Midlife Women’s Misaligned Educational Expectations and Serious Mental Illness

Women were the driving force behind the expansion of higher education in the United States. Their rise in enrollment developed alongside a rapid increase in educational expectations. This study explores the question of how these landmark shifts in women’s expanded expectations, attainment, and the (mis)alignment of the two have influenced mental health now that these women have entered midlife. Using data from the sophomore cohort of the 1980 High School and Beyond (HS&B:So) study through its 2014 midlife follow-up, results show that for women in the sophomore cohort (n = 2,010), exceeding educational expectations is significantly associated with an increase in experiencing serious mental illness in midlife compared to meeting or missing educational expectations. These results suggest that overachieving educational expectations carry distinct psychological consequences.