Baby boomers may be popularly portrayed as whiners, complainers and
narcissists, but a new study by University of Massachusetts Amherst
psychology Professor Susan Krauss Whitbourne says the 50-somethings are
getting a bad rap.
Connection to Younger Generations...Social Conscience
"It's wrong to say baby boomers are selfish
and only care about staying young," says Susan Krauss Whitbourne. "They
have a feeling of connection to younger generations and a social
conscience."
Whitbourne's findings, based on three decades of
data from two groups of baby boomers, were published in the September
issue of the journal Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.
The
study began in 1966 at the University of Rochester in New York, when a
group of students participated in a research project on personality
development. Similar studies of successive generations of students at
Rochester as well as follow-up surveys with participants in the
earliest groups have yielded 34 years of information about the life
changes experienced by leading edge boomers, who were in their mid- to
late 50s, and trailing edge boomers, who were in their mid-40s, at the
time of the most recent survey.
Boomers in Midlife
"What's most interesting is
seeing what happened to baby boomers in midlife," says Whitbourne.
"Some became more fulfilled, others became despairing, and yet others
remained relatively stable. My research design allowed me to suggest
which changes in their lives were most closely connected with a growth
in fulfillment.
- More fulfilled
- Despairing
- Relatively Stable
According to Whitbourne, the results suggest
that personality growth doesn't follow a ladder model where one stage
succeeds another, but more closely resembles a matrix, in which issues
associated with early stages of life are continuously revisited through
life.
Matrix of Early Life's Issues
For Whitbourne, the study illustrates that we are not
locked into a narrowly defined life by the time we are of college age.
"I've seen people overcome social deficits over the course of the
study," she says. "This really shows that you don't have to give up on
yourself. People can change through their entire life."
Fulfillment Beyond the Workplace
Since
the last study, the boomers have found fulfillment beyond the
workplace, says Whitbourne. In the 1980s, the "me generation" was
working hard and making a lot of money, but something was missing from
their lives. At the time, Whitbourne said the results were shaped by
Reagan-era social values.
Volunteerism
By the '90s, however, the volunteerism
of the Clinton years seems to have taken root among those unfulfilled
boomers, she says. "There is a real concern about social well-being
that goes back to the core values they developed in college."
Industriousness
Another
change Whitbourne notes concerns "industry," a personality trait
associated with the work ethic. The oldest boomers in the study had
measured far lower on industry than other age groups in earlier
surveys, but the latest data show they've caught up with their peers.
"It
would appear from the present analyses that the very lowest industry
scores were obtained in college from participants who, in early
adulthood, had jobs with extremely low prestige," says the study.
"However, they managed to exceed their peers in industry scores
throughout the course of the study."
Self-confidence and Determination in Women
For midlife women, the
results also support other studies that found gains in self-confidence
and determination through the workplace, says Whitbourne. "It is
possible that for these leading-edge baby boomer women, feelings of
competence were suppressed in college, when it seemed as though their
careers would play an important role in their future success," she
writes.
Intimacy and Relationships are Not the Only Change Agents
The study also reinforces the idea that individuals can
overcome early issues with intimacy and relationships, notes
Whitbourne, and "catch up" with their psychologically more fortunate
peers.
According to the data, participants who were not in a committed
relationship early in adulthood showed continued gains throughout the
period of the study and moved toward an increasingly favorable
resolution that exceeded those peers who were in a committed
relationship in early adulthood.
Later Parenting
"Enhanced development gains"
were also noted for boomers who became parents after the age of 31. By
waiting until their careers were established, those study participants
may have been "best able to enjoy their new parenthood status to the
fullest," says Whitbourne.
What Midlife Crisis?
Whitbourne says the study also lays
to rest the myth of the midlife crisis. Based on the interviews and
surveys, she says, "My study confirms others in the empirical
literature that despite its popularity in the pop culture, the majority
of adults don't freak out in their 40s or 50s."
That's not to say
the study participants haven't had their ups and downs, says
Whitbourne, but individuals grapple with their problems in a variety of
ways. "People may experience depression in midlife, but it's too glib
to write that off as a midlife crisis. Other factors must be
considered."
The study is co-authored by Joel R. Sneed of Queens
College, City University of New York, Columbia University and the New
York State Psychiatric Institute, and Aline Sayer, visiting associate
professor of psychology at UMass Amherst.
Source: Newswise
