Career Momentum in Midlife Women: Life Context, Identity, and Personality Correlates

Transcription

1 Journal of Occupational Health Psychology Copyright 1998 by the Educational Publishing Foundation 1998, Vol. 3, No. 3, /98/$3.00 Career Momentum in Midlife Women: Life Context, Identity, and Personality Correlates Brent W. Roberts and Wendy Friend University of Tulsa Women (N = 83) in their early 50s indicated whether they were increasing, maintaining, or decreasing momentum in their career. On the basis of their career momentum, women were classified into 3 groups and compared on work and family patterns, the importance of work to their identity, personality characteristics, and psychological well-being. Women with high career momentum were in higher status jobs and viewed their work as more central to their identity than women who were maintaining or decreasing their career momentum. Also, women with high career momentum scored higher on measures of self-acceptance, independence, and effective functioning in their early 50s and also rated their physical health higher than the other groups. Prospective longitudinal analyses showed that personality and life context patterns differentiated among the career momentum groups as far back as 30 years before the assessment of career momentum. The significance of the results for women's career development in midlife and coping with retirement is discussed. Career development in men is often viewed as a sequence of discrete stages, or events, that tend to occur at specific ages within the life course (e.g., Levinson, 1978; Super, 1963, 1990). According to these theories, men proceed along career paths through a progression of increasing investment, plateauing, and then decreasing investment in work until retirement. There is some question as to whether women, as a result of family responsibilities and social norms, follow the same pattern (e.g., Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Meade & Walker, 1989). At midlife, for example, women may be increasing investment in their careers because of freedoms associated with the empty nest or decreasing career investment to spend more time with a retired spouse or to care for elderly parents. For this article, we investigated career momentum patterns in a sample of middle-aged women from the Mills Longitudinal Study (Helson & Wink, 1992), who have been studied for over 30 years (1958 to 1989). The term career momentum refers, in part, to whether a woman is increasing, maintaining, or decreasing investment in her career. The primary goal Brent W. Roberts and Wendy Friend, Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa. This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH We thank Ravenna Helson and Robert Hansson for their thoughtful comments on drafts of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Brent W. Roberts, Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma Electronic mail may be sent to brent-roberts@utulsa.edu. of this research was to test hypotheses concerning the relation of career momentum to women's concurrent life context (e.g., family structure), identity structure, personality, and psychological well-being. Our second goal was to place career momentum in a life span developmental context (Baltes, 1987). That is, we view women's midlife career momentum as a reflection of long-term developmental pathways that represent a constellation of life choices and personality characteristics (see Caspi &Bem, 1990; Johnson, 1996; Moen, 1996). We used the longitudinal database to examine social context (e.g., family structure) and personality differences 9 years, and then 30 years, before the assessment of career momentum. Construct of Career Momentum The construct of career momentum reflects a person's perception of movement or mobility in his or her career. For example, some individuals feel that their careers are moving forward and that they not only are making progress in their career but also will continue to make progress in the future. These individuals would be characterized as having high career momentum. Alternatively, others feel that their careers are neither gaining speed nor slowing down, but simply maintaining momentum. These individuals may feel stuck in their current work because of few advancement opportunities, or they may feel that they have achieved all that there is to achieve and are coasting indefinitely on career plateaus. Finally, some people may be reducing their investment in their 195

2 196 ROBERTS AND FRIEND careers, often in anticipation of retirement or some other significant life transition. These individuals would be characterized as having low or diminishing career momentum. Career momentum is related to constructs such as career plateau (Tremblay, Roger, & Toulouse, 1995) and "stuckness" (Kanter, 1979). Career plateau is seen as either an absence of vertical or horizontal mobility or a low probability of promotion in the near future (Ference, Stoner, & Warren, 1977; Veiga, 1981). Similarly, people who are stuck in their current occupation may have low ceilings in their jobs or may be blocked from promotion for personal or organizational reasons (Kanter, 1979). Career momentum differs from the concept of career plateau and stuckness in that it covers a broader spectrum of momentum, from being on the fast track to ending one's career. Career momentum, like related constructs such as career plateau, can be examined from a subjective or objective perspective. The objective perspective attends to factors such as number of years since one's last promotion or lack of opportunity for advancement. In the present research, we used the women's subjective evaluation of their career momentum to categorize them into groups of increasing, maintaining, or decreasing career momentum. A subjective approach to career momentum emphasizes a person's social age and psychological reality (e.g., Neugarten, 1968) rather than chronological age or objective career stage (e.g., Super, 1990). Social age reflects an awareness of social norms for one's position on a social clock (Neugarten, 1968). Social clocks represent the norms and expectations surrounding development within a particular social role. People can feel either on-time or off-time when it comes to major life transitions and stages of life. These feelings are subsequently associated with a person's personality and psychological adjustment (Helson, Mitchell, & Moane, 1984). Thus, career momentum should be a construct that organizes not only concurrent situational factors, such as occupational concerns and life context, but also more long-term factors, such as identity, personality, and psychological well-being. Subjective Career Momentum and the Life Context What factors in midlife would have an effect on a woman's subjective rating of career momentum? We investigate four factors within the immediate life context of the Mills women that may affect midlife career momentum: status level in work, the empty nest, spouse's health and occupational situation, and the responsibility of caring for