Stress and Quality of Life Normative and non-normative events help us understand how change and stress may impact our quality of life. Using the South University Library, locate 2 scholarly journal ar

chapter 16

SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

© Peter Correz/The Image Bank/Getty Images

chapter outline

1. 1   Personality Theories and Adult Development

   • Learning Goal 1 Describe personality theories and socioemotional development in middle adulthood.

   • Stages of Adulthood

   • The Life-Events Approach

   • Stress and Personal Control in Midlife

   • Contexts of Midlife Development

2. 2   Stability and Change

   • Learning Goal 2 Discuss stability and change in development during middle adulthood, as reflected in longitudinal studies.

   • Longitudinal Studies

   • Conclusions

3. 3   Close Relationships

   • Learning Goal 3 Identify some important aspects of close relationships in middle adulthood.

   • Love and Marriage at Midlife

   • The Empty Nest and Its Refilling

   • Sibling Relationships and Friendships

   • Grandparenting

   • Intergenerational Relationships

Page 486

Forty-five-year-old Sarah feels tired, depressed, and angry when she looks back on the way her life has gone. She became pregnant when she was 17 and married Ben, the baby’s father. They stayed together for three years after their son was born, and then Ben left her for another woman. Sarah went to work as a salesclerk to make ends meet. Eight years later, she married Alan, who had two children from a previous marriage. Sarah stopped working for several years to care for the children. Then, like Ben, Alan started seeing someone else. Sarah found out about it from a friend. Nevertheless, Sarah stayed with Alan for another year. Finally, he was gone so much that she could not take it anymore and decided to divorce him. Sarah went back to work again as a salesclerk; she has been in the same position for 16 years now. During those 16 years, she dated a number of men, but the relationships never seemed to work out. Her son never finished high school and has drug problems. Her father died last year, and Sarah is trying to help her mother financially, although she can barely pay her own bills. Sarah looks in the mirror and does not like what she sees. She sees her past as a shambles, and her future does not look rosy, either.

Forty-five-year-old Wanda feels energetic, happy, and satisfied. As a young woman, she graduated from college and worked for three years as a high school math teacher. She married Andy, who had just finished law school. One year later, they had their first child, Josh. Wanda stayed home with Josh for two years and then returned to her job as a math teacher. Even during her pregnancy, Wanda stayed active and exercised regularly, playing tennis almost every day. After her pregnancy, she kept up her exercise habits. Wanda and Andy had another child, Wendy. Now, as they move into their middle-age years, their children are both off at college, and Wanda and Andy are enjoying spending more time with each other. Last weekend, they visited Josh at his college, and the weekend before they visited Wendy at hers. Wanda continued working as a high school math teacher until six years ago. She had developed computer skills as part of her job and had taken some computer courses at a nearby college. She resigned her math teaching job and took a job with a computer company, where she has already worked her way into management. Wanda looks in the mirror and likes what she sees. She sees her past as enjoyable, although not without hills and valleys, and she looks toward the future with enthusiasm.

topical connections looking back

Emerging adulthood, which occurs from approximately 18 to 25 years of age, is a transitional period between adolescence and early adulthood—a time when individuals intensely explore their identity and experience instability in different contexts. A secure attachment style benefits young adults. Love and possibly marriage become central aspects of many young adults’ socioemotional development. Searching for a balance between the need for independence and freedom and the need for intimacy and commitment characterizes the lives of many young adults. Many young adults not only are marrying later or not at all but are having children later than in past decades, and many choose to cohabit with a romantic partner.

Page 487

preview

As with Sarah and Wanda, there are individual variations in the way people experience middle age. To begin the chapter, we will examine personality theories and development in middle age, including ideas about individual variation. Then we will turn our attention to the ways in which individuals change or stay the same as they go through the adult years. Finally we will explore a number of aspects of close relationships during middle adulthood.

1 Personality Theories and Adult DevelopmentLG1Describe personality theories and socioemotional development in middle adulthood.

What is the best way to conceptualize middle age? Is it a stage or a crisis? How extensively is middle age influenced by life events? Do middle-aged adults experience stress and personal control differently from adults at other life stages? Is personality linked with contexts such as the point in history when individuals go through midlife, their culture, and their gender?

The generations of living things pass in a short time, and like runners, hand on the torch of life.

—Lucretius
Roman poet, 1st century B.C.

STAGES OF ADULTHOOD

Adult stage theories have been plentiful, and they have contributed to the view that midlife brings a crisis in development. Two prominent theories that define stages of adult development are Erik Erikson’s life-span view and Daniel Levinson’s seasons of a man’s life.

Erikson’s Stage of Generativity Versus Stagnation Erikson (1968) proposed that middle-aged adults face a significant issue—generativity versus stagnation, which is the name Erikson gave to the seventh stage in his life-span theory. Generativity encompasses adults’ desire to leave legacies of themselves to the next generation (Busch & Hofer, 2012; Hofer & others, 2016; Tabuchi & others, 2015). Through these legacies adults achieve a kind of immortality. By contrast, stagnation (sometimes called “self-absorption”) develops when individuals sense that they have done nothing for the next generation.

Middle-aged adults can develop generativity in a number of ways (Kotre, 1984). Through biological generativity, adults have offspring. Through parental generativity, adults nurture and guide children. Through work generativity, adults develop skills that are passed down to others. And through cultural generativity, adults create, renovate, or conserve some aspect of culture that ultimately survives.

Adults promote and guide the next generation by parenting, teaching, leading, and doing things that benefit the community. One of the participants in a study of aging said, “From twenty to thirty I learned how to get along with my wife. From thirty to forty I learned how to be a success at my job, and at forty to fifty I worried less about myself and more about the children” (Vaillant, 2002, p. 114). Generative adults commit themselves to the continuation and improvement of society as a whole through their connection to the next generation. Generative adults develop a positive legacy of the self and then offer it as a gift to the next generation.

Does research support Erikson’s theory that generativity is an important dimension of middle age? Yes, it does (Newton & Stewart, 2012). In George Vaillant’s (2002) longitudinal studies of aging, generativity (defined in this study as “taking care of the next generation”) in middle age was more strongly related than intimacy to whether individuals would have an enduring and happy marriage at 75 to 80 years of age.

Other research also supports Erikson’s (1968) view on the importance of generativity in middle adulthood. In one study, Carol Ryff (1984) examined the views of women and men at different ages and found that middle-aged adults especially were concerned about generativity. In a longitudinal study of Smith College women, the desire for generativity increased as the participants aged from their thirties to their fifties (Stewart, Ostrove, & Helson, 2001) (see Figure 1).

FIGURE 1CHANGES IN GENERATIVITY FROM THE THIRTIES THROUGH THE FIFTIES. Generativity increased in Smith College women as they aged from their thirties through their fifties (Stewart, Ostrove, & Helson, 2001). The women rated themselves on a 3-point scale indicating the extent to which they thought the statements about generativity were descriptive of their lives. Higher scores reflect greater generativity.Page 488

Levinson’s Seasons of a Man’s Life In The Seasons of a Man’s Life (1978), clinical psychologist Daniel Levinson reported the results of extensive interviews with 40 middle-aged men. The interviews were conducted with hourly workers, business executives, academic biologists, and novelists. Levinson bolstered his conclusions with information from the biographies of famous men and the development of memorable characters in literature. Although Levinson’s major interest focused on midlife change, he described a number of stages and transitions during the period from 17 to 65 years of age, as shown in Figure 2. Levinson emphasizes that developmental tasks must be mastered at each stage.

FIGURE 2LEVINSON’S PERIODS OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT. According to Daniel Levinson, adulthood for men has three main stages that are surrounded by transition periods. Specific tasks and challenges are associated with each stage.(Top to bottom) © Amos Morgan/Getty Images RF; © Corbis RF; © Thomas Northcut/Getty Images RF

At the end of one’s teens, according to Levinson, a transition from dependence to independence should occur. This transition is marked by the formation of a dream—an image of the kind of life the youth wants to have, especially in terms of a career and marriage. Levinson sees the twenties as a novice phase of adult development. It is a time of reasonably free experimentation and of testing the dream in the real world. In early adulthood, the two major tasks to be mastered are exploring the possibilities for adult living and developing a stable life structure.

From about the ages of 28 to 33, a man goes through a transition period in which he must face the more serious question of determining his goals. During his thirties, he usually focuses on family and career development. In the later years of this period, he enters a phase of Becoming One’s Own Man (or BOOM, as Levinson calls it). By age 40, he has reached a stable point in his career, has outgrown his earlier, more tenuous attempts at learning to become an adult, and now must look forward to the kind of life he will lead as a middle-aged adult.

According to Levinson, the transition to middle adulthood lasts about five years (ages 40 to 45) and requires the adult male to come to grips with four major conflicts that have existed in his life since adolescence: (1) being young versus being old, (2) being destructive versus being constructive, (3) being masculine versus being feminine, and (4) being attached to others versus being separated from them. Seventy to 80 percent of the men Levinson interviewed found the midlife transition tumultuous and psychologically painful, as many aspects of their lives came into question. According to Levinson, the success of the midlife transition rests on how effectively the individual reduces the polarities and accepts each of them as an integral part of his being.

