10.3 Psychosocial Development in Middle Adulthood

What is emotional and social development like in middle adulthood?

In the popular imagination (and academic press), middle adulthood has been referenced in relation to a “mid-life crisis.” There is an emerging view that this may have been an overstatement—certainly, the evidence on which it is based has been seriously questioned. However, there is some support for the view that people do undertake a sort of emotional audit, reevaluate their priorities, and emerge with a slightly different orientation to emotional regulation and personal interaction in this time period. Why and the mechanisms through which this change is affected are a matter of some debate.

Psychosocial Development in Midlife

What do you think is the happiest stage of life? What about the saddest stages? Perhaps surprisingly, Blanchflower & Oswald (2008) found that reported levels of unhappiness and depressive symptoms peak in the early 50s for men in the U.S. and, interestingly, in the late 30s for women. In Western Europe, minimum happiness is reported around the mid-40s for both men and women, albeit with some significant national differences. There is now a view that “older people” (50+) may be “happier” than younger people, despite some cognitive and functional losses. This is often referred to as “the paradox of aging.” Positive attitudes to the continuance of cognitive and behavioral activities, interpersonal engagement, and their vitalizing effect on human neural plasticity may lead not only to more life but to an extended period of both self-satisfaction and continued communal engagement.

Erikson’s Theory

Generativity vs. Stagnation —When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle adulthood, which extends to the mid-60s. The social task of middle adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation: the fundamental conflict of adulthood. Generativity involves finding your life’s work and contributing to the next generation. During this stage, middle-aged adults begin contributing to the development of others, often through caring for others; they also engage in meaningful and productive work that contributes positively to society. Generative activities include raising children, volunteering, mentoring, teaching, and institutional involvement. Generative adults have more positive parenting styles, raise prosocial children, participate more in their community, and experience better mental health (McAdams & Guo, 2015).

According to Erikson (1950, 1982), individuals in midlife are primarily concerned with leaving a positive legacy of themselves, and parenthood is the primary generative type. Erikson understood that work and family relationships may be in conflict due to the obligations and responsibilities of each, but he believed it was overall a positive developmental time. In addition to being parents and working, Erikson also described individuals as being involved in the community during this stage, for example, providing mentoring, coaching, community service, or taking leadership in church or other community organizations. A sense of stagnation occurs when one is not active in generative matters. However, stagnation can motivate a person to redirect energies into more meaningful activities.

As you know by now, Erikson’s theory is based on an idea called epigenesis, meaning that development is progressive and that each individual must pass through the eight different stages of life—all while being influenced by context and environment. Each stage forms the basis for the following stage, and each transition to the next is marked by a crisis that must be resolved. The sense of self, each “season,” was wrested from by that conflict. The ages of 40-65 are no different. The individual is still driven to engage productively, but the nurturing of children and income generation assume lesser functional importance. From where will the individual derive their sense of self and self-worth?

Generativity is “primarily the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation” (Erikson, 1950, p. 267). Generativity is a concern for a generalized other (as well as those close to an individual) and occurs when a person can shift their energy to care for and mentor the next generation. One obvious motive for this generative thinking might be parenthood, but others have suggested intimations of mortality by the self. John Kotre (1984) theorized that generativity is a selfish act, stating that its fundamental task was to outlive the self. He viewed generativity as a form of investment. However, a commitment to a “belief in the species” can be taken in numerous directions, and it is probably correct to say that most modern treatments of generativity treat it as a collection of facets or aspects—encompassing creativity, productivity, commitment, interpersonal care, and so on.

On the other side of generativity is stagnation. It is the feeling of lethargy and a lack of enthusiasm and involvement in both individual and communal affairs. It may also denote an underdeveloped sense of self or some form of overblown narcissism. Erikson sometimes used the word “rejectivity” when referring to severe stagnation. Those who do not master this task may experience stagnation and feel as though they are not leaving a mark on the world in a meaningful way; they may have little connection with others and little interest in productivity and self-improvement.

Creativity

Erikson defined the developmental task of generativity as one that included creativity. But what is creativity? Better yet, what do you think creativity is? Perhaps take a second and reflect on cultural monuments, architecture, artworks, music, theatre, and literature. Take the Mona Lisa and then compare it to the Starry Night in the figure below. Is one of these more creative than the other? If so, what makes one piece more creative than the other?

There are many definitions of creativity, both scientific and non-scientific. Franken (2001) defines creativity as “the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems… and entertaining ourselves and others.” Does this definition change your answer to the question posed in the previous paragraph?

