Challenge episodes over middle age: A person-centered study of aging well in poor health

We studied subjective well-being (SWB) as a dynamic system, focusing on change processes in women who faced mid-life challenges of poor health. To examine both general and age-specific effects, we focused on two groups of ill women and compared each of them to healthy controls: the early-onset ill experienced their health challenge at 52 (i.e., normatively early) and the late-onset ill later at 61. Our 20-year longitudinal design combined quantitative and idiographic life data, testing hypotheses about frequent handicaps of ill people, how SWB can be recovered, and how the nature of stresses and recovery processes varies with period of life. Results suggest that processes of aging and development helped the early-onset ill to overcome handicaps through emphasis on generativity and the late-onset ill to regain involvement in life.