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Article Excerpt
A diverse sample of 224 women, aged 35 to 65, participated in a study to examine the relations among transitions, life satisfaction, and wellness. The Women's Midlife Transitions Survey, developed for this study, provided information on the timeliness, expectedness, and impact of common midlife transitions. Implications for mental health counselors include the need to help midlife women understand and cope with a variety of common life changes that individually and collectively help to define their midlife experience.
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Comprising approximately 45% of the U.S. female population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001), women aged 40 and over are charting life paths that are in stark contrast from the predictions of existing adult development theories built on the experiences of past generations (Neugarten, 1968). For some, midlife is a period of life for which there are flexible boundaries and no single, universal set of delimited age parameters (Staudinger & Bluck, 2001). Quadagno (2001) observed that "midlife" has only recently been defined, and explained that the development of a phase of life called "midlife" was due to increased longevity and the trend for a couple to spend as much as two decades or more together after the launching of their children. In 1989, the Harvard Medical School organized a research team, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development (MIDMAC), to focus on successful midlife development because midlife was seen as a poorly defined and understudied life stage (MIDMAC, 1999). The team employed age parameters of 30 to 70 for their research efforts, while focusing on the ages from 40 to 60 as defining the fundamental midlife population.
In tandem with the poor understanding of middle adulthood and its parameters come many cultural stereotypes. These stereotypes depict midlife as a time of barrenness, asexuality, loss, and deterioration (MacPherson, 1995; Marcus-Newhall, Thompson, & Thomas, 2001; Markson & Taylor, 2000). However, today's midlife women may experience transitions during this period of life that differ markedly from traditional societal expectations and for which there are few role models. These transitions may occur in any of several contexts, including social, vocational, familial, and historical. First-time childbirth (Martin, Hamilton, Ventura, Menacker, & Park, 2002), first-time marriage (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002), divorce (Uhlenberg, Cooney, & Boyd, 1990), acceptance of a different sexual orientation (O'Leary, 1997), or reassuming the role of mother as a custodial grandparent (Climo, Terry, & Lay, 2002) are examples of unique transitions that midlife women may experience today. Ivey, Ivey, Myers, and Sweeney (2004) observed that the majority of clients present for counseling during life transitions; hence, to help midlife women cope with their changing life circumstances, mental health counselors need a knowledge base that both describes significant transition issues and relates them to positive mental health outcomes such as life satisfaction and well-being or wellness.
Factors that affect the impact of transitions include not only context, but also timing, expectations, and perceived impact (Schlossberg, Waters, & Goodman, 1995). Neugarten, Moore, and Lowe (1965) found that the perceived timeliness of an event (whether or not it was perceived as being "on-time") was particularly significant to an individual's assessment of the effect of specific transitions; moreover, age norms and expectations play a direct role in an individual's decision to begin and end particular activities. Societal sanctions may exist for those who transgress against age norms (Neugarten, 1996). Interestingly, Settersten and Hagestad (1996) found that the preponderance of beliefs concerning age-specific events or deadlines refer to the events in women's lives rather than in the lives of both men and women. Thus, the lives and choices of women appear to be more proscriptively constrained than those of men and women may be at greater risk for negative emotional consequences when culturally "off-time" choices and transitions occur (Degges-White, 2003a). Thus, a better understanding of age norms may provide further understanding of women's unique challenges in this regard.
Defining social norms, or age norms, as socially-imbedded, unspoken guidelines for age-appropriate behavior, Neugarten, et al. (1965) explored the socially accepted timing of events, and found that age norms existed for many specific life course events such as marriage and childbirth. They further suggested that an inner "social clock" existed, allowing people to gauge whether a life course event had occurred on-time or off-time. Neugarten and Datan (1973) noted that even when a socially imbedded, clearly defined sanction does not exist, age deviancy still carries psychological significance for the individual who may feel that her life is off-track from where she felt it should be at a specific point in time. Because societal expectations regarding the timing and sequencing of women's life course events are more stringent (Settersten & Hagestad, 1996), women may be especially vulnerable to psychological distress resulting when they experience transitions that are out of synch with culturally imbedded age norms. As the current cohort of midlife women seeks to develop a new identity representative of their own experiences, they must combat negative cultural stereotypes such as those identified earlier (MacPherson, 1995; Marcus-Newhall et al., 2001; Markson, & Taylor, 2000), as well as break away from the traditional expectations regarding age norms and cultural expectations
Hagestad (1988) found that the social clock governed not only actual life events, such as childbearing and marriage, but also people's feelings about entering new life phases, such as midlife and grandparenthood. Further, Neugarten (1996) believed that adults were conscious of how the "normal, expectable life cycle" (p. 116) should progress. Adults were understood to measure their progress against this internalized social clock, carrying with them an awareness of whether they were "on-time" or "off-time" as they reached specific transitions and milestones (Neugarten, 1996; Schlossberg, 1984). Because events that occur in a timely manner are assumed to be more socially acceptable, transitions that occur in a timely manner may be more easily negotiated or accepted than those that occur off-time (Hagestad, 1990; Hagestad & Smyer, 1982).
Many life events and circumstances now commonly experienced by women in midlife have traditionally been associated with younger women, such as first-time childbirth and beginning a college education. Apter (1995) suggested that the greatest challenge for midlife women is the integration of self-images formed in adolescence with the reality of what it is to be a woman at midlife. Women can no longer assume that their midlife transitions will follow the patterns of the women who preceded them, leaving considerable ambiguity relative to preparation for the midlife decades. In reviewing existing perspectives on midlife development, Staudinger and Bluck (2001) noted that individuals may vary greatly in the events, experiences, and attitudes associated with their passage through midlife. They also noted that the events and experiences of this period may vary according to the age cohort of which an individual is a member, underscoring the importance of historical context. Because the timing of traditional landmark events in adulthood can be different for today's cohort of midlife women, psychological distress may result as they seek to make sense of their life course (Neugarten, 1996). The high incidence of depression among midlife women (Mirowsky, 1996) may be in part a response to...
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