parents. The association between career momentum and occupational status may hinge on the self-rewarding aspect of success. Investing the time and energy required to succeed in work may increase the importance and relevance of work to a person's overall identity and may lead to a desire to continue on that life path indefinitely. This would lead to a desire to invest more energy in one's work. Several studies have supported this idea, showing that greater occupational attainment is related to a lower likelihood of retiring early (George, Fillenbaum, & Palmore, 1984; McCune & Schmitt, 1981; Ruhm, 1989). In light of this research, we would expect women who were more successful in their careers to have high career momentum in midlife. In contrast, women who show lower occupational attainment will be less committed to their careers and thus more likely to have decreasing career momentum. We assume the women who are maintaining career momentum will fall somewhere between the other two groups. Family factors may also influence career momentum. For many women, the family structure in midlife is characterized by children leaving home, a commensurate decrease in pressures to adhere to the traditional housewife role, and an increasing investment in the couple relationship (Wiersma, 1980). The psychological impact of children leaving home is mostly benign in the present era, with some modest positive influences on women's psychological wellbeing (Harkens, 1978; Mitchell & Helson, 1990; Neugarten, 1968). Within this life context, the empty nest may provide increasing opportunities for women to invest time and energy in paid employment. In addition, an aging partner may influence a woman's investment in her career. For example, if a woman's spouse is in poor health, she may be more inclined to retire and care for her partner (George et al., 1984). Likewise, if a woman's partner is financially well off, or considering retirement, this may also lead to an increased tendency to retire (Talaga & Beehr, 1995). Conversely, women who experience loss of a spouse through death or divorce may be more inclined to continue a career in midlife as a result of financial need. We examined the relation between each of these family factors and career momentum. Finally, in midlife, women often assume the responsibility of caring for aging parents. Nearly half of all caregivers are between 45 and 64 years of age,

3 CAREER MOMENTUM 197 and three fourths of all people providing care for an elderly adult are women (Subcommittee on Human Services, 1987). Caring for parents may add significant strain to some women's lives. It is related to increased stress and decreased well-being and life satisfaction (Brody, Kleban, Johnson, Hoffman, & Schoonover, 1987; Cantor, 1983; Haley, Levine, Brown, Berry, & Hughes, 1987), We expect caring for parents to be associated with low career momentum (e.g., Gibean & Anastas, 1989): Subjective Career Momentum and Identity Structure Work and its defining features play an important role in constructing an overall identity (Erikson, 1959). We propose that career momentum is a defining feature of one's career and should then play a role in how individuals construct their identities. Identity theory (Stryker & Statham, 1985) provides a framework for understanding how career momentum is related to overall identity and, in part, to the psychological importance of work to the self. Identity theory states that a person's identity is a collection of role identities. Role identities are self-descriptions organized around social roles such as employee or spouse (Burke & Tully, 1977). Identity theory also proposes that individuals organize their role identities into hierarchies that are structured around the relative importance of each role identity (Stryker & Serpe, 1982). The importance of a role identity for an individual is determined by the individual's social and emotional commitment to that role and the individual's satisfaction with performance in that rote (Hoelter, 1983; Stryker, 1987). Similarly, career momentum is a description of the importance of work, in that it indicates the degree of motivation and stimulation that the career provides for the individual. In addition, the construct of career momentum helps to describe where in the identity hierarchy the work role is placed. The conceptualization of career momentum in terms of identity theory leads us to expect career momentum to be related to the importance of work to women's self-concept or identity. More specifically, we would expect women with high career momentum to consider work as a more central defining role than women with maintaining or decreasing patterns of career momentum. Subjective Career Momentum, Personality, and Psychological Well-Being We know from previous research that being invested in a career is related to high self-esteem in women (Baruch & Barnett, 1986; Serlin, 1980). At the simplest level, adding work to one's array of activities increases the number of areas of stimulation in a person's life. It has been proposed that simply having more contexts in which to express and achieve one's goals is related to higher levels of satisfaction and self-esteem (Thoits, 1983). Also, work provides opportunities to achieve goals and benchmarks that lead to increases in self-worth. Factors such as earning money, successfully completing projects, working effectively with coworkers, and receiving promotions and pay raises are achievements associated with increased self-worth, and activities more likely to be afforded to someone who is actively pursuing a career (Andrews & Brown, 1985). We hypothesized that women with high career momentum will have had greater oppommity to achieve these benchmarks of success and experience a greater sense of self-confidence, independence, and self-esteem. We also hypothesized that women with different levels of career momentum will differ on measures of psychological well-being and adjustment. Previous research investigating number and quality of roles at age 43 in the Mills study showed that psychological well-being was a precursor to occupying more roles, rather than number of roles being a precursor to psychological well-being (Helson, Elliott, & Leigh, 1990). The implication is that women who are less well adjusted take on fewer roles than well-adjusted women. If this pattern continues into midlife (age 52), it may provide some clues as to the psychological profile of the maintaining and low career momentum groups. That is, their lack of desire to increase investment in work may be related to a lack of psychological resiliency. To test this hypothesis, we examined how differences in career momentum relate to several indexes of dispositional well-being and effectiveness. We also tested the relation between career momentum patterns and self-reported physical health, under the assumption that self-reported physical health is an additionalmarker of both psychological and physical well-being. Prospective Influence of Personality and Life Structures on Subjective Career Momentum The potential personality and life context differences among the career momentum groups at midlife highlight another possibility: These differences may reflect distinct long-term patterns of personality and life structure. Recent research has shown that personality dispositions are quite consistent across the adult life span (Costa & McCrae, 1988; Helson &

