Were You Happier as a Teen or Now-- As an Adult? | Parenting

A group of researchers at Northwestern University concluded that upbeat and positive teens are more likely than their surly peers to become happy AND healthy adults.

These researchers took the "emotional temperature" of thousands of teens at several different points in time while they participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. They found that teen happiness begets adult happiness and teen misery becomes adult misery.

We'd like to suggest that parents not panic. Teens as a group tend to be somewhat moody and emotionally reactive. This certainly does not mean that they are depressed and are headed for short, sickly, and torturous lives. So, before you hit the panic button and rush your teen to the closest mental health clinic  take a look at the teens' overall behavior.

Is your teen simply irritable and perhaps having a clumsy moment or is she withdrawn, friendless, and generally down in the dumps? The former is characteristic of being a teenager while the latter may be something to be concerned about.

We would like you to weigh in on something that we've been kicking around.
Were you happy as a teen?
AND
Are you happier as an adult?
We ask you this because many of the happy adults that we know tell us that they would never want to revisit their teen years.