The participants in my study indicated that they believed engaging in generativity related behaviors with younger people was a necessary precursor to SWB at their stage in life. Many participants emphasized their student athlete, team-sport experiences provided them with generativity related skills. The participants reported these skills include being able to mentor, nurture, and help others, particularly younger people. These are the hallmarks of generativity. One participant even rated engaging in generative activities with people outside the family as the most important precursor to SWB.
Participant 1 said, “I mean, you give to a community, but you also take. You learn how to make due with things in therapy with very little money and very little resources sometimes”.
Participant 2 described be a student athlete as something she worked hard for and is very proud of as it provides her with opportunities to be generative today.Participant 2 said,
It’s a tool for me to raise my kids and have experiences that I can use to teach them lessons. Also I have a niece who is going in to college this year to play soccer, which I have this unique ability to, um, relate to her in a way even her parents can’t, that I created from being on the team I was on in college. Participant 3 reported,
If you had someone on the team who didn’t understand or needed help, I think your inner teacher or coach comes in to play; you want to help people. To head your company you need to have a nurturing or coaching type environment to make things work.
Participant 5 stated,
Anybody that wants advice, I’m there; I mean I’m still learning. I take in as much knowledge as I can from people, but then also other kids are around, babysitters, I’m also asking them, where are you going to school? What do you want to do? You know, I tell them, get involved in a sport, or get involved in music
whatever it may be, an English program, just get involved in something in college beyond just classes to get those life lessons.
Participant 6 stated,
Well in the supervisory role I am in now, I deal with a lot of younger generations coming straight out of college and stuff. They are great, they bring great ideas, but what motivates them now is much different from how I was motivated, competition wasn’t everything to them like it was to me. So, I’ve learned over the years that it has to be done in moderation as with anything.
Participant 7 summarized that that working with his family in a generative way was the largest contributor in his and his family’s life. He noted that his SWB is related directly to what is going on with them.Participant 7 stated:
Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. You can kind of approach the kids through what they are doing in sports at the time. I like to plant that seed with everything they do as they are growing up. The school term, you can only do so much in public school, you sort of have to pick up the ball and run with it at home.
Participant 8 said,
At work I am seen as a fixer. I get to finish up and clean up things, and then I can look back and see where improvements could be made so these things wouldn’t be a problem. As a leader you need to lay out the vision, lay out the goal, so
everyone can see the bigger picture, those things make me happy, my family happy, and help make me into a well person.
Participant 9 talked about observing her coaches and teaching. She also focused on embracing mistakes as learning opportunities; that mistakes often are to be celebrated. She noted that she believed you needed to be generative to be well. Participant 9 stated:
I think as humans we are just naturally wired to be social, it’s something that I try to do, I think a lot of sharing happiness is just trying to be helpful, you know, you see somebody struggling with something, or you can just see they need help with something, happiness seems to come from helping them and in turn it makes you feel better to help them feel better.
Participant 10 stated,
I feel like I am having a great impact on the community through coaching used that to impact the young ladies here. I mean, it is just a sport, it is just a small part of their lives, but I can use it to kind of instill larger things into them, what is really important in life you know, grit and hard work and being able to
communicate and work on teams. It is really a comfortable, joyous life.
In conclusion, the participants in my study described a perceived personal need to be generative so as to help others with their well-being, and to maintain their own SWB. All participants had a consciously targeted group and preconceived notions about how to go about being helpful and nurturing to that group of younger people. All of them felt
generativity was an indispensable component of SWB, and one, Participant 10, saw it as the most important component of SWB.