4 198 ROBERTS AND FRIEND Moane, 1987). Likewise, Caspi and Bern (1990) showed that long-term personality differences combine with life choices and subsequent life structures (e.g., social roles) to generate a cumulative continuity across the life course. If patterns of life structures and personality are associated with career momentum at age 52, then we would expect these differences to also exist earlier in the women's lives. To test these prospective hypotheses, we used the longitudinal database to investigate the antecedent personality and life structure differences 9 years (age 43), and then 30 years (age 21), before the assessment of career momentum. First, we examined antecedent personality differences across measures of selfconfidence and well-being. In addition to the role that personality dispositions may play in a woman's career momentum, we also investigated two antecedent life structures: number of children and status level in work. The responsibility of caring for children has historically fallen on the shoulders of women (Giele, 1993) and is one of the strongest predictors of women's occupational patterns (Marini, 1978). Research has consistently shown that having children either interrupts or impedes a woman's career (Marini, 1980; Stewart, Lykes, & LaFrance, 1982). We would expect that having more children would be negatively related to career momentum. The relation between antecedent standing on status level in paid work at age 43 and career momentum at age 52 will also be investigated. We expect the patterns of status level across career momentum groups at age 43 to be consistent with the patterns at age 52. In summary, we examined the nexus of life context, identity, and personality differences surrounding three levels of subjective career momentum at midlife. We also tested whether the subjective assessment of career momentum related to psychological well-being and then compared those findings with the relation between objective indexes of career momentum and psychological well-being. Lastly, we examined the antecedent personality and life structure patterns associated with career momentum to test the idea that career momentum reflects the cumulative continuity of differences from a younger age. Method Participants: The Mills Longitudinal Study The Mills Longitudinal Study is an ongoing collaborative project emphasizing the issue of personality development in women. Now in its 40th year, the early focus of the study was on creativity and the realization of creative potential (Helson, 1967; Helson, Roberts, & Agronick, 1995). Recent contributions of the Mills study have been to our understanding of personality change (Helson & Moane, 1987; Helson & Roberts, 1994; Helson & Wink, 1992) and the relation between personality development and different social structures, such as social clock projects (Helson et al., 1984), historical context (Duncan & Agronick, 1995; Roberts & Helson, 1997), the traditional role of homemaker (Helson & Picano, 1990), and the experience of paid employment (Roberts, 1994, 1997). The Mills sample participants consisted of a representative two-thirds sample (N = 140) of the senior class at Mills College in Oakland, California, contacted in 1958 and The sample was predominantly White and middle class. Three follow-ups in , 1981, and 1989 traced the personality and life events of approximately 100 women for 30 years (Helson, 1967; Helson et al., 1984; Helson & Wink, 1992). Attrition has varied across the 30 years of the study and is difficult to define explicitly because level of participation varied from filling out a one-page demographic sheet to completing 12 hr of questionnaires (see below). For example, at age 52, 120 women returned demographic information, whereas 106 completed a majority of the inventories and questionnaires. For the purposes of the present study, we chose to use whether the participant completed the major personality inventory used in the study as an indicator of attrition (the California Psychological Inventory; Gough, 1987, see below). With this test as a basis for participation, 140 women participated in , 94 in , 107 in 1981, and 106 in The assessment data were not included in the present study because the level of attrition during that period reduced the sample size and the power to detect differences among the career momentum groups. The women were 21, 27, 43, and 52 years old on average at the four times of testing. In the present study, we focused on 83 women who provided career momentum information at age 52 and a subset of their spouses (N = 42). We focused on these 83 women because they identified themselves as participating in the paid labor force at age 52 and they completed questionnaires related to their experiences in the paid labor force. Twenty-three women at age 52 who participated in the overall study were not included in the present research because they did not consider themselves in the paid labor force or they did not provide relevant information about their careers needed for the present study. Measures Subjective career momentum. Each woman who had participated in some fashion in the paid labor force between 1981 and 1989 responded to the following series of five yes/no questions: Are you (a) beginning a new career, (b) continuing to build a career, (c) maintaining a career, (d) reducing career involvement, or (e) retired? Women who answered yes to either of the first two questions were categorized as having high career momentum. Women who answered yes to the third question were categorized as maintaining their career momentum. Women who answered yes to either the fourth or fifth questions were categorized as having low career momentum. Two additional questions were used to validate the categorization of the women into these three groups. The first question concerned the women's expected retirement

