Diversity in Paths to Midlife Well-being, Work, and Civic Engagement Across Three Decades

Drawing from life course and lifespan developmental perspectives and 32 years (age 18 to 50) of longitudinal data from the Edmonton Transitions Study, we explored trajectories of change in well-being (anger, self-rated mental and physical health), work (job satisfaction, intrinsic work rewards), and civic engagement. Baseline parent education (74% with no university degree), gender (47% women), and immigration status (20% born outside Canada) were examined as between-persons predictors of within-person trajectories. Average trajectories showed anger was highest in the transition to adulthood and lowest at age 50. Self-rated mental health was highest at age 32, self-rated physical health declined after age 25, and job satisfaction, intrinsic work rewards, and civic engagement peaked in midlife. Lower parental education at baseline was a salient risk factor for less optimal trajectories (i.e., higher levels of anger and lower levels of physical health, intrinsic work rewards, and civic engagement), while gender and immigration status had more limited effects. The results are consistent with perspectives on the life course emphasizing within-person, between-persons, and cross-domain diversity in human development.