Because Levinson interviewed middle-aged men, we can consider the data about middle adulthood more valid than the data about early adulthood. When individuals are asked to remember information about earlier parts of their lives, they may distort and forget things. The original Levinson data included no women, although Levinson (1996) reported that his stages, transitions, and the crisis of middle age hold for women as well as men. Levinson’s work included no statistical analysis. However, the quality and quantity of the Levinson biographies make them outstanding examples of the clinical tradition.

developmental connection

Personality

Erikson’s early adulthood stage is intimacy versus isolation and his late adulthood stage is integrity versus despair. Connect to “Socioemotional Development in Early Adulthood” and “Socioemotional Development in Late Adulthood.”

How Pervasive Are Midlife Crises? Levinson (1978) views midlife as a crisis, arguing that the middle-aged adult is suspended between the past and the future, trying to cope with this gap that threatens life’s continuity. George Vaillant (1977) has a different view. Vaillant’s study—called the “Grant Study”—involved Harvard University men in their early thirties and in their late forties who initially had been interviewed as undergraduates. He concludes that just as adolescence is a time for detecting parental flaws and discovering the truth about childhood, the forties are a decade of reassessing and recording the truth about the adolescent and adulthood years. However, whereas Levinson sees midlife as a crisis, Vaillant maintains that only a minority of adults experience a midlife crisis:

Midlife crises are greatly exaggerated in America.

—George Vaillant
Contemporary psychologist, Harvard University

Just as pop psychologists have reveled in the not-so-common high drama of adolescent turmoil, just so the popular press, sensing good copy, has made all too much of the midlife crisis. The term midlife crisis brings to mind some variation of the renegade minister who leaves behind four children and the congregation that loved him in order to drive off in a magenta Porsche with a 25-year-old striptease artiste. . . . As with adolescent turmoil, midlife crises are much rarer in community samples than in clinical samples. (pp. 222–223)

Page 489

Thus, for most people midlife is not a crisis (Lachman, Teshale, & Agrigoroaei, 2015). Many cognitive skills, such as vocabulary, verbal memory, and inductive reasoning, peak in midlife, and many individuals reach the height of their career success in midlife (Schaie, 2016). Further, happiness and positive affect have an upward trajectory from early adulthood to late adulthood (Carstensen, 2015; Sims, Hogan, & Carstensen, 2015).

A number of research studies have documented that midlife is not characterized by pervasive crises:

• One study found that 26 percent of middle-aged U.S. adults said they had experienced a midlife crisis, but most attributed the crisis to negative life events rather than aging (Wethington, Kessler, & Pixley, 2004).

• A longitudinal study of more than 2,000 individuals found few midlife crises (McCrae & Costa, 1990; Siegler & Costa, 1999). In this study, the emotional instability of individuals did not significantly increase during their middle-aged years (see Figure 3).

FIGURE 3EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY AND AGE. In one longitudinal study, the emotional instability of individuals was assessed from age 33 to age 54 (McCrae & Costa, 1990). No significant increase in emotional instability occurred during the middle-aged years.

• A study of individuals described as young adults (average age 19), middle-aged adults (average age 46), and older adults (average age 73) found that their ability to master their environment, autonomy, and personal relations improved during middle age (Keyes & Ryff, 1998) (see Figure 4).

FIGURE 4AGE AND WELL-BEING. In one study, six dimensions of well-being (self-acceptance, positive relations, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, and autonomy) were assessed in three different age groups of individuals (young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults) (Keyes & Ryff, 1998). An increase or little change in most of the dimensions of well-being occurred during middle adulthood.

Adult development experts are virtually unanimous in their belief that midlife crises have been exaggerated (Brim, Ryff, & Kessler, 2004; Lachman, Teshale, & Agrigoroaei, 2015; Pudrovska, 2009; Wethington, Kessler, & Pixley, 2004). In sum:

• The stage theories place too much emphasis on crises in development, especially midlife crises.

• There often is considerable individual variation in the way people experience the stages, a topic that we will turn to next.

Individual Variations Stage theories focus on the universals of adult personality development as they try to pin down stages that all individuals go through in their adult lives. These theories do not adequately address individual variations in adult development. One extensive study of a random sample of 500 men at midlife, for example, found extensive individual variation among men (Farrell & Rosenberg, 1981). In the individual variations view, middle-aged adults interpret, shape, alter, and give meaning to their lives.

Some individuals may experience a midlife crisis in some contexts of their lives but not others (Lachman, 2004). For example, turmoil and stress may characterize a person’s life at work even while things are going smoothly at home.

Researchers have found that in one-third of the cases in which individuals have reported going through a midlife crisis, the “crisis is triggered by life events such as a job loss, financial problems, or illness” (Lachman, 2004, p. 315). Let’s now explore the role of life events in midlife development.

THE LIFE-EVENTS APPROACH

Age-related stages represent one major way to examine adult personality development. A second major way to conceptualize adult personality development is to focus on life events (Blonksi & others, 2016; Leggett, Burgard, & Zivin, 2016; Luhmann & others, 2012; Schwarzer & Luszczynska, 2013). In the early version of the life-events approach, life events were viewed as taxing circumstances for individuals, forcing them to change their personality (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). Events such as the death of a spouse, divorce, marriage, and so on were believed to involve varying degrees of stress, and therefore likely to influence the individual’s development. A recent study found that stressful life events were associated with cardiovascular disease in middle-aged women (Kershaw & others, 2014). And a recent meta-analysis found an association between stressful life events and autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis and psoriasis (Porcelli & others, 2016).

Today’s life-events approach is more sophisticated. In the contemporary life-events approach, how life events influence the individual’s development depends not only on the life event itself but also on mediating factors (such as physical health and family supports), the individual’s adaptation to the life event (such as appraisal of the threat and coping strategies), the life-stage context, and the sociohistorical context (see Figure 5). For example, if individuals are in poor health and have little family support, life events are likely to be Page 490more stressful. And a divorce may be more stressful after many years of marriage when adults are in their fifties than when they have been married only several years and are in their twenties, a finding indicating that the life-stage context of an event makes a difference. The sociohistorical context also makes a difference. For example, adults may be able to cope more effectively with divorce today than in the 1950s because divorce has become more commonplace and accepted in today’s society. Whatever the context or mediating variables, however, one individual may perceive a life event as highly stressful, whereas another individual may perceive the same event as a challenge.

FIGURE 5A CONTEMPORARY LIFE-EVENTS FRAMEWORK FOR INTERPRETING ADULT DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE. According to the contemporary life-events approach, the influence of a life event depends on the event itself, on mediating variables, on the life-stage and sociohistorical context, and on the individual’s appraisal of the event and coping strategies.

Although the life-events approach offers valuable insights for understanding adult development, it has its drawbacks. One drawback is that the life-events approach places too much emphasis on change. It does not adequately recognize the stability that, at least to some degree, characterizes adult development.

Another drawback is that it may not be life’s major events that are the primary sources of stress, but our daily experiences (Almeida & others, 2011; Keles & others, 2016; Hamilton & Julian, 2014; Jacob & others, 2014). Enduring a boring but tense job or living in poverty does not show up on scales of major life events. Yet the everyday pounding from these conditions can add up to a highly stressful life and eventually lead to illness. Greater insight into the source of life’s stresses might come from focusing more on daily hassles and daily uplifts (McIntosh, Gillanders, & Rodgers, 2010). Researchers have found that young and middle-aged adults experience a greater daily frequency of stressors than older adults (Almeida & Horn, 2004). In one study, healthy older adult women 63 to 93 years of age reported their daily experiences over the course of one week (Charles & others, 2010). In this study, the older a woman was, the fewer stressors and less frequent negative affect she reported. Also, in recent research, greater emotional reactivity to daily stressors was linked to increased risk of reporting a chronic physical health condition and anxiety/mood disorders 10 years later (Charles & others, 2013; Piazza & others, 2013). And a recent study of adults (mean age = 57 years) revealed that higher levels of daily stressors were associated with increased cortisol output (cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone), especially if the stressors included arguments and other problems at home (Stawski & others, 2013). A recent study also found that stressful daily hassles were linked to increased anxiety and lower physical well-being (Falconier & others, 2015).

One study found that the daily hassles most frequently reported by college students were wasting time, concerns about meeting high standards, and being lonely (Kanner & others, 1981). Among the uplifts reported most frequently by the college students were entertainment, Page 491getting along well with friends, and completing a task. In this same study, the daily hassles reported most often by middle-aged adults were concerns about weight and the health of a family member, while their most frequently reported daily uplifts involved relating well with a spouse or lover, or a friend (see Figure 6). And the middle-aged adults were more likely than the college students to report that their daily hassles involved economic concerns (rising prices and taxes, for example).

FIGURE 6THE TEN MOST FREQUENT DAILY HASSLES AND UPLIFTS OF MIDDLE-AGED ADULTS OVER A NINE-MONTH PERIOD. How do these hassles and uplifts compare with your own?

The manner in which different stressors affect health varies—life events often produce prolonged arousal whereas daily stressors are linked to spikes in arousal (Piazza & others, 2010). Consider caring for a spouse who has Alzheimer disease. In this case, a life event (spouse diagnosed with an incurable disease) produces chronic stress for the caregiver, which also is linked to the daily stressors involved in caring for the individual.

