Resilience, Life Events, and Well-Being During Midlife: Examining Resilience Subgroups

Developmental midlife processes involve resilience, changing challenges, and perceptions of getting older. In Study I and II, the Managing Life Survey resulted in growth, managing uncertainty, objectivity, adversity, and strategy use subscales. In Study II, resilience subgroups were identified. High and non-religious resilience groups had significantly higher averages for MLS subscales, time orientations, grit, life satisfaction; and significantly lower averages for adversity and negative event scores, compared to other groups. Noteworthy findings herein consist of (1) differences across resilience groups, with spiritual strategies emerging as an important discriminator; (2) the role of future perspectives on well-being characterizing early midlife; (3) the influence of growth and purpose on well-being characterizing late midlife; and (4) the cumulative effect of education on life satisfaction in late midlife. The results herein are consistent with the psychological benefits of moderate levels of challenge; with developmental differences across early and late midlife, and with Socioemotional Selectivity Theory.