Media Coverage

Wedded Bliss? It’s All Thanks to Your Childhood

October 12, 2016 by Robert Waldinger

By Tom Whipple, Science Editor

If you have a good relationship with your spouse in old age, the chances are you had a good relationship with your parents in childhood.

Scientists have been able to link the happiness of people’s marriages in their final years with the happiness of their life in their formative years, thanks to a unique study that followed a cohort of American men for the entirety of their adult lives. The research found that even in their ninth decade people were feeling the effects of their upbringing.

Robert Waldinger, from Harvard University, said that the work showed the importance of investing in childhood. “We showed the quality of your family environment in childhood really makes a difference in quality of marriage,” he said.

Having a Happy Childhood Improves Your Chance of Having a Happy Marriage

October 11, 2016 by Robert Waldinger

By Liz Loerke

“Happy wife, happy life,” so they saying goes. But according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a happy relationship might all begin with a happy childhood. Through a longitudinal study spanning more than six decades, researchers at Harvard Medical School found that men who grew up in caring homes felt more secure in romantic relationships in their 80s.

“Our study shows that the influences of childhood experiences can be demonstrated even when people reach their 80s, predicting how happy and secure they are in their marriages as octogenarians,” researcher Robert Waldinger of Harvard Medical School said in a statement. “We found that this link occurs in part because warmer childhoods promote better emotion management and interpersonal skills at midlife, and these skills predict more secure marriages in late life.”

Childhood Family Environment Linked With Relationship Quality 60 Years Later

October 10, 2016 by Robert Waldinger

Growing up in a warm family environment in childhood is associated with feeling more secure in romantic relationships in one’s 80s, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that men who grew up in caring homes were more adept at managing stressful emotions when assessed as middle-aged adults, which helps to explain why they had more secure marriages late in life.

“Our study shows that the influences of childhood experiences can be demonstrated even when people reach their 80s, predicting how happy and secure they are in their marriages as octogenarians,” says researcher Robert Waldinger of Harvard Medical School. “We found that this link occurs in part because warmer childhoods promote better emotion management and interpersonal skills at midlife, and these skills predict more secure marriages in late life.”

Robert Waldinger Shares Simple Advice for Happiness

September 24, 2016 by Robert Waldinger

BOSTON —We all strive for happiness and well-being, but getting there can sometimes seem like a challenge. A doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital says it may actually be easier than you think.

“It’s about finding a balance,” said Dr. Robert Waldinger. “We’re all going to have our ups and downs, but can we get to a place where life is generally better and we’re more content?”

Dr. Waldinger, a psychiatrist, is the chief investigator of the longest-running study on development and relationships, which has followed people from their teens to old age for the past 75 years.

He said the findings show that it’s not money, fame or high achievement that makes people the happiest.

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO HERE: Robert Waldinger Shares Simple Advice for Happiness/WCVB5

15 Professors of the Year: Robert J. Waldinger

September 14, 2016 by Robert Waldinger

By MOLLY E. WHARTON Sep 14, 2016

From the looks of his humble, unadorned office at Mass General Hospital, you might never guess what Professor Robert J. Waldinger is up to: searching for the secrets to living a long and healthy life.

A psychiatry professor at the Harvard Medical School, Waldinger is serving as current director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a longitudinal investigation into what makes us happy and healthy. The study is older than Waldinger himself.

In 1938, two studies, independent of one another, took form: one examining a group of 268 male Harvard undergraduates, the other analyzing 456 inner-city adolescents. In the ’70s, the two were merged, and the two cohorts juxtaposed for comparison. Today, Waldinger studies the more than 2,000 children of the original participants to consider the effect of childhood experience on mid-life health and well-being.

Keeping a study like this going for as long as it has is no easy feat, Waldinger explains. There’s the constant struggle of securing funding and willing researchers, and the need to retain participant involvement. Most longitudinal studies, Waldinger explains, have to be ended before the 10-year mark because too many participants drop out. The maximum acceptable dropout rate is around 40 percent, while in this study, only five percent of the Harvard men and 22 percent of the inner-city men have dropped out.

What Makes a Happy, Healthy Life?

May 27, 2016 by Robert Waldinger

How can you live your best life? One of the world’s longest-running health studies seeks to find the answer.

In 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development began following two groups of young men – some from inner-city Boston and others who studied at Harvard, including President John F. Kennedy and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. What began as a study about adult development transformed into a 75-year examination of what keeps men happy and healthy.

“What we realized was that we had an amazing resource – we could look at their health, relationships their work lives – and all of that added up show how happy they were in their lives,” said Dr. Robert Waldinger, the fourth director of the study. “And so we started looking at the whole package.”

Watch the story: What Makes a Happy, Healthy Life?/CBSThisMorning

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