middle age

This time span is generally referred to as "middle age" and can be defined as the time of ages about 40–45 to about 60–65.{{cite web|title=Middle Age: definition of middle age in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US)|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/middle-age|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014211143/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/middle-age|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 14, 2014|access-date=2016-06-15|website=Oxforddictionaries.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/middle+age|title=Definition of MIDDLE AGE|website=www.merriam-webster.com|access-date=2022-10-04|archive-date=2016-10-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027234813/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/middle+age|url-status=live}}[http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/middle-age Middle age] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712041706/http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/middle-age|date=2017-07-12}}. CollinsDictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved December 05, 2012.{{Cite web|url=https://dictionary.apa.org/|title=APA Dictionary of Psychology|website=dictionary.apa.org|access-date=2022-10-04|archive-date=2018-04-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180427011428/https://dictionary.apa.org/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/science/middle-age|title=middle age | psychology | Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|access-date=2022-10-04|archive-date=2022-10-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004025602/https://www.britannica.com/science/middle-age|url-status=live}} Many changes may occur between young adulthood and this stage.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMsXWRjHRfwC&q=cognitive%20decline%20may%20occur%20with%20age|title=The Aging Auditory System|author-link1=Sandra Gordon-Salant|first1=Sandra|last1=Gordon-Salant|first2=Robert D.|last2=Frisina|first3=Richard R.|last3=Fay|first4=Arthur|last4=Popper|date=3 May 2010|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|via=Google Books|isbn=9781441909947|access-date=1 November 2020|archive-date=19 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319100711/https://books.google.com/books?id=oMsXWRjHRfwC&q=cognitive%20decline%20may%20occur%20with%20age|url-status=live}}{{cite journal | pmc=7347230 | year=2020 | last1=Infurna | first1=F. J. | last2=Gerstorf | first2=D. | last3=Lachman | first3=M. E. | title=Midlife in the 2020s: Opportunities and Challenges | journal=The American Psychologist | volume=75 | issue=4 | pages=470–485 | doi=10.1037/amp0000591 | pmid=32378943 }}{{cite journal | pmc=4734389 | year=2015 | last1=Lachman | first1=M. E. | title=Mind the Gap in the Middle: A Call to Study Midlife | journal=Research in Human Development | volume=12 | issue=3–4 | pages=327–334 | doi=10.1080/15427609.2015.1068048 | pmid=26848288 }} There is no universal consensus on what the exact definition of middle age is, but usual characteristics include the beginning of rapid decline of fertility, graying of hair, and other physical changes.

Those in middle age continue to develop relationships and adapt to changes in relationships. Such changes are highly evident in the maturing relationships between growing or grown children and aging parents. Community involvement is fairly typical of this stage of adulthood,{{cite book | last = Stern | first = Theodore | title = Massachusetts General Hospital comprehensive clinical psychiatry | publisher = Elsevier | location = London | year = 2016 | isbn = 978-0-323-29507-9 }} as is continued career development.

Middle-aged adults may begin to show visible signs of aging. This process can be more rapid in women who have osteoporosis.{{Cn|date=December 2023}} Changes might occur in the nervous system. The ability to perform complex tasks remains intact. In the normal range of 45 to 55, women experience menopause, which ends natural fertility.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SozvHsW4VysC&q=gynecology%20menopause%20range%2048-55&pg=PA435|title=Obstetrics and Gynecology Recall|first1=F. John|last1=Bourgeois|first2=Paola A.|last2=Gehrig|first3=Daniel S.|last3=Veljovich|date=1 January 2005|publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins|via=Google Books|isbn=9780781748797|access-date=1 November 2020|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110030051/https://books.google.com/books?id=SozvHsW4VysC&q=gynecology%20menopause%20range%2048-55&pg=PA435|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=What is Menopause? |date=16 October 2024 |url=https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-menopause#transition}} Menopause can have many side effects. Changes can occur to skin, and other changes may include a decline in physical fitness, including a reduction in aerobic performance, a decrease in maximal heart rate, and graying and loss of hair. Sensory sensitivity in middle-aged adults has been shown to be one of the lowest.{{Cite journal|last1=Harkins|first1=S. W.|last2=Price|first2=D. D.|last3=Martelli|first3=M.|date=1986-01-01|title=Effects of Age on Pain Perception: Thermonociception|journal=Journal of Gerontology|volume=41|issue=1|pages=58–63|doi=10.1093/geronj/41.1.58|pmid=3941257|issn=0022-1422 }} These measurements are generalities, and people may exhibit changes at different rates and times.{{Cite journal|display-authors=3|last1=Leyk|first1=Dieter|last2=Rüther|first2=Thomas|last3=Wunderlich|first3=Max|last4=Sievert|first4=Alexander|last5=Eßfeld|first5=Dieter|last6=Witzki|first6=Alexander|last7=Erley|first7=Oliver|last8=Küchmeister|first8=Gerd|last9=Piekarski|first9=Claus|last10=Löllgen|first10=Herbert|date=2010-11-19|title=Physical Performance in Middle Age and Old Age |journal=Deutsches Ärzteblatt Online|volume=107|issue=46|pages=809–816|doi=10.3238/arztebl.2010.0809|pmid=21151416|issn=1866-0452|pmc=2999945 }}

Mortality rates can begin to increase, due mainly to health issues like heart problems, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. Still, the majority of middle-aged people in industrialized nations can expect to live into old age.