Critics of the daily hassles approach argue that some of the same problems involved with life-events scales occur when daily hassles are assessed. For example, knowing about an adult’s daily hassles tells us nothing about physical changes, about how the individual copes with hassles, or about how the individual perceives hassles.

STRESS AND PERSONAL CONTROL IN MIDLIFE

As we have seen, there is conclusive evidence that midlife is not a time when a majority of adults experience a tumultuous crisis, but if they do experience a midlife crisis it is often linked to stressful life events. Do middle-aged adults experience stress differently from young adults and older adults?

Stress, Personal Control, and Age Margie Lachman and her colleagues (2016) recently described how personal control changes when individuals move into middle age. In their view, middle age is a time when a person’s sense of control is frequently challenged by many demands and responsibilities, as well as physical and cognitive aging. By contrast, young people are more likely to have a sense of invulnerability, to be unrealistic about their personal control, and to be unaware of the aging process. Many young people focus primarily on self pursuits and don’t have to worry much about responsibilities for others. But in middle age, less attention is given to self pursuits and more to responsibility for others, including those younger and older than they are. According to Lachman and her colleagues (2016), how the midlife years play out is largely in one’s own hands, which can be stressful as individuals are faced with taking on and juggling responsibilities in different areas of their lives.

One study using daily diaries over a one-week period found that both young and middle-aged adults had more days that were stressful and that were characterized by multiple stresses than older adults (Almeida & Horn, 2004). In this study, although young adults experienced daily stressors more frequently than middle-aged adults, middle-aged adults experienced more “overload” stressors that involved juggling too many activities at once. Another study also revealed that middle-aged and older adults showed a smaller increase in psychological distress to interpersonal stressors than did younger adults, and middle-aged adults were less physically reactive to work stressors than were younger adults (Neupert, Almeida, & Charles, 2007).

developmental connection

Stress

Adolescence has been characterized too negatively, dating from Hall’s storm-and-stress view of adolescents. Connect to “Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence.”

To what extent do middle-aged adults perceive that they can control what happens to them? Researchers have found that on average a sense of personal control peaks in midlife and then declines (Lachman, 2006; Lachman, Agrigoroaei, & Hahn, 2016; Lachman, Teshale, & Agrigoroaei, 2015). In one study, approximately 80 percent of the young adults (25 to 39 years of age), 71 percent of the middle-aged adults (40 to 59 years of age), and 62 percent of the older adults (60 to 75 years of age) reported that they were often in control of their lives (Lachman & Firth, 2004). However, some aspects of personal control increase with age while others decrease (Lachman, Neupert, & Agrigoroaei, 2011). For example, middle-aged adults feel a greater sense of control over their finances, work, and marriage than younger adults but less control over their sex life and their children (Lachman & Firth, 2004).

Page 492

Stress and Gender Women and men differ in the way they experience and respond to stressors (Almeida & others, 2011; Taylor, 2015). Women are more vulnerable to social stressors such as those involving romance, family, and work. For example, women experience higher levels of stress than men do when things go wrong in romantic and marital relationships. Women also are more likely than men to become depressed when they encounter stressful life events such as divorce or the death of a friend. A recent study of more than 2,800 adults 50 years and older in Taiwan also found that women were more susceptible to depressive symptoms when they felt constant stress from finances, increasing stress from jobs, and fluctuating stress in family relationships (Lin & others, 2011).

How do women and men differ in the way they experience and respond to stressors?© altrendo images/Getty Images

When men face stress, they are more likely to respond in a fight-or-flight manner—to become aggressive, withdraw from social contact, or drink alcohol. By contrast, according to Shelley Taylor and her colleagues (2011a, b, c; 2015; Taylor & others, 2000), when women experience stress, they are more likely to engage in a tend-and-befriend pattern, seeking social alliances with others, especially friends. Taylor argues that when women experience stress an influx of the hormone oxytocin, which is linked to nurturing in animals, is released.

CONTEXTS OF MIDLIFE DEVELOPMENT

Both Sarah and Wanda, whose stories appeared at the beginning of this chapter, are working mothers. In almost every other way, however, their lives could scarcely be more different. Why? Part of the answer might lie in the different contexts of their lives. The contemporary life-events approach (like Bronfenbrenner’s theory) highlights the importance of the complex setting of our lives—of everything from our income and family supports to our sociohistorical circumstances. Let’s examine how three aspects of the contexts of life influence development during middle adulthood: historical contexts (cohort effects), gender, and culture.

developmental connection

Research Methods

Cohort effects have also been described as normative, history-graded influences. Connect to “Introduction.”

Historical Contexts (Cohort Effects) Some developmentalists conclude that changing historical times and different social expectations influence how different cohorts—groups of individuals born in the same year or time period—move through the life span (Schaie, 2010, 2013, 2016). Bernice Neugarten (1986) argues that our values, attitudes, expectations, and behaviors are influenced by the period in which we live. For example, individuals born during the difficult times of the Great Depression may have a different outlook on life from those born during the optimistic 1950s, says Neugarten.

Critics say the stage theories of adult development reflect a male bias by emphasizing career choice and achievement, and that they do not adequately address women’s concerns about relationships, interdependence, and caring. The stage theories assume a normative sequence of development, but as women’s roles have become more varied and complex, determining what is normative is difficult. What kinds of changes have taken place in middle-aged women’s lives in recent years?© Corbis RF

Neugarten (1986) holds that the social environment of a particular age group can alter its social clock—the timetable on which individuals are expected to accomplish life’s tasks, such as getting married, having children, or establishing themselves in a career. Social clocks provide guides for our lives; individuals whose lives are not synchronized with these social clocks find life to be more stressful than those who are on schedule, says Neugarten. For example, the fact that Sarah’s pregnancy occurred when she was a teenager probably increased the stressfulness of that pregnancy. Neugarten argues that today there is much less agreement than in the past on the right age or sequence for the occurrence of major life events such as having children or retiring. Indeed, one study found that between the late 1950s and the late 1970s, there was a dramatic decline in adults’ beliefs that there is a “best age” for major life events and achievements (Passuth, Maines, & Neugarten, 1984) (see Figure 7).

FIGURE 7INDIVIDUALS’ CONCEPTIONS OF THE BEST AGE FOR MAJOR LIFE EVENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS: LATE 1950S AND LATE 1970S. What do you think is the best age to experience each of these major life events and accomplishments?(Top) © Philip Gendreau/Corbis Images RF; (bottom) © H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile/Getty Images

Gender Contexts Critics say that the stage theories of adult development have a male bias. For example, the central focus of stage theories is on career choice and work achievement, which historically have dominated men’s life choices and life chances more than women’s. The stage theories do not adequately address women’s concerns about relationships, interdependence, and caring (Gilligan, 1982). The adult stage theories have also placed little importance on childbearing and child rearing. Women’s family roles are complex and often have a higher salience in their lives than in men’s lives. The role demands that women experience in balancing career and family are usually not experienced as intensely by men.

Page 493

Should midlife and the years beyond be feared by women as a time of declining youth and opportunity? Or is middle adulthood a new prime of life, a time for renewal, for shedding preoccupations with a youthful appearance and body, and for seeking new challenges, valuing maturity, and enjoying change?

In one study, the early fifties were indeed a new prime of life for many women (Mitchell & Helson, 1990). In this sample of 700 women aged 26 to 80, women in their early fifties most often described their lives as “first-rate.” Conditions that distinguished the lives of women in their early fifties from those of women in other age periods included more “empty nests,” better health, higher income, and more concern for parents. Women in their early fifties showed confidence, involvement, security, and breadth of personality.

In sum, the view that midlife is a negative age period for women is stereotypical, as so many perceptions of age periods are. Midlife is a diversified, heterogeneous period for women, just as it is for men.

Gusii dancers perform on habitat day in Nairobi, Kenya. Movement from one status to another in the Gusii culture is due primarily to life events, not age. The Gusii do not have a clearly labeled midlife transition.© Betty Press

Cultural Contexts In many cultures, especially nonindustrialized cultures, the concept of middle age is not very clear, or in some cases is absent. It is common in nonindustrialized societies to describe individuals as young or old but not as middle-aged (Grambs, 1989). Some cultures have no words for “adolescent,” “young adult,” or “middle-aged adult.”

Consider the Gusii culture, located in the African country of Kenya. The Gusii divide the life course differently for females and males (LeVine, 1979): females: (1) infant, (2) uncircumcised girl, (3) circumcised girl, (4) married woman, and (5) female elder; males: (1) infant, (2) uncircumcised boy, (3) circumcised boy warrior, and (4) male elder. Thus, movement from one status to the next is due primarily to life events, not age, in the Gusii culture.

Although the Gusii do not have a clearly labeled midlife transition, some of the Gusii adults do reassess their lives around the age of 40. At this time, these Gusii adults examine their current status and the limited time they have remaining in their lives. Their physical Page 494strength is decreasing, and they know they cannot farm their land forever, so they seek spiritual powers by becoming ritual practitioners or healers. As in the American culture, however, a midlife crisis in the Gusii culture is the exception rather than the rule.

Review Connect Reflect

1. LG1 Describe personality theories and socioemotional development in middle adulthood.

Review

• What are some theories of adult stages of development?

• What is the life-events approach?

• How do middle-aged adults experience stress and personal control differently from young and older adults?

