The parents may also need to alter the family system as their adolescents interact with the extended family and make new friends. The middle aged parents also have to change their psychological interactions with their children as their children have now become teenagers and they would be required to make amendments in authority, privacy, perspective and emotional interactions. The middle aged parents who themselves are facing many problems also have to address the problems of their teenage children. (Hargrave, 2006) Furthermore, people in their midlife go through the marriage of their children. After the marriage of their children, the parents may feel like a new couple again. Now some people take this positively and enjoy but some people regret it as they think that the only thing that was holding their marriage was their children. (Hargrave, 2006)

Work also changes the social structure of a person's life. In their midlife, people get to the top of their career and thus they get attached to it. So, changes in the working environment also change the behavior of a person and thus the behavior of the people he interacts with. In addition to that, in the midlife, a person's expenditures are at their top. These include rent, mortgages, college fees and other expenses. These increase the burden on the middle aged people. Furthermore, the people may also have to change jobs due to discrimination or other reasons. In the 1960's women worked to get extra earnings or to get a sense of achievement. Nowadays, however, a second income has become a necessity for most of the households. The benefits that the women derive from...

Today, the number of women working outside has exceeded as compared to the previous times and thus this demands adjustment to new social roles that a woman has to play at work. (Hargrave, 2006)
So, the men and women in the middle adulthood face many social challenges as well. These challenges, if given the correct response, make a person socially stable. The challenges include marriage, parenthood and work as all of them relate to a person's social circle and directly affect that person's social life. Like all the other changes, these changes also have positive and negative impacts on a person's life depending on how a person reacts to them.

References

Blackwell Publishing, (n.d.). Adolescence and adulthood. Retrieved from Blackwell Publishing website: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/intropsych/pdf/chapter10.pdf

Hargrave, D. (2006). Stories of women midlife experience. (Master's thesis), Available from University of South Africa. Retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/1131/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1

Helson, a., Soto, C.J., & Cate, R.A. University of California, (n.d.). Through the Middle Ages. Retrieved from University of California website: http://www.colby.edu/psychology/labs/personality/publications/Helson_et_al_2006.pdf

Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, (2011). Stress, mental health and suicide: Mid-life . Retrieved from Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety website: http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/mentalhealthmiddleage.pdf