5 CAREER MOMENTUM 199 age. The women indicated on a 5-point scale whether they were going to retire within the current 5-year period (1), when they were (2), when they were (3), when they were (4), or when they were over 70 (5). As expected, the women in the three career momentum groups indicated that they expected to retire at different ages, F(2, 67) = 7.6, p <.05. More specifically, women from the high momentum group indicated that they would retire later than the other two groups, t(67) = 3.4, p <.05. To the second question, women answered yes or no to whether they had been reducing their involvement in their career since the year of the age 43 assessment. Women with low career momentum were more likely to indicate that they had reduced their involvement in work since the previous assessment in 1981, 2(2, N = 83) = 28.9, p <.05. Status level in work. Status level in work was rated on a 1-to-7 scale, with low scores indicating positions that required minimum skill or training and high scores indicating positions that required extensive training and education and that provided for considerable autonomy and recognition (Helson, Elliott, & Leigh, 1989; Helson & Roberts, 1992). The lowest scores (1 s and 2s) corresponded to occupations such as clerical work (1) or substitute teacher (2), or to women who had erratic work histories. Women in low-status occupations who had received specialized training would receive higher ratings. For example, a teacher specializing in reading disabilities would receive a rating of 3, as would a social worker or nurse without an advanced degree. Ratings above 4 were reserved for women who had acquired positions that entailed some level of responsibility over adults, leadership, graduate education, or recognition for expression of talent. For example, psychologists and business executives with graduate degrees would be rated as 5 or above. Ratings of 6 or 7 would be given to women who had achieved substantial success within these specialized fields and women who showed clear signs of additional autonomy and recognition. Ratings of status level were based on several sources of information gathered at ages 43 and 52. These sources included the women's job rifles, descriptions of the nature of their work, and responses to open-ended questions. The last included questions concerning descriptions of the recognition received for their work, specialized training they acquired, the positive and negative aspects of their work, barriers overcome at work, and their work style. Following the method developed by Marini (1980), if a woman took part in the paid labor force any time from ages 27 to 43 and from ages 43 to 52, she was given scores on status level that corresponded to her highest level of attainment within that given period. Approximately 10% of the sample was considered not in the paid labor force during each period. A different set of two judges rated occupational attainment at each age. The correlation betwee~judges' ratings of status level was.94 for age 43 and.90 for age 52. The status level index was developed for the Mills Study because standard measures of occupational attainment lacked information specific to women's careers (see Helson et al., 1989). Despite its specificity to,the Mills Study, recent research has shown that the status level index correlates above.70 with standard occupational prestige measures such as the Hollingshead two-factor index of social position (Roberts, 1997). Objective career momentunt An objective measure of career momentum was computed by subtracting age 43 status level from age 52 status level. Positive scores on this dimension reflect increasing status and, thus, increasing objective career momentum. Negative scores reflect, objectively, decreasing momentum. Unchanging status level, defined as status scores within I point of each other at age 43 and 52, reflects maintaining status level and, thus, maintaining objective career momentum. For several analyses, women who had positive scores were categorized as having high objective career momentum, women who had unchanging scores were categorized as maintaining objective career momentum, and women who had decreasing scores were categorized as having low objective career momentum. Family factors. These included the number of children at age 43 and number of children living in the home at age 52, marital status (single = 1, married = 2), and spouses' earnings (reported by the women at age 52 in dollar mount). Spouses reported whether they were currently retired and rated their health on 5-point scale, from 1 = poor health to 5 = excellent health. Caring for parents was rated on a 5-point scale, from 1 = not at all involved in the care of parents to 5 = heavily involved in the care of parents. Work importance. At age 52, the importance of work to the self was rated on a 5-point scale from 1 = not at all important to 5 = very important. Personality and psychological well-being. Four scales from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) were used to test specific hypotheses concerning differences in personality and dispositional well-being among the career momentum groups. The CPI (Gongh, 1987) consists of 20 scales with three main themes: interpersonal assurance (assertiveness, poise, self-confidence, self-esteem, and investment in the social world), normative orientation (aspects of impulse control and norm adherence, such as socialization, self-control, responsibility, and achievement through conformance), and flexibility (cognitive complexity and openness). Two scales from the CPI were chosen to assess self-esteem and self-reliance: the Self-Acceptance and Independence scales, respectively. High scorers on the Self-Acceptance scale tend to be more confident and less self-doubting than low scorers. High scorers on the Independence scale tend to be resourceful and self-reliant; low scorers tend to lack self-confidence (see Gough, 1987). Two CPI scales were selected to assess dispositional well-being: the Weli-Being and Effective Functioning scales. High scorers on the Well-Being scale tend to be described as happy and optimistic, whereas low scorers are described as anxious and distractible. High scorers on the Effective Functioning scale tend to be more mature, clear thinking, and adaptable. Low scorers are described as temperamental, having narrow interests, and unambitious (Gough, 1987). The scales of the CPI have been carefully developed and refined and show good reliability and predictive validity (Domino, 1985; Gongh, 1987). For the present study, we computed internal consistency estimates on the four scales at ages 21, 43, and 52. The alpha reliability of the Self-Acceptance scale averaged.51 and ranged from.48 to.55. The internal consistency estimates for the Independence scale averaged.64 and ranged from.63 to.65. The alpha reliabilities of the Well-Being and Effective Functioning scales were higher. The Well-Being scale averaged.72 and ranged from.69 to.77. The Effective Functioning scale averaged.79 and ranged from.78 to.80. Complete reliability information (test-retest and norm-sample alpha

