The study’s current director, Robert Waldinger (talking at this Ted event), says the findings deliver three lessons about relationships:
One: Social connections are essential for good health
“… people who are more socially connectedto family, to friends, to community,are happier, they’re physically healthier, and they live longerthan people who are less well connected.And the experience of loneliness turns out to be toxic.People who are more isolated than they want to be from othersfind that they are less happy,their health declines earlier in midlife,their brain functioning declines soonerand they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely. “
“Good, close relationships seem to buffer us from some of the slings and arrows of getting old. Our most happily partnered men and women reported, in their 80s, that on the days when they had more physical pain, their mood stayed just as happy. But the people who were in unhappy relationships, on the days when they reported more physical pain, it was magnified by more emotional pain.”
And it certainly seems staying truly connected with our kids after they leave home is going to be instrumental in everyone’s health and happiness.