Psychosocial development from college through midlife: A 34-year sequential study.

Abstract

Two cohorts of alumni, leading-edge and trailing-edge baby boomers, first tested in their college years, were followed to ages 43 (N = 136) and 54 (N = 182) on a measure of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to model the trajectory of growth for each psychosocial issue across middle adulthood. As predicted, the early psychosocial issues (trust, autonomy, and initiative) showed patterns of slow and steady increases in favorable resolution, as did the midlife issue of generativity. Industry, found in earlier investigations on the samples to change to differing degrees by cohort, continued to show cohort differences through midlife. The quadratic terms indicated that growth was curvilinear for both cohorts on identity and intimacy, and ego integrity showed variations by cohort, with the older cohort showing steeper patterns of increases. Gender differences were observed on intimacy, with women receiving higher initial scores, but the curves showed deceleration through midlife. Tests of variations in growth curves by the life history variables of educational attainment, occupational prestige, commitment to a long-term relationship, and parenthood status showed variations by cohort, but a general pattern of catching up emerged in which those who entered early adulthood at a relative disadvantage in terms of psychosocial development were able to attain favorable outcomes by midlife.

The relationship between identity, intimacy, and midlife well-being: Findings from the Rochester Adult Longitudinal Study.

“…Because the so-called "midlife crisis" is essentially a revisiting of identity issues in the 40s and 50s (Freund & Ritter, 2009), resolving Ihese identity issues in a coherent and positive way appears to facilitate satisfaction with work, family, and life in general. The present results support Erikson's (1950) contention that identity and intimacy remain important throughout the life span (see also Whitboume et al, 2009). Although identity is most often studied in adolescents and young adults, it clearly remains important for psychosocial adjustment well into adulthood.…”

The Relation of Ego Integrity and Despair to Personality Traits and Mental Health

“…However, most cross-sectional studies did not find differences according to age (Hannah et al, 1996;Ryff & Heincke, 1983;Webster, 2003;see however, Domino & Affonso, 1990). The longitudinal Rochester study also did not find evidence of an increase with age (Sneed, Whitbourne & Culang, 2006;Whitbourne, Sneed, & Sayer, 2009). Hence, ego integrity and despair are more a matter of the resolution of previous dilemmas of human development than of chronological age.…”

Application of SPSS linear mixed methods to adolescent development research: basic concepts and steps

“…Given the sufficient time points in our data, a The significant negative effect of cubic growth (β = -0.012475, SE = 0.000674, p < 0.01) suggested that the acceleration rate of change in the CPYD12 indicator scores slowed over time (i.e., a slower decrease after the end of the program) ( Appendix 4). Generally, if the higher order polynomial trends fit the data better than the linear trend, interpretation of the data would focus on the higher order polynominal trends [19][20][21]. For example, Taylor et al [22] found that the beneficial effects of prevention program with a higher order function of growth in drug use.…”