JOURNAL OF VOCATiONAL BEHAVIOR 4, 338-350 (1992)

Relative Deprivation, Career Issues, and Mental Health

among Men in Midlife

BRAM P. BUUNK

University of Groningen, The Netherlands

AND

PETER P. M. JANSSEN

University of Limburg, The Netherlands

The present study compared the career-related problems and relative depri-
vation of men in their late thirties to early forties to those of younger and older
men. A sample of 248 professional men from The Netherlands from age 26 to
55 years participated in the study. The level of mental and physical health and
relative deprivation was the same in midlife as in the other age groups. However,
the subjects became more preoccupied with lessened job opportunities and chang-
ing work role identity during midlife, while they still had a rather strong need
for career advancement. Particularly during midlife, such preoccupations and
relative deprivation appear to be accompanied by health complaints and job
dissatisfaction. However, multiple regression analyses with these preoccupations
and relative deprivation as independent variables revealed that in all career stages,
relative deprivation was the only predictor of mental and physical health. o 1992
Academic Press, Inc.

According to adult development theorists, the midlife transition is a

potentially stressful period for many professional men (Cytrynbaum &
Crites, 1989). Indeed, the “midlife crisis” has attracted considerable in-
terest in the past decades, and midlife has even been labeled a “critical
period on the career clock of the manager” (Kets de Vries, 1978). Various
authors have suggested that among professional men the period around
the age of forty is characterized by mental health problems and crisis
symptoms (e.g., McCrany, 1978; Perosa & Perosa, 1983), ego review and
introspective work (Cytrynbaum and Crites, 1989), and drastic career

Requests for reprints should be addressed to Bram P. Buunk, Department of Psychology,

University of Groningen, 9712 Groningen, The Netherlands.

338
OOOl-8791/92 $5.00
Copyright 0 1992 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
 RELATIVE DEPRIVATION 339

moves (e.g., Thomas, 1977; Thomas & Robbins, 1979; Snyder, Howard,
& Hammer, 1978).
Despite the extensive literature on this topic, there is only limited
empirical evidence for the proposition that midife is a particularly prob-
lematic phase in the life cycle of male professionals. In a review of the
early research, Murphy and Buck (1976) concluded that the late thirties.
and early forties are indeed often accompanied by an examination of
personal values, a broad dissatisfaction with life, and a preoccupation with
comparing earlier goals to present attainments. A more recent study found
that career blockage was an important issue in the 36-45 age group,
accompanied by a relatively high incidence of depression and alcohol
intake (Hunt and Collins, 1983). However, many statements about the
midlife stage are based upon impressions from counseling, and research
in this area has usually employed select and small samples and a ques-
tionable methodology and has produced contradictory results (Gill, Cop-
pard, & Lowther, 1983).
Given the lack of empirical data, the first purpose of the present study
is to establish whether professional men in their late thirties and early
forties exhibit relatively more mental health problems and are facing
specific concerns regarding their careers. Moreover, we examine whether
such concerns are relatively more strongly related to poor mental health
during midlife than in adjacent stages. On the basis of the writings of
Hall (1976), Super (1977), Schein (1978), and Levinson (1969), among
others, a number of career-related concerns were identified that were
mentioned by several authors as typical for midlife, were clearly career
related, and were issues supposedly facing professional men, rather than
ways of coping which such problems. It became apparent that most of
these concerns could be grouped in two broad categories: (1) lessened
career opportunities, including the perception of decreased potential for
career growth and feeling stuck in the job; and (2) changing work role
identity, experiences indicating a change in self-concept and in the role
within the organization, including the feeling of no longer being the prom-
ising young man and an increased dependency upon younger colleagues.
Various authors suggest that the desire for career progress is quite strong
during midlife (Arthur & Kram, 1989), so the present study also examines
this variable.
A second goal of the present study is to contribute to a theoretical
understanding of problems at midlife by focusing upon relative deprivation
at work as a potentiallly major issue around this age (cf Crosby, 1976;
Folger, 1985). Despite the fact that professional men may be objectively
quite well off in terms of income, status, freedom, and opportunities for
growth, when compared to other men, their subjective reality may be
different. For example, career-oriented individuals usually monitor their
own progress closely in comparison to similar others, and feelings of
340 BUUNKANDJANSSEN

