Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Identify factors in middle adulthood that lead to life satisfaction
- Describe relationships between happiness, life satisfaction, and culture
- Provide examples of successful middle adulthood
Carmen is on her way to meet her aunt Julia for their monthly catch-up lunch. Julia always asks the same thing once they have put in their usual orders: “So . . . how are you?” It’s more than just small talk. Her ant expects a real answer. So how is she . . . really? Well, Carmen’s schedule has been busy lately between family and work responsibilities. Plus, she’s been going to physical therapy twice a week to strengthen the muscles around her aging knee. But honestly, Carmen feels fine. Good, in fact. Her knee is feeling stronger and more flexible. She was just put in charge of a new project at work that brings new challenges and a raise. And her stepson Daniel has been doing well in school this year. These lunches bring Carmen a welcome chance to stop and reflect on her life, which usually brings her satisfaction and more confidence in her direction forward.
Middle adulthood is a time when many people experience a peak in their social-cognitive skills (Fortenbaugh et al., 2015; Germine et al., 2011; Hartshorne & Germine, 2015) that can enable productivity, both in their personal growth and contributions to the people and world around them (McAdams et al., 1993). In this section, you will learn about the factors that predict subjective well-being between the ages of thirty and fifty-nine years and the way individuals may optimize their positive experiences at this age.
Happiness and Life Satisfaction in Middle Adulthood
For the last twenty-five years, the field of positive psychology has asserted that aspects of psychological well-being can be defined, measured, and taught (Gibbon, 2020). Psychologists differentiate aspects of subjective well-being, such as happiness and life satisfaction, as related but distinct. For example, happiness reflects the affective or emotional side of well-being, which may not always be stable across time or situations. It is a subjective self-evaluation and therefore has sometimes been measured with a single self-report question, such as “How happy are you?” Researchers who study happiness find that even though happiness is subjective and can be based on potentially short-term factors (such as participation in fun or enjoyable activities), it can also be predicted by more long-term factors, such as financial stability (Diener et al., 2018), perceived social support (Waldinger & Schultz, 2023), and even personality traits such as extraversion (Diener & Lucas, 1999; Oerlemans & Bakker, 2014).
Life satisfaction reflects a more multidimensional and global rating of the quality of the person’s life, rather than current moods or circumstances (Deiner et al., 2018), and the factors that influence overall life satisfaction can vary cross-culturally, individually, and over the lifespan. For example, life-satisfaction ratings in individualistic cultures like the United States are more influenced by individual factors such as self-esteem and personal achievement, while members of collectivistic cultures give more weight to group-level factors such as family well-being and the way they are perceived by others (Diener & Diener, 1995; Diener et al., 2018; Krys et al., 2018; Uchida & Ogihara, 2012).
Link to Learning
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is composed of approximately forty democratic countries with similar market-based economic systems. The organization allows participating countries to collaborate and compare data to determine the most effective and growth-promoting policy standards. Look at the OECD Better Life Index to view the results of OECD life-satisfaction data. Where does your country fall compared to its OECD peers? What do you think accounts for the cross-national differences?
Individual differences in worldview or ways of thinking, such as the extent of a person’s hopefulness (Ekinci & Koç, 2023; Snyder et al., 1991), optimism (Piper, 2022; Scheier & Carver, 1993), and perceived control (Hooker & Kaus, 1994), can also influence ratings of life satisfaction, even under otherwise difficult circumstances. For example, research on the psychological impact of the COVID pandemic on Chinese adults concluded that perceived control served as a buffer to preserve life satisfaction amid the isolation imposed by the country’s severe restrictions on daily activity (Zheng et al., 2020). And while there is no consistent evidence of a universal increase or decrease in overall life satisfaction during early or middle adulthood, either longitudinally or cross-sectionally (Baird et al., 2010; Costa, 1987; Diener & Suh, 1998), what people deem important to life satisfaction may change with age.
