Background: Negative mental health implications of menopause found in the general population, combined with high rates of mental health conditions found in women with intellectual disabilities, provide rationale to examine the existing literature to determine the impact of menopause on women with intellectual disabilities. Methods: The review was…

Adult development theorists believe that the changes that occur during the adult years are predictable and age linked. Their theories explain how change is resolved by the majority of the adult population. Three persons whose research has been influential in the field of adult development during the 1970s are Erik Erikson, Daniel Levinson, and…

Some family transitions have been reshaped by demographic changes in recent years. Changes in mortality patterns have expanded the duration of individual lives and family relationships. The death of a child, once an expectable part of life, is now so rare that it constitutes a major life crisis. Facing the death of one's parents, still a normal…

Research evidence has accumulated to indicate that a sixth stage of career development--career renewal--occurs for many people between the end of the establishment stage and the beginning of the maintenance stage. Explains why a renewal stage was overlooked in the past, clarifies the meaning, and compares transitions of women and men. (Author/JBJ)

Writings in the field of human development and learning in the adult years can be integrated into a simple theory. A theory is defined as a policy, hypothesis, or set of principles used or proposed as a basis for action. The adult years are defined as a time in which one makes choices with a degree of maturity and wisdom and assumes responsibility…

A systematic review and critique of the work of midlife researchers and theorists such as Gould, Vaillant, Jung, Newman and Levinson, among others, indicates that: (1) a midlife transition period exists from approximately 35 to 55 and lasts as many as 10 years for both men and women; (2) a series of unique and fundamental biological, psychosocial,…

The long-held belief that a person became an adult at about 20 years of age and, henceforth, remained psychologically and physically on a plateau until old age, has recently been found unacceptable in the light of research contributed by developmental psychology. Adult development may be viewed as the function of the interaction of the…