Psychologists who study creativity largely agree on three components. First, creativity involves a great deal of divergent thinking, that is, the ability to look at things from different perspectives. Secondly, creativity involves a unique perspective or some element of originality. Finally, creativity must have functionality in that creative work serves some function or some value. While paintings such as the Mona Lisa and Starry Night both display various degrees of originality and divergent thinking, their functionality may not be as transparent as other creative works, such as unique architectural designs.

Aside from the elements of creativity, researchers are also interested in the creative process. There are four steps to this process that are generally agreed upon. First is the period of preparation, that is, the conscious and effortful practice of studying and gathering information on a creative endeavor. The second step is the incubation period, a largely unconscious process whereby the mind makes new connections and processes knowledge ‘behind the scenes.’ A third step is illumination, or the ‘Aha!’ moment, that is, an insight generated from conscious and unconscious processes. Finally, revision refers to the part of the process whereby a creative work is revisited before it is finalized in order to ensure it accomplishes its original goals.

Developmental scientists have found common trajectories in the development of creativity. Generally, we see creativity increase into the 30s and middle adulthood as we develop expertise, motivation, and cognition. This is not to say that creative output follows the same patterns across all fields of work and study. In mathematics-heavy disciplines, for example, creativity generally peaks soon after formal training and at a very young age. This makes sense when we consider the early decreases in working memory capacity and processing speed, which are two elements of math-heavy work such as physics and engineering.

Developmental trajectories in creativity in mathematics are opposite to those in fields such as the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, where we find that creativity often peaks later in life as more life experience and knowledge accumulate. Nevertheless, typical trajectories for the development of creativity are just that – average experiences. This is not to say that there are no exceptions to these rules. For example, engineers such as Elon Musk make some of their most creative contributions later in life, whereas social scientists, such as Jean Piaget, made contributions to their fields at exceedingly early ages. As with most areas of development, the study of creativity is not without its mysteries and there is much room for theoretical development and empirical study.

The Stage-Crisis View and the Midlife Crisis

There are many socioemotional changes that occur in how middle-aged adults perceive themselves. While people in their early 20s may emphasize how old they are to gain respect or to be viewed as experienced, by the time people reach their 40s they tend to emphasize how young they are. For instance, few 40-year olds cut each other down for being so young stating: “You’re only 43? I’m 48!” A previous focus on the future gives way to an emphasis on the present. Neugarten (1968) notes that in midlife, people no longer think of their lives in terms of how long they have lived. Rather, life is thought of in terms of how many years are left.

Stage-Crisis View. Daniel Levinson’s 1978 book entitled The Seasons of a Man’s Life presented a theory of development in adulthood. Levinson’s work was based on in-depth interviews with 40 men between the ages of 35-45. Levinson (1978) indicated that adults go through stages and have an image of the future that motivates them. This image is called “the dream,” and for the men interviewed, it was a dream of how their career paths would progress and where they would be at midlife. According to Levinson, the midlife transition (40-45) was a time of reevaluating previous commitments, making dramatic changes if necessary, giving expression to previously ignored talents or aspirations, and feeling more of a sense of urgency about life and its meaning. By the time these men entered middle adulthood (45-50), they generally had committed to the new choices they made and channeled their energies into these commitments.

Levinson believed that a midlife crisis was a normal part of development as the person is more aware of how much time has gone by and how much time is left. The future focus of early adulthood gives way to an emphasis on the present in midlife, and the men interviewed had difficulty reconciling the “dream” they held about the future with the reality they currently experienced. Consequently, they felt impatient and were no longer willing to postpone the things they had always wanted to do. Although Levinson believed his research demonstrated the existence of a midlife crisis, his work has been criticized for its research methodology, including its focus on men only, its small sample size, its narrow age range, and concerns about a cohort effect. In fact, other research does not support his theory of the midlife crisis.

Levinson (1986) identified five main stages or “seasons” of a man’s life as follows:

1. Preadulthood: Ages 0-22 (with 17 – 22 being the Early Adult Transition years)
2. Early Adulthood: Ages 17-45 (with 40 – 45 being the Midlife Transition years)
3. Middle Adulthood: Ages 40-65 (with 60-65 being the Late Adult Transition years)
4. Late Adulthood: Ages 60-85
5. Late Late Adulthood: Ages 85+

In 1996, two years after his death, the study he was conducting with his co-author and wife Judy Levinson was published in “The Seasons of Life” as Experienced by Women. Again, it was a small-scale study, with 45 women who were professionals, academics, and homemakers, in equal proportion. The changing place of women in society was reckoned by Levinson to be a profound moment in the social evolution of the human species. However, it led to a fundamental polarity in the way that women formed and understood their social identity. Levinson referred to this as the “dream.” For men, the “dream” was formed in the age period of 22-28 and largely centered on occupational roles and professional ambitions. Levinson understood the female “dream” as fundamentally split between this work-centered orientation and the desire/imperative of marriage/family, a polarity that heralded both new opportunities and fundamental angst.