deprivation and failure are likely to occur when they perceive that similar
others have attained a higher status (cf. Suls, 1986). The present study
examines whether relative deprivation is more pronounced and more
strongly related to mental health among professional men in midlife than
in adjacent age groups.
Since the concept of relative deprivation was originally introduced in
the well-known American Soldier studies, (Stouffer, Suchman, DeVinney,
Star, & Williams, 1949), various theoretical models have been developed.
These were integrated by Crosby (1976) in a single model that was later
expanded and developed more fully (Crosby, 1984; Crosby, Muehrer, &
Loewenstein, 1986). According to this model, relative deprivation occurs
when a person (1) wants a certain item or opportunity (X); (2) feels
entitled to obtain X; (3) perceives that in comparison others do possess
X; (4) expected to obtain X; (5) is pessimistic about obtaining X in the
future; and (6) does not blame him- or herself for not having obtained
X. Crosby (1984) maintains that relative deprivation and its concomitant
feelings of grievance and resentment will occur only when all of these
conditions are met. However, research has not unequivocably supported
this model. For instance, sometimes two factors may predict feelings of
resentment just as well (Crosby et al., 1986) and in some cases self-blame
is positively related to resentment (Bernstein & Crosby, 1980).
A more theoretically grounded model of relative deprivation is the
referent cognitions model recently proposed by Folger (1985, 1987). Ac-
cording to Folger, resentment over one’s situation depends on “what might
have been,” upon the “story” that one can tell to oneself. First, individuals
bring to mind what outcomes might have been. Such referent outcomes
can be based upon social comparisons and earlier expectations, but also
can represent theoretically conceivable conditions (such as utopian
dreams). The existence of high referent outcomes is not enough to gen-
erate resentment. According to Folger, resentment will occur only when
there is also a low justification for the way current outcomes have been
brought about. When the rationale behind an existing procedure seems
less appropriate, less convincing, or less socially approved than the ra-
tionale for some referent procedure, then the discrepancies between ex-
isting and referent outcomes will be felt as particularly problematic. A
third factor affecting feelings of resentment is the likelihood of amelio-
ration: when future prospects are low, this will enhance feelings of re-
sentment, while rosy prospects for the future may function as mental
substitutes for the existing low outcomes.
In the present study, it is assumed that relative deprivation involves an
active cognitive process in which the current situation is evaluated against
certain criteria. The various, partially overlapping conditions distinguished
in the models of Folger and Crosby all constitute aspects of the same
 RELATIVE DEPRIVATION 341

underlying latent construct and all may contribute to the sense of relative
deprivation.
It is not difficult to understand how the processes that may contribute
to the perception of relative deprivation may become more salient when
professionals approach midlife. For example, by the end of their thirties,
professionals may become concerned about the likelihood of attaining
one’s career goals in the future and may see that similar others have
accomplished more. In addition, they may experience a feeling of de-
servingness that has been built up as a consequence of high investments
during the preceding career, accompanied by the fear that such feelings
are violated due to the fact that only a few can reach the highest positions.
Such perceptions will be particularly manifest as the opportunities to
change jobs decrease around this age. Especially in The Netherlands-
where the present study was conducted-there are no laws against age
discrimination, and it is very rare to find ads in which people over 40 are
considered acceptable candidates.
To summarize, the main goals of the present study are to examine if
mental health problems, “typical” career-related concerns, and relative
deprivation are more prevalent during midlife, and if such deprivation
and career concerns are more strongly associated with mental and physical
health during midlife than in adjacent age groups. Furthermore, the rel-
ative contributions of relative deprivation and career concerns to mental
and physical health are examined. Given the fact that virtually all research
thus far has been done in specific occupational groups, the present research
was conducted in a representative sample of Dutch professional males.
The sample was restricted to those employed by an organization, as the
situation of self-employed individuals might be rather different. The study
was confined to men, since it was supposed that women would encounter
different problems due to gender discrimination within companies and
work-home role conflicts that would require a separate study.

METHOD
Sample
A sample of 415 men was randomly selected from all the higher-edu-
cated men (at least a Bachelor’s Degree) who were part of a large set of
individuals representative for the Dutch adult population as a whole. All
men were contacted at home by interviewers of a professional research
organization and were asked to complete, in privacy, a questionnaire on
career-related issues. The forms were collected after a week, and in one
of eight cases a telephone checkup was carried out to verify if the re-
spondents filled out the forms correctly. Five percent of the respondents
did not meet the criteria, 16% did not want to take part, 11% were not
342 BUUNK AND JANSSEN

