Three contrasting themes run through the literature on aging regarding the question of which years constitute the best period of a person's life. The themes are: 1) youth is best, 2) middle age is best, and 3) old age has its advantages. This study reports a 1979 representative and cross-sectional survey of 440 Edmontonians. Respondents were asked questions about the levels of satisfaction arising from various aspects of life as well as the amount of pressure experienced from these various life domains. The older years appear to be a period of relatively low pressure and relatively high satisfaction, although each age has advantages and disadvantages.
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Herbert C. Northcott (1982) studied this question.
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