Major Life Transition Research Articles

Age-related declines in activity level: the relationship between chronic illness and religious activities.

When they are faced with major life transitions such as worsening health, older adults may selectively withdraw from activities. Because of the importance of religion to a large proportion of the elderly population, research is needed to determine whether levels of religious involvement are affected by serious health problems such as the onset of a chronic disease. Multiple waves of data from the Duke Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly were used to analyze the effects of five different chronic conditions on two religious activities: service attendance and religious media use. Findings show that broken hip, cancer, and stroke were significantly related to levels of religious attendance. Furthermore, the combined conditions also significantly predicted religious attendance, with more conditions being associated with lower attendance. Neither the individual or summed conditions were significantly related to religious media use. The study finds some evidence to support the idea that older adults withdraw from social activities such as religious involvement when faced with declining health. In contrast, levels of religious media use remain stable following the onset of one or more new chronic conditions.

How Exits from the Labor Force or Death Impact Household Incomes: A Four Country Comparison of Public and Private Income Support

Government policies attempt to mitigate the economic risks to households of major life transitions. This paper focuses on two such transitions that social security systems typically insure against?long term exits from the labor market (retirement, disability, unemployment insurance) and the death of a household head or spouse (survivor's insurance). We examine labor force exits of men at various ages in four countries--Canada, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States?using data from the Cross-National Equivalent File, a matched longitudinal data set. We focus on how average net-of-tax household income changes in the years before and after the event. We find that when one measures the change in economic well-being following a labor market exit by the fraction of lost labor earnings replaced by social security income, the decline in the household's economic well-being is substantially overstated. When we compare net-of-tax household income before and after a long term exit from the labor market, we find that such drops are much less than those implied by a social security replacement rate and that differences across countries in the average drop are much less than those based on a social security replacement rate. We find the same pattern when we focus on how net-of-tax household income changes in the years before and after the death of a head or spouse. Declines in net-of-tax household income following such a death are much lower than the decline implied by a replacement of the deceased person's labor earnings and social security benefits by their household's post-death social security income. But the size of the change in individualized net-of-tax income following the death of a head or spouse is greatly affected by assumptions used to adjust for changes in household size.

Enabling Democracy: Disability and Voter Turnout

How likely are the millions of Americans with disabilities to participate in politics? What insights do their experiences provide into overall participation levels and determinants? This article reports the results of a nationally representative household telephone survey of 1,240 peoplestratified to include 700 people with disabilities-following the November 1998 elections. Voter turnout is found to be 20 percentage points lower among people with disabilities than among people without disabilities who have otherwise-similar demographic characteristics. Other standard predictors of turnout such as political efficacy and mobilization explain only a small portion of this gap. There is great variation within the disability sample: the lower turnout is concentrated among people with disabilities who are not employed or who are age 65 or older, who have had recent onset of a disabling condition, and who have difficulty going outside alone (despite the availability of absentee ballots). The findings suggest that disability, apart from imposing resource constraints, often has social and psychological effects that decrease voter turnout through decreased social capital and identification with mainstream society, particularly among senior citizens. The findings also support the idea that general mobility and major life transitions can be important influences on voter turnout in general, and raise questions on the causal relations among age, employment, efficacy, and voter turnout that should be a focus of future research.

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood: a theoretical perspective.

Life transitions are periods in time when individuals experience major changes. Transitions may occur during periods between two relatively stable states of human development. The associated changes with the transition bring instability as the person passes through the period. During this period, the individual is typically required to make major adjustments, to develop new skills, or to learn to cope with new experiences. One major life transition begins during the final year or years of high school. This transition, unlike childhood transitions, for many individuals will include a move from one's childhood home and away from their family of origin and from an established network of friends. A successful transition to young adulthood will form a foundation for the individual in future stages of development and transitions. Three frameworks of transition, developmental psychology, counseling, and nursing, are described.

Perinatal Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Antenatal Education Intervention for Primiparas

BACKGROUND: Depression can be an unexpected and distressing companion for a woman during the major life transition of becoming a mother for the first time. Researchers now demonstrate that approximately 50 percent of women will experience perinatal distress. Therefore, the etiology and management of perinatal depression is essential for a quality care of childbearing women. The objectives of this study were to develop an education intervention tailored to the information needs of primiparous women about perinatal depression, to deliver this intervention antenatally, and to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of the antenatal education intervention in the reduction of postnatal depression. METHOD: A prospective, randomized controlled trial of the education intervention (n = 206) was conducted at three sites in Australia. The outcome of changes in mood state was measured by the Profile of Mood States questionnaire once antenatally (12-28 wk), and twice postnatally (8-12 and 16-24 wk); social support and demographic data were also collected. The education package was administered to the intervention group at the antenatal assessment of mood. RESULTS: A significant and steady reduction in scores (overall and on the subscales) was observed over time for both groups that showed significant improvement in symptoms of depression. No difference was detected when comparing the intervention group with the control group. Additional multivariate regression analyses revealed no relevant influence of social support or demographic variables. CONCLUSIONS: Women in both the study and control groups were more depressed antenatally than postnatally. The finding that the education intervention made no difference challenges the two strongly held tenets of health education in childbearing women-that depression can be reduced through education and that antenatal education interventions can endure into the postnatal period.

