Transitions to Older Adulthood: Exploring Midlife Women's Narratives Regarding Purpose in Life

Transitions to Older Adulthood: Exploring Midlife Women's Narratives Regarding Purpose in Life

Abstract

Purpose in life has been shown to affect important outcomes related to healthy aging. However, quantitative studies have consistently found lower purpose in life among older adults. A qualitative inquiry into purpose in life may offer insights into why there appears to be a decline in later life, and for whom. This study investigated two waves of life narratives from late midlife women to explore how they expressed meaning and purpose regarding their life paths. White and Black women with higher and lower purpose in life were sampled based on a prior quantitative study. Using a grounded theory approach and a life course perspective lens, we analyzed two waves of life stories over five years to understand how participants experienced their purposes in life over time. Three common themes emerged including the centrality of family relationships, the negotiation of work, and the pursuit of agency. Those with higher and lower purpose in life scores varied in how they defined and enacted purpose in life based on prior and current life experiences. Being proactive in directing one's life course was shown to differentiate those with higher versus lower purpose in life. In transitions into older adulthood, having a proactive approach to the world may be salient for a purposeful aging process.

Introduction

Through daily actions, individuals construct and refine the meaning of their lives in relation to their social contexts over time. Pursuing meaning and purpose in life protects individuals from negative outcomes and promotes successful adaptation in late life. To date, most quantitative studies show that young and midlife adults tend to report higher levels of purpose in life than older adults. Moreover, older men tend to report higher purpose in life with a slower decline rate than older women. These robust findings highlight the need to explore how midlife women, in particular, express and experience meaning in their lives over time as they transition into older adulthood.

To address the lack of qualitative inquiry into how midlife women develop and describe their life paths related to purpose and meaning, we analyzed the life stories of sixteen midlife Black and White American women, who showed extreme scores (higher versus lower) on Ryff's Purpose in Life Subscale from our phase one study. By applying a grounded theory approach, we sought to unpack why some women expressed stronger purpose in their lives when compared to other women in the sample across two points in time spanning five years in late midlife.