Transcript Emotional and Social Development in Middle Adulthood


Midlife Development in the United States
(MIDUS)
› Major survey conducted in the mid-1990s
› Has contributed enormously to the
understanding of midlife emotional and
social development
› Has greatly expanded knowledge of the
multidimensional and multidirectional nature
of midlife change
› Findings of this study will be referred to at
certain times in this chapter
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Erikson’s psychological conflict of midlife is generativity vs. stagnation –
generativity involves reaching out to others in ways that give to and
guide the next generation
Generativity begins early in adulthood and expands greatly in midlife
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Generative adults combine the need for self-expression with the need to
integrate personal goals with the welfare of the larger social world
Parenting is a major means of realizing generativity
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When commitment extends beyond oneself (identity) and one’s life partner
(intimacy) to a larger group (family, community, or society)
But adults can also be generative in other ways, such as through creativity
Erikson states that the term generativity encompasses everything generated that
can outlive the self and ensure society’s continuity and improvement: children,
ideas, products, works of art, etc.
Generativity brings together personal desires and cultural demands
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Middle aged adults feel a need to make a contribution that will survive their death
Society imposes a social clock for generativity in midlife, requiring adults to take
responsibility for the next generation as parents, teachers, and mentors
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The negative outcome of midlife is stagnation
› Which occurs when people attain certain life goals
such as marriage, children, and career success, they
may become self-centered and self-indulgent
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Adults with a sense of stagnation express their
self-absorption in many ways
› Lack of interest in young people (including their own
children), focus on what they can get from others
rather than what they can give, and taking little
interest in being productive at work, developing their
talents, or bettering the world in other ways
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Researchers have studied generativity in a variety of ways
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Whichever method is used, the results show that generativity tends to
increase in midlife and is a major unifying theme in middle-aged adults’
life stories
Characteristics of highly generative people:
They appear especially well-adjusted: low in anxiety and depression, high
in autonomy, self-acceptance, and life satisfaction, more likely to have
successful marriages and close friends
› They are more open to differing viewpoints; possess leadership qualities;
desire more from work than financial rewards; and care greatly about
the welfare of their children, their partner, their aging parents, and the
wider society
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Generativity is associated with more effective child rearing
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Higher valuing of trust, open communication, transmission of values to
children, and authoritative parenting style
Generativity is also associated with greater involvement in
political activities
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Voting, campaigning, and contacting public officials
Individual differences do exist in different contexts for
generativity
 Having children seems to foster men’s generative development
more than women’s
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Perhaps parenting evokes men’s tender, caring attitudes toward the next
generation that women have had opportunities to develop in other ways
For low-SES men with troubled pasts as sons, students, workers,
and intimate partners, fatherhood can provide a context for
highly generative, positive life change
 Compared with Caucasians, African Americans more often
engage in certain types of generativity
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More involved in religious groups and activities, offer more social support
to members of their community, and are more likely to view themselves
are role models and sources of wisdom for their children
In samples of Caucasian Americans, religiosity and spirituality are
also linked to greater generative activity
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Middle adulthood begins with a transitional period (age
40-45) during which people evaluate their success in
meeting early adulthood goals
› Realizing that from now on, more time will lie behind than ahead,
they regard the remaining years as increasingly precious
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Some people make drastic revisions in their life structure
such as divorcing or changing careers
› Most turn inward for a time, focusing on personally meaningful
living
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According to Levinson, middle-aged adults must confront
4 developmental tasks, each requiring them to reconcile 2
opposing tendencies and attain greater internal harmony
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Young – old
Destruction – creation
Masculinity – femininity
Engagement - separateness
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Young – old: they must seek new ways of being both young and old
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Destruction – creation: they must counter destructive acts from the past
with an urge to advance human welfare and leave a legacy for future
generations
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With greater awareness of mortality, they focus on ways they have acted
destructively and how others have done the same, they then turn to activities that
will foster human welfare
Masculinity – femininity – the must reconcile the masculine and feminine
parts of the self
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This means giving up certain youthful qualities, retaining and transforming others,
and finding positive meaning in being older
Compared with previous midlife cohorts, baby boomers are especially interested in
controlling physical changes of aging
For men, this means greater acceptance of “feminine” traits of nurturance and
caring
For women, it means being more open to “masculine” characteristics of autonomy
and assertiveness
Engagement – separateness: they must create a balance between
engagement with the external world and separateness from it
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This may mean reducing concern with ambition and achievement and attending