Vaillant (2012) believed that Levinson’s study’s cross-sectional design led to the erroneous conclusion of an inevitable midlife crisis. Instead, he believed that a longitudinal study of an individual’s entire life was needed to determine the factors associated with optimum health and potential. Vaillant was one of the main researchers in the 75-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development, and he considered a midlife crisis to be a rare occurrence among the participants (Vaillant, 1977).

Additional findings of this longitudinal study will be discussed in the next chapter on late adulthood.

Most research suggests that the majority of people in the United States today do not experience a midlife crisis. Results of a 10-year longitudinal study conducted by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, based on telephone interviews with over 3,000 midlife adults, suggest that the years between 40 and 60 are typically marked by a sense of well-being. Only 23% of their participants reported experiencing a midlife crisis. The crisis tended to occur among highly educated men and was typically triggered by a major life event rather than out of a fear of aging (Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, 2007).

Socio-Emotional Selectivity Theory (SST)

It is the inescapable fate of human beings to know that their lives are limited. As people move through life, goals and values tend to shift. What we consider priorities, goals, and aspirations are subject to renegotiation. Attachments to others, current and future, are no different. Time is not the unlimited good as perceived by a child under normal social circumstances; it is very much a valuable commodity, requiring careful consideration in terms of the investment of resources. This has become known in the academic literature as mortality salience.

Mortality salience posits that reminders about death or finitude (at either a conscious or subconscious level) fill us with dread. We seek to deny its reality, but awareness of the increasing nearness of death can have a potent effect on human judgment and behavior. This has become a very important concept in contemporary social science. It is with this understanding that Laura Carstensen developed the theory of socioemotional selectivity theory or SST.

The theory maintains that as time horizons shrink, as they typically do with age, people become increasingly selective, investing greater resources in emotionally meaningful goals and activities. According to the theory, motivational shifts also influence cognitive processing. Aging is associated with a relative preference for positive over negative information. This selective narrowing of social interaction maximizes positive emotional experiences and minimizes emotional risks as individuals become older. They systematically hone their social networks so that available social partners satisfy their emotional needs. An adaptive way of maintaining a positive affect might be to reduce contact with those we know may negatively affect us and avoid those who might.

SST is a theory that emphasizes a time perspective rather than chronological age. When people perceive their future as open-ended, they tend to focus on future-oriented development or knowledge-related goals. When they feel that time is running out and the opportunity to reap rewards from future-oriented goals’ realization is dwindling, their focus tends to shift towards present-oriented and emotion or pleasure-related goals. Research on this theory often compares age groups (e.g., young adulthood vs. old adulthood), but the shift in goal priorities is a gradual process that begins in early adulthood. Importantly, the theory contends that the cause of these goal shifts is not age itself, i.e., not the passage of time itself, but rather an age-associated shift in time perspective.

The theory also focuses on the types of goals that individuals are motivated to achieve. Knowledge-related goals aim at knowledge acquisition, career planning, the development of new social relationships, and other endeavors that will pay off in the future. Emotion-related goals are aimed at emotion regulation, the pursuit of emotionally gratifying interactions with social partners, and other pursuits whose benefits which can be realized in the present.

This shift in emphasis from long-term goals to short-term emotional satisfaction may help explain the previously noted “paradox of aging.” That is, despite noticeable physiological declines and some notable self-reports of reduced life satisfaction around this time, post-50, there seems to be a significant increase in reported subjective well-being. SST does not champion social isolation, which is harmful to human health, but shows that increased selectivity in human relationships, rather than abstinence, leads to more positive affect. Perhaps “midlife crisis and recovery” may be a more apt description of the 40-65 period of the lifespan.

Selection, Optimization, Compensation (SOC)

Another perspective on aging was identified by German developmental psychologists Paul and Margret Baltes. Their text Successful Aging (Baltes, 1990) marked a seismic shift in moving social science research on aging from largely a deficit-based perspective to a newer understanding based on a holistic view of the life course itself. The former tended to focus exclusively on what was lost during the aging process rather than seeing it as a balance between those losses and gains in areas like the regulation of emotion, experience, and wisdom.

The Baltes’ model for successful aging argues that across the lifespan, people face various opportunities or challenges, such as jobs, educational opportunities, and illnesses. According to the SOC model, a person may select particular goals or experiences, or circumstances might impose themselves on them. Either way, the selection process includes shifting or modifying goals based on choice or circumstance in response to those circumstances. The change in direction may occur at the subconscious level. This model emphasizes that setting goals and directing efforts towards a specific purpose is beneficial to healthy aging. Optimization is about making the best use of the resources we have in pursuing goals. Compensation, as its name suggests, is about using alternative strategies in attaining those goals. (Stephanie et al., 2015).

