lifespan development chap 15

Exercise, weight control, and a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can often help to stave off many cardiovascular problems in middle age

In a recent study of middle-aged adults, higher cardiorespiratory ftness predicted lower cardiovascular disease risk (Swainson, Ingle, & Carroll, 2019). Also, although cholesterol levels are infuenced by heredity, LDL can be reduced and HDL increased by eating food that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and by exercising regularly

High blood pressure (hypertension), too, often begins to appear for many individuals in their forties and ffties (

At menopause, a woman's blood pressure rises sharply and usually remains above that of a man through life's later years. . One study found that uncontrolled hypertension can damage the brain's structure and function as early as the late thirties and early forties. In this study, structural damage to the brain's white matter (axons) and decreased volume of gray matter (cell bodies and dendrites) occurred for individuals who had hypertension (systolic number above 140 and diastolic number above 90). hypertension in middle age was linked to risk of cognitive impairment in late adulthood

problem in middle and late adulthood is metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by ...

hypertension, obesity, and insulin resistance (Gharipour & others, 2019). Researchers have found that chronic stress exposure is linked to metabolic syndrome (Alves Freire Ribeiro & others, 2020). Metabolic syndrome often leads to the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Savadatti & others, 2019). In a recent study, the triple combination of low HDL, high blood pressure, and larger waist circumference was linked to the connection between metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (Mansourian & others, 2019). Weight loss and exercise are strongly recommended as part of the treatment of metabolic syndrome sedentary behavior, especially moderate and high TV viewing time, was linked to metabolic syndrome

Remember from our discussion in the "Introduction" chapter that individuals have not only a chronological age but also biological, psychological, and social ages. Some experts conclude that ...

compared with earlier and later periods, middle age is influenced more heavily by sociocultural factors.

Clas-Hakan Nygard (2013) concludes from his longitudinal research that the ability to work effectively peaks during middle age because

of increased motivation, work experience, employer loyalty, and better strategic thinking. Nygard also has found that the quality of work done by employees in middle age is linked to how much their work is appreciated and how well they get along with their immediate supervisors. And Nygard and his colleagues discovered that work ability in middle age was linked to mortality and disability 28 years later

the American Heart Association has proposed Life's Simple 7—a list of things people can do to improve their cardiovascular health:

(1) manage blood pressure, (2) control cholesterol, (3) reduce blood sugar, (4) get active, (5) eat better, (6) lose weight, and (7) quit smoking. In a recent study, optimal Life's Simple 7 at middle age was linked to better cardiovascular health recovery following a heart attack later in life

1. Although the age boundaries are not set in stone, we will consider middle adulthood to be the developmental period that begins at approximately ... 2. For many people, middle adulthood is a time of ..

1. 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of age. 2. declining physical skills and expanding responsibility; a period in which people become more conscious of the young-old polarity and the shrinking amount of time left in life; a point when individuals seek to transmit something meaningful to the next generation; and a time when people reach and maintain satisfaction in their careers. In sum, middle adulthood involves "balancing work and relationship responsibilities in the midst of the physical and psychological changes associated with aging

results from Schaie's study that have been described so far focus on average cognitive stability or change for all participants across middle adulthood. Schaie and Sherry Willis (Schaie, 2005; Willis & Schaie, 2005) examined individual differences for the participants in the Seattle study and found substantial individual variations. They classifed participants as

"decliners," "stable," or "gainers" for three categories—numeric ability, delayed recall (a verbal memory task), and word fuency—from 46 to 60 years of age. The largest percentage of decline (31 percent) or gain (16 percent) occurred for delayed recall; the largest percentage of stable scores (79 percent) occurred for numeric ability.

deaths due to cardiovascular disease have been decreasing in the United States since the 1970s. Why is this so?

Advances in medications to lower blood pressure and cholesterol in high-risk individuals have been major factors in reducing deaths due to cardiovascular disease And risk factors for cardiovascular disease in middle adulthood can show up even earlier in development. For example, a recent study indicated that a healthy diet in adolescence was linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in middle-aged women (Dahm & others, 2018). Socioeconomic status (SES) factors also play a role in cardiovascular disease in middle adulthood. A 32-year study found that middle-aged individuals who continued to have a lower SES through early adulthood and into middle adulthood were more likely to have a lower level of cardiovascular health than their counterparts

A person's health in middle age is a key factor in sexual activity

. For example, a study of aging adults 55 years and older revealed that their level of sexual activity was associated with their physical and mental health (Bach & others, 2013). Social and relationship factors also are important in middle age sexual functioning. For example, in a recent study of healthy middle-aged women, interpersonal aspects such as emotional support and relationship satisfaction, as well the personality traits of optimism and self-esteem, were key predictors of the quality of sexual functioning

it is important not to go too far in describing midlife positively. Many physical aspects decline in middle adulthood, and increased rates of health problems such as obesity and cardiovascular disease need to be considered in taking a balanced perspective on this age period

. Further, a recent study of U.S. and Japanese adults found that in both countries younger adults perceived that their life satisfaction improved from the past to the present and from the present to the future, but the improvement was perceived as more modest by middleaged adults, and then shifted to a perceived decline in life satisfaction among older adults

a study revealed that when middle-aged adults engaged in active leisure pursuits they had a higher level of cognitive performance in late adulthood

. In another study, individuals who engaged in a greater amount of sedentary screen-based leisure-time activity (TV, video games, computer use) had shorter telomere length (telomeres cover the end of chromosomes, and as people age their telomeres become shorter and this shorter telomere length is linked to mortality) middle-aged and older adult women who engaged in a higher level of leisure-time physical activity were more likely to report experiencing positive affect (Holahan & others, 2020). And a recent European study of middle-aged adults revealed that the more they engaged in physical activity during their leisure time, the less likely they were to be depressed In one study, after individuals experienced daily stressful events, if they engaged in more leisure time than usual on those days, the leisure time served as a positive coping strategy in improving their moods. Also, a recent study indicated that the more individuals engaged in leisure-time physical activity, the less work-related stress they had

A fnal point to make about career development in middle adulthood is that cognitive factors earlier in development are linked to occupational attainment in middle age.

