Back in 1938, Harvard University decided to launch a project into the secret behind healthy and happy lives. They began a project where they would conduct a longitudinal study that they would carry on from the Great Depression until today. This study has been ongoing through difficulties, gains and losses for 80-plus years.
The study begins with 724 men coming from two distinct groups. The first group are sophomores at Harvard College and the second is a group of boys from the poorest neighborhoods in Boston.
The study followed each participant throughout their lives since being selected up until they were no longer with the survey for various reasons such as choosing to no longer continue or, sadly, passing away.
To track their happiness in life and gauge their physical health and longevity along with their happiness; to find any link between happiness and life expectancy.
According to a 2017 article in The Harvard Gazette, only 19 of the original group were living. Many had gone to fight in World War II after graduating but one of the men who died notably from a different cause than war or natural cause was President John F. Kennedy.
Another significant note was that after a few decades of interviewing the men they eventually would ask any of the wives of if they wished to participate.
The reason the study only included men originally was due to Harvard being a male only institution of the time when the study began. The women, many of whom had been a part of the lives of the men for years only had one collective answer for researchers: “It’s about time.”
Certainly, this had more to do with the fact the male participants had been being asked about their love lives throughout the study and the researchers were very aware of their relationship statues and the changes that they had occurred.
In the study, many men from the poorer upbringings gropu had much more to contribute and would ask the researcher why they wanted to continue learning about the lives of unimportant men.
It was noted that the group from Harvard did not hold the same beliefs. That group never questioned why they were still studied through decades.
One can assume it’s more likely that the men from poorer upbringings were more likely to bring up their wives. But regardless of which group the men were from, the study found that the men most happy in their strong, healthy, and reliable relationships at 50 would go on to be the healthiest at the age of 80. It has been shown in the study that love and marital satisfaction had a “protective”effect on people’s mental health.
Love Always Wins.