• How do contexts influence midlife development?

Connect

• In this section, you read that some researchers criticize the stage theories of adult development as having a male bias. What have you learned about gender bias in research?

Reflect Your Own Personal Journey of Life

• Which approach makes more sense—adult stage or life events—in explaining your own development as you go through adulthood? Or do you think both approaches should be considered in understanding your development as an adult? Explain your answer.

2 Stability and ChangeLG2Discuss stability and change in development during middle adulthood,
as reflected in longitudinal studies.

Sarah’s adult life, described in the chapter opening, has followed a painful path. Were her sorrows an inevitable result of how she learned to cope with problems earlier in life? Is it possible for her, in middle age, to change her coping strategies or how she relates to other people?

developmental connection

Life-Span Perspective

The extent to which development is characterized by stability and/or change is one of the key issues in the study of life-span development. Connect to “Introduction.”

LONGITUDINAL STUDIES

We will examine four longitudinal studies that can help us understand the extent to which there is stability or change in adult development: Costa and McCrae’s Baltimore Study, the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, Helson’s Mills College Study, and Vaillant’s studies.

Costa and McCrae’s Baltimore Study A major, ongoing study of adult personality development is being conducted by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (1998, 2013; McCrae & Costa, 2003, 2006). They focus on what are called the Big Five factors of personality, which are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (emotional stability); these personality factors are described in Figure 8. (Notice that if you create an acronym from these factor names, you will get the word OCEAN.) A number of Page 495research studies point toward these factors as important dimensions of personality (Hill & others, 2012; Hill, Nickel, & Roberts, 2014; Hill & Roberts, 2016; Mike & others, 2015; Roberts & others, 2014).

FIGURE 8THE BIG FIVE FACTORS OF PERSONALITY. Each of the broad supertraits encompasses more narrow traits and characteristics. Use the acronym OCEAN to remember the Big Five personality factors: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Using their five-factor personality test, Costa and McCrae (1995, 2000) studied approximately 1,000 college-educated men and women ages 20 to 96, assessing the same individuals over many years. Data collection began in the 1950s and is ongoing. Costa and McCrae concluded that considerable stability occurs in the five personality factors—emotional stability, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. However, more recent research indicates greater developmental changes in the five personality factors in adulthood (Graham & Lachman, 2013; Hill & Roberts, 2016; Lucas & Donnellan, 2011; Soto & others, 2011). For example, a recent study found that emotional stability, extraversion, openness, and agreeableness were lower in early adulthood, peaked between 40 and 60 years of age, and decreased in late adulthood, while conscientiousness showed a continuous increase from early adulthood to late adulthood (Specht, Egloff, & Schukle, 2011). Most research studies indicate that the greatest change occurs in early adulthood (Hill, Allemand, & Roberts, 2014; Hill & Roberts, 2016; Lucas & Donnellan, 2011; Roberts, Donnellan, & Hill, 2013).

developmental connection

Personality

The Big Five factors are linked to longevity. Connect to “Socioemotional Development in Late Adulthood.”

Further evidence for the importance of the Big Five factors indicates that they are related to such important aspects of a person’s life as health, intelligence and cognitive functioning, achievement and work, and relationships (Bertrand, Graham, & Lachman, 2013; English & Carstensen, 2014; Hampson & others, 2015; Hill & others, 2014). The following research supports these links:

• Openness to experience. Individuals high on openness to experience are more likely to be tolerant (McCrae & Sutin, 2009), have superior cognitive functioning, achievement, and IQ across the life span (Briley, Domiteaux, & Tucker-Drob, 2014), show creative achievement in the arts (Kaufman & others, 2016), experience less negative affect to stressors (Leger & others, 2016), and have greater success as entrepreneurs (Zhao, Seibert, & Lumpkin, 2010).

• Conscientiousness. Individuals high in conscientiousness often do well in a variety of life domains (Boyce, Wood, & Ferguson, 2016; Mike & others, 2015). For example, they have better health and less stress (Gartland & others, 2014), engage in superior problem-focused coping (Sesker & others, 2016), maintain better-quality friendships (Jensen-Campbell & Malcolm, 2007), achieve better grade point averages in college (McAbee & Oswald, 2013), are more successful at accomplishing goals (McCabe & Fleeson, 2016), engage in less substance abuse (Walton & Roberts, 2004), experience less negative affect to stressors (Leger & others, 2016), and gamble less (Hwang & others, 2012). A recent study also found that conscientiousness was linked to better cognitive status and less cognitive decline in aging adults (Luchetti & others, 2016).

• Extraversion. Individuals high in extraversion are more likely than others to engage in social activities (Emmons & Diener, 1986), be more satisfied in relationships (Toy, Nai, & Lee, 2016), have fewer sleep problems (Hintsanen & others, 2014), show less negative affect to stressors (Leger & others, 2016), and have a more positive sense of well-being in the future (Soto, 2015).

• Agreeableness. People who are high in agreeableness are more likely to be generous and altruistic (Caprara & others, 2010), have more satisfying romantic relationships (Donnellan, Larsen-Rife, & Conger, 2005), view other people positively (Wood, Harms, & Vazire, 2010), show more positive affect to stressors (Leger & others, 2016), and lie less about themselves in online dating profiles (Hall & others, 2010).

• Neuroticism. People high in neuroticism are more likely to feel negative emotion than positive emotion in daily life, experience more lingering negative states, and have more stressor-related negative affect (Leger & others, 2016; Widiger, 2009), have more health complaints (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010), be more drug dependent (Valero & others, 2014), have a higher coronary heart disease risk (Lee & others, 2014), and have a lower sense of well-being 40 years later (Gale & others, 2013). Also, recent research indicates that a combination of higher levels of conscientiousness and neuroticism is linked to better health (Turiano & others, 2013).

Another important personality trait-like characteristic is optimism, which involves having a positive outlook on the future and minimizing problems. Optimism is often referred to as a style of thinking.

Page 496

Researchers increasingly are finding that optimism is linked to better health and increased longevity (Boelen, 2015). A recent study involving adults 50 years of age and older revealed that being optimistic and having an optimistic spouse were both associated with better health and physical functioning (Kim, Chopik, & Smith, 2014). Also, in a recent study of 40- to 85-year-olds, individuals who were prepared for physical losses but also had an optimistic outlook on the future had better physical functioning and a lower level of depressive symptoms (Wurm & Benyamini, 2014). In another recent study, a higher level of optimism following an acute coronary event was linked to engaging in more physical activity and experiencing fewer cardiac readmissions (Huffman & others, 2016). And a recent research review concluded that the influence of optimism on positive outcomes for people who have chronic diseases (such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease) may involve (a) a possible direct effect on the neuroendocrine system and on immune system function, and/or (b) an indirect effect on health outcomes by increasing protective health behaviors, adaptive coping strategies, and enhancing positive mood (Avvenuti, Baiardini, & Giardini, 2016).

Berkeley Longitudinal Studies In the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, more than 500 children and their parents were initially studied in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The book Present and Past in Middle Life (Eichorn & others, 1981) profiles these individuals as they became middle-aged. The results from early adolescence through a portion of midlife did not support either extreme in the debate over whether personality is characterized by stability or change. Some characteristics were more stable than others, however. The most stable characteristics were the degree to which individuals were intellectually oriented, self-confident, and open to new experiences. The characteristics that changed the most included the extent to which the individuals were nurturant or hostile and whether or not they had good self-control.

John Clausen (1993), one of the researchers in the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, stresses that too much attention has been given to discontinuities for all members of the human species, as exemplified in the adult stage theories. He points out that some people experience recurrent crises and undergo substantial changes over the life course, whereas others have more stable, continuous lives entailing very little change.

Helson’s Mills College Study Another longitudinal investigation of adult personality development was conducted by Ravenna Helson and her colleagues (George, Helson, & John, 2011; Helson, 1997; Helson & Wink, 1992; Stewart, Ostrove, & Helson, 2001). They initially studied 132 women who were seniors at Mills College in California in the late 1950s and then studied them again when they were in their thirties, forties, and fifties. Helson and her colleagues distinguished three main groups among the Mills women: family-oriented, career-oriented (whether or not they also wanted families), and those who followed neither path (women without children who pursued only low-level work).

Based on their study of middle-aged women, Ravenna Helson and her colleagues described the women as experiencing a midlife consciousness rather than a midlife crisis. What were some other findings in the Mills College study?© Francine Fleischer/Corbis

During their early forties, many of the women shared the concerns that stage theorists such as Levinson found in men: concern for young and old, introspectiveness, interest in roots, and awareness of limitations and death. However, the researchers in the Mills College Study concluded that rather than being in a midlife crisis, the women were experiencing midlife consciousness. The researchers also discovered that commitment to the tasks of early adulthood—whether to a career or family (or both)—helped women learn to control their impulses, develop interpersonal skills, become independent, and work hard to achieve goals. Women who did not commit themselves to one of these lifestyle patterns faced fewer challenges and did not develop as fully as the other women (Rosenfeld & Stark, 1987).

In the Mills College Study, some women moved toward becoming “pillars of society” in their early forties to early fifties. Menopause, caring for aging parents, and an empty nest were not associated with an increase in responsibility and self-control (Helson & Wink, 1992).