. In one study, task persistence at 13 years of age was related to occupational success in middle age

For both women and men, peak performance on verbal ability, verbal memory, inductive reasoning, and spatial orientation was attained in middle age.

. Only two of the six abilities—numeric facility and perceptual speed—declined during middle age. Perceptual speed showed the earliest decline, actually beginning in early adulthood. Interestingly, in terms of John Horn's ideas that were discussed earlier, for the participants in the Seattle Longitudinal Study, middle age was a time of peak performance for some aspects of both crystallized intelligence (verbal ability) and fuid intelligence (spatial orientation and inductive reasoning).

Because it takes so long to attain, expertise often shows up more in middle adulthood than in early adulthood

. Recall that expertise involves having extensive, highly organized knowledge and understanding of a particular domain.

1. an increasing number of experts on middle adulthood describe the age period of 55 to 65 as ... 2. Compared with earlier midlife, late midlife is more likely to be characterized by ...

1. late midlife. 2. the death of a parent, the last child leaving the parental home, becoming a grandparent, the preparation for retirement, and in most cases actual retirement. Many people in this age range experience their first confrontation with health problems although gains and losses may balance each other in early midlife, losses may begin to outnumber gains for many individuals in late midlife As life-span expert Gilbert Brim (1992) commented, middle adulthood is full of changes, twists, and turns; the path is not fixed. People move in and out of states of success and failure.

1. When Carl Jung studied midlife transitions early in the twentieth century, he referred to midlife as.. 2. What is the average life expectancy?.

1. the afternoon of life (Jung, 1933). Midlife serves as an important preparation for late adulthood, "the evening of life" 2. But "midlife" came much earlier in Jung's time. In 1900 the average life expectancy was only 47 years of age; only 3 percent of the population lived past 65. Today, the average life expectancy is 79, and 15 percent of the U.S. population is older than 65 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). As a much greater percentage of the population lives to an older age, the midpoint of life and what constitutes middle age or middle adulthood are getting harder to pin down

Accommodation of the eye—the ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina—experiences its sharpest decline between ...

40 and 59 years of age. In particular, middle-aged individuals begin to have diffculty viewing close objects. The eye's blood supply also diminishes, although usually not until the ffties or sixties. The reduced blood supply may decrease the visual feld's size and account for an increase in the eye's blind spot. At 60 years of age, the retina receives only one-third as much light as it did at 20 years of age, mostly because of the reduced size of the pupil (Scialfa & Kline, 2007). A recent study of middle-aged adults found that vision problems—especially diffculty reading the newspaper and recognizing people on the street—were linked to decreased life satisfaction, decreased selfesteem, increased depressive symptoms, and increased social isolation

Peak functioning of the body's joints usually occurs in the twenties. The cushions for the movement of bones (such as tendons and ligaments) become less effcient in middle adulthood ...

a time when many individuals experience joint stiffness and more diffculty in movement. Maximum bone density occurs by the mid- to late thirties, after which there is a progressive loss of bone. The rate of this bone loss begins slowly but accelerates with further aging. Women lose bone mass twice as fast as men do. By the end of midlife, bones break more easily and heal more slowly greater intake of fruits and vegetables was linked to increased bone density in middle-aged and older adults

Habitual sleep deprivation is linked to morbidity, especially among people with cardiovascular disease

A recent Korean study found that the following factors were linked to sleep problems in middle age: unemployment, being unmarried, currently being a smoker, lack of exercise, having irregular meals, and frequently experiencing stressful events

Margie Lachman and her colleagues (2015) have described middle age as ...

a pivotal period because it is a time of balancing growth and decline, linking earlier and later periods of development, and connecting younger and older generations.

Do middle-aged workers perform their work as competently as younger adults?

Age-related declines occur in some occupations, such as air traffc controllers and professional athletes, but for most jobs, no differences have been found in the work performance of young adults and middle-aged adults

In Schaie's (1994, 1996, 2013) Seattle Longitudinal Study, verbal memory peaked during the ffties. However, in some other studies verbal memory has shown a decline in middle age, especially when assessed in cross-sectional studies

Although there still is some controversy about whether memory declines during middle adulthood, most experts conclude that it does decline at some point during this period of adult development

Schaie (2009, 2010, 2011a, b, 2013) continues to emphasize that longitudinal studies hold the key to determining age-related changes in cognitive functioning and that middle age is the time when many cognitive skills actually peak. Among the information-processing changes that take place in middle adulthood are...

Among the information-processing changes that take place in middle adulthood are those involved in speed of processing information, memory, expertise, and practical problem-solving skills. As we saw in Schaie's (1994, 1996, 2011a, b, 2013) Seattle Longitudinal Study, perceptual speed begins declining in early adulthood and continues to decline in middle adulthood. A common way to assess speed of information processing is through a reaction-time task, in which individuals simply press a button as soon as they see a light appear. Middle-aged adults are slower to push the button when the light appears than young adults are. However, keep in mind that the decline is not dramatic

average American adult gets just under seven hours of sleep a night. How much sleep do adults need to function optimally the next day?

