Concept of Happiness in Children and Older Adults: Situational Context

Everyday ideas about happiness is a relevant research topic. This article introduces a comparative analysis of the concept of happiness in children and older adults; one of them was cross-temporal. The author focused on the situational context in ideas about happiness in different age groups, as well as evaluated the temporal stability of these ideas. The total sample included 567 people (305 children and 262 older adults): adolescents aged 11–14 years (n = 185; 2023); children aged 7–10 years (n = 120; 2021); older adults aged 60–84 years (n = 180; 2023), older adults aged 60–90 years (n = 82; 2021). The study relied on the methods of content analysis and comparative analysis based on the chi-squared test with the Cohen’s h effect size. The concept of happiness proved dynamic: it changed depending on age and context. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2021, the older adults tended to associate happiness with health, with life being more significant as a value. In 2023, both adults and children demonstrated such ideas as peace, absence of unhappiness, and inner harmony and tranquility, which also could be related to the situational context. The concept of happiness was almost the same in the adolescents and the children. Both groups described happiness as positive emotions, ranging from intense joy, delight, and pleasure to calm satisfaction and arising from communication with family, parents, and friends during various activities and recreation. The children tended to experience happiness in the moment. The older adults explained happiness as the well-being of their own and their loved ones. Family remained the core idea of happiness, shared by the children and the older adults.