more fully to the self
But women who have been devoted to child rearing or an unfulfilling job often feel
compelled to move in the other direction
Adjusting one’s life structure to incorporate
the effects of aging requires supportive
social contexts
 Employment conditions that overemphasize
productivity and profit over the meaning of
work may restrict possibilities for growth
 Opportunities for advancement that ease
the transition to middle adulthood are far
less available to women than to men, and
individuals in blue-collar jobs have few
possibilities for promotion
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Vaillant’s longitudinal research on well-educated
men and women followed participants past age 50
› Into the time when adults typically take on peak
responsibility for the functioning of society
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The most successful and best adjusted entered a
calmer, quieter time of life
› Characterized by preoccupation with the survival of the
positive aspects of their culture
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In societies around the world, older people are
guardians of traditions, laws, and cultural values
› They serve as a stabilizing force that holds overly rapid
change in check
Levinson reported that most people in his samples experienced
substantial inner turmoil during the transition to middle adulthood
 But Vaillant found slow and steady change, with few examples
of “crisis”
 Midlife crisis – self-doubt and stress especially great during the
40s that possibly prompt major restructuring of personality
 Participants in the MIDUS study were asked to describe “turning
points” that had occurred during the past 5 years
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Most of the ones reported concerned work
Women’s work-related turning points peaked in early adulthood, when
many adjusted their work lives to accommodate marriage and
childrearing
› The peak for men came at midlife, a time of increased career
responsibility and advancement
› Other common turning points in early and middle adulthood were
positive: they involved fulfilling a dream and learning something good
about oneself
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When participants in the MIDUS study were asked directly if they
had ever experienced something they would consider a midlife
crisis
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Only ¼ of respondents said yes
They defined such events much more loosely than researchers do
Some reported a crisis well before age 40, others well after age 50
Most attributed it not to age but rather to challenging life events
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Attractive opportunities for career or other life-changing activities they
did not pursue or lifestyle changes they did not make
Another way of exploring midlife questioning is to ask adults
about life regrets
In 2 investigations of women in their early 40s
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Those who acknowledged regret without making life changes reported
less favorable psychological well-being and poorer physical health over
time, compared to those who modified their lives
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By late midlife, with less time ahead to make life changes,
people’s interpretation of regrets plays a major role in their wellbeing
Mature, content adults acknowledge a past characterized by some
losses, have thought deeply about them, and feel stronger because of
them
› They are able to disengage from them, investing in current, personally
rewarding goals
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Among a sample of several hundred 60-65 year olds diverse in
SES, about ½ expressed at least one regret
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Those who had come to terms with them (accepted and identified some
eventual benefits) or had “put the best face on things” (identified
benefits but still had some lingering regret) reported better physical
health and greater life satisfaction, than those who had not resolved their
disappointments
The few midlifers who are in crisis typically have had early
adulthoods
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Gender roles, family pressures, or low income and poverty severely
limited their ability to fulfill personal needs and goals, at home or in the
wider world
Erikson, Levinson, and Vaillant all viewed the transition to middle
adulthood as a “stage”
 But, some researchers believe the midadult transition is not
stagelike
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Rather, they regard it as simply an adaptation to normative life events,
such as children growing up, reaching the crest of a career, and
impending retirement
Because midlife events are less age-graded than in the past
stages of life and are also variable in timing, they cannot be the
sole cause of midlife change
 In several studies, people were asked to trace their thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, and hopes during early and middle
adulthood
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Psychosocial change, in terms of personal disruption followed by
reassessment, coincided with both family life cycle events and
chronological age
› For this reason, most experts regard adaptation during midlife as the
combined result of growing older and social experiences
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Midlife changes in self-concept and
personality reflect growing awareness
that the lifespan is limited, longer life
experience, and generative concerns
 Yet certain aspects of personality remain
stable, revealing the persistence of
individual differences established during
earlier periods
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Possible selves – future-oriented representations of what one
hopes to become and what one fears becoming
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Possible selves are the temporal dimension of self-concept – what the
individual is striving for and attempting to avoid
To lifespan researchers, these hopes and fears are just as vital in
explaining behavior as people’s views of their current
characteristics
Possible selves may be an important motivator of action in midlife, as
more meaning becomes attached to time
› As we age, we may rely less on social comparisons in judging our selfworth and more on temporal comparisons – how well we are doing in
relation ho what we had planned
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With age, possible selves become fewer in number and more
modest and concrete
Most middle-aged people no longer desire to be the best r the most
successful
› Instead, they are largely concerned with performance of roles and
responsibilities already begun – “being competent at work,” “being a
good husband and father,” putting my children through college,” etc.
