Young and middle-aged adults

Characteristics

• End of adolescence until death• Young adulthood - 20 – 40 years• middle adulthood – 40 – 65 years• Late adulthood – 65 – death

Characteristics

• 20s is the prime physical years• Most efficient functioning at about 25 years• Musculoskeletal system is well developed and coordinated• Peak efficient cardio, auditory and reproductive systems• Peak of physical capabilities• Brain reaches maximum in size and weight • Senses are peak • Most professional athletes at peak during early adulthood• High risk takers

Psychosocial development

• Task : intimacy – loving relationship• Sense of self• Education, employment, marry, remail single

Cognitive development

• Formal operations – ability to think abstractly and employ logic• Generate hypotheses• Piaget _formal operational stage• Others suggest postformal thought – includes creativity, intuition,

ability to consider information in relationship to other ideas.• An proceed from abstract reasoning to practical consideration• Balance arguments created by both logic and emotion

Moral development

• Post conventional level• Separate self from the expectations and rules of others – define

morality in terms of personal principles• Principled reason – ethic of justice

Spiritual development

• Fowler (1981) • Individuating –reflective period sometime after 18 years of age.• Focus on reality• Religious teaching that the young had as a child may now be accepted

or redefined• Exploring faith, belief in God.

Health risks

• Injury, violence, suicide, hypertension, substance abuse, Sexually transmitted diseases, eating disorders, and certain malignancies.

• Injury and violence:• Unintentional injuries –motor vehicle crashes are the 5th

leading cause of death in US

Health risks

• Violence: homicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for young persons 15-24 years of age.

• Elderly, females, and children are targets of physical and sexual assaults.

Health risks

• Suicide: may result from problems with close relationships as marriage partners or parents, depression related to perceived occupational, academic, or financial failure

• Occurs due the inability to cope with pressures, responsibilities and expectations of adulthood.

• Nurses’ responsibility: prevention

Health risks

• Hypertension:• Causes: biologic heredity, and contributing factors include smoking, obesity, a

high sodium diet, and high stress levels• A major risk factor in the development of chronic heart disease or stroke• Measurement of blood measurement is recommended every 2 years for

young adults

Health risks

• Substance abuse:• Marijuana, alcohol• Prolonged use lead to physical and psychological dependency and health

problems• During pregnancy = fetal damage• Cirrhosis of liver and cancer of the esophagus

Health risks

• Sexually transmitted infections:• Genital Herpes, AIDS, syphilis, and gonorrhea• Knowledge about symptoms

Health risks

• Eating disorders• Fear of obesity

• Nurses need to assess nutritional concerns

Health risks

• Malignancies such as lung, prostate, testicular and colon cancer among men

• Breast• Early detection (BSE)

• Cervical cancer (pap smear)

Middle-Aged adults

• 40-65 years • Years of stability and consolidation• Children have grown and moved away from home• Can pursue interests.• Maturity: the state of maximal function and integration or fully developed• Tolerant of the views of others• Make sense of life• Tolerate ambiguity, are flexible, and adapt to change, self acceptance,

accept responsibility

Physical development

• Decreasing hormonal production • Menopause• Andropause

Psychosocial development

• Erikson : Generativity versus stagnation: the concern for establishing and guiding the next generation

• Volunteer work• Stagnation: people have difficulty accepting their aging bodies and

become withdrawn and isolated• Midlife crisis: when one realizes that they have reached the halfway

mark of life

Cognitive development

• Cognitive and intellectual abilities change very little• Cognitive processes include reaction time, memory, perception,

learning, problem solving, and creativity• Genetic, environmental and personality factors in early and middle

adulthood account for the large difference in the ways n which individuals maintain mental abilities

Moral development

• Postconventional level• Extensive experience of personal moral choice and responsibility is required

before people can reach the postconventional level.• A stage where rights of others take precedence• Few people attain stage 5 before age 40/

Spiritual development

• Not all people progress through Fowlers stages to the fifth called the paradoxical-consolidative stage = seeing truth from a number of viewpoints

• People rely on spiritual beliefs to help them cope with illness, death and tragedy.

Health risks

• Health risks:• Motor vehicle and occupational injuries, chronic diseases• Cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, alcoholism, mental health alterations