Traditionally, expertise theories have focused on skills acquisition with little regard for the domain or contextual factors affecting expertise development and retention. Because the development, retention, and recruiting of individuals with expertise is critical to organizational success, it is essential that HRD professionals understand the…

Learning is an act of hope. Although adults enter learning experiences from many frames of emotion and cognitive beliefs, each views this experience as the purposeful choice for a new and different future, a future of hope and possibilities. For adult learners, the pursuit of higher education is a choice and a life-changing engagement. Given the…

This study uses data from the Norwegian NorLAG study (N = 2,455) to examine differences in relationship quality and psychological well-being between middle-aged cohabitors and married persons. The authors question whether previous results linking cohabitation as compared with marriage to lower well-being will replicate in Norway, where…

The current study employed a life events perspective to examine the relationship between attachment style and both adjustment and coping processes in adults during two specific life events involving both the loss of and a renegotiation of an attachment relationship: the launching of children from the family of origin and job loss, which represent…

The purpose of this study is threefold--first, to differentiate the group of public school teachers who left teaching to take up nonteaching jobs within the K-12 system (nonteaching educators) from those who left teaching entirely (leavers) and those who remained in teaching (stayers); secondly, to compare the personal characteristics, beliefs,…

We use a life course framework to examine how the "new risk economy" has left middle-age professionals, managers and executives more vulnerable to job loss and unemployment despite high levels of human capital. Using in-depth qualitative data from 77 recently-unemployed white-collar workers, we examine perceptions of macro-economic…

The decision to leave a successful career and great earning potential to start over as a novice with new surroundings and expectations is not made without consideration of a wide array of variables. Making the transition to higher education was not an easy one and the transition itself has presented various other challenges and joys that I have…

The mid-career time-frame in student affairs is often defined by title, position, and responsibility. It is also the most under-researched and misunderstood time-frame in student affairs (Benke & Disque, 1990; Carpenter, Guido-DiBrito, & Kelly, 1987; Evans, 1988). Missing in the mid-career definition and research is an examination and…

The passage of time is fundamentally experienced through people's interaction with their social worlds. Life-course scholars acknowledge the multiple aspects of time-based experience but have given little attention to age identity in a dynamic context. Drawing from a stress-process model, we expected that turbulence within people's family…

The purpose of this study was to examine beliefs about creative activity and its psychological and spiritual benefits among middle-aged women who make jewelry, using qualitative measures. Twenty-nine female participants aged 31 to 64 answered questions about the effects of jewelry making on their lives. Qualitative responses provided…

In 2007, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, with support from the Lehman Brothers Foundation, commissioned Public Agenda to explore interest in teaching careers among high-achieving college students, recent graduates, and potential career changers. MetLife Foundation, specifically interested in potential career changers as…

How do the goals we once cherished but can no longer pursue relate to maturity? The authors asked adults who have experienced challenging life transitions to describe the life goals they once sought but no longer do and those goals that motivate their lives now. The authors conducted research which examines how adults' views of their lost and…

This explanatory study employs developmental theory and NSOPF-99 data to illuminate the middle years of faculty life, an ill-defined and largely unexamined portion of the academic career. The study's findings suggest that the middle years of faculty life have distinctive attributes, pose special challenges, and deserve systematic investigation by…

Reviews the mid- and later-life divorce literature in the context of two currently popular theories of divorce. Finds tentative support for the theories as they apply to mid- and later-life divorce. Gives particular reference to the need for more rigorous empirical testing of mid- and later-life divorce models. (Author/ABB)

Suggests basic truths about adult behavior: (1) adult behavior is determined by transition, not age; (2) adults are motivated to learn and change by a need to control, belong, matter, master, renew, and take stock; and (3) adult readiness for change depends on situation, support, self, and strategies. (JOW)