Social Responsibility at Midlife

Semi-structured interviews with a representative group of 94 middle-aged American women and men were conducted in 1996. Participants were drawn from areas within a fifty-mile radius of five cities chosen to cover the major geographic regions of the United States: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco.

The participants were drawn from a larger, nationally representative sample of American adults, the 1995 National Survey of Midlife Development (MIDUS) conducted by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development. In two- to three-hour interviews, participants were asked to talk about their life histories and what they do for their families, friends, and communities; about their paid work and volunteer work; their political engagement; and their financial contributions to charities and directly to other people.