Starting around age 35, pregnant women are considered to be of advanced maternal age, and significant declines in fertility begin to occur that usually end with menopause around age 50.{{Cite web|url=https://familydoctor.org/pregnancy-35-advanced-maternal-age/|title=Pregnancy After 35: Advanced Maternal Age|first1=familydoctor org editorial|last1=staff|first2=Alex|last2=Rice|first3=Alex|last3=Rice|date=September 7, 2017|website=familydoctor.org|access-date=October 4, 2022|archive-date=October 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004030024/https://familydoctor.org/pregnancy-35-advanced-maternal-age/|url-status=live}}

Middle-aged urban adults who are experiencing frailty and poverty show an association with increased H₂O₂ induced oxidative DNA damage.{{cite journal |vauthors=Smith JT, Noren Hooten N, Mode NA, Zonderman AB, Ezike N, Kaushal S, Evans MK |title=Frailty, sex, and poverty are associated with DNA damage and repair in frail, middle-aged urban adults |journal=DNA Repair (Amst) |volume=129 |issue= |pages=103530 |date=September 2023 |pmid=37437502 |doi=10.1016/j.dnarep.2023.103530 |url=|doi-access=free |pmc=10807508 }}

Erik Erikson refers to this period of adulthood as generativity versus stagnation, the seventh of eight stages of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. People in middle age may experience some cognitive loss, which usually remains unnoticeable because life experiences and strategies get developed to compensate for any decrease in mental abilities.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMsXWRjHRfwC&q=cognitive%20decline%20may%20occur%20with%20age|title=The Aging Auditory System|author-link1=Sandra Gordon-Salant|first1=Sandra|last1=Gordon-Salant|first2=Robert D.|last2=Frisina|first3=Richard R.|last3=Fay|first4=Arthur|last4=Popper|date=3 May 2010|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|via=Google Books|isbn=9781441909947 }}

During this stage, adults often strive to have things that will outlast them. Generativity, which is the concern and the commitment middle-aged people have for future generations, is a big part of development during this stage.{{Cite web|title=APA PsycNet|url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-07169-002|access-date=2021-05-26|website=psycnet.apa.org|language=en|archive-date=2021-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526040905/https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-07169-002|url-status=live}}

For some, marital satisfaction remains intact, but other family relationships can become more difficult. Career satisfaction focuses more on inner satisfaction and contentedness and less on ambition and the desire to advance. Even so, career changes occur often. Middle age can be a time when people reexamine their lives by taking stock and evaluating their accomplishments. Morality may change and become more conscious.{{Cite journal|last1=Kellner|first1=Douglas|last2=Habermas|first2=Jurgen|date=March 1992|title=Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action |journal=Contemporary Sociology|volume=21|issue=2|pages=278|doi=10.2307/2075511|jstor=2075511|issn=0094-3061 }} The perception that those in this stage of development of life undergo a so-called midlife crisis is a largely false one.{{Citation|last1=Levenson|first1=Michael R.|title=Change in Personality Processes and Health Outcomes |work=Handbook of Personality Development|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-80561-0|last2=Aldwin|first2=Corolyn M.|year=2014|doi=10.4324/9781315805610.ch21 }} Personality characteristics remain stable throughout this period, and relationships in middle age may continue to evolve into connections that are stable.

• Aging
• Midlife crisis
• Young adult
• Youth
• Middlephobia {{In lang|ja}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |title=Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife |author=Barbara Bradley Haggerty |year=2016 |publisher=Riverhead Books |isbn=978-1594631702 }}
• Lachman, M. E. (Ed.). (2001). [https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Handbook+of+Midlife+Development-p-9780471333319 Handbook of midlife development]. NY: John Wiley.
• {{cite journal|doi=10.1177/0165025414533223 |title=Midlife as a pivotal period in the life course |year=2015 |last1=Lachman |first1=Margie E. |last2=Teshale |first2=Salom |last3=Agrigoroaei |first3=Stefan |journal=International Journal of Behavioral Development |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=20–31 |pmid=25580043 |pmc=4286887 }}
• {{Citation |author=桝田 智彦 |title= 中高年がひきこもる理由―臨床から生まれた回復へのプロセス―|publisher=青春出版社 |date=2019}}

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{{succession box|title= Stages of human development |before=Young adulthood|after=Old age|years=Middle age}}

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Category:Human development

Category:Human life stages