at home or had moved, and 8% did not fill out the forms correctly. The
final sample consisted of 248 professional employed men from The Neth-
erlands, about evenly divided between 26 and 55 years of age. Although
not all individuals originally contacted participated in the study, the sample
can be considered rather representative for higher-educated employed
men in The Netherlands. The reason for nonparticipation could be related
to the issues examined in the study only for the 16% that refused to
participate.
About 27% of the sample had a university education of at least the
Master’s level, while the remainder of the sample had an educational level
comparable to a Bachelor’s Degree. A wide variety of professions was
represented in the sample, including managers in business, government
officials, presidents of small companies, engineers, and university profes-
sors. To compare those in midlife to the adjacent age groups, the sample
was split into three age groups: 26-35 years of age (39%), 36-45 years
of age (34%), and 46-55 years of age (27%).
Measures
For each of the measures described below, the total score was divided
by the number of items.
Career-related concerns. Career-related concerns were assessed with a
nine-item checklist. Subjects indicated on a 5-point Likert scale the extent
to which they were concerned with the supposed career-related concerns
in midlife (1 = not at all to 5 = very strong). As expected, a principal
component factor analyses with Varimax rotation produced two factors
that together explained 55.9% of the variance and that reflected, respec-
tively, changing work role identity (eigenvalue = 4.12) and lessened career
opportunities (eigenvalue = 1.47). Two scales were constructed by sum-
ming those items that loaded higher than .40 on each factor and that also
did not reduce the reliability of the scale. The resulting scale for changing
work role identity has an a reliability of .78 (M = 1.69, SD = .66), and
contains the following items: “I have a feeling that I am becoming more
dependent on younger colleagues, ” “I have a feeling that I am regarded
as someone who was not quite successful after all,” “I have a feeling that
younger colleagues are paramount,” and “My impression is that I am no
longer considered as the young man on his way to the top.” The scale
for lessened career opportunities has an (Y reliability of .80 (M = 2.63,
SD = .88) and contains the following items: “My impression is that my
knowledge is becoming obsolete, ” “I have a feeling that am becoming
less attractive with respect to the labour market,” “I feel locked into the
organization, ” “I have a feeling that opportunities for making career
improvements are decreasing,” and “I have a feeling that the time left
for attaining my career goals is decreasing.” The Pearson correlation
between these two scales is r = .53, p < .OOl.
Desire for career progress. This scale assessed to what extent the subjects
 RELATIVE DEPRIVATION 343

wanted more out of their job than they were currently obtaining (7 =
totally agree to 1 = totally disagree). The items asked about their salary,
responsibilities, hierarchical position, opportunities to improve skills and
knowledge, autonomy, creativity, support, and security. The items were
summed up to make a scale that had an (r of .84, and M = 4.02, SD =
1.31.
Relative deprivation. Eight items were formulated to assess this variable,
based on the preconditions formulated by Crosby (1984, 1986) and Folger
(1987). A 7-point likert scale was used to measure the extent to which
people agreed with the various statements. The items were: “I have not
attained what I expected in may career” (high prior expectations, cf.
Crosby), “I have attained less in my career than I deserve” (feeling entitled
to obtain an object/opportunity, cf, Crosby), “Others with whom I com-
pare, have obtained more in their career than I have” (the presence of
a “better” other, cf. Crosby), “I can easily imagine having attained more
in my career if things would have developed differently” (high referent
outcomes, cf. Folger), “I do not expect to attain my career goals in the
future (future prospects look dim/low likelihood of amelioration, cf.
Crosby/Folger), “As far as I have unfulfilled career needs, these are due
to unfair treatment” (low justification, cf. Folger), and “As far as I have
unfulfilled career needs, these are due to circumstances beyond my con-
trol” (no self blame, cf. Crosby). The eighth item was the mean score
for the items on the desire for career progress scale. A principal com-
ponent factor analyses with Varimax rotation showed only one factor
explaining 56.8% of the variance and with an eigenvalue of 4.54. The (Y
reliability of the scale including was .89, M = 3.23, SD = 1.33.
The following variables were used to assess mental and physical health.
Depression. This scale consists of eight emotions including “sad,” “dis-
appointed,” “lonely,” and “down.” Subjects were asked to indicate for
each emotion on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all to 7 = very strong) to
what extent they experience this emotion when thinking about their work.
The a was .90, M = 1.58, SD = .85.
Resentment. This variable was measured in a similar way as work-related
depression, but in this case including affects like “angry,” “resentful,”
and “indignant, ” The (Y = .89, M = 1.99, SD = 1.16.
Health complaints. This variable was assessed with a 6-item scale se-
lected from the Organizational Stress Questionnaire, (Van Dijkhuizen,
1980) that contained items referring to health complaints such as trembling
hands, dizzyness, and headache (1 = “never” to 4 = “very often”). The
a = .53, M = 1.20, SD = .23.
Job dkwi.sfuction. This scale was measured with one 7-point item (1 =
not at all to 7 = very strong). People were asked to what extent they
felt dissatisfied when thinking about their work. For this item, M = 2.54,
SD = 1.57.
344 BUUNK AND JANSSEN