George Vaillant’s Studies Longitudinal studies by George Vaillant help us explore a question that differs somewhat from the topics examined by the studies described so far: Does personality at middle age predict what a person’s life will be like in late adulthood? Vaillant (2002) has conducted three longitudinal studies of adult development and aging: (1) a sample of 268 socially advantaged Harvard graduates born about 1920 (called the Grant Study); (2) a sample of 456 socially disadvantaged inner-city men born about 1930; and (3) a sample of 90 middle-SES, intellectually gifted women born about 1910. These individuals have been assessed numerous times (in most cases, every two years), beginning Page 497in the 1920s to 1940s and continuing today for those still living. The main assessments involve extensive interviews with the participants, their parents, and teachers.

Vaillant categorized 75- to 80-year-olds as “happy-well,” “sad-sick,” or “dead.” He used data collected from these individuals when they were 50 years of age to predict which categories they were likely to end up in at 75 to 80 years of age. Alcohol abuse and smoking at age 50 were the best predictors of which individuals would be dead at 75 to 80 years of age. Factors at age 50 that were linked with being in the “happy-well” category at 75 to 80 years of age included getting regular exercise, avoiding being overweight, being well educated, having a stable marriage, being future-oriented, being thankful and forgiving, empathizing with others, being active with other people, and having good coping skills.

Links between characteristics at age 50 and health and happiness at age 75 to 80. In a longitudinal study, the characteristics shown above at age 50 were related to whether individuals were happy-well, sad-sick, or dead at age 75 to 80 (Vaillant, 2002). In Vaillant’s longitudinal research, which characteristics at age 50 predicted better health and well-being at 75 to 80?© Ariel Skelly/Getty Images RF

Wealth and income at age 50 were not linked with being in the “happy-well” category at 75 to 80 years of age. Generativity in middle age (defined as “taking care of the next generation”) was more strongly related than intimacy to whether individuals would have an enduring and happy marriage at 75 to 80 years of age (Vaillant, 2002).

The results for one of Vaillant’s studies, the Grant Study of Harvard men, indicate that when individuals at 50 years of age were not heavy smokers, did not abuse alcohol, had a stable marriage, exercised, maintained a normal weight, and had good coping skills, they were more likely to be alive and happy at 75 to 80 years of age.

CONCLUSIONS

What can be concluded about stability and change in regard to personality development during the adult years? There is increasing evidence that personality traits continue to change during the adult years, even into late adulthood (Hill & Roberts, 2016; Nye & others, 2016). However, in a meta-analysis of 92 longitudinal studies, the greatest change in personality traits occurred in early adulthood—from about 20 to 40 years of age (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006).

Thus, people show more stability in their personality when they reach midlife than they did when they were younger adults (Hill & Roberts, 2016; Nye & others, 2016; Roberts, Donnellan, & Hill, 2013). These findings support what is called a cumulative personality model of personality development, which states that with time and age people become more adept at interacting with their environment in ways that promote increased stability of personality (Caspi & Roberts, 2001; Hill & Roberts, 2016).

This does not mean that change is absent throughout middle and late adulthood. Ample evidence shows that social contexts, new experiences, and sociohistorical changes can affect personality development, but the changes in middle and late adulthood are usually not as great as those in early adulthood (Hill & Roberts, 2016; Mroczek, Spiro, & Griffin, 2006; Quoidbach, Gilbert, & Wilson, 2013). In general, changes in personality traits across adulthood also occur in a positive direction. Over time, “people become more confident, warm, responsible, and calm” (Roberts & Mroczek, 2008, p. 33). Such positive changes equate with becoming more socially mature.

At age 55, actor Jack Nicholson said, “I feel exactly the same as I’ve always felt: a slightly reined-in voracious beast.” Nicholson felt his personality had not changed much. Some others might think they have changed more. To what extent does personality change or stay the same through adulthood?© Noel Vasquez/Stringer/Getty Images

In sum, recent research contradicts the old view that stability of personality begins to set in at about 30 years of age (Donnellan, Hill, & Roberts, 2014; Hill & Roberts, 2016; Shanahan & others, 2014). Although there are some consistent developmental changes in the personality traits of large numbers of people, at the individual level people can show unique patterns of personality traits—and these patterns often reflect life experiences related to themes of their particular developmental period (Roberts & Mroczek, 2008). For example, researchers have found that individuals who are in a stable marriage and a solid career track become more socially dominant, conscientious, and emotionally stable as they go through early adulthood (Roberts & Wood, 2006). And for some of these individuals there is greater change in their personality traits than for other individuals (Hill & Roberts, 2016; Roberts, Donnellan, & Hill, 2013).

Page 498

Review Connect Reflect

1. LG2 Discuss stability and change in development during middle adulthood, as reflected in longitudinal studies.

Review

• Identify four longitudinal studies and describe their results.

• What conclusions can be reached about stability and change in development during middle adulthood?

Connect

• This section discussed four different longitudinal studies. What are the pros and cons of using a longitudinal study to collect data?

Reflect Your Own Personal Journey of Life

• How much stability and change have characterized your life so far? How much stability and change do you predict will characterize your future development as an adult? Explain.

3 Close RelationshipsLG3Identify some important aspects of close relationships in middle adulthood.

There is a consensus among middle-aged Americans that a major component of well-being involves positive relationships with others, especially parents, spouse, and offspring (Blieszner & Roberto, 2012a, b; Markus & others, 2004). To begin our examination of midlife relationships, let’s explore love and marriage in middle-aged adults.

What characterizes marriage in middle adulthood?© Digital Vision/Getty Images RF

LOVE AND MARRIAGE AT MIDLIFE

Two major forms of love are romantic love and affectionate love. The fires of romantic love are strong in early adulthood. Affectionate, or companionate, love increases during middle adulthood. That is, physical attraction, romance, and passion are more important in new relationships, especially in early adulthood. Security, loyalty, and mutual emotional interest become more important as relationships mature, especially in middle adulthood.

One study revealed that marital satisfaction increased in middle age (Gorchoff, John, & Helson, 2008). Some of the marriages that were difficult and rocky during early adulthood improved during middle adulthood. Although the partners may have lived through a great deal of turmoil, they eventually discovered a deep and solid foundation on which to anchor their relationship. In middle adulthood, marital partners may have fewer financial worries, less housework and chores, and more time with each other. Middle-aged partners are more likely to view their marriage as positive if they engage in mutual activities. Also, a recent study found that middle-aged married individuals had a lower likelihood of work-related health limitations (Lo, Cheng, & Simpson, 2016).

Most individuals in midlife who are married voice considerable satisfaction with being married. In a large-scale study of individuals in middle adulthood, 72 percent of those who were married said their marriage was either “excellent” or “very good” (Brim, 1999). Possibly by middle age, many of the worst marriages already have dissolved. However, a recent study revealed that married and partnered middle-aged adults were more likely to view their relationships with ambivalence or indifference than their late adulthood counterparts (Windsor & Butterworth, 2010).

Divorce in middle adulthood may be more positive in some ways, more negative in others, than divorce in early adulthood. On one hand, for mature individuals, the perils of divorce can be fewer and less intense than for younger individuals. They have more resources, and they can simplify their lives by disposing of possessions, such as a large home, which they no longer need. Their children are adults and may be able to cope with their parents’ divorce more effectively. The partners may have gained a better understanding of themselves and may be searching for changes that could include ending a poor marriage. One study found that women who initiated a divorce in midlife were characterized more by self-focused growth and optimism than were women whose husbands initiated the divorce (Sakraida, 2005).

Page 499

On the other hand, the emotional and time commitment to marriage that has existed for so many years may not be lightly given up. Many midlife individuals perceive a divorce as a failure during what could have been the best years of their lives. The divorcer might see the situation as an escape from an untenable relationship, but the divorced partner usually sees it as betrayal, the ending of a relationship that had been built up over many years and that involved a great deal of commitment and trust. Also, divorce may lower the economic standing of some middle-aged and older women who have a limited number of options (Mitchell, 2007). These women may lack the necessary education, skills, and employment experience to maintain a standard of living that is as high as it was when they were married. Further, a recent study found that women who became divorced from 40 to 59 years of age reported being more lonely following the divorce than men who became divorced in this age period (Nicolaisen & Thorsen, 2014). A recent study, though, revealed that the life satisfaction of middle-aged women in low-quality marriages increased after they became divorced (Bourassa, Sbarra, & Whisman, 2015). In sum, divorce in midlife may have positive outcomes for some individuals and negative outcomes for others (Pudrovska, 2009).

What are some ways that divorce might be more positive or more negative in middle adulthood than in early adulthood?© Stock4B/Getty Images

A survey by AARP (2004) of 1,148 people between the ages of 40 and 79 who were divorced at least once in their forties, fifties, or sixties found that staying married because of their children was by far the main reason many people took so long to become divorced. Despite the worry and stress involved in going through a divorce, three out of four of the divorcees said they had made the right decision to dissolve their marriage and reported a positive outlook on life. Sixty-six percent of the divorced women said they had initiated the divorce, compared with only 41 percent of the divorced men. The divorced women were much more afraid of having financial problems (44 percent) than were the divorced men (11 percent). Following are the main reasons the middle-aged and older adult women cited for their divorce: (1) verbal, physical, or emotional abuse (23 percent); (2) alcohol or drug abuse (18 percent); and (3) cheating (17 percent). The main reasons the middle-aged and older men cited for their divorce were (1) no obvious problems, just fell out of love (17 percent); (2) cheating (14 percent); and (3) different values, lifestyles (14 percent).