The processes of selection, optimization, and compensation can be found throughout the lifespan. As we progress in years, we select areas in which we place resources, hoping that this selection will optimize the resources that we have and compensate for any defects accruing from physiological or cognitive changes. Previous accounts of aging had understated the degree to which possibilities from which we choose had been eliminated, rather than reduced, or even just changed. As we select areas in which to invest, there is always an opportunity cost. We are masters of our own destiny, and our own individual orientation to the SOC processes will dictate “successful aging.” Rather than seeing aging as a process of progressive disengagement from social and communal roles undertaken by a group, Baltes argued that “successful aging” was a matter of sustained individual engagement, accompanied by a belief in individual self-efficacy and mastery.

The SOC model covers a number of functional domains—motivation, emotion, and cognition. We might become more adept at playing the SOC game as time moves on, as we work to compensate and adjust for changing abilities across the lifespan. For example, a soccer player at 35 may no longer have the vascular and muscular fitness that they had at 20, but her “reading” of the game might compensate for this decline. She may well be a better player than she was at 20, even with fewer physical resources in a game which ostensibly prioritizes them. The work of Paul and Margaret Baltes was very influential in the formation of a very broad developmental perspective that would coalesce around the central idea of resiliency (Weiss, L.  et al., 2016). 

Personality and Work Satisfaction

Personality in Midlife

Research on adult personality examines normative age-related increases and decreases in the expression of the so-called “Big Five” traits. The Big Five domains include extraversion (attributes such as assertive, confident, independent, outgoing, and sociable), agreeableness (attributes such as cooperative, kind, modest, and trusting), conscientiousness (attributes such as hard-working, dutiful, self-controlled, and goal-oriented), neuroticism (attributes such as anxious, tense, moody, and easily angered), and openness (attributes such as artistic, curious, inventive, and open-minded). The Big Five is one of the most common ways of organizing the vast range of personality attributes that seem to distinguish one person from the next. This organizing framework made it possible for Roberts et al. (2006) to draw broad conclusions from the literature.

These are assumed to be based largely on biological heredity. These five traits are sometimes summarized via the OCEAN acronym.  Individuals are assessed by the measurement of these traits along a continuum (e.g. high extroversion to low extroversion). They now dominate the field of empirical personality research. Does personality change throughout adulthood? Previously the answer was thought to be no. It was William James who stated in his foundational text, The Principles of Psychology (1890), that “[i]n most of us, by the age of thirty, the character is set like plaster, and will never soften again.” Not surprisingly, this became known as the plaster hypothesis.

Contemporary research shows that, although some people’s personalities are relatively stable over time, others are not (Lucas & Donnellan, 2011; Roberts & Mroczek, 2008). Longitudinal studies reveal average changes during adulthood, and individual differences in these patterns over the lifespan may be due to idiosyncratic life events (e.g., divorce, illness). In general, average levels of extraversion (especially the attributes linked to self-confidence and independence), agreeableness, and conscientiousness appear to increase with age, whereas neuroticism appears to decrease with age (Roberts et al., 2006). Openness also declines with age, especially after mid-life (Roberts et al., 2006). These changes are often viewed as positive trends given that higher levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness and lower levels of neuroticism are associated with seemingly desirable outcomes such as increased relationship stability and quality, greater success at work, better health, reduced risk of criminality and mental health problems, and even decreased mortality (e.g., Kotov et al.,  2010; Miller & Lynam 2001; Ozer & Benet-Martínez, 2006; Roberts et al., 2007). This pattern of positive average changes in personality attributes is known as the maturity principle of adult personality development (Caspi et al., 2005). The basic idea is that attributes associated with positive adaptation and attributes associated with the successful fulfillment of adult roles tend to increase during adulthood in terms of their average levels.

Carl Jung believed that our personality actually matures as we get older. A healthy personality is one that is balanced. People suffer tension and anxiety when they fail to express all of their inherent qualities. Jung believed that each of us possesses a “shadow side.” For example, those who are typically introverted also have an extroverted side that rarely finds expression unless they are relaxed and uninhibited. Each of us has both a masculine and feminine side, but in our younger years, we feel societal pressure to give expression only to one. As we get older, we may become freer to express all of our traits as the situation arises. We find gender convergence in older adults. Men become more interested in intimacy and family ties. Women may become more assertive. This gender convergence is also affected by changes in society’s expectations for males and females. With each new generation, we find that the roles of men and women are less stereotypical, and this allows for change as well.

