Research has shown that psychological well-being is important for many aspects of health, including extended longevity. Psychological well-being encompasses both hedonic well-being, which involves feeling happy and satisfied with life, and eudaimonic well-being, which is about fulfilling one’s potential. Eudaimonic well-being has six dimensions, including purpose in life, personal growth, and positive relations with others. It is associated with having healthier hearts and better immune systems, as well as exercising more, smoking less, and sleeping better, all of which may translate to less chronic illness and reduced disability. What is unknown about eudaimonic well-being is whether opportunities to develop and maintain it are available to everyone, or whether they vary by age or how much education a person has.
This study followed eudaimonic well-being across 20 years in almost 7000 people from the MIDUS study, to examine educational and age differences in multiple aspects of positive functioning. Eudaimonic well-being was assessed by asking participants how much they agreed with multiple statements about each of its six dimensions:
- autonomy (“My decisions are not usually influenced by what everyone else is doing.”)
- environmental mastery (“In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live.”)
- personal growth (“For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and growth.”)
- positive relations with others (“I know that I can trust my friends, and they know they can trust me.”)
- purpose in life (“Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.”)
- self-acceptance (“When I look at the story of my life, I am pleased with how things have turned out.”)
Educational attainment was divided into three levels:
- high school diploma or less
- some college attendance
- bachelor’s degree or higher
Participant ages ranged from 25 to 74 at the beginning of the study, and were divided into three groups:
- early adulthood (40 or younger)
- middle adulthood (41–60)
- late adulthood (61 or older)
RESULTS
Overall, there were declines for everyone in most aspects of well-being over time, including autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Only for positive relations with others did findings show increases over the 20-year period.
Results by education showed persistent disadvantage over time in all six dimensions of well-being among those with a high school education or less compared to those with more education. Additionally, for environmental mastery, personal growth and autonomy, those with a high school education or less showed more decline compared to those with more education.
Results by age showed that purpose in life declined over 20 years across all age groups. For personal growth, autonomy, and environmental mastery, decline was steeper for the oldest age group whereas for self-acceptance decline was most steep for young adults. Alternatively, positive relations with others increased over time for the two older age groups.
A key message from these results is that experiences of eudaimonic well-being are chronically diminished over long periods of time among those with limited educational attainment. These profiles of disadvantage are of notable concern given prior findings linking psychological well-being to better physical health and longer lives. Continuing research is needed to track unfolding health profiles among educationally disadvantaged adults with persistently low levels of well-being over time. Stated otherwise, these results suggest that a college education is increasingly necessary for living a long and healthy life in the United States, even though not everyone can afford to go to college. Public policy implications for increasing opportunities for higher education are noteworthy, given aspirations of most to live long and fulfilling lives.
Source: Boylan, J. M., Choi, J. H., Kirsch, J. A., & Ryff, C. D. (2025). Educational disparities in 20-year trajectories of psychological well-being in a national sample. Scientific Reports, 15(1), Article 11437. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95058-y
Read the full article at: http://www.midus.wisc.edu/findings/pdfs/2972.pdf