Midlife in the United States (MIDUS)

Site: midus.wisc.edu

Updated 5/16/22

Country: United States

Study design: Observational cohort with repeated measurements over time

Participant age range:

  • Early adulthood or midlife
  • Aging adults

Number of participants at baseline: 7,108

Year of initial enrollment: 1995

Number of data collection waves: 4

Measures of well-being:

  • Positive psychological well-being (overall / multidimensional)
  • Optimism
  • Positive affect
  • Purpose / meaning in life / ikigai
  • Life satisfaction
  • Mastery
  • Personal growth or self-acceptance
  • Healthy family functioning

Quantity of well-being measures (e.g., number of constructs, number of times well-being was assessed): High

Quality of well-being measures (e.g., were measures reliable and valid in the study population): High

Measures of physical health: 

  • Self-rated / questionnaire-based health
  • Self-report medical history or medication use
  • Measured anthropometrics, e.g., weight
  • Biomarkers

Access Information:

This dataset is available to all researchers.

Researchers are not required to submit an application to access this data.

There are no fees required to access this dataset.

Notable citation:

Morozink J, Friedman E, Coe C & Ryff C. (2010). Socioeconomic and psychosocial predictors of interleukin-6 in the MIDUS national sample. Health Psychology, 29(6), 626.