Subjective Aging

One aspect of the self that particularly interests life span and life course psychologists is the individual’s perception and evaluation of their own aging and identification with an age group. Subjective age is a multidimensional construct that indicates how old (or young) a person feels and into which age group a person categorizes themself. After early adulthood, most people say that they feel younger than their chronological age, and the gap between subjective age and actual age generally increases. On average, after age 40, people report feeling 20% younger than their actual age (e.g., Rubin & Berntsen, 2006). Asking people how satisfied they are with their own aging assesses an evaluative component of age identity. Whereas some aspects of age identity are positively valued (e.g., acquiring seniority in a profession or becoming a grandparent), others may be less valued, depending on societal context. Perceived physical age (i.e., the age one looks in a mirror) is one aspect that requires considerable self-related adaptation in social and cultural contexts that value young bodies. Feeling younger and being satisfied with one’s own aging are expressions of positive self-perceptions of aging. They reflect the operation of self-related processes that enhance well-being. Levy (2009) found that older individuals who are able to adapt to and accept changes in their appearance and physical capacity in a positive way report higher well-being, have better health, and live longer.

There is now an increasing acceptance of the view within developmental psychology that an uncritical reliance on chronological age may be inappropriate. People have certain expectations about getting older, their own idiosyncratic views, and internalized societal beliefs. Taken together, they constitute a tacit knowledge of the aging process. A negative perception of how we are aging can have real results in terms of life expectancy and poor health. Levy et al. (2002) estimated that those with positive feelings about aging lived 7.5 years longer than those who did not. Subjective aging encompasses a wide range of psychological perspectives and empirical research. However, there is now a growing body of work centered around a construct referred to as Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) (Diehl et al., 2015), which examines the effects of our subjective perceptions of age and their consequential and very real effects. Neuport & Bellingtier (2017) report that this subjective awareness can change on a daily basis and that negative events or comments can disproportionately affect those with the most positive outlook on aging.

Work Satisfaction

Middle adulthood is characterized by a time of transition, change, and renewal. Accordingly, attitudes about work and satisfaction from work tend to undergo a transformation or reorientation during this time. Age is positively related to job satisfaction—the older we get the more we derive satisfaction from work (Ng & Feldman, 2010). However, that is far from the entire story and repeats, once more, the paradoxical nature of the research findings from this period of the life course. Dobrow, Gazach & Liu (2018) found that job satisfaction in those aged 43-51 was correlated with advancing age but that there was increased dissatisfaction the longer one stayed in the same job. Again, as socio-emotional selectivity theory would predict, there is a marked reluctance to tolerate a work situation deemed unsuitable or unsatisfying. Years left, as opposed to years spent, necessitates a sense of purpose in all daily activities and interactions, including work.

Some people love their jobs, some people tolerate their jobs, and some people cannot stand their jobs. Job satisfaction describes the degree to which individuals enjoy their job. It was described by Edwin Locke (1976) as the state of feeling resulting from appraising one’s job experiences. While job satisfaction results from both how we think about our work (our cognition) and how we feel about our work (our affect) (Saari & Judge, 2004), it is described in terms of effect. Job satisfaction is impacted by the work itself, our personality, and the culture we come from and live in (Saari & Judge, 2004).

A number of studies have found that job satisfaction tends to peak in middle adulthood (Besen et al., 2013; Easterlin, 2006).  This satisfaction stems from not only higher wages, but often greater involvement in decisions that affect the workplace as they move from worker to supervisor or manager. Job satisfaction is also influenced by being able to do the job well, and after years of experience at a job many people are more effective and productive. Another reason for this peak in job satisfaction is that at midlife, many adults lower their expectations and goals (Tangri et al., 2003). Middle-aged employees may realize they have reached the highest they are likely to in their careers. This satisfaction at work translates into lower absenteeism, greater productivity, and less job hopping in comparison to younger adults (Easterlin, 2006).

Job satisfaction is typically measured after a change in an organization, such as a shift in the management model, to assess how the change affects employees. It may also be routinely measured by an organization to assess one of many factors expected to affect the organization’s performance. In addition, polling companies like Gallup regularly measure job satisfaction on a national scale to gather broad information on the state of the economy and the workforce (Saad, 2012).

Research has suggested that the work-content factor, which includes variety, difficulty level, and role clarity of the job, is the most strongly predictive factor of overall job satisfaction (Saari & Judge, 2004). In contrast, there is only a weak correlation between pay level and job satisfaction, which suggests that individuals adjust or adapt to higher pay levels: higher pay no longer provides the satisfaction the individual may have initially felt when her salary increased (Judge et al., 2010).

Why should we care about job satisfaction? Or, more specifically, why should an employer care about job satisfaction? Measures of job satisfaction are somewhat correlated with job performance; in particular, they appear to relate to organizational citizenship or discretionary behaviors on the part of an employee that further the goals of the organization (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012).