THE EMPTY NEST AND ITS REFILLING

An important event in a family is the launching of a child into adult life. Parents undergo adjustments as a result of the child’s absence. Students usually think that their parents suffer from their absence. In fact, parents who live vicariously through their children might experience the empty nest syndrome, which includes a decline in marital satisfaction after children leave the home. For most parents, however, marital satisfaction does not decline after children have left home but rather increases during the years after child rearing (Fingerman & Baker, 2006). With their children gone, marital partners have time to pursue career interests and to spend with each other. A recent study revealed that the transition to an empty nest increased marital satisfaction and this increase was linked to an increase in the quality of time—but not the quantity of time—spent with partners (Gorchoff, John, & Helson, 2008).

In today’s uncertain economic climate, the refilling of the empty nest is becoming a common occurrence as adult children return home after several years of college, after graduating from college, or to save money after taking a full-time job (Merrill, 2009). Young adults also may move in with their parents after an unsuccessful career or a divorce. And some individuals don’t leave home at all until their middle to late twenties because they cannot support themselves financially. Numerous labels have been applied to these young adults who return to their parents’ homes to live, including “boomerang kids” and “B2B” (or Back-to-Bedroom) (Furman, 2005).

The middle generation has always provided support for the younger generation, even after the nest is bare. Through loans and monetary gifts for education, and through emotional support, the middle generation has helped the younger generation. Adult children appreciate the financial and emotional support their parents provide them at a time when they often feel considerable stress about their career, work, and lifestyle. And parents feel good that they can provide this support. A study of 40- to 60-year-old parents revealed that they provided financial, practical, and emotional support on average every few weeks to each of their children over 18 years of age (Fingerman & others, 2009).

However, as with most family living arrangements, there are both pluses and minuses when adult children return home. A common complaint voiced by both adult children and their parents is a loss of privacy. The adult children complain that their parents restrict their Page 500independence, cramp their sex lives, reduce their music listening, and treat them as children rather than adults. Parents often complain that their quiet home has become noisy, that they stay up late wondering when their adult children will come home, that meals are difficult to plan because of conflicting schedules, that their relationship as a married couple has been invaded, and that they have to shoulder too much responsibility for their adult children. In sum, when adult children return home to live, there is a disequilibrium in family life that requires considerable adaptation by parents and their adult children. To read about strategies that young adults and their parents can use to get along better, see Connecting Development to Life.

connecting development to life

Strategies for Parents and Their Young Adult Children

When adult children ask to return home to live, parents and their adult children should agree beforehand on the conditions and expectations. For example, they might discuss and agree on whether young adults will pay rent, wash their own clothes, cook their own meals, do any household chores, pay their phone bills, come and go as they please, be sexually active or drink alcohol at home, and so on. If these conditions aren’t negotiated at the beginning, conflict often results because the expectations of parents and young adult children will likely be violated.

Parents need to treat young adult children more like adults than children and to let go of much of their parenting role. Parents should interact with young adult children not as dependent children who need to be closely monitored and protected but rather as adults who are capable of responsible, mature behavior. Adult children have the right to choose how much they sleep and eat, how they dress, whom they choose as friends and lovers, what career they pursue, and how they spend their money. However, if the young adult children act in ways that interfere with their parents’ lifestyles, parents need to say so. The discussion should focus not on the young adult children’s choices but on how their activities are unacceptable while living together in the same home.

Some parents don’t let go of their young adult children when they should. They engage in “permaparenting,” which can impede not only their adult children’s movement toward independence and responsibility but also their own postparenting lives. “Helicopter parents” is another label that describes parents who hover too closely in their effort to ensure that their children succeed in college and adult life (Paul, 2003). Although well intentioned, this intrusiveness by parents can slow the process by which their children become responsible adults.

When they move back home, young adult children need to think about how they will need to change their behavior to make the living arrangement work. Elina Furman (2005) provides some good recommendations in Boomerang Nation: How to Survive Living with Your Parents . . . the Second Time Around. She recommends that when young adult children move back home they expect to make adjustments. And as recommended earlier, she urges young adults to sit down with their parents and negotiate the ground rules for living at home before they actually move back. Furman also recommends that young adults set a deadline for how long they will live at home and then stay focused on their goals (whether they want to save enough money to pay off their debts, save enough to start a business or buy their own home, finish graduate school, and so on). Too often young adults spend the money they save by moving home on luxuries such as shopping binges, nights on the town, expensive clothes, and unnecessary travel, further delaying their ability to move out of their parents’ home.

What are some strategies that can help parents and their young adult children get along better?© Tom Grill/Corbis RF

Children who leave college and return to live at home with their parents are on the cusp of young adulthood, a time called emerging adulthood. What characterizes individuals’ identity development during this time?

SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS AND FRIENDSHIPS

Sibling relationships persist over the entire life span for most adults (Whiteman, McHale, & Soli, 2011). Eighty-five percent of today’s adults have at least one living sibling. Sibling relationships in adulthood may be extremely close, apathetic, or highly rivalrous (Bedford, 2009). The majority of sibling relationships in adulthood are close (Cicirelli, 2009). Those siblings Page 501who are psychologically close to each other in adulthood tended to be that way in childhood. It is rare for sibling closeness to develop for the first time in adulthood (Dunn, 1984, 2007). One study revealed that adult siblings often provide practical and emotional support to each other (Voorpostel & Blieszner, 2008). Another study revealed that men who had poor sibling relationships in childhood were more likely to develop depression by age 50 than men who had more positive sibling relationships as children (Waldinger, Vaillant, & Orav, 2007).

developmental connection

Family And Peers

Many siblings have mixed feelings about each other. Connect to “Socioemotional Development in Early Childhood.”

Friendships are as important in middle adulthood as they were in early adulthood (Blieszner & Roberto, 2012b). It takes time to develop intimate friendships, so friendships that have endured over the adult years are often deeper than those that are newly formed in middle adulthood.

GRANDPARENTING

The increase in longevity is influencing the nature of grandparenting (Monserud, 2011). In 1900 only 4 percent of 10-year-old children had four living grandparents, but in 2000 that figure had risen to more than 40 percent. And in 1990 only about 20 percent of people who were 30 years of age had living grandparents, a figure that is projected to increase to 80 percent in 2020 (Hagestad & Uhlenberg, 2007). Further increases in longevity are likely to support this trend in the future, although the current trend in delaying childbearing is likely to undermine it (Szinovacz, 2009).

Grandparents play important roles in the lives of many grandchildren (Bangerter & Waldron, 2014; Bol & Kalmijn, 2016; Choi, Sprang, & Eslinger, 2016; Di Gessa, Glaser, & Tinker, 2016; Hadfield, 2014; Zhou & others, 2016). Many adults become grandparents for the first time during middle age. Researchers have consistently found that grandmothers have more contact with grandchildren than grandfathers do (Watson, Randolph, & Lyons, 2005). Perhaps women tend to define their role as grandmothers as part of their responsibility for maintaining ties between family members across generations. Men may have fewer expectations about the grandfather role and see it as more voluntary.

Grandparent Roles and Styles What is the meaning of the grandparent role? Three prominent meanings are attached to being a grandparent (Neugarten & Weinstein, 1964). For some older adults, being a grandparent is a source of biological reward and continuity. For others, being a grandparent is a source of emotional self-fulfillment, generating feelings of companionship and satisfaction that may have been missing in earlier adult-child relationships. And for yet others, being a grandparent is a remote role. A recent study revealed that grandparenting can provide a sense of purpose and a feeling of being valued during middle and late adulthood when generative needs are strong (Thiele & Whelan, 2008).

The grandparent role may have different functions in different families, in different ethnic groups and cultures, and in different situations (Watson, Randolph, & Lyons, 2005). For example, in one study of White, African American, and Mexican American grandparents and grandchildren, the Mexican American grandparents saw their grandchildren most frequently, provided the most support for the grandchildren and their parents, and had the most satisfying relationships with their grandchildren (Bengtson, 1985). And in a study of three generations of families in Chicago, grandmothers had closer relationships with their children and grandchildren and gave more personal advice than grandfathers did (Hagestad, 1985).

What are some grandparents’ roles and styles?© Steve Cole/Getty Images

The diversity of grandparenting also was apparent in an early investigation of how grandparents interacted with their grandchildren (Neugarten & Weinstein, 1964). Three styles were dominant—formal, fun-seeking, and distant. In the formal style, the grandparent performed what was considered to be a proper and prescribed role. These grandparents showed a strong interest in their grandchildren but were careful not to give child-rearing advice. In the fun-seeking style, the grandparent was informal and playful. Grandchildren were a source of leisure activity; mutual satisfaction was emphasized. A substantial portion of grandparents were distant figures. In the distant-figure style, the grandparent was benevolent but interaction was infrequent. Grandparents who were over the age of 65 were more likely to display a formal style of interaction; those under 65 were more likely to Page 502display a fun-seeking style. Because the grandparent role links three generations—grandparents, parents, and grandchildren—the grandparent role is often mediated by parents at least until grandchildren become adults (Szinovacz, 2009).