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Possible selves can be defined and refined by
the individual as needed
› In contrast, current self-concept is constantly
responsive to others’ feedback
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Consequently, possible selves permit
affirmation of the self, even when things are
not going well
Researchers believe that possible selves may
be the key to continued well-being in
adulthood
› As people revise these future images to achieve a
better match between desired and achieved goals
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Middle aged adults tend to offer more complex,
integrated descriptions of themselves than do
younger and older individuals
In research on well-educated adults ranging in age
from the late teens to the 70s, 3 qualities increased
from early to middle adulthood and then leveled off
› Self-acceptance: more than young adults, middle-aged
people acknowledged and accepted both their good
and bad qualities and felt positively about themselves and
life
› Autonomy: middle-aged adults saw themselves as less
concerned about others’ expectations and evaluations
and more concerned with following self-chosen standards
› Environmental mastery: middle-aged people saw
themselves as capable of managing a complex array of
tasks easily and effectively
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According to self-reports from 25-65 year old MIDUS survey
respondents, factors contributing to psychological wellbeing differ substantially among cohorts
› Among women who were born during the baby-boom years or
later, and who thus benefited from the women’s movement,
balancing career with family predicted greater self-acceptance
and environmental mastery
› Women born before or during WWII who sacrificed career to
focus on child rearing – expected of young mothers in the 1950s1960s – were similarly advantaged in self-acceptance
› Baby-boom and younger men who modified their work
schedules to make room for family responsibilities – who fit their
cohort’s image of the “good father” – were more self-accepting
› Older men who made this accommodation scored much lower
in self-acceptance than those who focused on work and thus
conformed to the “good provider” ideal of their times
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Notions of happiness in midlife vary among cultures
In a comparison of Korean adults in their 50s with
same-age U.S. MIDUS participants
› Koreans reported lower levels of psychological well-being
› Largely because they were less willing than the Americans
to endorse individualistic traits, such as self-acceptance
and autonomy, as characteristic of themselves
› Consistent with their collectivist orientation, Koreans’
highest well-being scores were on positive relations with
others
› They viewed personal fulfillment as achieved through
family, especially the success of children
› Americans also regarded family relations as relevant to
well-being but placed greater emphasis on their own traits
and accomplishments than on their children’s
Researchers have found an early- to midadulthood plateau in frequency of daily
stressors
› Followed by a decline as work and family
responsibilities ease and leisure time increases
% of Days
Experiencing Daily
Stressors
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50
40
30
20
Women
10
Men
0
25-39
40-59
60-74
Age Group
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In a MIDUS study involving more than 1,000 participants
› Women report more frequent role overload (conflict among
employment, spouse, parent, and elder-care roles) and familynetwork and child-related stressors
› Men report more work-related stressors
› Compared with older people, young and midlife adults also
perceived their stressors are more disruptive and unpleasant
 Perhaps because they often experienced several at once, and
many involved financial risks and children
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Midlife brings an increase in effective coping strategies
› Middle-aged individuals are more likely to identify the positive
side of difficult situations, postpone action to permit evaluation
of alternatives, anticipate and plan ways to handle future
discomforts, and use humor to express ideas and feelings without
offending others
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Many studies report an increase in “masculine”
traits in women and “feminine” traits in men
across middle age, in diverse cultures and
varying SES
A biological explanation for greater androgyny
in midlife is the parental imperative theory
› It holds that identification with traditional gender
roles is maintained during the active parenting years
to help ensure the survival of children
› Men become more goal-oriented, while women
emphasize nurturance
› After children reach adulthood, parents are free to
express the “other-gender” side of their personalities
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But these biological accounts have been criticized
› Parents need both warmth and assertiveness (in the form of
firmness and consistency) to rear children effectively
› Although children’s departure from the home is related to men’s
openness to the “feminine” side of their personalities, the link to a
rise in “masculine” traits among women is less apparent
› In longitudinal research, college-educated women in the labor
force became more independent by their early 40s, regardless
of whether they had children; those who were homemakers did
not
› In one study, middle-aged women of the baby-boom
generation – who experienced new career opportunities as a
result of the women’s right movement – more often described
themselves as having masculine and androgynous traits than did
older women
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People who do not integrate the masculine and feminine
sides of their personalities tend to have mental health
problems
› Perhaps because they are unable to adapt flexibly to the
challenges of aging
