Mal Fletcher comments on Generation X and how generational characteristics in youth might impact upon adult behaviour in middle-age

Mal Fletcher

The only time you really live fully,' said Theodore Roosevelt, 'is from 30 to 60. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.'

Perhaps the 26th US president was right; perhaps middle-age ought to be the time when we're most fully alive. According to a report released recently by the Samaritans, however, it may be the time when British men are at their lowest ebb.

Men aged 34-54 are now more likely to commit suicide than any other group in the UK, according to the report. Males in this middle-age bracket are more likely to take their lives than teenage boys and four times more likely to do so than women of the same age. Men in this group account for just under half the 5,600 suicides per year in the UK.

According to the Government's suicide prevention strategy published last month, the economic cost of a life lost to suicide is around £1.67 million. Far more important, however, are the waste of life and the emotional and psychological costs for those left behind. There is no way to quantify this kind of suffering.

A decade ago, men aged 15-24 formed the biggest risk group. In seeking to explain this relatively recent development, several dominant factors come into play.

For a start, there is pressure on men when it comes to changing gender roles. The male generation now emerging into middle age is the one most affected by the shifts in thinking about gender that came to prominence in the 60s and early 70s.

Today, books like The End of Men and the Rise of Women and The Richer Sex claim that the future will be marked by the dominance of women. Men, they say, are already being left behind while women continue a steady climb toward eventual dominance in world affairs.

It is a fact that girls now do better than boys at most levels of education and 58% of UK university students are women. Meanwhile, 60% of newly qualified solicitors are female, as are 56% of new doctors.

An Oxford University study recently found that in a quarter of British couples, women are already the main breadwinner.

At least one recent survey, conducted by Marie Claire magazine, has indicated that women are becoming more driven in the attitudes to work. Around 75% of the 1000 women surveyed said that work is 'the most important thing in my life'. More than 90% of them claimed to be more ambitious than their male partners.

This ambition comes at a price. Labour experts talk now not so much about 'work-life balance' as 'work-life merge'. For both men and women, traditional lines between work and life are increasingly blurred by interaction with always-on digital gadgets.

For women, this blurring of distinctions is exacerbated by the fact that many see themselves working under greater time pressures than their male counterparts. Many women want to reach a senior position by the time they feel ready to start a family, so that they can return to a dream job rather than low-level labour.

For men, work-life merge also exacts a heavy toll. Seventy-five percent of Australian CEOs - still predominantly men - claim that they cannot switch off after work, because of their connection to mobile digital technologies. Men may be less well-equipped emotionally to deal with this pressure.

That may be particularly true for men born to the so-called Generation X. They have inherited the full impact of a feminisation of the workplace and culture generally, which began in their childhood.