An increasing number of experts note that eight hours of sleep or more per night are necessary for optimal performance the next day. These experts argue that many adults have become sleep deprived (McKenna & others, 2013). Work pressures, school pressures, family obligations, and social obligations often lead to long hours of wakefulness and irregular sleep/wake schedules (Soderstrom & others, 2012). The National Sleep Foundation (2019) recommends that 26- to 64-year-olds should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night.

Many of today's 50-year-olds are in better shape, more alert, and more productive than their 40- year-old counterparts from a generation or two earlier

As more people lead healthier lifestyles and medical discoveries help to slow down the aging process, the boundaries of middle age are being pushed upward. It looks like middle age is starting later and lasting longer for increasing numbers of active, healthy, and productive people.

Hearing also can start to decline by age 40

Auditory assessments indicate that hearing loss occurs in up to 50 percent of individuals 50 years and older (Fowler & Leigh-Paffenroth, 2007). Sensitivity to high pitches usually declines frst; the ability to hear low-pitched sounds does not seem to decline much in middle adulthood. Men usually lose their sensitivity to high-pitched sounds sooner than women do. However, this gender difference might be due to men's greater exposure to noise in occupations such as mining, automobile work, and so on. Laser surgery and implantation of intraocular lenses have become routine procedures for correcting vision in middle-aged adults. . In addition, recent advances in hearing aids have dramatically improved hearing for many individuals

Memory decline is more likely to occur when individuals don't use effective memory strategies, such as organization and imagery

By organizing lists of phone numbers into different categories, or imagining the phone numbers as representing different objects around the house, many individuals can improve their memory in middle adulthood. Further, in recent research, having a higher level of education and engaging in frequent physical exercise were linked to less decline in middle-aged and older adults' episodic memory (retention of information about the details of life's happenings)

There is little change in lung capacity through most of middle adulthood for many individuals.

However, at about age 55, the proteins in lung tissue become less elastic. This change, combined with a gradual stiffening of the chest wall, decreases the lungs' capacity to shuttle oxygen from the air people breathe to the blood in their veins. The lung capacity of individuals who are smokers drops precipitously in middle age, but if the individuals quit smoking, their lung capacity improves, although not to the level of individuals who have never smoked. Exercise is linked to better lung functioning and a lower risk of developing lung cancer A longitudinal study also found that increased cardiorespiratory ftness from early adulthood to middle adulthood was linked to less decline in lung health over time (Benck & others, 2017). And in a recent study, lower body mass index, less exercise, frequent alcohol drinking, and a meatbased diet were risk factors for lung cancer among never-smoking women

Obesity increases from early to middle adulthood

In 2016, the prevalence of obesity in middle aged adults (40.8 percent) was higher than in younger adults (35.7 percent). No significant differences in obesity were found between adults 60 years and older (41 percent) and younger age groups Women had a higher rate of obesity than men in middle age

In middle age, many deaths are caused by a single, readily identifiable condition, whereas in old age, death is more likely to result from the combined effects of several chronic conditions

Deaths due to cancer in middle age have been declining recently, but cancer continues to be the number one cause of death in middle age, followed by cardiovascular disease. Men have higher mortality rates than women for all of the leading causes of death

Strategies that distinguish experts from novices include these:

Experts are more likely to rely on their accumulated experience to solve problems. Experts often process information automatically and analyze it more effciently when solving a problem in their domain than novices do. Experts have better strategies and shortcuts for solving problems in their domain than novices do. Experts are more creative and fexible in solving problems in their domain than novices are.

For most women, menopause overall is not the highly negative experience it was once thought to be

Few women have severe physical or psychological problems related to menopause

Although the ability of men and women to function sexually shows little biological decline in middle adulthood, sexual activity usually occurs less frequently in midlife than in early adulthood (Rees & others, 2018).

Figure 2 shows the age trends in frequency of sex from the Sex in America survey. The frequency of having sex was greatest for individuals aged 25 to 29 years old (47 percent had sex twice a week or more) and dropped off for individuals in their ffties

cross-cultural studies reveal variations in the menopause experience

For example, hot flashes are uncommon in Mayan women (Beyene, 1986). Asian women report fewer hot flashes than women in Western societies (Payer, 1991). In a recent study in China, Mosuo women (Mosuo is a matriarchal tribe in southern China where women have the dominant role in society, don't marry, and can take on as many lovers as they desire) had fewer negative menopausal symptoms, higher self-esteem, and better family support than Han Chinese women (the majority ethnic group in China)

Being overweight or obese is a critical health problem in middle adulthood

For example, overweight and obesity are linked to increased risk of earlier death, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease For individuals who are 30 percent overweight, the probability of dying in middle adulthood increases by about 40 percent. obese middle-aged and older adults were more likely to have chronic diseases and experience an earlier death than their normal-weight counterparts

How might religion infuence physical health?