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Stable individual differences in personality traits do exist
The hundreds of personality traits on which people differ have
been organized into 5 basic factors
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The “big five” personality traits: neuroticism, extroversion, openness to
experience, and conscientiousness
Trait
High
Low
Neuroticism
Worrying, temperamental, selfpitying, self-conscious, emotional,
and vulnerable
Calm, even-tempered, self-content,
comfortable, unemotional, and hardy
Extroversion
Affectionate, talkative, active, funloving, and passionate
Reserved, quiet, passive, sober, and
emotionally unreactive
Openness to
experience
Imaginative, creative, original,
curious, and liberal
Down-to-earth, uncreative,
conventional, uncurious, and
conservative
Agreeableness
Soft-hearted, trusting, generous,
acquiescent, lenient, and goodnatured
Ruthless, suspicious, stingy,
antagonistic, critical, and irritable
Conscientiousness
Conscientious, hard-working, wellorganized, punctual, ambitious, and
persevering
Negligent, lazy, disorganized, late,
aimless, and nonpersistent
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In longitudinal and cross-sectional studies:
› Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase from the teens
through middle age
› Neuroticism declines
› Extroversion and openness to experience are stable or may
decrease slightly
› These changes reflect “settling down” and greater maturity
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Similar trends have been identified in many other countries
varying widely in cultural traditions including Canada,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and South Korea
› The consistency of these cross-cultural findings had led some
researchers to conclude that adult personality change is
genetically influenced
› They note that individual differences in the “big five” traits are
large and highly stable:
 A person who scores high or low at one age is likely to do the
same at another, over intervals ranging from 3-30 years
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How can there be high stability in personality traits, yet
significant changes in aspects of personality?
› Theorists concerned with change in personality traits due to
experience focus on how personal needs and life events induce
new strategies and goals
› In contrast, those who emphasize stability due to heredity
measure personality traits on which individuals can easily be
compared and that are present at any time of life
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To resolve this apparent contradiction, we can think of
adults as changing in overall organization and integration
of personality
› But doing so on a foundation of basic, enduring dispositions that
support a coherent sense of self as people adapt to changing
life circumstances
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Improved self-understanding, self-acceptance, and skill at
handling challenging situations may result in less need to
modify basic personality dispositions over time
The emotional and social changes of midlife take place within a
complex web of family relationships and friendships
 The vast majority (90%) of middle-aged people live in families,
most with a spouse, and tend to have a larger number of close
relationships during midlife than at any other period
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Partly because they have ties to older and younger generations in their
families ad partly because their friendships are well-established
Middle adulthood is the phase of “launching children and
moving on”
 A declining birthrate and longer life expectancy mean that
many contemporary parents launch children a decade or more
before retirement, then seek other rewarding activities
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Because this period has lengthened, it is marked by the greatest number
of exits and entries of family members
› As adult children leave home and marry, middle-aged people must
adapt to new roles of parent-in-law and grandparent
› At the same time, the must establish a different type of relationship with
their aging parents, who may become ill or pass away
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Marital satisfaction is a strong predictor of psychological
well-being in midlife
Although most divorces, occur within 5-10 years of
marriage, about 10% take place after 20 years or more
Midlifers seem to adapt more easily to divorce than
younger people
Highly educated middle-aged adults are more likely to
divorce, probably because their more comfortable
economic circumstances make it easier to do so
For many women, marital breakup severely reduced
standard of living and is a strong contributor to
feminization of poverty
› A trend in which women who support themselves or their families
have become the majority of the adult population living in
poverty, regardless of age and ethnic group
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Reasons for divorce in middle age
Women frequently mention communication problems, inequality in the
relationship, adultery, gradual distancing, substance abuse, physical and
verbal abuse, or their own desire for autonomy
› Men mention poor communication and sometimes admit that their
“workaholic” lifestyle or emotional inattentiveness played a major role in
their marital failure
› Women are more likely than men to initiate divorce, and those who do
fare somewhat better in psychological well-being
› Men who initiate a split often already have another romantic
involvement to turn to
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Adjustment to divorce
Middle-aged women who weather divorce successfully tend to become
more tolerant, comfortable with uncertainty, nonconforming, and selfreliant in personality
› Both men and women reevaluate with they consider important in a
healthy relationship, placing greater weight on equal friendship and less
on passionate love
› Little is known about long-term adjustment following divorce among
middle-aged men, perhaps because most enter new relationships and
