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?
|
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.
|
Table 14.2
Complex Relationship between Parenting and Happiness
(source: Nelson et al., 2014)
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