Are you flourishing? Many young adults aren't, new study suggests

People flourish when all major aspects of their life are good, but a new global study suggests that isn't the case for young adults in many high-income countries.

That surprised the study's co-lead. Based on previous research in the field, Tyler VanderWeele of Harvard University says he was expecting middle-aged people to report to feeling worse about their physical and mental health, relationships, income, work and more.

Not necessarily so, according to the 200,000 adults in 22 countries who responded to the Global Flourishing Study, the results of which were published in Wednesday's issue of the journal Nature Mental Health

"Perhaps one of the more troubling features of this data is that we find when we aggregate across the 22 countries, flourishing tends to increase with age so that the youngest individuals are reporting the lowest levels of flourishing," VanderWeele said at a news conference. 

The study didn't specifically define "young adult" but, for example, among those aged 18 to 49 reports of flourishing were flat — before increasing later in life — in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, United States and the United Kingdom.

Similarly, the U.S. had a steep age gradient, with those 18 to 29 reporting 6.4 on a 10-point scale for flourishing compared with nearly eight among those aged 70 plus, the researchers found. 

There were exceptions, VanderWeele added. In Poland and in Tanzania, flourishing tended to decrease after age 60. 

"Flourishing" also includes personal priorities such as character, virtue and religious participation, all within the context of one's community and environment. 

While Canada was not included in the study, co-author Eric Kim, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), says if he were to estimate, Canada would fit with its peer high-income countries.

Feeling happy, and having a sense of purpose and meaning in life also contribute to one's points on the flourishing scale. 

"Interestingly, high-income societies were doing well on what we would call happiness, but on purpose and meaning we were doing really poorly," Kim said.

Kim says researchers have, in general, been thinking about how the breakdown of social structures like unions, clubs and religious organizations — places people previously gathered beyond just home and work — affects whether people flourish. The loss of such opportunities increases loneliness and threatens purpose and meaning, he says.

Unlike previous research, the five-year Global Flourishing Study is longer term, includes more measures and broadens perspectives beyond the Western hemisphere. 

But finding out why young people specifically might be flourishing less than in previous generations will require even more long-term data from the same group of individuals to try to separate cause from effect. The researchers aim to address this in future waves of the study.