Recall that certain cognitive abilities, such as fluid intelligence and processing speed, begin to gradually decline in middle adulthood. Therefore, the ability to maintain higher levels of these cognitive skills may be particularly valued by midlife adults and predictive of higher life satisfaction at that time of life but not at other times of life. For example, higher fluid intelligence is associated with higher life satisfaction for young and middle-aged adults but not older adults (Siedlecki et al., 2008). Higher processing speed is associated with life satisfaction only for midlife adults, but not those who are older or younger (Falzarano et al., 2022). Fluid intelligence and processing speed may be particularly valuable to midlife adults who can utilize those cognitive abilities to manage the everyday challenges associated with their multiple roles as caregivers, employees, and community leaders.
Link to Learning
One of the most commonly used assessments of life satisfaction is the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) developed by Diener and colleagues (1985). This scale has been validated in cross-national studies in the United States, South Africa, Asia, and Europe as well as within various ethnic groups within the United States, including Black and Mexican American populations (Flores & Lee, 2019).
Even though perceived health is a more important consideration in quality-of-life ratings in older adulthood than in early or middle adulthood (George et al., 1985), people also change the way they evaluate their perceived health over the lifespan. Overall, longitudinal research indicates that oberall perceptions of well being and life satisfaction tend to increase in middle adulthood (Buecker et al., 2023). In studies of patients with cancer and injection drug users, global health was unrelated to life satisfaction (Hinz et al., 2022; Russell et al., 2006). Age also influences expectations regarding life satisfaction: younger adults are more likely to overestimate both their future happiness and their life satisfaction (Schwandt, 2016), whereas older adults are more likely to underestimate future life satisfaction.
It Depends
Does Having Kids Make You Happier?
While Erik Erikson’s work often refers to the generativity of middle adulthood in terms of how an individual contributes to future generations, it is often popularly assumed that the prescribed way to achieve generativity, and therefore well-being, is to have children. This assumption is an oversimplification of Erikson’s theory and is not supported by research. In 1991, Baumeister conducted a meta-analysis of research related to parenthood and well-being and concluded that having children was associated with a decrease in happiness and life satisfaction in adulthood. However, these results should be considered in context. Baumeister added to his conclusions that parenting can increase a person’s sense of meaning. In a follow-up study, Deaton and Stone (2014) found that while parents’ overall reported life satisfaction is not significantly different from that of nonparents when controlling for factors such as education and income, parents do experience more highs and lows than nonparents.
Nelson and colleagues (2014) further extended this work by proposing that it is more important to determine why and how parents might experience happiness differently from nonparents. In a review of decades of research, they found that several individual differences appear to account for happiness differences between parents and nonparents. Some of these variables are listed in Table 14.2. What other individual and group differences might help predict the impact of parenting on life satisfaction? What other ways might an individual achieve generativity in middle adulthood instead of or in addition to parenting?
| Variables Moderating the Relationship between Happiness and Parenthood | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Parental status (i.e., parenting by choice) | Unplanned pregnancy or infertility may predict anxiety, frustration, and perceived loss of control that reduce feelings of happiness. |
| Parental age | Younger parents may have less maturity and resources to manage the challenges of parenting. |
| Child age | Younger children require more time and energy and are more likely to increase parental sleep deprivation. |
| Gender | Fatherhood is more likely to predict happiness than motherhood, perhaps because the responsibilities of caregiving are not typically equally shared. |
| Marital status | Married parents typically have greater resources and support for caregiving. |
| Socioeconomic status (SES) | Parents with low SES have fewer financial resources to meet the challenges of childcare. |
| Social support | Available social support can lower stress and potentially provide direct aid in childcare. |
| Child temperament and behavior | Coping with a child exhibiting high negative emotions or behavioral problems can create stress and decrease parent-child connectedness. |
Possible and Ideal Selves
How does a person achieve happiness amid the inevitable demands of meeting the generativity challenge proposed by Erikson in middle adulthood? Psychologists suggest that personal happiness and generativity can be intertwined. For example, care for others can produce eudaimonic happiness, a type of happiness derived from a sense of purpose or meaning in life. Eudaimonic happiness is not so much produced by activities that are fun but rather by those that are rewarding, such as work or service to others. It can be produced by a job that is tough but makes life better for others, when a child kisses you goodnight and says they love you after an otherwise long and stressful day, or when you rescue and provide care and shelter for an injured or abandoned animal. Furthermore, McAdams and de St. Aubin (1992) suggest that successful generativity directed both by what others need and by what the individual wants. Longitudinal studies of midlife adults find that those who have higher mental well-being at age forty-two years exhibit higher generativity at age fifty years (Reinilä et al., 2023). Life satisfaction can therefore be greatly enhanced for many in middle adulthood by caring for and about others while maintaining and potentially enhancing the self-care cultivated in earlier stages of psychosocial development.