remarry within a short time
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Most middle-aged parents adjust well to the launching phase of
the family life cycle, while only a minority have difficulty
Parents who have developed gratifying alternative activities typically
welcome their children’s adult status
› Adolescent and young adult children who are not showing expected
signs of independence and accomplishment can prompt parental strain
› Providing support to young adult children while they get their lives under
way is related to midlife psychological well-being
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Relationships with married children
When children marry, parents must enlarge the family network to include
in-laws
› Difficulties occur when parents do not approve of their child’s partner or
when the young couple adopts a way of life inconsistent with the
parents’ values
› But, when warm relationships endure, intimacy between parents and
children increases over the adult years
› Members of the middle generation, especially mothers, usually take on
the role of kinkeeper – gathering the family for celebrations and making
sure everyone stays in touch
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In America today, the average age of becoming a
grandparent is 50 or a woman and 52 for a man
Longer life expectancy means that adults spend as
much as 1/3 or more of their lifespan in the
grandparent role
Meanings of Grandparenthood: Most people
experience grandparenthood as a major milestone
and mention one or more of these roles:
› Valued elder: being perceived as a wise helpful person
› Immortality through descendants: leaving behind not just
one but two generations after death
› Reinvolvement with personal past: being able to pass
family history and values to a new generation
› Indulgence: having fun with children without major childrearing responsibilities
Living nearby is the strongest predictor of frequent, face-to-face
interaction with young grandchildren
 Typically, relationships are closer between grandparents and
grandchildren of the same sex, especially between maternal
grandmothers and granddaughters
 Relationships depend in part on SES and ethnicity
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In low-income families grandparents often perform essential activities (ex.
Many single parents live with their families of origin and depend on
grandparents’ financial and caregiving assistance)
› Grandchildren in single-parent and stepparent families report engaging
in more diverse, higher-quality activities with their grandparents
› As children experience the stress of family transition, bonds with
grandparents take on increasing importance
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In some cultures, grandparents are absorbed into an extendedfamily household and become actively involved in child rearing
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Increasingly, grandparents have stepped in as primary caregivers in the
face of serious family problems
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Grandparents who take full responsibility for young children experience
considerable emotional and financial strain
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They need much more assistance from community and government than is
currently available
Because parents usually serve as gatekeepers of grandparents’ contact
with grandchildren, relationships between grandparents and their
children’s spouses strongly affect the closeness of grandparentgrandchild ties
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Nearly 2.4 million U.S. children – 4-5% of the child population – live with grandparents
but apart from parents, this is called skipped-generation families
A positive bone with a daughter-in-law seem particularly important in the
relationship between grandparents and their son’s children
After a marital breakup, grandparents related to the custodial parent (typically the
mother) have more frequent contact with grandchildren
A growing concern among grandparents – especially those on the
noncustodial side – is maintaining relationships with grandchildren after
parental divorce
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The percentage of middle-aged
Americans with living parents has risen
dramatically
› From 10% in 1900 to 50% at the beginning of
the 21st century
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A longer life expectancy means that
adult children and their parents are
increasingly likely to grow old together
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Fewer aging adults live with younger generations now than in the past
because of a desire to be independent
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Made possible by gains in health and financial security
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Many adult children become more appreciative of their parents’ strengths and
generosity and mention positive changes in the quality of the relationship, even
after parents show physical declines
About 2/3 of older adults in the U.S. live close to at least one of their
children, which high frequency of contact through both visits and
telephone calls
In middle age, adults tend to reassess relationships with their parents
This is especially the case in mother-daughter relationships, which tend
to be closer than other parent-child ties
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Tensions of the adolescent years ease, many young-adult daughters and mothers
build rewarding, intimate bonds
Daughters benefit greatly from maternal support, and many describe the
relationship in “glowing” terms
In collectivist cultures (ex. China and Korea), older adults most often live
with their married children, but this pattern is changing
Over the years, parent-to-child assistance declines, while child-to-parent
aid increases
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About 16% of the U.S. adult population provides
unpaid care to an aging adult, and 25%-35% of those
