MIDDLE-AGED WORKING MEN AND WOMEN - SIMILAR AND DIFFERENT PATHS TO SELF-ESTEEM

Data derived from in-depth telephone interviews with 818 full-time working men and women aged 58 to 64 years and residing in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina metropolitan area are used to explore the impact of socioeconomic status, health, activities, and work and spouse identities on self-esteem. Findings include the following: (a) middle-aged working women lack the material resources and status of men but do not have lower mean self-esteem scores than men; (b) different sets of social-background, activity, and worker- and spouse-identity variables influence self-esteem for men and women; but (c) identity meanings as a competent worker and a commitment to the worker role influence self-esteem for both men and women, as does commitment to the roles of worker and spouse for married men and women.