For individuals in the religious mainstream, researchers increasingly are fnding that spirituality/ religion is positively linked to health (Krause, 2019). In a recent study, spiritual well-being predicted which heart failure patients would still be alive fve years later (Park & others, 2016). In another study, adults who did volunteer work had lower resting pulse rates, and their resting pulse rates improved if they were more deeply committed to religion (Krause, Ironson, & Hill, 2017). And in one study of middle-aged adults, those who attended church had a lower level of allostatic load (a wearing down of one's body because of constant stress) than their counterparts who did not attend church (Bruce & others, 2017). In an analysis of a number of studies, adults with a higher level of spirituality/religion had an 18 percent reduction in mortality a high level of spirituality/religion had a stronger link to longevity than 60 percent of 25 other health interventions (such as eating fruits and vegetables and taking statin drugs for cardiovascular disease)

Recently, there has been a dramatic surge of interest in testosterone replacement therapy (TRT)

For many decades, it was thought that TRT increased the risk of prostate cancer; however, recent studies and research reviews indicate that this is not the case (Corona, Torres, & Maggi, 2020). Recent research indicates that TRT can improve sexual functioning, muscle strength, and bone health (Mayo Clinic, 2020b). One study also found that TRT was associated with increased longevity in men with a low level of testosterone

hormone replacement therapy was often prescribed as treatment for unpleasant side effects of menopause.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) augments the declining levels of reproductive hormone production by the ovaries (Andersson, Borgquist, & Jirstrom, 2018). HRT can consist of various forms of estrogen, usually in combination with a progestin. National Institutes of Health recommends that women who have not had a hysterectomy and who are currently taking hormones consult with their doctor to determine whether they should continue the treatment. If they are taking HRT for short-term relief of menopausal symptoms, the benefts may outweigh the risks. HRT also lowers the risk of bone loss and bone fractures in postmenopausal women (de Villiers & others, 2016). Also, research indicates that if women take HRT within 10 years following menopause, it is associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease research indicates that hormone replacement therapy is linked to a slightly higher risk of breast cancer and the longer HRT is taken, the greater the risk of breast cancer (American Cancer Society, 2020; Breastcancer.org, 2020). The current consensus is that HRT increases the risk of breast cancer in women

Unlike the rather dramatic physical changes that occur in early adolescence and the sometimes abrupt decline in old age, midlife physical changes are usually more gradual.

Genetic makeup and lifestyle factors play important roles in determining whether chronic disease will appear and when. . Middle age is a window through which we can glimpse later life while there is still time to engage in prevention and to infuence some aspects of aging. Recent research has shown that a combination of multiple adaptive factors, such as positive health behaviors (physical exercise and sleep), a sense of control, social support and social connections, and emotion regulation help to buffer declines in physical health and cognitive functioning in middle age

John Horn argues that some abilities begin to decline in middle age while others increase

Horn maintains that crystallized intelligence, an individual's accumulated information and verbal skills, continues to increase in middle adulthood, whereas fluid intelligence, one's ability to reason abstractly, begins to decline in middle adulthood. However, in a recent large-scale study, fluid intelligence declined in individuals 65 years of age and older but not in those who were 45 to 60 years old Horn's data were collected in a cross-sectional manner

If middle-aged adults have sex less frequently than they did in early adulthood, does it mean they are less satisfed with their sex lives?

In a Canadian study of 40- to 64-year-olds, only 30 percent reported that their sexual life was less satisfying than it had been when they were in their twenties (Wright, 2006). In a recent study, middle-aged and older adults who had sex more frequently also had better overall cognitive functioning, especially working memory and executive function (Wright, Jenks, & Demeyere, 2019). Further, in a recent study of individuals 50 years and older, a past-year decline in sexual desire or frequency of sexual activities was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms and lower quality of life adults 40 to 80 years of age found that premature ejaculation (26 percent) and erectile diffculties (22 percent) were the most common sexual problems of older men, while lack of sexual interest (33 percent) and lubrication diffculties (21 percent) were the most common sexual problems of older women

Some midlife career changes are self-motivated; others are the consequence of losing one's job (Brand, 2014). A recent analysis found that for many U.S. workers 50 years of age and older, the decision to leave a job won't be theirs

In this study, more than 50 percent of these workers are pushed out of longtime jobs before they choose to retire, suffering considerable fnancial damage. Also, only 10 percent of these workers ever again earn as much as they did before they were forced to leave their longtime jobs. some individuals in middle age decide that they don't want to spend the rest of their lives doing the same kind of work they have been doing (Hoyer & Roodin, 2009). One aspect of middle adulthood involves adjusting idealistic hopes to accommodate realistic possibilities in light of how much time individuals have before they retire and how fast they are reaching their occupational goals (Levinson, 1978). If individuals perceive that they are behind schedule, if their goals are unrealistic, they don't like the work they are doing, or their job has become too stressful, they could become motivated to change jobs.

problem solving is another important aspect of cognition

Nancy Denney (1986, 1990) observed circumstances such as how young and middle-aged adults handled a landlord who would not fx their stove and what they did if a bank failed to deposit a check. She found that the ability to solve such practical problems improved through the forties and ffties as individuals accumulated practical experience. In a recent study of individuals from 24 to 93 years of age, everyday problem solving showed an increase in performance from early adulthood to middle adulthood, with performance then beginning to decrease at about 50 years of age (Chen, Hertzog, & Park, 2017). Also in this study, fuid intelligence predicted performance on everyday problem solving in young adults but with increasing age, crystallized intelligence became a better predictor.