6 200 ROBERTS AND FRIEND reliability estimates) are available in the CPI administrator's guide (Gough, 1987). Self-reported physical health was also assessed as an indicator of psychological and physical well-being. The Mills women rated their physical health on a 5-point scale, from 1 = poor health to 5 = excellent health. Analyses After presenting the distribution of women across the three momentum groups, we used chi-square to analyze categorical outcome variables and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with planned comparisons to examine continuous variables. After testing the cross-sectional differences among the women, we used repeated measures ANOVA to test whether personality differences at age 52 were present 9 and 30 years earlier. Because in almost all cases high career momentum women were expected to have higher scores on outcome criteria than either the maintaining or low momentum groups, planned comparisons consisted of t tests comparing high career momentum women to the combination of maintaining and low momentum groups. Given the modest power of the present study, we decided that all differences at or beyond the p <.05 level were statistically significant and that differences between p =.10 and p =.05 warranted further investigation. To keep the number of comparisons to a minimum, we pursued the planned comparisons described above only ff overall differences were significant at or beyond p <.10. Results Subjective and Objective Career Momentum According to subjective ratings of career momen- tum, 55% of the women were categorized as having high career momentum, 28% as maintaining their career momentum, and 17% as having low career momentum. According to the objective index of career momentum, only 28% of the women increased in status level from age 43 to age 52. The large majority (60%) maintained the same level of status, whereas 11% decreased in status level from age 43 to age 52. Furthermore, the two indexes of career momentum were unrelated. The groups formed on the basis of the subjective index of career momentum did not differ on change in status level from age 43 to 52, F(2, 80) = 0.70, p >.05. Thus, in their early 50s, more women were subjectively increasing their career momentum than were maintaining or decreasing momentum. In contrast, according to the objective index of career momentum, most women were maintaining rather than increasing or decreasing momentum. Concurrent Life Context and Subjective Career Momentum The hypothesis that different status levels in the workplace would distinguish the career momentum groups was supported. Career momentum was significantly related to status level of work assessed at age 52, F(2, 77) = 3.3, p <.05. Women with high career momentum were in higher status jobs than women who were maintaining or decreasing their career momentum in midlife, t(77) = 2.6, p <.05 (see Table 1). Several factors within the participant's family context were considered possible influences of career momentum, such as the empty nest, marital status, spouse's work and health status, and the responsibility of caring for parents. One factor was related to career momentum. As hypothesized, women married to spouses who were retired were more likely to have low career momentum, 2(2, N = 42) = 8.3, p <.05. There were no differences among the career momentum groups on the number of children living at home at age 52, F(2, 80) = 0.6, p >.05, nor were there differences in marital status, 2(2, N = 83) = 0.91, p >.05. Thus, the hypotheses that the empty nest or being single would be related to increasing investment in a career were disconfirmed. In addition, spouse's income and health, as well as caring for parents, were unrelated to career momentum at midlife. Subjective Career Momentum and Identity Structure The hypothesis that career momentum would be related to the importance of work was born out, F(2, 78) = 18.2, p <.05. Women with high career momentum in midlife saw work as more important to their sense of self than women with maintaining or decreasing patterns of career momentum, t(78) = 5.1, p <.05 (see Table 1). Personality, Well-Being, and Subjective Career Momentum at Age 52 We hypothesized that career momentum would be related to the CPI Self-Acceptance, Independence, Effective Functioning, and Well-Being scales at age 52. There was a trend-level relation between career momentum and the CPI Self-Acceptance scale in the expected direction, F(2, 79) = 2,4, p <.10. High career momentum women scored higher on Self- Acceptance than the maintaining or decreasing career

7 CAREER MOMENTUM 201 Table 1 Differences Among Career Momentum Groups on Measures of Life Context, Identity Structure, and Personality Career momentum group High Maintaining Low Measure M SD M SD M SD F df Life context Status level 4.6a b b * 2, 77 No. of children , 80 Partner's health , 39 Partner's income , 35 Parental care , 78 Identity structure Work importance 3.6a b b " 2, 78 Personality and well-being Self-acceptance t 2, 79 Independence f 2, 79 Well-being , 79 Effective functioning b b * 2, 79 Self-reported physical health 4.6a b b " 2, 79 Note. Means with subscript a are statistically larger than the combination of means with subscript b at p <.05. *p <.05. "~p <.10. momentum groups, t(79) = 2.1,p <.05 (see Table 1). A similar trend-level pattern was found on the Independence scale, F(2, 79) = 2.9, p =.06. Once again, high career momentum women scored higher than the maintaining and low momentum groups, t(79) = 2.3, p <.05. The career momentum groups differed significantly on the Effective Functioning scale, F(2, 79) = 3.6, p <.05. As before, the high career momentum women scored significantly higher than the other two groups of women, t(79) = 2.3, p <.05. There were no statistically significant differences among the three groups on the CPI Well-Being scale. In addition, career momentum was related to self-reported physical health, F(2, 79) = 5.4, p <.05. Consistent with the hypothesis that being physically healthy would facilitate investment in one's career, the high career momentum women rated their health more favorably than the other two groups, t(79) = 3.1,p <.05. Personality, Well-Being, and Objective Career Momentum at Age 52 We examined the association between changes in status level from ages 43 to 52 with the four indicators of personality and well-being to contrast the objective variable of career momentum with the subjective index of career momentum. Objective career momentum was unrelated to the four indicators of personality and well-being. In addition, objective career momentum was unrelated to self-reported physical health. Women who increased in status level, maintained the same status level, or decreased in status level did not differ on any indicator of psychological well-being. Antecedent Personality and Life Structure Differences 9 and 30 Years Earlier From a life span developmental perspective, many of the cross-sectional differences may reflect longterm trends in personality and life structure. We first tested whether longitudinal differences in personality existed among the subjective career momentum groups. Figure 1 shows the longitudinal personality and well-being patterns of the career momentum groups. We used repeated measures ANOVA to test the long-term differences of the three groups on the four measures of personality. We also investigated whether the subjective career momentum groups showed unique patterns of change over time by testing for the interaction between career momentum and time. The main effect of subjective career momentum on the CPI Self-Acceptance scale over the 30-year period was statistically significant, F(2, 77) = 4.2, p <.05. The high career momentum group scored higher than the maintaining and low momentum groups at both age 43, t(79) = 2.3, p <.05, and age