Job satisfaction is related to general life satisfaction, although there has been limited research on how the two influence each other or whether personality and cultural factors affect both job and general life satisfaction. One carefully controlled study suggested that the relationship is reciprocal: Job satisfaction affects life satisfaction positively, and vice versa (Judge & Watanabe, 1993). Of course, organizations cannot control life satisfaction’s influence on job satisfaction.

However, not all middle-aged adults are happy in the workplace. Low job satisfaction is also related to withdrawal behaviors, such as leaving a job or absenteeism (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Women may find themselves bumping up against the glass ceiling. This may explain why females employed at large corporations are twice as likely to quit their jobs as men (Barreto, Ryan, & Schmitt, 2009). However, the relationship with turnover itself is weak (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Another problem older workers may encounter is job burnout, defined as unsuccessfully managed workplace stress (World Health Organization, 2019).

Burnout consists of:

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
• Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of job negativism or cynicism
• Reduced feelings of professional effectiveness or efficacy

There is an opportunity for more research in the area of job satisfaction. For example, Weiss (2002) suggests that the concept of job satisfaction measurements has combined both emotional and cognitive concepts. Measurements would be more reliable and show better relationships with outcomes like performance if they separated these two possible elements of job satisfaction.

Today’s workplace is one in which many people from various walks of life come together. Work schedules are more flexible and varied, and more people work independently from home, or anywhere there is an internet connection. The midlife worker must be flexible, stay current with technology, and be capable of working within a global community.

Work-Family Balance

Many people juggle the demands of work-life with the demands of their home life, whether it be caring for children or taking care of an elderly parent; this is known as work-family balance. We might commonly think about work interfering with family, but it is also the case that family responsibilities may conflict with work obligations (Carlson et al., 2000). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) first identified three sources of work-family conflicts:

• time devoted to work makes it difficult to fulfill the requirements of family or vice versa,
• strain from participation in work makes it difficult to fulfill the requirements of family or vice versa, and
• specific behaviors required by work make it difficult to fulfill the requirements of family or vice versa.

Women often have greater responsibility for family demands, including home care, child care, and caring for aging parents, yet men in the United States are increasingly assuming a greater share of domestic responsibilities. However, research has documented that women report greater levels of stress from work-family conflict (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005).

There are many ways to decrease work-family conflict and improve people’s job satisfaction (Posig & Kickul, 2004). These include support in the home, which can take various forms: emotional (listening), practical (help with chores). Workplace support can include understanding supervisors, flextime, leave with pay, and telecommuting. Flextime usually involves a requirement of core hours spent in the workplace around which the employee may schedule his arrival and departure from work to meet family demands. Telecommuting involves employees working at home and setting their own hours, which allows them to work during different parts of the day and to spend part of the day with their family; this may also be known as e-commuting, working remotely, flexible workspace, or simply working from home. Recall that Yahoo! had a policy of allowing employees to telecommute and then rescinded the policy. There are also organizations that have onsite daycare centers, and some companies even have onsite fitness centers and health clinics.

In a study of the effectiveness of different coping methods, Lapierre and Allen (2006) found practical support from home more important than emotional support. They also found that immediate-supervisor support for a worker significantly reduced work-family conflict through such mechanisms as allowing an employee the flexibility needed to fulfill family obligations. In contrast, flextime did not help with coping, and telecommuting actually made things worse, perhaps reflecting the fact that being at home intensifies the conflict between work and family because, with the employee in the home, the demands of family are more evident.

Posig and Kickul (2004) identify exemplar corporations with policies designed to reduce work-family conflict. Examples include IBM’s policy of three years of job-guaranteed leave after a child’s birth, Lucent Technologies offer of one year’s childbirth leave at half-pay, and SC Johnson’s program of concierge services for daytime errands.

Benefits of taking time away from work. Several studies have noted the benefits of taking time away from work. It reduces job stress burnout (Nimrod et al., 2012) and improves both mental health (Qian et al., 2013) and physical health (Stern & Konno, 2009), especially if that leisure time also includes moderate physical activity (Lee et al., 2015).  Leisure activities can also improve productivity and job satisfaction (Kühnel & Sonnentag, 2011) and help adults deal with balancing family and work obligations (Lee et al., 2015).