Leisure refers to the pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of their own choosing—hobbies, sports, or reading, for example. In one analysis of research on what U.S. adults regret the most, not engaging in more leisure was one of the top six regrets

Leisure can be an especially important aspect of middle adulthood (Nicolaisen, Thorsen, & Eriksen, 2012). By middle adulthood, more money is available to many individuals, and there may be more free time and paid vacations. In short, midlife changes may produce expanded opportunities for leisure. Compared with those who never took vacations, men who went on annual vacations were 21 percent less likely to die over the nine years and 32 percent less likely to die of coronary heart disease. And a Finnish study found that engaging in less leisure-time activity in middle age was linked to increased risk of cognitive impairment in late adulthood Adults at midlife need to begin preparing psychologically for retirement. Constructive and fulflling leisure activities in middle adulthood are an important part of this preparation. If an adult develops leisure activities that can be continued into retirement, the transition from work to retirement can be less stressful

role of work, whether one works in a full-time career, in a part-time job, as a volunteer, or as a homemaker, is central during middle adulthood

Many middleaged adults reach their peak in position and earnings. However, they may also be saddled with multiple fnancial burdens including rent or mortgage, child care, medical bills, home repairs, college tuition, loans to family members, or bills from nursing homes. In 2019 in the United States, 81.1 percent of 45- to 54-year-olds were in the workforce (a decrease of 1.8 percent since 2000 but an increase of 1.7 percent since 2015) and 65.2 percent of 55- to 64- year-olds were in the workforce (an increase of 9.8 percent since 2000 and an increase of 1.1 percent since 2015) mong the work issues that some people face in midlife are recognizing limitations in career progress, deciding whether to change jobs or careers, determining how and when to rebalance family and work, and planning for retirement Couples increasingly have both spouses in the workforce who are expecting to retire. Historically retirement has been a male transition, but today far more couples are planning two retirements— his and hers (Moen, 2009b; Moen, Kelly, & Magennis, 2008). Economic downturns and recessions in the United States have forced some middle-aged individuals into premature retirement because of job loss and fear of not being able to reenter the work force (Cahill, Giandrea, & Quinn, 2016). Such premature retirement also may result in accumulating insuffcient fnancial resources to cover an increasingly long retirement period

What kinds of changes characterize the sexuality of women and men as they go through middle age?

Menopause is the time in middle age, usually during the late forties or early ffties, when a woman's menstrual periods cease. The average age at which U.S. women have their last period is 51 (Mayo Clinic, 2020a). However, there is a large variation in the age at which menopause occurs —from 39 to 59 years of age. study of more than 300,000 women found that late menopause was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer timing of menarche, a girl's frst menstruation, has signifcantly decreased since the midnineteenth century, occurring as much as four years earlier in some countries. . Has there been an earlier or later onset in the occurrence of menopause? In the study just mentioned above, the mean age of menopause increased 2½ years in recent decades to 52.7 years (Gottschalk & others, 2020). Also in this study, the number of years between menarche and menopause increased from 36.5 to 40 years. Perimenopause is the transitional period from normal menstrual periods to no menstrual periods at all, which often takes up to 10 years.

The concept of gains (growth) and losses (decline) is an important one in life-span development ...

Middle adulthood is the age period in which gains and losses as well as biological and sociocultural factors balance each other. Although biological functioning declines in middle adulthood, sociocultural supports such as education, career, and relationships may peak in middle adulthood. For example, neurobiological decline involves slow, gradual age-related decline in middle age, yet there are usually little or no negative consequences for effective functioning at work and completing the tasks of everyday living. Indeed, middle-aged adults may sense an urgency that now is the time to accomplish and do their best work. Also, in a recent study, gain orientation decreased and maintenance orientation increased with age. Also in this study, both perceived losses and accumulation of resources and assets increased with age.

It is in middle adulthood that individuals begin to be faced with death more often, especially the deaths of parents and other older relatives. Also, when facing less time ahead of them than behind them, many individuals in middle age begin to ask and evaluate the questions that Frankl proposed Having a sense of meaning in life can lead to clearer guidelines for living one's life and enhanced motivation to take care of oneself and reach goals. Also, a recent meta-analysis concluded that a higher level of meaning in life is linked to better physical health (Czekierda & others, 2017). Roy Baumeister and Kathleen Vohs (2002, pp. 610-611) argue that this quest can be understood in terms of four main needs for meaning that guide how people try to make sense of their lives:

Need for purpose. "Present events draw meaning from their connection with future events." Purposes can be divided into (1) goals and (2) fulfllments. Life can be oriented toward a future anticipated state, such as living happily ever after or being in love. Need for values. This "can lend a sense of goodness or positive characterization of life and justify certain courses of action. Values enable people to decide whether certain acts are right or wrong." Frankl's (1984) view of meaning in life emphasized values as the main form of meaning that people need. Need for a sense of effcacy. This involves the "belief that one can make a difference. A life that had purposes and values but no effcacy would be tragic. The person might know what is desirable but could not do anything with that knowledge." With a sense of effcacy, people believe that they can control their environment, which has positive physical and mental health benefts (Bandura, 2012). Need for self-worth. Most individuals want to be "good, worthy persons. Self-worth can be pursued individually."

Patricia Cohen (2012) describes how middle age wasn't thought of as a separate developmental period until the mid-1800s and the term midlife wasn't in a dictionary until 1895. In Cohen's analysis ...

advances in health and more people living to older ages especially fueled the emergence of thinking about middle age. People today take longer to grow up and longer to age than in past centuries. Compared with previous decades and centuries, an increasing percentage of the population is made up of middle-aged and older adults. In the past, the age structure of the population could be represented by a pyramid, with the largest percentage of the population in the childhood years. Today, the percentages of people at different ages in the life span are more similar, creating what is called the "rectangularization" of the age distribution (a vertical rectangle) (Tannenbaum & Boyle, 2019). The rectangularization has been created by health advances that promote longevity, low fertility rates, and the aging of the baby-boom cohort

More about menopause.