The Changing Profile of Grandparents In 2009, 7.8 million children lived with at least one grandparent, a 64 percent increase since 1981 when 4.7 million children were living with at least one grandparent (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Divorce, adolescent pregnancies, and drug use by parents are the main reasons that grandparents are thrust back into the “parenting” role they thought they had shed. One study revealed that grandparent involvement was linked with better adjustment in single-parent and stepparent families than in two-parent biological families (Attar-Schwartz & others, 2009).

Less than 20 percent of grandparents whose grandchildren move in with them are 65 years old or older. Almost half of the grandchildren who move in with grandparents are raised by a single grandmother. These families are mainly African American (53 percent). When both grandparents are raising grandchildren, the families are overwhelmingly non-Latino White.

A majority of the grandparents living with their children contributed to the family income and provided child care while parents worked. Only about 10 percent of the grandparents who move in with their children and grandchildren are in poverty. Almost half of the grandparents who move in with their children are immigrants. Partly because women live longer than men, more grandmothers than grandfathers live with their children. About 70 percent of the grandparents who move in with their children are grandmothers.

Grandparents who are full-time caregivers for grandchildren are at elevated risk for health problems, depression, and stress (Silverstein, 2009). A recent review concluded that grandparents raising grandchildren are especially at risk for developing depression (Hadfield, 2014). Caring for grandchildren is linked with these problems in part because full-time grandparent caregivers are often characterized by low-income, minority status, and by not being married (Minkler & Fuller-Thompson, 2005). Grandparents who are part-time caregivers are less likely to have the negative health portrait that full-time grandparent caregivers have. In a recent study of part-time grandparent caregivers, few negative effects on grandparents were found (Hughes & others, 2007).

In some cases, divorce may increase children’s contact with grandparents, as when grandparents assume a stronger caregiving role; in others, a custodial parent may try to restrict grandparents’ time with children. One study revealed that when children’s relationship with their father deteriorated after a divorce, their relationships with their paternal grandparents also were distant, negative, or nonexistent (Ahrons, 2007).

As divorce and remarriage have become more common, a special concern of grandparents is visitation privileges with their grandchildren (Kivnik & Sinclair, 2007). In the last two decades, more states have passed laws giving grandparents the right to petition a court for visitation privileges with their grandchildren, even if a parent objects. Whether such forced visitation rights for grandparents are in the child’s best interest is still being debated.

Middle-aged and older adults around the world show a strong sense of family responsibility. A recent study of middle-aged and older adults in 21 countries revealed the strongest intergenerational ties in Saudi Arabia.© Reza/National Geographic/Getty Images

INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Family is important to most people. When 21,000 adults aged 40 to 79 in 21 countries were asked, “When you think of who you are, you think mainly of ______,” 63 percent said “family,” 9 percent said “religion,” and 8 percent said “work” (HSBC Insurance, 2007). In this study, in all 21 countries, middle-aged and older adults expressed a strong feeling of responsibility between generations in their family, with the strongest intergenerational ties indicated in Saudi Arabia, India, and Turkey. More than 80 percent of the middle-aged and older adults reported that adults have a duty to care for their parents (and parents-in-law) in time of need later in life.

Adults in midlife play important roles in the lives of the young and the old (Birditt & others, 2016; Fingerman & others, 2014; Fingerman, Sechrist, & Birditt, 2013; Luong, Rauers, & Fingerman, 2015). Middle-aged adults share their experience and transmit values to the younger generation. They may be launching children and experiencing the empty nest, adjusting to having grown children return home, or becoming grandparents. They also may be giving or receiving financial assistance, caring for a widowed or sick parent, or adapting to being the oldest generation after both parents have died.

Page 503

Middle-aged adults have been described as the “sandwich,” “squeezed,” or “overload” generation because of the responsibilities they have for their adolescent and young adult children as well as their aging parents (Etaugh & Bridges, 2010; Pudrovska, 2009). However, an alternative view is that in the United States, a “sandwich” generation, in which the middle generation cares for both grown children and aging parents simultaneously, occurs less often than a “pivot” generation, in which the middle generation alternates attention between the demands of grown children and aging parents (Fingerman, Sechrist, & Birditt, 2013; Luong, Rauers, & Fingerman, 2015).

What is the nature of intergenerational relationships?© Ron Levine/Photolibrary/Getty Images

Many middle-aged adults experience considerable stress when their parents become very ill and die. One survey found that when adults enter midlife, 41 percent have both parents alive, but that 77 percent leave midlife with no parents alive (Bumpass & Aquilino, 1994). By middle age, more than 40 percent of adult children (most of them daughters) provide care for aging parents or parents-in-law (Blieszner & Roberto, 2012a; National Alliance for Caregiving, 2009). However, two recent studies revealed that middle-aged parents are more likely to provide support to their grown children than to their parents (Fingerman & others, 2011a, 2012). When middle-aged adults have a parent with a disability, their support for that parent increases (Fingerman & others, 2011b). This support might involve locating a nursing home and monitoring its quality, procuring medical services, arranging public service assistance, and handling finances. In some cases, adult children provide direct assistance with daily living, including such activities as eating, bathing, and dressing. Even less severely impaired older adults may need help with shopping, housework, transportation, home maintenance, and bill paying.

Some researchers have found that relationships between aging parents and their children are usually characterized by ambivalence (Fingerman, Sechrist, & Birditt, 2013; Luong, Rauers, & Fingerman, 2015; Pitzer, Fingerman, & Lefkowitz, 2014). Perceptions include love, reciprocal help, and shared values on the positive side and isolation, family conflicts and problems, abuse, neglect, and caregiver stress on the negative side. A recent study found that middle-aged adults positively supported family responsibility to emerging adult children but were more ambivalent about providing care for aging parents, viewing it as both a joy and a burden (Igarashi & others, 2013). However, a recent study in the Netherlands revealed that affection and support, reflecting solidarity, were more prevalent than ambivalence in intergenerational relationships (Hogerbrugge & Komter, 2012).

With each new generation, personality characteristics, attitudes, and values are replicated or changed. As older family members die, their biological, intellectual, emotional, and personal legacies are carried on in the next generation. Their children become the oldest generation and their grandchildren the second generation. As adult children become middle-aged, they often develop more positive perceptions of their parents (Field, 1999). Both similarity and dissimilarity across generations are found. For example, similarity between parents and an adult child is most noticeable in religion and politics, least in gender roles, lifestyle, and work orientation.

The following studies provide further evidence of the importance of intergenerational relationships in development:

• The motivation of adult children to provide social support to their older parents was linked with earlier family experiences (Silverstein & others, 2002). Children who spent more time in shared activities with their parents and received more financial support from them earlier in their lives provided more support to their parents as they became older.

• Children of divorced parents were disproportionately likely to end their own marriage than were children from intact, never-divorced families, although the transmission of divorce across generations has declined in recent years (Wolfinger, 2011).

• Parents who smoked early and often, and who persisted in becoming regular smokers, were more likely to have adolescents who became smokers (Chassin & others, 2008).

• Safe, stable, and supportive/trusting relationships with intimate partners and between mothers and children were linked to breaking the intergenerational cycle of abuse in families (Jaffee & others, 2013).

Page 504

connecting through research

How Do Mothers’ And Daughters’ Descriptions Of Enjoyable Visits Differ At Different Points In Adult Development?

Karen Fingerman (2000) studied 48 pairs of older adult mothers (mean age, 76 years) and their middle-aged daughters (mean age, 46 years), and 44 pairs of middle-aged mothers (mean age, 47 years) and their young adult daughters (mean age, 21 years). Interviewers asked participants (p. 98):

Think about the last time you had a particularly enjoyable visit with your daughter/mother. By visit, I mean a time when you got together, went to the other’s house (or your daughter came home from college), or talked on the phone. Tell a little about what went on. Please provide as much information as you can about the visit, what happened, and why it was particularly enjoyable.

Transcriptions of descriptions of the visits were coded, and the results for the coded categories were summarized as follows (Fingerman, 2000, pp. 100–102):

• Investment and connection. Mothers in both age groups were more invested in their relationships with their daughters than their daughters were with them.

• Family. Older mothers and daughters were more likely than younger pairs to describe the larger kin network, such as the daughter’s children, siblings, father, husband, or the family in general. By contrast, younger pairs “were more likely to stick to their own relationship and to discuss situations in which the two of them had enjoyed a special event.”

• Nurturance. “Young adult daughters and older adult mothers were more likely to report pleasure from having the other party help them in some way than were middle-aged women.”

• Interacting. Younger mothers tended to focus on activities in which they enjoyed their daughters’ emergence as young adults. “Younger daughters derived pleasure from having their mothers around as sounding boards, whereas older daughters” enjoyed the link to the past that their mothers represented.

• Negative comments. Mothers and daughters in the older pairs “were more likely to say something negative than were younger mothers and daughters,” although these comments were still infrequent.

In sum, mothers’ and daughters’ perceptions of their visits reflected a combination of individual developmental needs. Although the focus of mothers’ and daughters’ relationships may change, in general mothers were more invested in relationships with their daughters than the reverse throughout adulthood.

