We are happy to announce that our MIDUS grant has been renewed for six more years! In celebration, we have created a MIDUS Achievements Report. Click the link below to read the entire …
Recent Findings from the MIDUS Study
MIDUS Renewal Continues Cutting-Edge Research into Health and Well-being
Click the link below to read the news release announcing the renewal of our MIDUS study for another six years. It begins: Childhood and older age have been, and continue to be, studied extensively. But …
How Are Back Pain & Depression Related?
Low back pain and depression have been recognized as key public health problems around the world. Back pain has been ranked as the highest cause of disability worldwide, and depression is also a leading cause …
Hard Work May Not Pay Off for Everyone
Meritocracy is the belief that success in life is based on personal effort—i.e., those with skill who work hard will be rewarded, with better jobs and higher incomes. This popular U.S. belief is a basic …
How Do Neighborhood Safety Concerns Affect Daily Well-being?
Previous research has shown that people living in low-income neighborhoods are exposed to more stressors, such as crime, vandalism, pollution, and noise, which can be objectively measured, and have been linked to poor health. This …
Wealth is Linked to Mortality (But Not as Much as Smoking)
Socioeconomic status (SES) is a measure of social status based on one’s level of poverty or wealth. SES has been associated with mortality in many studies. This MIDUS study looked at whether the different ways …
The Health Effects of Social Media Use May Depend on Who’s Using It
Social media use (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.) has become a key part of American social life. Many report spending over two hours a day connecting with others on social media, which is more time than …
Repeated Nights of Lost Sleep Linked to Poor Health & Well-being
Previous research has linked a single night of bad sleep to lower well-being, but multiple nights of inadequate sleep have only been studied in clinical settings where the amount of nightly sleep was manipulated by …
Discrimination May Increase Problems with Chronic Pain
An estimated 70 million Americans suffer from chronic pain (not including pain caused by cancer). Although previous studies have shown links between discrimination and pain, they have not been studied extensively. One important unanswered question …
Body Weight in Old Age May be Linked to Childhood Disadvantage
Studies have shown that socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the strongest predictors of body weight. Those whose families were economically disadvantaged in childhood (they had low SES) tend to be heavier in early adulthood …