Perimenopause usually occurs during the forties but can occur in the thirties (Raglan, Schulkin, & Micks, 2020). One study of 30- to 50-year-old women found that depressed feelings, headaches, moodiness, and heart palpitations were the perimenopausal symptoms that these women most frequently discussed with health-care providers (Lyndaker & Hulton, 2004). Lifestyle factors such as whether women are overweight, smoke, drink heavily, feel depressed, or exercise regularly during perimenopause infuence aspects of their future health such as whether they develop cardiovascular disease or chronic illnesses more minutes per week that women exercised during the menopausal transition, the lower their perceived stress was In menopause, production of estrogen by the ovaries declines dramatically, and this decline produces uncomfortable symptoms in some women—"hot fashes," nausea, fatigue, and rapid heartbeat, Many middle-aged women are seeking alternatives to HRT such as regular exercise, mindfulness training, dietary supplements, herbal remedies, relaxation therapy, acupuncture, hypnosis, and nonsteroidal medications (Lund & others, 2020; Morardpour & others, 2019). One study revealed that in sedentary women, aerobic training for six months decreased menopausal symptoms, especially night sweats, mood swings, and irritability. mindfulness training is linked to improved psychological adjustment during the menopause transition

Can religion be distinguished from spirituality? Pamela King and her colleagues (2011) provide the following distinctions:

Religion is an organized set of beliefs, practices, rituals, and symbols that increases an individual's connection to a sacred or transcendent other (God, higher power, or ultimate truth). Religiousness refers to the degree of affliation with an organized religion, participation in its prescribed rituals and practices, connection with its beliefs, and involvement in a community of believers. Spirituality involves experiencing something beyond oneself in a transcendent manner and living in a way that benefts others and society.

Schaie (2007) examined generational differences in parents and their children over a seven-year time frame from 60 to 67 years of age

That is, parents were assessed when they were 60 to 67 years of age; and when their children reached 60 to 67 years of age, they also were assessed. Higher levels of cognitive functioning occurred for the second generation in inductive reasoning, verbal memory, and spatial orientation, whereas the frst generation scored higher on numeric ability. Noteworthy was the fnding that the parent generation showed cognitive decline from 60 to 67 years of age, but their offspring showed stability or modest increases in cognitive functioning across the same age range. Such differences across generations involve cohort effects. In one analysis, Schaie (2011b) concluded that the advances in cognitive functioning in middle age that have occurred in recent decades are likely due to factors such as educational attainment, occupational structures (increasing numbers of workers in professional occupations involving complex work), health care and lifestyles, immigration, and social interventions in poverty. The impressive gains in cognitive functioning in recent cohorts have been documented more clearly for fuid intelligence than for crystallized intelligence

most visible signs of physical changes in middle adulthood involve physical appearance.

The frst outwardly noticeable signs of aging usually are apparent by the forties or ffties. The skin begins to wrinkle and sag because of a loss of fat and collagen in underlying tissues. Small, localized areas of pigmentation in the skin produce age spots, especially in areas that are exposed to sunlight, such as the hands and face. Hair becomes thinner and grayer due to a lower replacement rate and a decline in melanin production. Fingernails and toenails develop ridges and become thicker and more brittle. Individuals lose height in middle age, and many gain weight

The Seattle Longitudinal Study that involves extensive evaluation of intellectual abilities during adulthood was initiated by K. Warner Schaie (1994, 1996, 2005, 2010, 2011a, b, 2013). Participants have been assessed at seven-year intervals between 1956 and 2012.

The main focus in the Seattle Longitudinal Study has been on individual change and stability in intelligence, and the study is regarded as one of the most thorough examinations of how people develop and change as they go through adulthood main cognitive abilities tested in this study are: Verbal comprehension (ability to understand ideas expressed in words) Verbal memory (ability to encode and recall meaningful language units, such as a list of words) Numeric facility (ability to perform simple mathematical computations such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication) Spatial orientation (ability to visualize and mentally rotate stimuli in two- and three-dimensional space) Inductive reasoning (ability to recognize and understand patterns and relationships in a problem and to use this understanding to solve other instances of the problem) Perceptual speed (ability to quickly and accurately make simple discriminations in visual stimuli) highest level of functioning for four of the six intellectual abilities occurred in middle adulthood

During middle adulthood, most men do not lose their capacity to father children, although there usually is a modest decline in their sexual hormone level and activity

They experience hormonal changes in their ffties and sixties, but nothing like the dramatic drop in estrogen that women experience. Testosterone production begins to decline about 1 percent a year during middle adulthood, and sperm count usually declines slowly, but men do not lose their fertility in middle age male hypogonadism is used to describe a condition in which the body does not produce enough testosterone Erectile dysfunction (ED) (diffculty attaining or maintaining penile erection) affects approximately 50 percent of men 40 to 70 years of age and 75 percent of men over 70 years of age (Mola, 2015). Low testosterone levels can contribute to erectile dysfunction (Huang & others, 2019). Smoking, diabetes, hypertension, elevated cholesterol levels, obesity, depression, and lack of exercise also are associated with erectile problems in middle-aged men

main treatment for men with erectile dysfunction has not focused on TRT but on Viagra and similar drugs such as Levitra and Cialis

Viagra works by allowing increased blood fow into the penis, which produces an erection. Its success rate is in the 60 to 85 percent range (Claes & others, 2010). Low-intensity shockwave therapy, which also has been used in wound healing and musculoskeletal disorders, has recently been used for treating ED low-intensity shockwave therapy shows benefts in reducing ED after 6 months of treatment and ongoing but lesser benefts at 1 year, with results weaker overall for older adults (Brunckhorst & others, 2019). In addition, a recent study found that a combined treatment of low-intensity shockwave therapy and Cialis was superior to Cialis alone in reducing ED

Might the individual variations in cognitive trajectories in midlife be linked to cognitive impairment in late adulthood?

