Is the apparent U-shape of well-being over the life course a result of inappropriate use of control variables? A commentary on Blanchflower and Oswald (66: 8, 2008, 1733–1749)

The age and subjective well-being paradox revisited:A multidimensional perspective

“…Many reports or discussions about the "paradox" of SWB are based on adjusted life satisfaction in age. It can be argued that the use of controls makes for false impressions of the psychological changes that actually occur when people grow older (4,35). We find that high SWB in old age only holds in a multivariate context in cross-sectional analysis.…”

“…Several researchers argue that the use of controls makes for false impressions of the psychological changes that actually occur when people grow older (4,35). The best solution may be to show age-SWB patterns before and after controls, to indicate actual versus pure aging effects, including the mechanisms that explain patterns of (actual) SWB change.…”

How Does Subjective Well-Being Evolve with Age? A Literature Review

“…Easterlin (2006b, p. 465) deliberately avoids controlling for health on the grounds that "if one wants to know whether a person is likely to be happier in his or her golden years than when forming families, one would not want to set aside the fact that older people are likely to have lower income, and be less healthy, and are more likely to be living alone". Nonetheless, no matter how interesting it might be to examine how life satisfaction changes throughout the lifespan, doing so allows no conclusions to be drawn about the effect of age alone (see also Glenn, 2009 andOswald, 2009). …”

Life-course and cohort trajectories of mental health in the UK, 1991–2008 – A multilevel age–period–cohort analysis

“…This is done in a somewhat exploratory way given that the theoretical base for such covariates is limited. There is debate about the inclusion of such controls, because the direction of causality is unclear (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2009;Glenn, 2009): whilst marriage could affect mental health, health could also affect the likelihood of marriage.…”