Age Differences in Adult Life Goals, Concerns, and Their Temporal Extension: A Life Course Approach to Future-oriented Motivation

TLDR

The individual life course is shaped by different social age systems, such as developmental tasks and social constraints. The study aims to examine how age differences in goals and concerns correspond to age‑graded developmental tasks. The authors surveyed 371 adults aged 19–64, asking them to list goals and concerns and estimate when they would be realized, thereby assessing temporal extension. The results show that adults’ goals and concerns align with their developmental tasks—young adults focus on education and family, middle‑aged on children and property, and older adults on health, retirement, leisure, and global issues—while concerns shift from self and friends to occupation and health, and the anticipated timing of education, family, and occupation goals shortens with age.

Abstract

The individual life course is shaped by different social age systems, such as developmental tasks and social constraints. To study the extent to which age differences in goals and concerns reflect these age-graded tasks, 371 19to 64year-old subjects were asked to write down their goals and concerns and to anticipate when they would be actualised, indicating temporal extension. The results showed that adults' goals and concerns reflected the developmental tasks of their own age: Young adults frequently mentioned future educationand family-related goals, the middle-aged had goals related to their children's lives and property, and elderly people were interested in their own health, retirement, leisure activities, and the world. Young adults frequently mentioned concerns related to themselves and their friends, middle-aged and elderly people had occupationand health-related fears, respectively. Moreover, the temporal extension of adults' goals related to education, family, and occupation decreased with age, as the developmental tasks they concerned approached in time.