Psychology › Emotion, motivation & happiness › Happiness and well-being
Harvard Study of Adult Development
Since 1938· Finding or experiment
Well replicatedStrong, repeated evidence.
A study that has followed two groups of Boston men since 1938, and now their children, to learn what makes a good life.
See it on the Psychology map →What it says
In 1938 physician Arlie Bock began following 268 Harvard sophomores, the Grant Study. A separate study begun around 1940 by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck tracked 456 boys from poor Boston neighborhoods; the two were later merged. Researchers have gathered questionnaires every two years, medical exams, interviews and later brain scans for over 85 years. Directors George Vaillant and, since 2003, Robert Waldinger found that warm relationships predicted healthy, happy aging better than cholesterol, wealth or fame.
Why it matters
It is one of the rare studies to follow the same people from youth to old age, giving strong evidence that relationships, more than money or status, predict thriving late in life.
The evidence
Status: well replicated. Decades of records collected before outcomes were known, now extended to over 1,300 descendants. Its findings match a 2010 meta-analysis of 148 studies linking social ties to longer life.
Open questions
Whether results from men born in the 1920s and early 1930s, in a different economy and family culture, hold for women and today's generations.
Connections (2)
▸Harvard Study of Adult Development found the strongest predictor of happiness was Close relationships: adult attachment and marriageWell replicated
The connection
The study's clearest finding is that warm relationships predicted thriving. Men most satisfied with their relationships at 50 were healthiest at 80, a better predictor than cholesterol. Loneliness tracked with earlier decline in health and memory, and good marriages seemed to buffer pain in old age. Vaillant summarized it as 'happiness is love'; Waldinger's 2015 TED talk spread the message.
Who showed it and when
Boston area, data from 1938 onward; George Vaillant's Triumphs of Experience (2012); Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz's The Good Life (2023).
The evidence
Data collected before outcomes were known, consistent with large meta-analyses linking social ties to health and longevity. Still correlational, and initially only men.
Open questions
Cause or effect: healthier, sunnier people may attract and keep better relationships, and the study cannot fully separate the two.
▸Harvard Study of Adult Development is among the longest studies of Happiness and well-beingWell replicated
The connection
The study began in 1938 to learn what makes people healthy, not specifically happy, but its long record made it a key source for happiness research. Tracking 724 men for over 85 years, and now more than 1,300 descendants, it records life satisfaction, mood and health together, letting researchers ask what at 50 predicts a satisfied life at 80.
Who showed it and when
Boston, from 1938; founded by Arlie Bock with funding from retailer W. T. Grant; directed by George Vaillant from 1972 to 2004 and Robert Waldinger since 2003.
The evidence
Its archives hold questionnaires every two years, medical exams, interviews and, more recently, blood samples and brain scans, all gathered before outcomes were known.
Open questions
Whether its happiness measures, added piecemeal over decades as methods changed, are comparable across the study's different eras.