TABLE 1
Mean and Standard Deviation of Career-Related Concerns and the Desire for Career
Progress for Three Age Groups

Age
26-35 36-45 46-55

Dependent measure M SD M SD M SD

Lessened career opportunities 2.13 .83 2.90 .70 3.02 .84

Changing work role identity 1.48 .Sl 1.82 .65 1.81 .81
Desire for career progress 4.44 1.29 4.12 1.28 3.29 1.06

RESULTS
An analysis of variance (ANOVA) with age as the independent variable
and relative deprivation as the dependent variable was conducted to ex-
amine whether the respondents in midlife differ from the adjacent age
groups in the degree of relative deprivation. No significant difference was
found between the various age groups in the extent of relative deprivation.
In addition, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and separate
ANOVA’s showed no significant differences between the age groups with
regard to mental and physical health.
Next, a MANOVA was performed with age group as the independent
variable and career concerns and desire for career progress as dependent
variables. This analysis revealed an overall significant difference between
the age groups F(6,482) = 15.14,~ < .OOl. Univariate analysis of variance
(ANOVA) yielded a significant main effect for age for both concern with
lessened job opportunities, F(2,242) = 28.64 p < .OOl, and concern with
changing work role identity, F(2, 242) = 8.05, p < .OOl. As is apparent
from the means (see Table l), there is a clear increase in these concerns
in the 36-45 age group. However, these concerns apparently continue
when professionals get older: the oldest group (46-55) is at least as con-
cerned with the decreased career opportunities and changing work role
identity as the middle-age group. The Scheffe test showed that on both
variables there was indeed only a significant difference between the early
and midlife group (p < .05). In addition, an ANOVA showed significant
differences between the age groups regarding desire for career progress,
F(2, 242) = 13.82, p < .OOl. Individuals in midlife have such desires to
a somewhat lesser extent than those younger (26-35), but this difference
is not significant (Scheffe’s range test). The oldest group, however, shows
a significantly lower level of desires for career progress than both other
groups (p < .05, Scheffe’s range test). These findings suggest that men
around the age of forty experience a discrepancy between their still strong
 RELATIVE DEPRIVATION 345

desires for career advancement and their perception of lessened oppor-

tunities for such advancement.
The next issue was whether relative deprivation would be more strongly
related to mental and physical health in the midlife group than in the
adjacent age groups. There is some evidence that this is indeed the case.
As is apparent in Table 2, there are strong and significant correlations
between relative deprivation and feelings of resentment and depression
in the middleage group. To a lesser extent, this is also true for the youngest
age group. For men in the oldest age group, relative deprivation seems
to have a less strong relation to feelings of resentment and depression
than in the other two age groups, although the differences between the
correlations are not significant. Furthermore, relative deprivation is as-
sociated significantly with dissatisfaction in all age groups, but only during
midlife is relative deprivation significantly correlated with health com-
plaints. Moreover, Fisher’s Zr transformation showed that the correlation
with job dissatisfaction is significantly stronger in the midlife group than
in the youngest group, Z = 1.84, p < .05, one-tailed, and the oldest
group, Z = 1.65, p < .05, one-tailed.
Table 2 shows that concerns with lessened career opportunities and
work role identity indeed seem to affect men in midlife somewhat more
than both younger and older men. All but one of the correlations between
career concerns and mental and physical health were significant in the
36-45 age group. Six correlations were significant in the youngest age
group, but only two were significant in the oldest group. However, there
was only one significant difference between the correlations in the different
age groups. The correlation between changing work role identity and
resentment was significantly higher in the midlife group than in the oldest
group (Fisher’s Zr transformation, Z = 1.99, p < .05, one-tailed).
The question if relative deprivation was more important for mental and
physical health during midlife than the “typical” career-related midlife
concerns was examined by executing multiple regression analyses with the
various health measures as dependent variables and relative deprivation
with lessened career opportunities and changing work role identity as
independent variables. This analysis was performed separately for each
age group (see Table 3). Judging from the lack of a significant /I weight,
lessened career opportunities and changing work role identity did not
contribute significantly to the prediction of any of the dependent measures
for any age group. Relative deprivation was a significant predictor of
resentment, depression, and job satisfaction in all age groups.
DISCUSSION
The present study demonstrates the relevance of the relative deprivation
concept for examining career-related problems and offers some interesting
insights into the role of relative deprivation during midlife. A particularly
 TABLE 2
Pearson Correlations between Career-Related Concerns, Relative Deprivation, and Mental and Physical Health for Three Age Groups
z
Lessened career Changing work Relative c
opportunities role identity deprivation s
Health variables 26-35 36-45 46-55 26-35 36-45 46-55 26-35 36-45 46-55 g
u
Resentment .21* .27** .17 .29** .42** .11 .61** .70** .37** 2
Depression .34** .35** .16 .36** .39** .30** .44** .%3** .32** ,z
Health complaints .lO .30** .16 .lO .17 -.03 .15 .27** .ll g
Job dissatisfaction .21* .34** .31** .22* .38** .19 .52* .70** .52** Z