8 202 ROBERTS AND FRIEND A ~ 6o ~ N 56 ~ s t I f t 50 Age 21 Age 43 Age 52 Age 21 Age 43 Age 52 ~_ o ~ 58.~ 57 ~ 56 g. 55.~ ~ 53 ~ 52 Maintaining 50 g ~.,. Reduc n 9 49 I I I 48 I I I Age Age Age Age 21 Age 43 Age Figure I. Comparison of change on the California Psychological Inventory (a) Selfo Acceptance, (b) Independence, (c) Effective Functioning, and (d) Well-Being scales among the three career momentum groups across 30 years. 21, t(79) = 2.6, p <.05. No interaction was found between subjective career momentum and time on Self-Acceptance scale scores. A similar pattern of differences was found on the Independence scale. Across time, the high career momentum group scored highest on the Independence scale, followed by the maintaining and low career momentum groups. The main effect for subjective career momentum group was statistically significant, F(2, 77) = 3.1, p =.05. The comparison between the high career momentum group and the combination of the maintaining and low career momentum groups was significant at a trend level at ages 43 and 21, t(79) = 1.8, p =.07, and t(79) = 1.9, p =.06, respectively. Once again, no interaction was found between subjective career momentum and time on Independence scale scores. The patterns over time for the CPI Well-Being and Effective Functioning scales were more complex than the patterns on the Self-Acceptance and Independence scales. The main effect for subjective career momentum was statistically significant for the Effective Functioning scale, F(2, 77) = 3.1, p =.05, but was not statistically significant for the Well-Being scale, F(2, 77) = 1.8, p >.05. More interesting, the interaction between subjective career momentum and time was significant for both the Effective Functioning and Well-Being scales, F(4, 154) = 2.6, p <.05 and F(4, 154) = 2.7, p <.05, respectively. Comparisons of the momentum groups at age 43 showed that the high career momentum women scored higher on the Effective Functioning and Well-Being scales, t(78) = 3.0, p <.05 and t(79) = 2.5, p <.05, respectively. In contrast, at age 21 the high and maintaining momentum women appeared similar, whereas the low career momentum women scored lowest. The differences at age 21 between the high momentum women and the maintaining and low momentum women were significant at a trend level for Well-Being, t(79) = 1.8, p =.07. The differences among the three groups on Effective Functioning were not statistically significant at age 21. Examination of Figure 1 shows that the maintaining career momentum group dropped from age 21 to age 43 on both the Well-Being and Effective Functioning scales.

9 CAREER MOMENTUM 203 This was inconsistent with the change patterns of the high and low momentum groups, which remained stable on both measures across time. In summary, the high momentum women had the highest scores on all four CPI scales across most ages. This general pattern was only disrupted for the Well-Being and Effective Functioning scales at age 21. The low momentum group showed an equally consistent pattern of low scores across all measures except for the Effective Functioning scale, on which the maintaining momentum group scored lower at age 43 and 52. The maintaining momentum group scored in between the other two groups on the Self- Acceptance and Independence scales, and exhibited more complex patterns on the Well-Being and Effective Functioning scales, especially the decline in Well-Being from ages 21 to 43. Just as personality dispositions have long-term relations with career momentum, so too may life structures such as earlier work and family patterns. To test the idea that the subjective career momentum groups could be differentiated on antecedent life structures, we examined differences on status level in work and number of children at age 43. The three subjective career momentum groups differed significantly on age-43 status level in work, F(2, 74) = 3.4, p =.05. High career momentum women were in higher status jobs than women who were maintaining or decreasing their career momentum in midlife, t(74) = 2.6, p <.05. Unlike the findings at age 52 concerning the empty nest, number of children at age 43 did differentiate the career momentum groups at a trend level, F(2, 80) = 2.7, p =.07. Surprisingly, the high career momentum group had more children on average (M = 1.9) than the maintaining (M = 1.6) or low momentum groups (M = 1.0). This later pattern contradicted our expectations that having more children would be negatively related to career momentum. To help integrate the analyses showing the antecedent effects of personality and life structures on midlife career momentum, we did a series of regression analyses to establish the nonredundant predictors of subjective career momentum and included these variables in a path analysis. First, we ordered the career momentum groups on a three-level scale with high career momentum groups receiving a rating of 3, maintaining women a rating of 2, and low momentum women a rating of 1. We then used a series of hierarchical, stepwise regressions to determine the best personality predictors of subjective career momentum. The age-21 personality scales were tested first. The only statistically significant predictor was the CPI Self-Acceptance scale (B =.26, p <.05). Then, after entering the age-21 Self- Acceptance scale, we tested whether any of the age-43 CPI scales predicted subjective career momentum. The age-43 Effective Functioning scale predicted career momentum above and beyond the contribution of the age-21 Self-Acceptance scale (B =.25, p <.05). In a separate regression analysis, we found that both life structure variables, age-43 status level in work and number of children at age 43, predicted subjective career momentum (B =.29, p <.05 and B =.23, p <.05, respectively). We used these four variables in a path analysis to test their collective predictive validity and to determine both direct and indirect relations with subjective career momentum. By using LISREL VII, the directly measured versions of age-21 selfacceptance, age-43 effective functioning, number of children, and status level in paid work were used to predict age-52 subjective career momentum. The path model is shown in Figure 2. The magnitude of the squared multiple correlation of subjective career momentum was modest (R 2 =.18). Self-acceptance measured 30 years before career momentum and age-43 status level in paid work were both statistically significant predictors of age-52 career momentum. The predictive relations of age-43 effective functioning and number of children did not reach statistical significance, but were not substantially smaller than the effects of self-acceptance and status level in work. One advantage of path analysis is the examination of both direct and indirect effects. For example, the total effect of the Self-Acceptance scale is greater than.19 because it also acts on subjective career momentum through its relation with status level in work, number of children, and effective functioning at age 43. The total effect of the Self-Acceptance scale on subjective career momentum was.25. Likewise the total effect of the Effective Functioning scale was.25 in contrast to its direct effect of.17. The total effects of number of children and status level in paid work were not different from their direct effects. The latter was most likely the result of the negative relation between number of children and status level, which cancels out some of their cumulative positive effects on subjective career momentum. Discussion The prevailing perspective that people's careers plateau in their 50s was confirmed according to an objective index of career momentum and discon-

