Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1999

personal achievement, the majority d i d not display excessive midlife crisis symptoms. Hence, the findings do n ot l e n d strong s u p p o rt to the existence o f a normative midlife crisis i n Chinese culture. Besides research conducted within the last 10 years in the West indicate that 'midlife crisis' does not necessarily have to be a 'crisis'. If the adults prepare i n advance for the pressures brought about by changes i n their physical condition, family, and children, they can turn a 'crisis' into an 'opportunity'. The Value of Children Wh i l e the participants generally agreed tha t children have positive implications for their personal g r ow t h, spousal relations, and the happiness and sense of wholeness of their family, they also associated p a r e n t h o o d w i t h increased financial b u r d en an d personal sacrifice. The researchers also foun d that, in contrast to the emphasis attached to the economic and p o s t e r i ty values of c h i l d r e n i n Chinese c u l t u r e , Chinese parents i n H o n g Ko n g clearly do not give strong emphasis to such values. Midlife Adults Do Not Seek Help The results also showed that the majority of the r e s p o n d e n t s s h o w ed me a g r e k n o w l e d g e a n d understanding of family casework service and family life education programmes in Ho ng Kong. Close to 20 per cent of the respondents felt that seeking help was 'embarrassing'. Whe n encountering famil y problems, over half di d not seek help and those who di d seldom did so f r om social workers. Prof. Shek pointed out that because of the desire to 'save face', Chinese people do not like to 'wash their dirty linen i n public'. As they value being able to ' pu l l themselves up by their own bootstraps', they have a lot of hangups to overcome before they can seek help for their own troubles. Attitude to Life and Midlife Adjustment Does having differen t attitudes to life have any effect on midlife adjustment? The researchers found that participants w i th a more positive attitude towards life ha d better mental health, ma r i t a l quality, and perceived relationship w i t h their children. They also had a more positive perception of the value of children. The researchers believe that ha v i ng a positive attitude towards life i n midlife is an important factor in midlife adjustment. Figure 1 Marital quality of married men and women—women have a relatively poorer perception of their marital lives than men Figure 2 Psychological well-being of married men and women—women display more psychological symptoms and have a lower level of positive mental health