Relationships at Work

Working adults spend a large part of their waking hours in relationships with coworkers and supervisors. Because these relationships are forced upon us by work, researchers focus less on their presence or absence and instead focus on their quality. High-quality work relationships can make jobs enjoyable and less stressful. This is because workers experience mutual trust and support in the workplace to overcome work challenges. Liking the people we work with can also translate to more humor and fun on the job. Research has shown that supervisors who are more supportive have employees who are more likely to thrive at work (Paterson et al., 2014; Monnot & Beehr, 2014; Winkler et al., 2015). On the other hand, poor-quality work relationships can make a job feel like a drudgery. Everyone knows that horrible bosses can make the workday unpleasant. Supervisors who are sources of stress have a negative impact on the subjective well-being of their employees (Monnot & Beehr, 2014). Specifically, research has shown that employees who rate their supervisors high on the so-called “dark triad”—psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism—reported greater psychological distress at work, as well as less job satisfaction (Mathieu et al., 2014).

In addition to the direct benefits or costs of work relationships on our well-being, we should also consider how these relationships can impact our job performance. Research has shown that feeling engaged in our work and having a high job performance predicts better health and greater life satisfaction (Shimazu et al., 2015). Given that so many of our waking hours are spent on the job—about 90,000 hours across a lifetime—it makes sense that we should seek out and invest in positive relationships at work.

One of the most influential researchers in this field, Dorien Kooij (2013) identified four key motivations in older adults continuing to work. First, growth or development motivation- looking for new challenges in the work environment. The second is feelings of recognition and power. Third, feelings of power and security are afforded by income and possible health benefits. Interestingly enough, the fourth area of motivation was Erikson’s generativity. The latter has been criticized for a lack of support in terms of empirical research findings, but two studies (Zacher et al., 2012; Ghislieri & Gatti, 2012) found that a primary motivation in continuing to work was the desire to pass on skills and experience, a process they describe as leader generativity. Perhaps a more straightforward term might be mentoring. In any case, the concept of generative leadership is now firmly established in the business and organizational management literature.

Organizations, public and private, are going to have to deal with an older workforce. The proportion of people in Europe over 60 will increase from 24% to 34% by 2050 (United Nations 2015); the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that 1 in 4 of the US workforce will be 55 or over. Workers may have good reason to avoid retirement, although it is often viewed as a time of relaxation and well-earned rest, statistics may indicate that a continued focus on the future may be preferable to stasis, or inactivity. In fact, Fitzpatrick and Moore (2018) report that death rates for American males jump 2% immediately after they turn 62, most likely a result of changes induced by retirement. Interestingly, this small spike in death rates is not seen in women, which may be the result of women having stronger social determinants of health (SDOH), which keep them active and interacting with others out of retirement.

Stress

Social Relationships and Stress. Research has shown that the impact of social isolation on our risk for disease and death is similar in magnitude to the risk associated with smoking regularly (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010; House et al., 1988).  In fact, the importance of social relationships for our health is so significant that some scientists believe our body has developed a physiological system that encourages us to seek out our relationships, especially in times of stress. (Taylor et al., 2000).

Social integration is the concept used to describe the number of social roles that you have. (Cohen & Wills, 1985). For example, you might be a daughter, a basketball team member, a Humane Society volunteer, a coworker, and a student. Maintaining these different roles can improve your health via encouragement from those around you to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Those in your social network might also provide you with social support (e.g. when you are under stress). This support might include emotional help (e.g., a hug when you need it), tangible help (e.g., lending you money), or advice. By helping to improve health behaviors and reduce stress, social relationships can have a powerful, protective impact on health and, in some cases, might even help people with serious illnesses stay alive longer (Spiegel et al., 1989).

Caregiving and stress. A disabled child, spouse, parent, or other family member is part of the lives of some midlife adults. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving (2015) 40 million Americans provide unpaid caregiving. The typical caregiver is a 49-year-old female currently caring for a 69-year-old female who needs care because of a long-term physical condition. Looking more closely at the age of the recipient of caregiving, the typical caregiver for those 18-49 years of age is a female (61%) caring mostly for her own child (32%) followed by a spouse or partner (17%). When looking at older recipients (50+) who receive care, the typical caregiver is female (60%) caring for a parent (47%) or spouse (10%).

Caregiving places enormous stress on the caregiver. Caregiving for a young or adult child with special needs was associated with poorer global health and more physical symptoms among both fathers and mothers (Seltzer, 2011). Marital relationships are also a factor in how caring affects stress and chronic conditions. Fathers who were caregivers identified more chronic health conditions than non-caregiving fathers, regardless of marital quality. In contrast, caregiving mothers reported higher levels of chronic conditions when they reported a high level of marital strain (Kang & Marks, 2014).  Age can also make a difference in how one is affected by the stress of caring for a child with special needs. Using data from the Study of Midlife in the United States, Ha, Hong, Seltzer, and Greenberg (Ha et al., 2008) found that older parents were significantly less likely to experience the negative effects of having a disabled child than younger parents. They concluded that an age-related weakening of the stress occurred over time. This follows with the greater emotional stability noted at midlife.