10 204 ROBERTS AND FRIEND Self-acceptance --nin \ 6 Momentum ' \"'C I / \-'-..4 /.13~ [Children I [ //,21" / Status Level in V Paid Work I Age 21 Age 43 Age 52 w Figure 2. Path model predicting career momentum at age 52 from antecedent personality and life structure indicators. *p <.05. firmed according to a subjective index of career momentum. Subjectively, the majority of women in the present study considered themselves as having high career momentum rather than low or maintaining momentum. Furthermore, the present study showed that subjective career momentum, construed and assessed as a psychological phenomenon, organized a constellation of life context, identity, and personality factors in middle-aged women. Subjective career momentum was associated with several life context factors, such as status level in work and whether a woman's husband was retired or not. In addition, the three subjective career momentum groups showed distinct differences on ratings of physical health and psychological well-being, in some cases as long as 30 years before career momentum was assessed. Subjective Career Momentum Patterns, Life Context, Identity, and Psychological Well-Being It should be noted that the focus of the present research was on subjective career momentum. In contrast to objective indexes of career plateau, which are often tied to traditional models of career development (e.g., Super, 1990) or to situational contingencies (Kanter, 1979), subjective career momentum is tied to social age. Neugarten (1968) described social age as an awareness of prescribed social norms attributed to one's position on a social clock. People can feel on-time or off-time on any given social clock, which is in turn associated with a person's personality and psychological adjuslment (Helson et al., 1984). In the present case, few women were consolidating their careers, retrospecting about past accomplishments, or preparing themselves for retirement. Psychologically, the majority of these women viewed their occupations as a source of stimulation and future possibilities. Hence, for their cohort and sample, it was "on-time" to continue to advance one's career at age 52. The women who saw their career momentum at a high level showed a consistently high profile across measures of life context, identity structure, and psychological well-being. Women who were continuing to invest in their careers at midlife enjoyed greater occupational attainment and rated their work role

11 CAREER MOMENTUM 205 more importantly than women who were either maintaining or decreasing their career investment in midlife. These same women scored higher on measures of self-acceptance, independence, and effective functioning at age 52 and rated their physical health higher than the other two groups of women. On most indicators, the maintaining group scored, as expected, between the high momentum women and the low momentum women. This was also true for measures of occupational status, importance of work, independence, and self-reported physical health. On the Self-Acceptance and Effective Functioning scales, however, the maintaining group scored below or at the same level as the low momentum group. These lower scores on well-being indexes indicated an unforeseen level of vulnerability in the maintaining group. The women who were in the maintaining momentum group at midlife may have considered themselves off-time, possibly sensing that they had reached a plateau in their career earlier than their peers. Hitting a career plateau too early in life may have led to the pattern of distress exhibited by the maintaining momentum group. The constellation of life context and psychological factors associated with low subjective career momentum group was consistent with their occupational life history. The low career momentum women had the lowest occupational status and considered work to be relatively unimportant to their sense of self. In addition, their position of decreasing momentum may have been adaptive. They rated their physical health lower than other women and scored lowest across the measures of self-acceptance, independence, and well-being. They were also mote likely to have a partner who was retired. In comparison with the other women in the Mills Study, the low momentum group had fewer psychological and social resources to invest in a career in middle age. Diminishing their investment in work may have reflected the most reasonable path to take at this stage in life for these women. Several of our hypotheses concerning subjective career momentum were disconfirmed. For example, the momentum groups did not differ on marital status, the presence of children in the home at age 52, partner's earnings, and partner's health. Furthermore, the three groups did not differ in the amount of care they provided for their parents. Combined with the long-term personality and life context patterns exhibited by each group, these null findings indicated that subjective career momentum is capturing long- term, cumulative factors that take precedence over short-term life circumstances. Objective career momentum, on the other hand, was unrelated to personality, psychological wellbeing, and self-ratings of physical health when measured by change in occupational status. This is not to say that objective indexes of career momentum are unimportant in the study of career development and psychological functioning. For example, they are important when considering typical models of occupational development (e.g., Super, 1990) and are related to other indexes of psychological functioning. For example, studies have shown that increases in occupational prestige are related to increases in the personality trait of norm adherence (Roberts, 1997) and self-esteem (Andrews & Brown, 1995). In the present study, change in occupational prestige may simply not be important to dispositional measures of psychological well-being, or change in occupational prestige may be too broad of an indicator of career momentum. Many women could have received promotions or pay raises yet not increased significantly on the occupational prestige scale. Similarly, standard indexes of career plateau, such as the length of time since one's last promotion, tend to be crude indicators of job conditions. People may stay in the same job for years, yet experience multiple changes in duties and responsibilities that keep the job challenging and stimulating. An obvious direction for future research is to explore in greater detail both the objective and subjective constructs associated with momentum and plateau. Despite the fact that in this study, objective and subjective career momentum were relatively unrelated, we do believe that under certain conditions the relation between the two should become stronger. For example, we may find that objective indicators of momentum, such as receiving promotions or moving to a better position in a new company, are more strongly tied to feelings of high career momentum in younger individuals. The opposite may be true for older groups. For example, as more women approach retirement, objective career momentum may become more strongly related to subjective momentum. This stronger relation would be the result of an increasing proportion of women doing less in their work and also preparing psychologically for the transition out of the workforce. The lack of association between objective and subjective indexes in the present study may have resulted from the fluid nature of work in midlife. It may be that, within the broad expanses of midlife, objective and subjective career momentum become

