Education strongly correlates with future happiness Education is probably more strongly correlated with future happiness throughout adulthood than any other variable, according to Jeffrey Arnett, developmental psychologist and professor of psychology at Clark University. Happiness, in this case, is defined as satisfaction with the way one s life is going.
Research suggests that the more education you have, the happier you tend to be.
In a survey that utilized data from the U.S. General Social Surveys, 94% of people with a bachelor s degree or more reported feeling happy or very happy with their lives overall, while 89% of high school grads said the same. A 2016 Pew survey found that adults with less than a high school education are more than twice as likely as those with a bachelor s degree or more education to say they are not happy with their lives.