“Maybe If I Was 25, But I'm 40”: Age Identities, Work-Related Problems, and Distress Management

Abstract

Previous research shows that social statuses strongly influence negative life events’ effects on mental health. Studies also show that identities are linked to mental health and can be partially based on age. However, there are few studies on age identities as they relate to the stress process. Using data from 48 in-depth interviews with 25 unemployed/underemployed people, I identify two work-related problems (constrained employment options and poor self-evaluations) and three coping strategies (social comparisons, alternate identities, and expanded employment options) related to age identities. Results illustrate the links between subjective aspects of age, age-based norms, distress, and coping strategies, and highlight the utility of integrating symbolic interactionist and structural approaches.

Notes

¹Given that job stability within a company is no longer the norm and that layoffs have increasingly been a common and accepted way for companies to increase profit (Kalleberg 2009), I do not believe this necessarily represents pre-existing mental health problems or poor job performance for my sample.

²Identity processes would be unlikely to occur for people who had never identified with their jobs in the first place. Because I was interested in how identity relates to job loss, I needed to ensure participants currently or previously had held at least a moderate level of identification with their jobs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dawn R. Norris

Dawn R. Norris, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of sociology at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She takes both quantitative and qualitative approaches to study the sociology of identity, aging and the life course, mental health, and work and occupations. She has published in journals such as Symbolic Interaction, Research on Aging, and Teaching Sociology, and is currently under contract with Rutgers University Press to publish her new book, Job Loss, Identity, and Mental Health.