Willis and Schaie's analysis, cognitively normal and impaired older adults did not differ on measures of vocabulary, spatial orientation, and numeric ability in middle adulthood. However, declines in memory (immediate recall and delayed recall), word fuency, and perceptual speed in middle adulthood were linked to neuropsychologists' ratings of the individuals' cognitive impairment in late adulthood.

Maximum physical strength often is attained during the twenties. The term sarcopenia is given to ...

age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. Muscle loss with age occurs at a rate of approximately 1 to 2 percent per year after age 50 (Marcell, 2003). A loss of strength especially occurs in the back and legs. Researchers are seeking to identify genes and proteins that are linked to the development of sarcopenia a recent study found that smoking and diabetes were risk factors for accelerated loss of muscle mass in middle-aged women Obesity also is a signifcant risk factor for sarcopenia (Rubio-Ruiz & others, 2019). Recently, researchers have increasingly used the term "sarcopenic obesity" to describe individuals who have sarcopenia and are obese (El Bizri & Batsis, 2020). One study found that sarcopenic obesity was linked to hypertension (Park & others, 2013). In one study sarcopenic obesity was associated with a 24 percent increase in risk for all-cause mortality, with a higher risk for men than for women. And a research review concluded that weight management and resistance training were the best strategies to slow down the decline of muscle mass and muscle strength

amount of time spent lying awake in bed at night begins to increase in middle age

and this can produce a feeling of being less rested in the morning. Sleep-disordered breathing and restless legs syndrome become more prevalent in middle age.

Chronic disorders are characterized by a slow onset and a long duration. Chronic disorders are rare in early adulthood, increase in middle adulthood, and become common in late adulthood.

arthritis is the leading chronic disorder in middle age, followed by hypertension, but the frequency of chronic disorders in middle age varies by gender. Men have a higher incidence of fatal chronic conditions (such as coronary heart disease, cancer, and stroke); women have a higher incidence of nonfatal ones (such as arthritis, varicose veins, and bursitis). Infectious disease was the main cause of death until the middle of the twentieth century. As infectious disease rates declined and more individuals lived through middle age, rates of chronic disorders increased. Chronic diseases are now the main causes of death for individuals in middle adulthood.

Questions such as, "To which age group do you belong?" and "How old do you feel?" reflect the ...

concept of age identity. A consistent finding is that as adults become older their age identity is younger than their chronological age study found that adults 44 to 64 years of age reported feeling younger than they actually were and wanting to be younger than their chronological age (Shinan-Altman & Werner, 2019). For the participants in this study, the perceived beginning of old age was 69 years. Another study discovered a similar pattern

When Schaie (1994) assessed intellectual abilities both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, he found ...

declines to be more likely in the cross-sectional than in the longitudinal assessments. For example, as shown in Figure 5, when assessed cross-sectionally, inductive reasoning showed a consistent decline during middle adulthood. In contrast, when assessed longitudinally, inductive reasoning increased until the end of middle adulthood when it began to show a slight decline.

Climacteric is a term that is used to ...

describe the midlife transition in which fertility declines

In middle adulthood, the frequency of accidents declines and individuals are less susceptible to colds and allergies than in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood. Indeed, many individuals live through middle adulthood without having a disease or persistent health problem. However ..

disease and persistent health problems become more common in middle adulthood for some individual

the type of leisure activity may be linked to different outcomes

engaging in higher complexity of work before retirement was associated with a smaller decline in cognitive performance in retirement (Andel, Finkel, & Pedersen, 2016). However, when those who had worked in occupations with fewer cognitive challenges prior to retirement engaged in physical (sports, walking) and cognitive (reading books, doing puzzles, and playing chess) leisure activities during retirement, they showed less cognitive decline. Also, a Danish longitudinal study of 20- to 93-year-olds found that those who engaged in a light level of leisure-time physical activity lived 2.8 years longer, those who engaged in a moderate level of leisure-time physical activity lived 4.5 years longer, and those who engaged in high level of leisure-time physical activity lived 5.5 years longer

a recent study revealed that poor sleep quality in middle adulthood was linked to a lower level of ...

executive function, slower processing speed, increased learning diffculties, and poorer memory recall (Kaur & others, 2019). Sleep problems in midlife are more common among individuals who use a higher number of prescription and nonprescription drugs, are obese, have cardiovascular disease, or are depresse

Remember that a cross-sectional study assesses individuals of different ages at the same point in time. For example, a cross-sectional study might assess the intelligence of different groups of 40-, 50-, and 60-year-olds in a single evaluation, such as in 1980. The 40-year-olds in the study would have been born in 1940 and the 60-year-olds in 1920—different eras that offered different economic and educational opportunities. The 60-year-olds likely had fewer educational opportunities as they grew up. Thus, if we fnd differences between 40- and 60-year-olds on intelligence tests when they are assessed cross-sectionally, these differences might be due to cohort effects related to educational differences rather than to age.

in a longitudinal study, the same individuals are studied over a period of time. Thus, a longitudinal study of intelligence in middle adulthood might consist of giving the same intelligence test to the same individuals when they are 40, 50, and 60 years of age.

