One of the most dramatic changes in the history of humanity occurred in the past 100 years as life expectancy has doubled from approximately age 40 in 1900 to age 80 today. The ways in which individuals enter adulthood, experience midlife, a senesce in old age warrants increased research attention. Social, emotional, familial factors that contribute to adult development are of particular importance.

The mission of the Purdue University Center on Aging and the Life Course is to promote aging-related interdisciplinary research and education at Purdue University that enhances quality of life. It seeks to generate, integrate, disseminate, and apply gerontologist knowledge that addresses complex life course topics.

Faculty Research

• Karen Fingerman
  Emotional qualities of relationships improve across adulthood; as they grow older, adults report better relationships with their children, spouses, extended family, and friends. Dr. Fingerman's research examines the emotional qualities of interpersonal ties from young adulthood to late old age and seeks to explain this marked improvement in relationship processes.
• Melissa Franks
  Dr. Franks' research focuses on dyadic processes of married couples managing chronic illness in middle and late life.
• Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
  One of the primary contexts within which adult development occurs is the workplace. Dr. MacDermid's research has examined connections between work conditions and adult expressions of generativity, or investments in caring for and maintaining the larger society.
• Daniel Mroczek
  Dr. Mroczek's work looks at how personality and well-being change over time, and how that change is related to physical health and mortality.