Current research indicates that a significant portion of Americans are involved in caregiving for their parents. A 2020 study highlighted that around 20% of Americans are family caregivers, with this number increasing as the population ages (OurParents, 2023). A more recent study from 2023 (Guardian Life Insurance, 2023) reported that nearly 70% of family caregivers in the U.S. are also juggling employment responsibilities, reflecting the growing demands placed on caregivers​

Spousal care. Certainly, caring for a disabled spouse would be a difficult experience that could negatively affect one’s health. However, research indicates that there can be positive health effects for caring for a disabled spouse. Beach et al. (2000) evaluated health-related outcomes in four groups: Spouses with no caregiving needed (Group 1), living with a disabled spouse but not providing care (Group 2), living with a disabled spouse and providing care (Group 3), and helping a disabled spouse while reporting caregiver strain, including elevated levels of emotional and physical stress (Group 4). Not surprisingly, the participants in Group 4 were the least healthy and identified poorer perceived health, an increase in health-risk behaviors, and an increase in anxiety and depression symptoms. However, those in Group 3 who provided care for a spouse but did not identify caregiver strain actually identified decreased levels of anxiety and depression compared to Group 2 and were actually similar to those in Group 1. It appears that greater caregiving involvement was related to better mental health as long as the caregiving spouse did not feel the strain. The beneficial effects of helping identified by the participants were consistent with previous research (Krause et al., 1992; Schulz et al., 1997).

When caring for a disabled spouse, gender differences have also been identified. Female caregivers of a spouse with dementia experienced more burden, had poorer mental and physical health, exhibited increased depressive symptomatology, took part in fewer health-promoting activities, and received fewer hours of help than male caregivers (Gibbons et al., 2014). This recent study was consistent with previous research findings that women experience more caregiving burden than men, despite similar caregiving situations (Torti, 2004; Yeager et al., 2010).  Explanations for why women do not use more external support, which may alleviate some of the burden, include women’s expectations that they should assume caregiving roles (Torti et al., 2004) and their concerns with the opinions of others (Arai et al., 2000). Also contributing to women’s poorer caregiving outcomes is that disabled males are more aggressive than females, especially males with dementia who display more physical and sexual aggression toward their caregivers (Eastley et al., 1997; Zuidema et al., 2009). Female caregivers are certainly at risk for negative consequences of caregiving, and greater support needs to be available to them.

According to the Institute of Medicine (2015), it is estimated that 66 million Americans, or 29% of the adult population, are caregivers for someone who is dying or chronically ill. Two-thirds of these caregivers are women. This care takes its toll physically, emotionally, and financially. Family caregivers may face the physical challenges of lifting, dressing, feeding, bathing, and transporting a dying or ill family member. They may worry about whether they are performing all tasks safely and properly as they receive little training or guidance. Such caregiving tasks may also interfere with their ability to take care of themselves and meet other family and workplace obligations. Financially, families often face high out-of-pocket expenses (IOM, 2015).

There are many socioemotional changes that occur in how middle-aged adults perceive themselves. While people in their early 20s may emphasize how old they are to gain respect or to be viewed as experienced, by the time people reach their 40s, they tend to emphasize how young they are. For instance, a few 40-year-olds cut each other down for being so young, stating: “You’re only 43? I’m 48!” A previous focus on the future gives way to an emphasis on the present. Neugarten (1968) notes that in midlife, people no longer think of their lives in terms of how long they have lived. Rather, life is thought of in terms of how many years are left.

Characteristics of family caregivers in the United States

Table 3. Adapted from Lally & Valentine-French, 2019 and IOM, 2015

Supplemental Materials

• This Ted Talk discusses how working-class people can organize and own the businesses they work for, make decisions for themselves, and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

• This Ted Talk discusses ways to cultivate inclusion and encourage diversity in the workplace.

• This podcast interviews Dr. Pauline Boss on her concept of ambiguous loss.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pauline-boss-navigating-loss-without-closure/id150892556?i=1000485211124

Attributions

Human Growth and Development by Ryan Newton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License,

Individual and Family Development, Health, and Well-being by Diana Lang, Nick Cone; Laura Overstreet, Stephanie Loalada; Suzanne Valentine-French, Martha Lally; Julie Lazzara, and Jamie Skow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License,

Human Development by Human Development Teaching & Learning Group under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License,

Lifespan Development by Ronnie Mather for Lumen Learning, and licensed under a Creative Commons ShareAlike License.

Selections from the content were originally taken from LifeSpan Psychology by Laura Overstreet and Wikipedia’s article on socioemotional selectivity theory.

Creativity by Ellen Skinner & Dan Grimes, Portland State University is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0

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