in the workforce report doing so
Sandwich generation – refers to the idea that middleaged adults must care for multiple generations
above and below them at the same time
› A minority of middle-aged adults who care for elderly
parents have children younger than age 18 at home, but
many are providing assistance to young-adult children
and to grandchildren
› African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic adults
give aging parents more financial help and direct care
than Caucasian-American adults do
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In all ethnic groups, responsibility for providing care to aging
parents falls more on daughters than on sons
Families turn to the person who seems most available – living nearby and
with fewer commitments regarded as interfering with the ability to assist
› In addition, parents prefer same-sex caregivers (aging mothers live
longer), and daughters also feel more obligated than sons to care for
aging parents
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Although couples tend to provide more direct care for the wife’s
parents, this bias is weaker in ethnic minority families and is
nonexistent in Asian nations, where daughters-in-law are
expected to care fore their husband’s parents
 About 50% of North American women caregivers are employed
and another 30% quit their jobs to provide care
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Average time devoted to caregiving is 10-20 hours per week
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In one investigation, employed men spent and average of 7 ½ hours per
week caring for parents or parents-in-law
But, although they do less than women, men do contribute
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The care sons and daughters provide tends to be divided
along gender-role lines
› Sons tend to do things like running errands and making
household repairs
› Daughters tend to provide more hands-on care like cooking,
feeding, and bathing
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In later middle age, the sex difference in parental care
giving declines
› Perhaps as men reduce their vocational commitments and feel
less need to conform to a “masculine” gender role, they grow
more able and willing to provide basic care
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Parental caregiving can lead to role overload, high job
absenteeism, exhaustion, inability to concentrate, feelings
of hostility, anxiety about aging, and high rates of
depression
› Depression rates in middle-aged adults who care for their
parents range from 30%-50%
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Social support is highly effective in reducing
caregiver stress
› Despite having more time to care for an ill parent, women
who quit work generally fare poorly, probably because of
social isolation and financial strain
› Positive experiences at work can actually reduce the stress
of parental care
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Unlike Denmark, Sweden, and Japan, where a
government-sponsored home helper system eases
the burden of parental care, in the U.S., in-home care
by a nonfamily caregiver is too costly for most families
› Only 10%-20% of U.S. middle aged adults arrange outside
care for their parents
› And, unless they must, few people want to place their
parents in formal care, such as nursing homes, what are
expensive also
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Sibling contact and support decline from early to
middle adulthood
› Rebounding only after age 70 for siblings living near one
another
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Despite reduced contact, many siblings feel closer in
midlife often in response to major life events
› Launching and marriage of children seem to prompt
siblings to think more about one another
› When a parent becomes seriously ill, siblings who
previously had little to do with one another may
communicate about parental care
› When parents die, adult children realize they have
become the oldest generation and must now look to one
another to sustain family ties

Sister-sister relationships are closer than sister-brother and
brother-brother ties, in many industrialized nations
› But a comparison of middle-aged men of the baby-boom
generation with those of the preceding cohort showed warmer
more expressive ties between baby-boom brothers
› A contributing factor may be baby boomers’ more flexible
gender-role attitudes

In industrialized nations, sibling relationships are voluntary,
but in village societies they are generally involuntary and
basic to family functioning
› In village societies, cultural norms reduce sibling conflict, thereby
ensuring family cooperation

In industrialized nations, promoting positive sibling
interaction in childhood is vital for warm, supportive sibling
bonds in later years

At all ages, friendships between men are less intimate
than those between women
› Men tend to talk about sports, politics, and business
› Women focus on feelings and life problems


Women report a greater number of close friends and
say they both receive and provide their friends with
more emotional support
Nevertheless, for both sexes, number of friends
declines with age
› Probably because people become less willing to invest in
non-family ties unless they are very rewarding

Selectivity of friendships also increases with age
› And with fewer close friendships, middle-aged adults try
harder to get along with friends

By midlife, family relationships and friendships
support different aspects of psychological wellbeing
› Family ties protect against serious threats and losses,
offering security within a long-term timeframe
› Friendships serve as current sources of pleasure and
satisfaction, with women benefiting somewhat more
than men

As middle-aged couples renew their sense of
companionship, they may combine the best of
family and friendship in their relationship with
each other
› Research indicates that viewing a spouse as a best
friend contributes greatly to marital happiness