The goal? To discern the happiness of students post graduation relative to their goals.

Apparently using "indepth psychological surveys," researchers assessed the graduates' "life satisfaction," self-esteem, anxiety, physical stress, and emotions. They then judged the subjects' value of enduring relationships, helping others, achieving wealth and the "look" they wanted.

The "striking and paradoxical" findings? That "reaching materialistic and image-related milestones actually contributes to ill-being," with those reaching their goals suffering more negative emotions like shame and anger and reporting anxiety, headaches, and loss of energy.

Alternatively, those graduates who reported valuing personal growth, close relationships, community and physical health "experience a deeper sense of well-being, more positive feelings toward themselves, richer connections…and fewer signs of stress."

Crabby wonders if the happier individuals were those who landed jobs outside their chosen fields, maybe cashiering at the local grocery. In other words, avoided the rat race of bosses, office politics, and the general continuation of high school's hierarchy.

And seriously, isn't this the most stressful period in a college graduate's life? When they've got to make that degree pay off so they can start paying back student loans? (Which brings me to this: did the researchers' calculate the ratio of student loan debt to happiness? A missed opportunity, I think.)

According to
PsychCentral.com, here's the study's take-home message: "Craving money and adoration also can lead to a preoccupation with "keeping up with the Jones" -- upward social comparisons that breed feelings of inadequacy and jealousy. And unlike the lasting benefits of caring relationships and hard-earned skills, the thrill of extrinsic accomplishments fade quickly."

This is not really news. But here is the trick: how do you package and sell these findings on TV and magazines so that the kiddies will covet them?