'Happiness advantage' over age 30 is vanishing, study finds

The findings, being published online Thursday in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, come on the heels of another recent report that found that death rates of middle-aged white Americans have been rising, largely due to suicide and substance abuse.

For that not to be true anymore is somewhat shocking, says Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University who is the study's lead author.

Geena Kandel, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, says she and her peers already worry that even a good college education won't be enough to help achieve what their parents have.

"The more competitive and market-driven society becomes, the more people are on their own to survive and flourish, the more insecure they are in their day-to-day lives, the more unequal things become — quality of life tends to decline," says Benjamin Radcliff, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame who has researched this topic.

[...] Tim Bono, a psychologist at Washington University who teaches and studies happiness, thinks there's something to that "rude awakening" theory for his generation of young adults.

A while back, the 32-year-old professor came across a box of school papers and other relics from his past — worksheets, assignments and notes sent home that all reinforced "how special I was and how I could do anything I set my mind to."

A 30-year-old father from Texas, who served in the Army before enrolling at the University of Puget Sound in Washington, Daniel Trapp says his life experience has helped him feel happier than some of his peers, "despite the stress that I have in my life."

[...] he's also noticed "a delay in acceptance of an adult role" from his fellow college students, some of whom have chosen graduate school to avoid the working world.

"Some accuse the so-called Millennials of this kind of avoidance, while others point to research and anecdotal evidence that Millennials aren't in denial, they just are smarter, more connected with each other and more hopeful about changing things," says Michael Simon, a psychotherapist and school counselor in New Orleans.