Perinatal Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Antenatal Education Intervention for Primiparas

Depression can be an unexpected and distressing companion for a woman during the major life transition of becoming a mother for the first time. Researchers now demonstrate that approximately 50 percent of women will experience perinatal distress. Therefore, the etiology and management of perinatal depression is essential for a quality care of childbearing women. The objectives of this study were to develop an education intervention tailored to the information needs of primiparous women about perinatal depression, to deliver this intervention antenatally, and to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of the antenatal education intervention in the reduction of postnatal depression. A prospective, randomized controlled trial of the education intervention (n = 206) was conducted at three sites in Australia. The outcome of changes in mood state was measured by the Profile of Mood States questionnaire once antenatally (12-28 wk), and twice postnatally (8-12 and 16-24 wk); social support and demographic data were also collected. The education package was administered to the intervention group at the antenatal assessment of mood. A significant and steady reduction in scores (overall and on the subscales) was observed over time for both groups that showed significant improvement in symptoms of depression. No difference was detected when comparing the intervention group with the control group. Additional multivariate regression analyses revealed no relevant influence of social support or demographic variables. Women in both the study and control groups were more depressed antenatally than postnatally. The finding that the education intervention made no difference challenges the two strongly held tenets of health education in childbearing women-that depression can be reduced through education and that antenatal education interventions can endure into the postnatal period.

Assessing Identity Change: A Longitudinal Study of the Transition from School to College

The impact of a major life transition on identity change is examined in this longitudinal study. Drawing on a framework provided by symbolic interactionism and identity theory (Stryker, 1968, 1987), we examined global self-esteem, interactional commitment and the identity hierarchies of a group of students while they were in secondary school and, again one year later, when they had made the transition to further or higher education. Overall, the data suggested considerable stability across all identities. Analysis examining the relationships among interactional commitment, self-esteem and psychological centrality provided some support for the theoretical framework but also highlighted differences across identities. The implications for future models of long-term identity change are discussed.

Travel Broadens the Mind.

The onset of locomotion heralds one of the major life transitions in early development and involves a pervasive set of changes in perception, spatial cognition, and social and emotional development. Through a synthesis of published and hitherto unpublished findings, gathered from a number of converging research designs and methods, this article provides a comprehensive review and reanalysis of the consequences of self-produced locomotor experience. Specifically, we focus on the role of locomotor experience in changes in social and emotional development, referential gestural communication, wariness of heights, the perception of self-motion, distance perception, spatial search, and spatial coding strategies. Our analysis reveals new insights into the specific processes by which locomotor experience brings about psychological changes. We elaborate these processes and provide new predictions about previously unsuspected links between locomotor experience and psychological function. The research we describe is relevant to our broad understanding of the developmental process, particularly as it pertains to developmental transitions. Although acknowledging the role of genetically mediated developmental changes, our viewpoint is a transactional one in which a single acquisition, in this case the onset of locomotion, sets in motion a family of experiences and processes that in turn mobilize both broad-based and context-specific psychological reorganizations. We conclude that, in infancy, the onset of locomotor experience brings about widespread consequences, and after infancy, can be responsible for an enduring role in development by maintaining and updating existing skills.

Thinking Ahead: Complexity of Expectations and the Transition to Parenthood

This study examined the integrative complexity of thinking in individuals making the transition to parenthood, and the relationship between complexity and adjustment during this period. Sixty-nine couples were interviewed 3 months before their babies were born, and 6 months after the birth. The prenatal interview focussed on individuals' expectations about what it would be like being a parent; the postnatal interview focussed on individuals' actual experiences as parents. In addition, participants completed measures of depression, self-esteem, and marital satisfaction after each interview, and a measure of stress after the 6-month postnatal interview. Both men and women demonstrated a significant increase in the complexity of their thinking from the prenatal to the postnatal interview, with women demonstrating higher levels of complexity at both times. In addition, women with more complex expectations demonstrated better adjustment after their babies were born than did women with simpler expectations; these results were not obtained for men. Results are discussed with regard to the way in which thinking about the self changes as one negotiates major life transitions, and the way in which complex thinking can help counter some of the stresses that individuals may experience at these times.