12 206 ROBERTS AND FRIEND separated only to join again later in life when people are confronted with the inevitability of retirement. Prospective Predictors of Subjective Career Momentum From the perspective of several developmental researchers, midlife experiences reflect the cumulative unfolding and interaction of both stable personality characteristics and the life contexts that people have chosen or that have been chosen for them. Caspi and Bem (1990) described this process as cumulative continuity. For example, early dispositional patterns may influence subsequent life decisions and structures, such as when to have children or what career path to follow. In turn, these life structures may affect a person's psychological experience, such as current feelings associated with career momentum. The combination of personality and life structure differences that predicted career momentum in this study was consistent with Caspi and Bem's (1990) cumulative continuity model of adult development. We found distinct differences on the four personality measures as early as 30 years before the assessment of career momentum. High career momentum women were the most confident and independent 30 years before career momentum was assessed and the highest in well-being and effective functioning since age 43. The maintaining women had the most interesting patterns across time on the measures of personality. They began the study at age 21 relatively high on measures of effective functioning and well-being, but then showed precipitous drops on these scales from age 21 to age 43. The longitudinal analyses showed that the low momentum women were consistently low on self-acceptance, independence, and well-being across the 30 years preceding the assessment of career momentum. In addition to the longitudinal personality differences, the subjective career momentum groups also differed on antecedent measures of life structure. Like the differences exhibited at age 52, the high career momentum women were in higher status careers at age 43 than the other two groups. Surprisingly, the high career momentum women also had more children at age 43. This finding contradicts previous research showing the deleterious effects of children on women's participation and achievement in the paid labor force (e.g., Marini, 1980). Rather, these findings tend to support the position of Helson et al. (1990) that women who participate in more social roles (e.g., mother, worker, partner) often have greater psychological resources, such as ego integration and self-confidence. In this case, high career momentum women, already more successful in the paid labor force, also had the energy, psychological well-being, and adjustment to handle the multiple roles of work and motherhood. The integral contribution of both psychological and life context predictors to career momentum would indicate that career momentum cannot be reduced to either individual differences in personality traits or life experiences. We believe that at any given time, feelings of career momentum are driven by three primary factors. The first factor would be one's career situation, which in this study was best represented by occupational prestige. Women in higher status jobs were more likely to indicate that their career momentum was higher. The second factor would be one's personality. Women who were more selfaccepting and psychologically integrated felt that their career momentum was high. The third and final factor contributing to feelings of career momentum would be one's life stage or developmental age. Women who felt that they were closer to retirement and in their las t stages of their career were more likely to have low career momentum. Limitations and Future Directions The results of the present study must be evaluated in light of the specialized nature of the sample. The Mills women are college educated and predominantly White, making them a relatively privileged sample of women. In addition, the Mills sample is bound by a specific historical period, with its own particular sequence of sociocultural constraints and opportunities for women's development. The current changes in the prevailing culture are moving in the direction of increased occupational freedom for women (Giele, 1993). The freedom afforded current and future generations of women may change the distribution of women across career momentum groups and how career momentum relates to their life context, identity, and personality. The present research also suffers from a less than sophisticated approach to measuring career momentum. We feel that the measurement of both objective and subjective career momentum can and should be improved in future research. Subjective career momentum would lend itself well to being measured with a multi-item scale, which should be more reliable and valid. The assessment of objective career momentum could also be improved if the definition is clarified and elaborated to identify the multiple indicators that mark the construct. For example, a combination of no change in occupational prestige,

13 CAREER MOMENTUM 207 years since last promotion, years since last job change, and years since last major change in job duties could be used to scale objective career momentum. Future research should also move to investigate the psychological concomitants of career momentum in different age groups and in both men and women. For example, career momentum patterns may be predictive of adjustment to retirement in older samples (e.g., Fletcher & Hansson, 1991). The investing and divesting positions in career momentum may reflect adaptive attitudes toward retirement, whereas the maintaining position may be foretelling a maladaptive attitude toward retirement. For example, decreasing momentum in one's career implies an acceptance of retirement and a more positive attitude toward this transition. Increasing momentum, and its psychologicai concomitants, may indicate an ability to deal well with life transitions. 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