Youth to the ElderlyAdult Life Cycle

Adult Life Cycle

Young Adulthood (19-30 years)• It is a time when most of us finish school, find a

career we enjoy and create a family of our own.• Early adulthood is the period between

adolescence and adulthood where we live in limbo.

• We are not quite adults, and we haven't left some of our adolescent games behind!

• Physically it is a time where we are our healthiest and will reach our peak performance.

• Cognitively it is a time to grow up and make life decisions.• Housing – Mortgage vs. Rent• Financials•Marriage

• Socioemotionally it is a time to take on roles of independence, lifestyles, marriage, and family.

• Often relationships with our parents change, we feel too old to live with them, but we are not quite ready to form a family of our own, we should try to form an identity as an individual apart from our families.

• Try to find our own strengths and weaknesses.

• We need to accept who we are, self esteem can make a world of difference.

As a young adult, you need freedom to take steps into the world, explore all possibilities, and make independent choices.

Middle Adulthood (35-59)

• Adults are expected to be financially, socially, and emotionally independent. The transition to adulthood is generally considered to be complete at about 34 years.

• Many changes happen during this time of life especially our physical development and health, career and finances, marriage, and leisure activities.

• They should be employed, and formed intimate couple relationships, and if they choose to, have children.

• A time when they start to think about "how much time they have left”•They re-examine their lives, relationships, work and question the meaning of it all....MID LIFE CRISIS!!

Physical Developmental Changes:• Most noticeable changes are seeing and

hearing, first sign of hearing loss is a 40 year olds difficulty hearing a doorbell or a telephone ringing.

• Height - people gradually get shorter and shorter.

• Hair – graying.• Skin – wrinkling.• Bodies – sagging.• Teeth – yellowing.• Some strive to make themselves look

younger - plastic surgery, dying hair, wigs, exercise programs, vitamins.

Career and Finances:• By this time most individuals have settled

into their careers and between the ages of 40-45 have ceased to advance up the career ladder.

• Adults adjust their idealistic hopes to realistic possibilities for retirement which is a major concern and can lead to stress and sadness over unaccomplished goals.

Marriage and Family:• Many marriages either improve or

deteriorate during middle age, if the couple can not adapt to the new conditions of their lives, their marriage may develop problems.

• Intimacy, marriage, and family concerns should still be a priority.

Leisure:• Leisure holds an important place in helping

adults deal with life experiences. • It enhances one's well being, and is a

buffer to the stresses of life.

Late Adulthood (60+)

• Accepting responsibility for your life and being able to undo the past and achieve satisfaction with self is essential.

• On the other hand, some may look back at their lives with a sense of doubt or gloom over their life's worth.

Physically: • Most elderly experience declines in hearing,

caused by prolonged exposure to noise.• Vision begins to deteriorate requiring glasses for

reading. • Some adults require bifocals or trifocals.

• Also the sense of taste, and smell become to weaken as well.

• They also experience some declines in their ability to detect pain and notice temperature changes.

• As people age, their metabolism begins to slow down by about 1/3 causing a ballooning weight gain.

• Exercise is important to help keep weight gain down and reduces the risk of serious illness and death.

Socially:• Many older adults place a high value on

spending time with friends and family, sometimes more so with friends than family, perhaps because they don't want to feel they are a burden or do not want to interfere with their extended family.

Grand Parenting:• Being a grandparent can mean giving

oneself a sense of continuity and involves emotional self-fulfillment.

• Depending on how old you are when you become a grand parent, some may not feel any real importance.

Finances:• There is a great concern about financial

security at this stage as healthcare and residential care costs arise.

• Some have not made wise choices to invest for their future, other have, and this has allowed them to travel and live more extravagantly.