How do people in middle adulthood balance care of self and others? Change and stability? Past, present, and future? Health psychologist Gail M. Williamson suggests that “those who age well are those who feel in control of at least some of the important aspects of their lives and maintain (perhaps with the help of others) the normal activities that they value most” (2002, p. 683). What aspects of your actual self do you value most and want to nurture and maintain (self-care)? What generative opportunities and challenges are encountered in middle adulthood? The challenge is to establish priorities and make decisions that build bridges between your actual and your possible self to optimize your subjective well-being. Professionals in the fields of psychology, education, and management sometimes use a process known as task analysis to break otherwise complicated or challenging tasks (like living a happy and satisfying adulthood) into smaller steps, based on known preconditions and obstacles. Use the task analysis questions provided here to brainstorm and plan ways to link what is actual with what is possible, keeping in mind what you've learned from research about what predicts happiness and life satisfaction in adulthood.
Task Analysis
“Aging is the extraordinary process whereby you become the person you always should have been.” —David Bowie
Visualize your possible self as a fifty-five-year-old adult self. If you are already fifty-five years old or older, then compare what you would have imagined as a twenty-two-year-old with your actual self. What is your life like at fifty-five years old? What are the most important relationships in your life? Where are you living? What makes you happy? What have been your biggest challenges? Use that visualization to chart a pathway from early adulthood through middle adulthood that focuses on one or two important goals for well-being that utilize your current strengths and priorities to address challenges and maximize healthy and productive growth.
- Two important goals as I complete middle adulthood are (1)________(2)__________
- How do these goals align with my current priorities and values? _________________
- What strengths do I already have that will help me to reach these goals? (1)___ (2)___
- What challenges do I anticipate in trying to reach these goals (could be personal, environmental, or social factors)? (1)________________ (2)_______________________
- What resources will I need to find or develop to help address these challenges (could be personal, environmental, or social factors)? (1)____________ (2)_______________
- What are the next best steps towards achieving this goal? (1)__________ (2) _______
- How will my life change once I achieve this goal? What will improve? What new challenges might arise? ___________________________________________________
Life Hacks
What Makes for a Good Life?
Despite the way the media and pop culture often idealize and glamorize young adulthood, there are few significant differences in life satisfaction across all the stages of adulthood. That stability in life satisfaction likely occurs because as our opportunities and challenges change, so do the environments around them and the priorities we attach to them (Ryff & Singer, 1998).
Based on what you have learned so far in this course, what aspects of life do you think might positively influence these dimensions at each stage of life (Table 14.3)? Influential aspects of development are already suggested for some dimensions of well-being at each age. Can you brainstorm how each box might be completed?
| Dimensions of Well-Being | Adolescence | Young Adulthood | Middle Adulthood | Late Adulthood |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-acceptance | ||||
| Positive relationships |
|
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| Autonomy | ||||
| Mastery |
|
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| Sense of purpose |
|
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| Personal growth |
|
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