Divorce is becoming rife, particulary during the middle adulthood lifestage. In 1967 Holmes and Rahe produced a life event scaleknown as the Holmes-Rahe scale. The Holmes-Rahe scale gives a value to each life event. DIvorce was given a value of 73 and came second in the table proving that divorce can be extremely unbalancing, leaving you feeling lonely and depressed. In a sense it could be considered that divorce is like greiving the death of a loved one.
In conclusion adulthood is a time where major emotional upheavel takes place. During early adulthood you must learn to deal with the demands of work, relationships and family. During middle adulthood you have to have adapt to change in roles and unwanted changes.
Social- Adulthhod
During early adulthood the social calender tends to be bursting with social developments. Early adulthood is a time when people continue and develop their network of friends. Leaving home is a major social transition as you usually find you have more free time to spend with your friends, which, during the adolescence lifestage would of being spent with your family.
Marriage is a major life evnt in the social calender. By getting married you are socially expanding as you are welcomed into a new family. You must also learn to get along with your spouses friends and colleages.
Having children in your early adulthood is a important social life event. By having children you have to adapt your social calender to fit accordingly, this might mean finding new friends who are in the same situtation as you. Having children means that your prioties automatically change and your needs come after your childrens.
During early adulthood you also become a new role as a worker which also means meeting new people and working in new situations, however starting work and beginning a career is proven to increase life satisifaction.
During the middle years of adulthood there usually is little development in the socail calender. The three types of roles (partner, parent and worker), which were sustained during early adulthood continue to be important but have usually changed. If a divorce has taken place it will be likely that it effects the social calender. Friends which were shared by the couple are likely to feel their loyalties are split which could result in a loss of friends. However, on the other hand, a divorce can result in what could be considered as ' new found freedom'.
If a marriage hasn't resulted in divorce, after the children have left home, the relationship with your spouse will be given more significance. You will have chance to take up a hobby. However, during this life stage you may find your self with the responsibility of caring for a elderly relative which can be very time consuming.
Emotional- Later Adulthood
Later adulthood is a lifestage where considerable changes take place as many long time roles are shed. Retirement is a key event which takes place during later adulthood and, emotionally, can be a difficult time. It may feel as though their identies are being lost. People often find that their life has less structure to it as a result of retirement. People often find retirement difficult to adjust to as this is when people begin to think of them as elderly and a great majority of people find this difficult to accept.
After retirement people tend to have alot of free time which socially is considered a good thing but it is not uncommon to create a sense of loneliness and a sense of being useless.
During the last life stage the risk of disablity is greatly increased and can have a massive imoact not only on the physical health but also a persons emotional health. As people age they are open to the risks of loss of mobility, hearing, vision and memory. This can be hard for people to deal with as they can often be left feeling useless and depressed.
One of the most difficult life event to deal with is the loss of a spouse which usually takes place during the final lifestage. The loss of a spouse would be emotionally unbalancing and can often led to cronic depression. It will leave a huge sense of loneliness which most people in the final lifestage would have trouble filling. However, if your spouse is still alive then you could emotionally feel very content and happy. The final years of your life could be your best without worrying about work.
During later adulthood sometimes people find themselfs lonely. Whilst friends are still important and offer companionship people often find their number of friends decrease over the years as they have died and not being replaced.
Social- Later Adulthood
After retirement, people in the later adulthood lifestage are offered lots of oportunities, however, lots of factors effect what kind of socail life people have after retirement. Some of these including marital status, social class, finanical status and health.
Once retired people have the chance to take up as many new hobbies as they wish in order to help them to fulfill their lifes. Taking up hobbies can be a great way to keep the mind stimulated and also a good way to keep in touch with old friends and a chance to make new friends. As people in retirement have lots of spare time they can spend it with their families and alot of grandparents choose to spend their retirement with their child and grandchildren. It is not uncommon for grandparents to assist their children with child care which creates a active role in their grandchildrens lives. this helps people to feel that they do still have a role to play in life.
Some people retire with a pension that can certainly keep them comfortable for the remainder of their life which means they can afford to spend their retirement as they please taking up as many new activites as they wish to without money being a object. However a great majority of people retire with a state pension and find they quite often don't have enough many to live comfortabley and this is a major factor which can effect how someones retirement is spent.
When retired it can be a great chance for people to spend their remaining time with the person that they love. however if they have out-lived their spouse retirement can be a very lonely time with few chances to communicate with other people, particulary if they are still in mourning which is quite common.
If they suffer from a disability it will likely effect their social life. It can often leave a person house-bound which will greatly effect their enjoyment of later adulthood.
In conclusion, a persons enjoyment of life during later adulthood greatly depends on a variety things which leaves me doubtless in thinking that will effect a persons social life. Some people find as they get older their social becomes non- existent and it can also appear that they are simplt waiting to die. However, for some people, under the right circumstances their social life has never looked as healthy and their best part of their life was during retirement.
By Kirsty Metcalfe, Tracy Bolton and Natalie Meeson.