Gender differences in chronic disease risk behaviors through the transition out of high school

Background: Major life transitions (e.g., graduation from high school) are times when many changes occur in a person’s social and physical environment. Men and women likely experience aspects of these changes differently. As a result, health-related behaviors likely change at these times with possible differences in these changes by gender. Methods: Gender differences in the performance of chronic disease risk-related behaviors (fruit, juice, and vegetable intake; physical activity; tobacco and alcohol use; and sexual practices) through the transition out of high school (HS) were assessed in a secondary analysis of a nationally representative sample from the 1992 National Health Interview Survey–Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The survey was completed by 5881 young people aged 14 to 21 years. Regression discontinuity analysis with piecewise regression was performed. Results: Statistically significant gender by transition effects were obtained for exercise/physical activity (decreases at the transition point for males), snuff use (decrease for females in HS), binge drinking and number of days drinking alcohol (increases for males at the transition point), and use of alcohol or drugs before sexual intercourse (decrease for females post HS). Fruit intake decreased for males and females and daily and heavy cigarette smoking increased during the HS years. Effect sizes were small but promising, given that the data set was not designed to test this hypothesis. Conclusion: These data offer evidence of differences by gender in chronic disease risk behaviors through the HS transition. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess the true nature of these differences, the tracking of these risk behaviors and their personal, social, and environmental determinants, including gender-specific determinants, that may explain these changes and inform future intervention development.

Evaluation of a Parent Education Program for Divorcing Parents

Evaluation of a Parent Education Program for Divorcing Parents* Participants in a parent education program mandated for divorcing parents were compared with a similar sample of individuals who had not participated in such a program. The mail survey consisted of 236 individuals. A series of 2(program) X 2(parental residential status) MANCOVA s and ANCOVA 's, with SES and age as covariates, indicated a program effect in terms of the parentchild relationship for those divorced four years or less. The program participants expressed a high level of satisfaction with the program and believed that it was very beneficial. Key Words: coparenting, divorce education, parent education. Divorce rates in the U.S. have resulted in a growing number of children who are being coparented in binuclear families. Various legal reforms in recent years (e.g., no fault divorce legislation, joint legal custody, mediation, etc.) have assumed a high level of cooperative parenting between former spouses, and clinicians and researchers have noted that former spouse relationships are pivotal to overall family functioning (Guisinger, Cowan, & Schuldberg, 1989; Furstenberg, Nord, Peterson, & Zill, 1983; Seltzer & Bianchi, 1988; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). Yet research has indicated that many parents find the coparenting role very difficult (e.g., Ahrons & Rodgers, 1987; Maccoby, Depner, & Mnookin,1990; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). Parent education or psychoeducational programs for divorcing individuals (sometimes referred to as divorce education programs) have been developed in recent years to facilitate the transition to these co-parental roles. Trad (1991) describes psychoeducation as a form of learning that facilitates the mastery of a major life transition. Similarly, parent education programs for divorcing parents have been referred to as a form of education (Kalafat, Underwood, Fiedler, & Neigher, 1990). In general, parent education programs for divorcing parents are brief, time-limited efforts that use directive, didactic approaches to teach parents about the impact of divorce on children as well as to provide parents with positive attitudes and essential coparenting skills to facilitate child adjustment (Braver, Salem, Pearson, & DeLuse, 1996; Zibbell,1992). Successful psychoeducational interventions can be found in a wide variety of subject areas. In the area of child abuse prevention, Frank and Rowe (1981) reported favorable results utilizing a psychoeducational model with small group meetings of mothers and their children. Brent, Poling, McKain, and Baugher (1993) found that parents of affectively ill adolescents showed improvement in knowledge about depression as well as a modification of dysfunctional beliefs about depression and its treatment after just one psychoeducational session lasting only two hours. In the area of social skills training, Brown (1980) demonstrated that a psychoeducational approach could be used effectively to reduce anxiety and fears in mental health clients. Brown's approach even demonstrated outcomes superior to those of a therapeutic group approach in terms of reducing psychiatric hospitalizations within one year after participation. Research on passive interventions for divorcing couples, i.e., case study and other written materials, has indicated that knowledge alone can reduce disruptive behaviors at least short-term; differences have been found in experimental groups as compared to control groups for up to three months after exposure to the material (Arbuthnot, Poole, & Gordon, 1996; Kurkowski, Gordon, & Arbuthnot,1993; Ogles, Lambert, & Craig, 1991). Evaluation of Divorce Education Programs Although there are over 500 parenting programs for divorcing individuals nationwide, few of these programs have been systematically evaluated (Arbuthnot & Gordon, 1996; Braver, Salem, Pearson, & Deluse, 1996). …

Research on resilience and its implications for tobacco prevention.

