CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - Young twenty- and thirtysomethings worried about pressures they might face in middle age can breathe a sigh of relief: According to researchers, their most stressed-out time may be right now.

In a large survey of US adults aged 25 to 74 years of age, just 8% of young adults said they had even one stress-free day in a given week, compared with 12% of mid-lifers and 19% of those over 60.

The difference appears to be one of attitude, according to researcher Dr. David Almeida of the University of Arizona in Tucson. "We're finding that older people are mellowing a bit," he said. "According to this research, the older we get, you kind of realize that 'hey, it's not worth getting upset about the small things."'

He presented the findings here Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

As we age and take on the responsibilities of career and family, many of us may look back wistfully at what we imagine was a relatively carefree youth. But is our nostalgia deceiving us?

In their study, Almeida and his colleagues examined data from a large government survey of over 1,000 American adults known as the National Study of Midlife in the United States. As part of the study, researchers telephoned participants every evening for 8 consecutive evenings, quizzing them on the amount and type of stressors they had faced that day.

"And we found that, in sheer number of stressors that people reported, there was no difference between younger adults and midlife adults," Almeida said. But while these daily hassles tended to really upset those aged 25 to 39, "boomer" types aged 40 to 59 were more likely to shrug them off.

"For example, being stuck in traffic. The younger people in our sample would report that as more disruptive, more upsetting, than older people," Almeida said. The key was "people's own perceptions, how they view their stressors," he said.

But the nature of what stresses us out as we age appears to change as well. In our 20s and 30s, "it was likely to be over some interpersonal tension or disagreement they have with somebody," such as a lover, coworker or friend, Almeida said.

"Whereas midlife adults, their stressors were more related to being overloaded or having too many demands made on them." This makes sense, he said, because midlife is typically our most productive period, with many of us forced to juggle the demands of career, spouse, children and aging parents.

For the third group in the study, those aged 60 to 74, one concern--health problems--puts all others in the shade. At this age, "we're going to deal with the little things much better--so we perceive things as being less severe," Almeida said. However, "the stresses that do happen to people are out of their control and they are most often related to close friends and relatives being sick. So when they do happen they have more of an impact."

But the oldest age group still beat out the others when it came to overall trouble-free days: While young and middle-aged individuals reported significant stressors on an average of about 3 out of the 8 study days, that number dropped to close to 2 days among those 60 and over.

Overall, young women reported the most stress, and older men the least. "Men and women had similar amounts of overloads of demands, similar amounts of arguments and tensions," Almeida said. But women's daily anxieties were much more likely to be focused on family and friends.

"Something like 'my friend is having problems with her husband,' 'my child is sick, or 'my child is in trouble at school.' We call these network stressors--they happen within our network of friends and family. Women reported three times as many of these network stressors as men did," according to Almeida.

He added, "Not only do women report more of these network stressors, when they happen, women are more reactive, more likely to be upset and actually feel sick from them. Whereas men, they don't report them, and when they do report them it really doesn't get to them as much." Instead, men tend to fret over workplace tensions and financial issues, perhaps focusing on their traditional male role as "breadwinner."

Overall, it may be a comfort to know that our attitudes toward life's troubles mellow with age. In fact, Almeida believes this late-life mellowing may be the logical result of a more stressful, drama-heavy youth.

"Obviously, if older adults are dealing better with their stressors, they've probably learned from them," he said. "You have to experience it in order to master your environment. In fact, midlife people, when they talk about having stress, oftentimes they will say, 'I guess I feel good that I could get everything done today.' So there might be some positive outcomes."

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