Optimized Engagement Across Life Domains in Adult Development: Balancing Diversity and Interdomain Consequences

Abstract

Adaptive life-span development involves individuals’ simultaneous coordination of motivational engagement across multiple domains of life. The present study tests this proposition using data from the Midlife in the United States National Longitudinal Study of Health and Well-Being (MIDUS I and II). Results from multilevel model analyses indicate that participants’ engagement with, perceived control over, and reported quality in the domains of work, health, and family relationships follow general trajectories across adulthood that reflect age-graded and socially structured opportunities. Furthermore, individuals adaptively managed their engagement across these central domains of adulthood, in that cross-domain associations were positive or at least nondetrimental.