The concept of resilience refers to successful developmental processes in children who grow up in stressful or high-risk environments. Protective factors that increase the likelihood of positive developmental outcomes, as identified by longitudinal studies, include personal-level characteristics of autonomy, self-regulation, and problem-solving skill; family characteristics of warm but demanding relationships with parents, high parental expectations, and affectionate bonds with other family members; and community characteristics of social support, effective schools, and the availability of opportunities at major life transition points. Challenges include several cross-study ambiguities in the fundamental concepts, as well as potential misapplications of this research by policymakers who believe that children can be made 'invulnerable' to environmental stressors. It is recommended that: (1) Researchers should seek to understand those cases that do not conform to predictive statistical models; clinically oriented, qualitative methodologies can be useful for this purpose. (2) Greater focus needs to be placed on identifying individual differences in children's attraction to tobacco and their motivations for use. (3) Tobacco use can be studied as an instrumental strategy on the part of adolescents for dealing with critical developmental tasks. (4) Understanding the development of stress and coping processes in children can shed light on their use of tobacco as a coping mechanism, particularly in later phases of the uptake process. Overall, the study of resilience suggests a broad lifespan view of development, in which tobacco use is just one aspect of adaptation to critical developmental tasks.

Exploring the relationships among liminal transitions, symbolic consumption, and the extended self

Integrating Belk's (1988) notion of the “extended self” with van Gennep's (1960) framework of “liminal transitions,” a model of symbolic consumption activities and psychological phenomena that occur during major life transitions is developed. In an initial investigation, the transition from high school to college is used to explore the nature of the liminal experience, the role that symbolic consumption assumes in the process, and the effects of both on consumers' psychological states. The results suggest that certain negative psychological consequences are indicative of existence in a liminal state. Further, consumers in transition appear to rely on possessions that symbolize the past, as well as those that represent the new role, to help facilitate a major life transition. Directions for future research are offered. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Interventions to Ease the Transition to Parenthood: Why They Are Needed and What They Can Do

Men and women have been having babies since human life began. Not until the last half of the twentieth century, however, did the transition to parenthood become the subject of intensive analysis by sociologists, psychologists, and health and mental health professionals. Academicians' and health providers' interest appears to have been stimulated by a study by LeMasters (1957), a sociologist, who made the apparently shocking claim that 83 of new parents had experienced moderate or severe in their marital and family life in the first years following the birth of their first child. Using various methods and outcome measures, investigators over the next three decades challenged LeMasters' assertion that the transition to parenthood constitutes a crisis for a marriage (Hobbs, 1965; White & Booth, 1985). These investigators concluded that (a) new parenthood was a stressful but essentially manageable, normative transition (Hobbs & Cole, 1977) or (b) the decline in adjustment and marital satisfaction new parents experienced was not appreciably different from the waning of marital intimacy experienced over time by childless couples (McHale & Huston, 1985; White & Booth, 1985). Neither of these responses to LeMasters seemed to settle the controversy about crisis. After early retrospective studies, investigators in the 1980s began to follow couples from pregnancy into the early childrearing years. These longitudinal studies revealed negative changes in many aspects of men's and women's adaptation as individuals and as couples (see reviews by Belsky & Pensky, 1988; Cowan & Cowan, 1988; Worthington & Buston, 1987). Along with shifts in partners' stress levels, division of family labor, and leisure time, almost every study noted a decline in men's and women's marital satisfaction. Is the transition to parenthood likely to create long-term strain in men, women, and marriage? The answer to this question has important theoretical and practical implications. Theories of life course and family development (see Cowan, 1991; Hinde & Stevenson-Hinde, 1988) imply that major life changes and transitions create conditions of risk. New challenges can outstrip existing resources, trigger new problems, or amplify pre-existing vulnerabilities and inadequacies. Explicit in some of these theories is the idea that the challenges of transitions can also stimulate the development of new coping skills and higher levels of adaptation. The transition to parenthood is an interesting test case for lifespan developmental theories because, unlike most expected and unexpected traumatic transitions that have been studied extensively, becoming a parent is widely regarded as a positive change in the life of a couple. If the transition to parenthood does increase the probability of problematic outcomes in parents and children, then the hypothesis that life transitions constitute conditions of risk would be supported. Increased marital and family risk associated with the transition to parenthood has implications for the provision of health and mental health services. If a life transition experienced by approximately 90% of contemporary married couples can be expected to be accompanied by stress and distress for many parents, it is likely that this strain will permeate some or all of the relationships in the family, which, in turn, can be expected to compromise children's optimal development. In that case, it would seem reasonable to create targeted or even universal preventive intervention programs designed to enhance parents' coping skills and reduce their stress or to provide remedial help for couples already in difficulty when the transition begins. If there is no significant increase in risk or negative outcomes attributable to this transition, then intervention programs on a wide societal scale would be unnecessary. The first section of this article argues that, despite some remaining areas of controversy in comparing and interpreting studies, we can conclude with some confidence that the transition to parenthood constitutes a period of stressful and sometimes maladaptive change for a significant proportion of new parents. …

