Men officially become grumpy at the age of 70, study finds

Despite reduced levels of stress from the age of 50 onwards, pensioners typically turn grumpy as they hit their 70th year.

By Dave Lancaster |

14:27 16 April 2014

Following a 15-year study of over a thousand men, scientists have speculated that men reach their peak levels of grumpiness at the age of 70. 

 

Stress levels lower around the age of 50 as life's 'hassles' and work winds down and men become settled in their families and communities but happiness levels take a turn two decades later. 

 

Psychologists tracked 1,315 men (mostly war veterans) aged between 53 and 85 through a 15-year period (between 1984 and 2004) and found that factors such as the deaths of family and friends, increased health problems and decreased brain power add up to irritable behaviour. Those studied were part of America's Normative Aging Study, established back in 1963. 

 

Lead author Dr Carolyn Aldwin told National Public Radio's Linton Weeks: "I'm not certain anyone has studied this exactly. But we do know that the most difficult sort of caregiving is for Alzheimer's patients, who often have personality changes like irritability or hostility - that is, grumpiness - which make them much more difficult to deal with."

 

The findings were published in the journal Psychology and Aging.