* p s .05; ** p c .Ol.
 RELATIVE DEPRIVATION 347

TABLE 3
Results of Multiple Regressions of Relative Deprivation, Lessened Career Opportunities,
and Changing Work Role Identity upon Mental and Physical Health

P
Adjusted Lessened career Changing work Relative
Dependent variables RZ opportunities role identity deprivation

Ages 26-35
Resentment .38 .oo .ll .57*+
Depression .27 .14 .19 .34**
Health complaints .03 .07 .Ol .13
Job dissatisfaction .28 .07 .OS .53**
Ages 36-45
Resentment .52 -.15 .14 .71**
Depression .35 .03 .13 .51**
Health complaints .09 .16 .Ol .19
Job dissatisfaction .49 -.02 - .03 .68**
Ages 46-55
Resentment .14 .08 - .07 .36’*
Depression .16 -.09 .24 .29**
Health complaints .04 .05 .05 .13
Job dissatisfaction .30 .15 -.06 .50**

* p s .05; ** p c .Ol.

relevant finding is that in all age groups, relative deprivation was a much
more important factor in predicting mental health than the preception of
lessened career opportunities and changing work role identity. Given that
these last concerns were based upon writings on career-related problems
during midlife, it was expected that they would be relatively unimportant
among younger and older professionals. However, our data show that
relative deprivation is much more closely related to mental and physical
health during midlife than concern about lessened career options and the
changing role at work.
In addition, the present study suggests that professional men’s percep-
tions of work role identity and career opportunities begin to change during
the mid-thirties to early forties transition. In line with the theoretical
statements of Hall (1978) Schein (1978), Hunt and Collins (1983) and
Arthur and Kram (1989) we found clear evidence that professional men
become more preoccupied with lessened job opportunities and changing
work role identity during midlife, while they still have a rather strong
need for career advancement. The oldest age group shows similar, even
slightly stronger concerns, but manifests a substantially lower level of
desire for career progress. These findings suggest that men in midlife
experience a discrepancy between their still strong desire for career ad-
348 BUUNK AND JANSSEN

vancement and their perception of lessened opportunities for such ad-

vancement. The perception that opportunities for advancement have de-
creased is at least as prevalent during midlife as among men over 45 years
of age, but this may be less problematic given the decreased desire for
career growth. In the youngest age group there is a rather strong desire
to “get ahead,” but opportunities to realize one’s career ambitions are
perceived as ample.
The general assumption in articles on the so-called “midcareer crisis”
or “midlife crisis” is that the period of the late thirties and early forties
is characterized by an elevation of mental health problems (e.g., Kets de
Vries, 1978). The present study does not provide any evidence for dif-
ferences between the various age groups in the level of health complaints,
depression, resentment, and job dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, the data
suggest that, particularly during midlife, mental health problems are more
closely associated with specific career concerns than in other age groups.
This association makes it understandable that counselors and consultants
develop impressions about the pervasiveness of a specific “crisis.” In any
case, while it seems that some men experience such a crisis, there is no
evidence to substantiate claims that a crisis occurs that all executives must
face sooner or later (Levinson, 1969).
To conclude, our findings suggest that the late thirties and early forties
are characterized by an increased salience of the importance of advancing
and attaining one’s career goals and by perceptions of deservingness that
have been built up as a consequence of high investments during the
preceding career (Arthur & Kram, 1989). Such perceptions may be vi-
olated during midlife because only a few can reach the higher levels in
the organization, and the opportunities to apply for a job outside the
organization decrease. Given the importance of relative deprivation for
mental health, our findings may imply that, as Latack (1989) has em-
phasized, career issues are becoming increasingly salient and common
stressors within organizations.
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Received: October 22. 1991