Leisure behaviour and the transition from adolescence to young adulthood

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood, and the accompanying changes in context, have the potential to infuence leisure behaviour. Leisure researchers have not developed an adequate understanding of the nature of change and stability in leisure behaviour across this major life transition. Literature examining its nature during adolescence and young adulthood is discussed, methodologies for further study described, and possible models for interpreting leisure behaviour prior to and following the transition to young adulthood are proposed.

The Experiences of Gay Couples Affected by HIV Infection

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of gay couples when at least one was diagnosed with symptomatic HIV infection or AIDS. Grounded theory provided the methodological basis for the study. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine couples yielding approximately 50 hours of interview data. Being a couple affected by HIV Infection was perceived as a major life transition as both partners were confronted by multiple losses including possible death of the person with AIDS, dissolution of the relationship, health, independence, intimacy, and privacy. Processes of this transition included hitting home, mutual protection, and moving on.

“Was it good for you, too?”: Gender differences in first sexual intercourse experiences

First sexual intercourse is considered to be a major life transition, but it is not always a pleasurable experience, especially for females. The major purposes of this research were to examine gender differences in emotional reactions (pleasure, anxiety, and guilt) to first intercourse and to test possible explanations for these gender differences. Based on data collected from 1,659 college students who had had sexual intercourse, we found that men reported experiencing more pleasure and anxiety than did women, whereas men reported experiencing less guilt than did women. Men's greater subjective pleasure in response to first intercourse was explained, in part, by their greater likelihood of having an orgasm. Similar gender differences in emotional reactions were found regardless of the stage and length of the relationship in which first intercourse occurred; both genders reported more pleasure, more anxiety, and less guilt when sex occurred in a close relationship than in a casual one. However, continuing...

Leaving Protestant Fundamentalism: A Qualitative Analysis of a Major Life Transition

Protestant Fundamentalism is a popular theological orientation that some adherents choose to leave. Due to the pervasive nature of the fundamentalist life‐style, the process of departing may amount to a major life transition beset with emotional difficulties. This study is a qualitative analysis of the experience of leaving Protestant Fundamentalism. Analysis of transcribed in‐depth interviews with seven disaffected fundamentalists, revealed common themes that were used to construct a general description of the experience. The article also discusses implications for counseling and suggests topics for further research.

The self‐esteem of women: A cognitive‐phenomenological study

Abstract Social workers address self‐esteem concerns of female clients without benefit of adequate theory—theory which is phenomenologically derived, prescriptive in nature, and readily transferable to clinical settings. This article reports findings from a cognitive‐phenomenological study in which 16 women provided detailed accounts of their self‐esteem experiences during major life transitions. In‐depth interviewing and cognitive mapping procedures yielded a view of underlying cognitive self‐schemata against which respondents evaluated current perceptions of self. Discrepancies between ideal self‐concept and self‐perceptions produced cognitive dissonance, a major component of self‐esteem difficulties and a potential target of clinical intervention.

The relation of peer social support and psychological symptomatology during the transition to junior high school: A two‐year longitudinal analysis

Studied the longitudinal relation of peer social support and psychological symptomatology among a sample of 143 early adolescents during a two-year period spanning the transition from elementary school to junior high school. Correlational analyses indicated strong inverse relations between peer support and symptoms, both cross sectionally and across time. Prospective analyses investigated the degree to which prior levels of peer support were related to subsequent symptoms after controlling for initial levels of symptoms and, conversely, the degree to which prior symptoms were related to future levels of peer support after controlling for initial levels of support. A significant prospective effect for peer support was found only for the specific period encompassing the school change. Prospective effects for symptoms were more numerous and of longer duration. The discussion emphasizes how the relation among support, stress, and mental health may differ over the course of a major life transition. Implications are also considered for the timing of preventive interventions.