Gender differences also characterize intergenerational relationships (Etaugh & Bridges, 2010; Luong, Rauers, & Fingerman, 2015). Women have an especially important role in maintaining family relationships across generations. Women’s relationships across generations are typically closer than other family bonds (Merrill, 2009). In one study, mothers and their daughters had much closer relationships during their adult years than mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and fathers and sons (Rossi, 1989). Also in this study, married men were more involved with their wives’ kin than with their own. One study revealed that mothers’ intergenerational ties were more influential for grandparent-grandchild relationships than fathers’ (Monserud, 2008). To further explore intergenerational relationships, see the Connecting Through Research interlude.

What are three levels of acculturation that characterize many Mexican American families?© Steve Casimiro/The Image Bank/Getty Images

When adults immigrate into another country, intergenerational stress may increase (Lin & others, 2015). In the last several decades, increasing numbers of Mexicans have immigrated into the United States, and their numbers are expected to increase. The pattern of immigration usually involves separation from the extended family (Parra-Cardona & others, 2006). It may also involve separation of immediate family members, with the husband coming first and then later bringing his wife and children. Those who were initially isolated, especially the wife, experience considerable stress due to relocation and the absence of family and friends. Within several years, a social network is usually established in the ethnic neighborhood.

As soon as some stability in their lives is achieved, Mexican families may sponsor the immigration of extended family members, such as a maternal or paternal sister or mother who provides child care and enables the mother to go to work. In some cases, the older generation remains behind and joins their grown children in old age. The accessibility of Mexico facilitates visits to and from the village for vacations or at a time of crisis, such as when an adolescent runs away from home.

Page 505

connecting with careers

Karen Fingerman, Professor, Department Of Human Development And Family Sciences, And Researcher On Families And Aging

Dr. Karen Fingerman is a leading expert on aging, families, and socioemotional development. She currently is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences within the School of Human Ecology at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to UT-Austin, she was the Berner Hanley Professor of Gerontology at Purdue University. Dr. Fingerman obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and did post-doctoral work at Stanford University. She has published numerous articles on the positive and negative aspects of relationships involving mothers and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren, friends, and acquaintances, and peripheral social ties. The National Institute of Aging, the Brookdale Foundation, and the MacArthur Transitions to Adulthood group have funded her research. Dr. Fingerman has received the Springer Award for Early Career Achievement in Research on Adult Development and Aging from the American Psychological Association, as well as the Margaret Baltes Award for Early Career Achievement in Behavioral and Social Gerontology from the Gerontological Association of America.

Dr. Karen Fingerman is a leading expert on aging, families, and socioemotional development. For more information on what professors and researchers do, see the Careers in Life-Span Development appendix.Courtesy of Dr. Karen Fingerman

The discrepancies between acculturation levels can give rise to conflicting expectations within Mexican American families (Sarkisian, Gerena, & Gerstel, 2006; Simpkins, Vest, & Price, 2011). The immigrant parents’ model of child rearing may be out of phase with the dominant culture’s model, which may cause reverberations through the family’s generations, as discussed in earlier chapters. For example, parents and grandparents may be especially resistant to the demands for autonomy and dating made by adolescent daughters (Wilkinson-Lee & others, 2006). And in recent years an increasing number of female youth have left their Mexican American homes to further their education, an event that is often stressful for families with strong ties to Mexican values.

Karen Fingerman has conducted research on intergenerational relations and development in midlife. To read about her work, see the Connecting with Careers profile.

Review Connect Reflect

1. LG3 Identify some important aspects of close relationships in middle adulthood.

Review

• How can love and marriage at midlife be characterized?

• What is the empty nest? How has it been refilling?

• What are sibling relationships and friendships like in middle adulthood?

• What is the nature of grandparenting?

• What are relationships across generations like?

Connect

• In this section, you read about divorce in middle adulthood. Based on what you learned earlier, what is one of the most common characteristics of divorced adults?

Reflect Your Own Personal Journey of Life

• What was or is the nature of your relationship with your grandparents? What are intergenerational relationships like in your family?

Page 506

topical connections looking forward

Erikson’s eighth and final stage of development—integrity versus despair—occurs in late adulthood. In this stage, individuals engage in a life review. Being active is linked with life satisfaction in late adulthood. Older adults become more selective about their social networks and choose to spend more time with emotionally rewarding relationships and less time with peripheral relationships. Older adults also experience more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions than younger adults. The personality traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness also increase in late adulthood. Because of losses (declines in physical or cognitive skills, for example), older adults often have to use accommodative strategies to reach their goals.

reach your learning goals

Socioemotional Development in Middle Adulthood

1 Personality Theories and Adult Development

1. LG1 Describe personality theories and socioemotional development in middle adulthood.

Stages of Adulthood

• Erikson says that the seventh stage of the human life span, generativity versus stagnation, occurs in middle adulthood. Four types of generativity are biological, parental, work, and cultural. In Levinson’s theory, developmental tasks must be mastered at different points in development, and changes in middle age focus on four conflicts: being young versus being old, being destructive versus being constructive, being masculine versus being feminine, and being attached to others versus being separated from them. Levinson asserted that a majority of Americans, especially men, experience a midlife crisis. Research, however, indicates that midlife crises are not pervasive. There is considerable individual variation in development during middle adulthood.

The Life-Events
Approach

• According to the early version of the life-events approach, life events produce taxing circumstances that create stress. In the contemporary version of the life-events approach, how life events influence the individual’s development depends not only on the life event but also on mediating factors, adaptation to the event, the life-stage context, and the sociohistorical context.

Stress and Personal
Control in Midlife

• Researchers have found that young and middle-aged adults experience more stressful days and more multiple stressors than do older adults. On average, a sense of personal control decreases as adults become older—however, some aspects of personal control increase. Women and men differ in the way they experience and respond to stressors. Women are more likely to respond to stress in a tend-and-befriend manner, men in a fight-or-flight manner.

Contexts of Midlife Development

• Neugarten argues that the social environment of a particular cohort can alter its social clock—the timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life’s tasks. Critics say that the adult stage theories are male-biased because they place too much emphasis on achievement and careers and do not adequately address women’s concerns about relationships. Midlife is a heterogeneous period for women, as it is for men. For some women, midlife is the prime of their lives. Many cultures do not have a clear concept of middle age. In many nonindustrialized societies, a woman’s status improves in middle age.

2 Stability and Change

1. LG2 Discuss stability and change in development during middle adulthood, as reflected in longitudinal studies.

Longitudinal Studies

• In Costa and McCrae’s Baltimore Study, the Big Five personality factors—openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—showed considerable stability. However, researchers recently have found that the greatest change in personality occurs in early adulthood, with positive aspects of the factors peaking in Page 507middle age. The Big Five factors are linked to important aspects of a person’s life, such as health and work. In the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, extremes in the stability-change argument were not supported. The most stable characteristics were intellectual orientation, self-confidence, and openness to new experiences. The characteristics that changed the most were nurturance, hostility, and self-control. Helson’s Mills College Study of women distinguished family-oriented and career-oriented women, and those who followed neither path. In their early forties, women experienced many of the concerns that Levinson described for men. However, rather than a midlife crisis, women experienced midlife consciousness. George Vaillant’s research revealed links between a number of characteristics at age 50 and health and well-being at 75 to 80 years of age.

Conclusions

• The cumulative personality model states that with time and age personality becomes more stable. Changes in personality traits occur more in early adulthood than middle and late adulthood, but a number of aspects of personality do continue to change after early adulthood. Change in personality traits across adulthood occurs in a positive direction, reflecting social maturity. At the individual level, changes in personality are often linked to life experiences related to a particular developmental period. Some people change more than others.

3 Close Relationships

1. LG3 Identify some important aspects of close relationships in middle adulthood.

Love and Marriage at Midlife

• Affectionate love increases in midlife, especially in marriages that have endured for many years. A majority of middle-aged adults who are married say that their marriage is very good or excellent. Researchers recently have found that the perils of divorce in midlife can be fewer and less intense than those for divorcing young adults.

The Empty Nest and Its Refilling

• Rather than decreasing marital satisfaction as once thought, the empty nest increases it for most parents. Following an unsuccessful career or a divorce, an increasing number of young adults are returning home to live with their parents. Some young adults do not leave home until their middle to late twenties because they are unable to support themselves financially.

Sibling Relationships and Friendships

• Sibling relationships continue throughout life. Some are close; others are distant. Friendships continue to be important in middle age.

Grandparenting

• There are different grandparent roles and styles. Grandmothers spend more time with grandchildren than grandfathers do, and the grandmother role involves greater expectations for maintaining ties across generations than the grandfather role. The profile of grandparents is changing because of factors such as divorce and remarriage. An increasing number of U.S. grandchildren live with their grandparents.

Intergenerational Relationships

• Family members usually maintain contact across generations. Mothers and daughters have the closest relationships. The middle-aged generation, which has been called the “sandwich” or “squeezed” generation, plays an important role in linking generations.

key terms

• Big Five factors of personality

• contemporary life-events approach

• empty nest syndrome

• fight-or-flight

• social clock

• tend-and-befriend

key people

• John Clausen

• Paul Costa

• Erik Erikson

• Karen Fingerman

• Ravenna Helson

• Daniel Levinson

• Robert McCrae

• Bernice Neugarten

• Carol Ryff

• Shelley Taylor

• George Vaillant

Internal