professor Cheryl Carmichael (GC/Brooklyn, Psychology), originally published in the journal Psychology and Aging, offers compelling insight into middle-age happiness.

The study examines whether the strength of the connections we forge at different stages of adulthood has an impact on our likelihood to become lonely later in life.

Your middle-age happiness can be predicted by two things: the quantity of friends in your 20s, and the quality of friendships in your 30s," as New York Magazine summarized the findings this week. "In a way, your 50-year-old self stands to benefit both from the endless rounds of flip cup with college pals and the long talks with close friends a decade later."

Among the dozens of other media outlets to spotlight the study were Psychology Today, The Australian, Primera Hora, and Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.

Carmichael's research focuses on the ways in which social interactions between people in close relationships affect health and well-being.