Friends and happiness: quantity at 20, quality at 30

We don't know much about what the happiness, but what does seem to be certain is that It is closely related to the affective ties we have with other people.. Except in the minds of a few philosophers, happiness is basically found in life in common with others, in the image about ourselves that other people reflect on us and about personal projects that only exist because we all live in society.

However... How can we modulate our social life to get closer to happiness? According to a study published in the journal Psychology and Aging, one of the keys to being happy when reaching maturity is having had lots of friends at 20 and good friends at 30.

An investigation that has lasted three decades

This research has spanned 30 years and began in the 1970s when 222 young people were asked to journal all interactions (and certain characteristics of these, such as the degree of intimacy and their subjective appreciation of the gratification of these) that they maintained with other people over two weeks. Ten years later, these same participants would fill out the same type of diary again, in order to have two categories of data to compare with each other.

The researchers wanted to check To what extent did the social networks woven during early adulthood influence the quality and strength of the social relationships that one develops upon reaching maturity?. They started from the assumption that during late youth the social life of consolidated adulthood is focused, something that directly influences the happiness of each one.

That is why, when these people reached around 50 years of age, the research team contacted 133 of them again so that they answered a series of questions related to their social relationships, the roles they played, the number of interactions for which they used to pass They also answered items related to their perception of their own quality of life and psychological well-being.

Go from flower to flower at 20, focus at 30

After a statistical analysis of the data, the research team verified that the quantity of social interactions at age 20, and not the quality of these, was associated with greater well-being at age 50. People who had a very active and busy social life in their 20s tended to reach their 50s feeling less alone, less depressed, with a greater sense of autonomy and, in general, obtaining positive scores on items related to quality of life.

At age 30, however, a large number of social relationships did not serve to predict a better quality of life decades later.

Why is this happening?

There is a possibility that this is due to what is expected of social life and friendship changes as one grows older.

Early youth is a time when you tend to want to experience many things, live many emotions and, consequently, to have more numerous and varied social interactions. This is something that makes learning possible during an age when it is very important to know how things work and in which vital development projects have not yet been fully established. importance.

At thirty, however, this need for variety has already been disappearing and those types of interactions that fit better with more established tastes and preferences are valued more. You begin to be more demanding and selective, and this also translates into your social life, since coming into contact with many people of all kinds could become a form of "distraction."

From "anything goes" to "I don't have time"

The conclusion drawn by these researchers can be illustrated as a broad outlook towards social life that narrows with the passing of time. years to finally be focused on those types of interactions that we have learned are beneficial and that bring us well-being to a greater degree than rest.

However, this is not the only possible explanation, since it could also be that the western model of life rewards those people that at 20 they have more free time than at 30, although this is a hypothesis that would have to be tested elsewhere investigation.

In any case, this study serves to confirm that throughout our lives we change at many levels, both individually and socially, and that this has consequences on our psychological well-being. Research in this sense can help us to be more informed about which life strategies can bring us closer to happiness when we reach full adulthood... if it is that by then we have already learned what being happy consists of.

It may interest you: "10 tricks to be more sociable and fun"