Career Challenges and Changes Middle-aged workers face

include the globalization of work, rapid developments in information technologies, downsizing of organizations, early retirement, and concerns about pensions and health care. Globalization has replaced what was once a primarily White male workforce with employees of different ethnic and national backgrounds (Cahill, Giandrea, & Quinn, 2016; Short, 2015a). To improve profts, many companies are restructuring, downsizing, and outsourcing jobs. One of the outcomes of these changes is to offer incentives to middle-aged employees to retire early—in their ffties, or in some cases even forties, rather than their sixties. decline in defned-beneft pensions and increased uncertainty about the fate of health insurance are decreasing the sense of personal control among middle-aged workers. As a consequence, many are delaying retirement.

In Schaie's view ...

it is in middle adulthood, not early adulthood, that people reach a peak in many intellectual skills. Some researchers have found that cross-sectional studies indicate that more than 90 percent of cognitive decline in aging is due to a slowing of processing speed, whereas longitudinal studies reveal that 20 percent or less of cognitive decline is due to slowing of processing speed

Cardiovascular disease increases considerably in middle age

level of cholesterol in the blood increases during the adult years and in midlife begins to accumulate on the artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. The type of cholesterol in the blood, however, infuences its effect. Cholesterol comes in two forms: LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and HDL (high-density lipoprotein). LDL is often referred to as "bad" cholesterol because when the level of LDL is too high, it sticks to the lining of blood vessels, which can lead to arteriosclerosis. HDL is often referred to as "good" cholesterol because when it is high and LDL is low, the risk of cardiovascular disease is lower. High blood pressure (hypertension), too, often begins to appear for many individuals in their forties and ffties (

Individuals lose height in middle age, and many gain weight

on average, men from 30 to 50 years of age lose about one inch in height, then may lose another inch from 50 to 70 years of age (Hoyer & Roodin, 2009). The height loss for women can be as much as 2 inches from 25 to 75 years of age. Note that there are large variations in the extent to which individuals become shorter with aging. The decrease in height is due to bone loss in the vertebrae. On average, body fat accounts for about 10 percent of body weight in adolescence; it makes up 20 percent or more in middle age

Timothy Salthouse (2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) recently has argued that crosssectional research on aging and cognitive functioning should not be dismissed and that this research indicates

reasoning, memory, spatial visualization, and processing speed begin declining in early adulthood and show further decline in the ffties. Salthouse (2009, 2012) agrees that cognitive functioning involving accumulated knowledge, such as vocabulary and general information, does not show early age-related decline but rather continues to increase at least until 60 years of age. Salthouse (2014, 2016) recently has argued that a main reason for different trends in longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons of cognitive functioning is that prior experience with tests increases scores the next time a test is taken. Salthouse (2009, 2012, 2018, 2019) has emphasized that a lower level of cognitive functioning in early and middle adulthood is likely due to age-related neurobiological decline. Cross-sectional studies have shown that the following neurobiological factors decline during the twenties and thirties, then continue to decline in middle adulthood: regional brain volume, cortical thickness, synaptic density, some aspects of myelination, the functioning of some aspects of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, blood fow in the cerebral cortex, and the accumulation of tangles in neurons

females had more severe sleep problems than males did (Rossler & others, 2017). However, in this study the good news is that a majority of individuals (72 percent) reported no sleep disturbances (Rossler & others, 2017). And a recent research review of sleep in normal aging concluded that

shortened nighttime sleep duration, increased nocturnal awakenings, and increased frequency of daytime naps are common changes in sleep patterns associated with aging (Li, Vitiello, & Gooneratne, 2018). Also in this review, it was concluded that sleep patterns change mainly between early and middle adulthood and then remain stable in healthy older adults. Some aspects of sleep become more problematic in middle age (Baker & others, 2018). Beginning in the forties, wakeful periods are more frequent and there is less of the deepest type of sleep.

Denise Park (2001) argues that ...

starting in late middle age, more time is needed to learn new information. The slowdown in learning new information has been linked to changes in working memory, the mental "workbench" where individuals manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language (Baddeley, 2020). In this view, in late middle age working memory capacity becomes more limited, long-term memory becomes less reliable, more time is needed to enter new information into long term storage, and more time is required to retrieve the information. Thus, Park concludes that much of the blame for declining memory in late middle age is a result of information overload that builds up as we go through the adult years.

in thinking about religion, spirituality, and adult development, it is important to consider the role of individual differences

the infuence of religion and spirituality in people's lives may change as they develop (Sapp, 2010). In John Clausen's (1993) longitudinal investigation, some individuals who had been strongly religious in their early adult years became less so in middle age, while others became more religious in middle age. In the MacArthur Foundation Study of Midlife Development, more than 70 percent of U.S. middleaged adults described themselves as religious and said that spirituality was a major part of their lives (Brim, 1999). In a longitudinal study of individuals from their early thirties through their early seventies, a signifcant increase in spirituality occurred between late middle adulthood (midffties/early sixties) and late adulthood. Women have consistently shown a stronger interest in religion and spirituality than men have. In the longitudinal study just described, the spirituality of women increased more than that of men in the second half of life