Midlife is the stage of life between the ages of forty and sixty five. It is a time when both men and women are aware of the gradual changes in their bodies marked by the aging process. During middle adulthood, men and women experience numerous social, physical and cognitive changes that indicate that someone is aging. Some of the physical changes that are experienced by a person in the middle age include grey hair, vision and hearing loss, weight gain and wrinkles. On the other hand, the cognitive changes experienced in middle adulthood are a decline in fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence in this context means basic information processing skills. During midlife, cognitive processing speed slows in regard to problem solving and could also cause divided attention.
The changes experienced in both men and women in midlife are not similar. During this stage, men are said to display maturity in an attempt to show their status. Additionally, their height remains stable until the age of 55. After the age of 55, their bones become less dense and they start losing their height. During midlife, women tend to lose more height as a result of osteoporosis, a condition where their bones become weak and thin as a result of insufficient calcium in the body (Rovio et al., 2015). With regard to weight, men as well as women exhibit weight gain at this stage due to fewer exercises and minimum weight control. Besides, the strength of both men and women tend to decrease particularly at the back and leg muscles.
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In addition to the reduction in height and strength, sight is also compromised during middle age. The eye’s lenses of both men and women change in both elasticity and shape. The eye lenses become less transparent, which decreases the amount of light that penetrates into their eyes. Both men and women may experience problems in distance perception, night vision and depth perception at this stage. The start of hearing problems is also felt in the middle adulthood stage. Men and women find difficulties in detecting the origin of sound. However, men tend to be more prone to hearing problems compared to women.
During middle age, reaction time also increases slightly. An increase in reaction time is caused by the slowness in the nervous system and muscle loss in the body due to aging. The reaction time ought to be reduced by exercises. More so, sexual activities do not fade away in most middle age men and women but their frequency of sexual intercourse tends to decrease with age. However, men normally need more time to get an erection and testosterone production reduces. Besides, hormonal changes are experienced in women that cause vagina walls to become thinner and less elastic. The vagina shrinks and makes intercourse painful for some women.
Numerous scholars believe that there are two types of intelligences that are experienced by both men and women in middle adulthood (Ashton et al., 2011). One type of intelligence is fluid intelligence. It is defined as the ability to tackle new situations and problems. It is basically the spatial orientation, verbal memory, perceptual speed as well as inductive reasoning. During middle adulthood, both men and women experience a reduction in fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is another type of intelligence. It is defined as the ability to store skills, strategies, and information that individuals have obtained through experiences and education. It includes verbal and numerical abilities and this kind of intelligence remains steady or may increase with age. With regard to memory, minimal losses or no memory loss is experienced in the midlife stage of development. Men and women do not show any decline in short-term memory. However, some of them may experience a decline in long-term memory if their storage becomes less efficient.
Generativity versus stagnation is one of the psychosocial developments that take place during middle adulthood. The basic thing at the generativity versus stagnation stages of development concerns doing things that benefit future generations (Slater, 2013). In this regard, generativity is leaving a mark on the world by caring for others, creating as well as doing things that make the world better. Generativity involves mentoring others, contributing to the future generation and developing family relationships. On the other hand, stagnation is failing to find a way to contribute to the society. It is a situation in which people feel uninvolved with the entire society. Stagnation involves failing to get involved with others, no efforts to improve self and not taking an interest in productivity. The physical, cognitive and social changes may result in midlife crisis. The changes may make men and women in middle adulthood to remember their accomplishments and consider their future trajectory. In most cases, people tend to regret on missed opportunities such as having children, completing school and pursuing a career. The midlife caused by the social, physical changes and cognitive changes may also provide an opportunity for people to adjust their life that may lead to greater fulfilment.
The sandwich generation is a generation that cares for both aging parents and children (Pierret, 2016). Some of the significant challenges the sandwich generation experiences is time management. As much as time might be broken in minutes, the sandwich generation finds themselves operating on a deficit. Money is another issue in a caring sandwich generation. In a caring sandwich generation, constant cash flow is experienced. The budget for this exercise requires careful attention to cater for expected and unexpected life events. Attention is another challenge for sandwich generations. Since both children and aging parents are vulnerable, attention is greatly valued for their care. As much as these challenges are common, they lead to caregiving fatigue, particularly if there is no or less support. Therefore, it is important to practice self-care, maintain an emergency fund and share the load by delegating duties to children.
References
Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., Vernon, P. A., & Jang, K. L. (2011). Fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and the openness/intellect factor. Journal of Research in Personality , 34 (2), 198-207.
Pierret, C. R. (2016). The sandwich generation: Women caring for parents and children. Monthly Lab. Rev. , 129 , 3.
Rovio, S., Spulber, G., Nieminen, L. J., Niskanen, E., Winblad, B., Tuomilehto, J., ... & Kivipelto, M. (2015). The effect of midlife physical activity on structural brain changes in the elderly. Neurobiology of aging , 31 (11), 1927-1936.
Slater, C. L. (2013). Generativity versus stagnation: An elaboration of Erikson's middle adulthoog stage of human development. Journal of Adult Development , 10 (1), 53-65.
