Handbook of the Life Course (Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research)

Volume 1: This comprehensive handbook provides an overview of key theoretical perspectives, concepts, and methodological approaches that, while applied to diverse phenomena, are united in their general approach to the study of lives across age phases. In surveying the wide terrain of life course studies with dual emphases on theory and empirical research, this important reference work presents probative concepts and methods and identifies promising avenues for future research. Included are sections on history and cross-national variability, normative structuring, movement through the life course, transitions in the life course, turning points, connections between life phases, methodology, and the future of the life course. A major reference work and a seminal text, it is essential reading for social scientists studying phases within the life course, social psychologists in sociology and psychology, demographers and academics in the field of the life course as well as students in these disciplines. Volume 2: Building on the success of the 2003 Handbook of the Life Course, this second volume identifies future directions for life course research and policy. The introductory essay and the chapters that make up the five sections of this book, show consensus on strategic next steps in life course studies. These next steps are explored in detail in each section: Section I, on life course theory, provides fresh perspectives on well-established topics, including cohorts, life stages, and legal and regulatory contexts. It challenges life course scholars to move beyond common individualistic paradigms. Section II highlights changes in major institutional and organizational contexts of the life course. It draws on conceptual advances and recent empirical findings to identify promising avenues for research that illuminate the interplay between structure and agency. It examines trends in family, school, and workplace, as well as contexts that deserve heightened attention, including the military, the criminal justice system, and natural and man-made disaster. The remaining three sections consider advances and suggest strategic opportunities in the study of health and development throughout the life course. They explore methodological innovations, including qualitative and three-generational longitudinal research designs, causal analysis, growth curves, and the study of place. Finally, they show ways to build bridges between life course research and public policy.-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xx Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory....Pages 3-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 Generations, Cohorts, and Social Change....Pages 23-49 Stratified Incentives and Life Course Behaviors....Pages 51-78 Front Matter....Pages 79-79 Age Structuring and the Rhythm of the Life Course....Pages 81-98 Front Matter....Pages 99-99 Parental Identification, Couple Commitment, and Problem Solving among Newlyweds....Pages 103-121 Family Context and Individual Weil-Being....Pages 123-148 Intergenerational Relations in Changing Times....Pages 149-164 Educational Transitions, Trajectories, and Pathways....Pages 165-184 From Work Trajectories to Negotiated Careers....Pages 185-204 Government and the Life Course....Pages 205-225 The First-Grade Transition in Life Course Perspective....Pages 229-250 From Student to Worker....Pages 251-267 Midcourse....Pages 269-291 Desistance from Crime over the Life Course....Pages 295-309 Desistance from Crime and Deviance as a Turning Point in the Life Course....Pages 311-329 Migration, Human Development, and the Life Course....Pages 331-364 Front Matter....Pages 365-365 Self-Agency and the Life Course....Pages 369-388 Connections between Childhood and Adulthood....Pages 391-411 How and Why the Understanding of Developmental Continuity and Discontinuity is Important....Pages 413-436 Adolescent Work and the Early Socioeconomic Career....Pages 437-459 Front Matter....Pages 461-461 Distinguishing Age, Period, and Cohort Effects....Pages 465-476 Event History Models for Life Course Analysis....Pages 477-502 Panel Models for the Analysis of Change and Growth in Life Course Studies....Pages 503-527 Characterizing the Life Course as Role Configurations and Pathways....Pages 529-554 Linking Life Course and Life Story....Pages 555-576 Personality Trait Development in Adulthood....Pages 579-595 Biological Models of Behavior and the Life Course....Pages 597-622 Socioeconomic Status and Health over the Life Course....Pages 623-643 Front Matter....Pages 645-645 Toward a Global Geography of the Life Course....Pages 647-659 Reflections on the Future of the Life Course....Pages 661-670 Life Course Research....Pages 671-680 Success and Challenge in Demographic Studies of the Life Course....Pages 681-691 The Future of the Life Course....Pages 693-701 Future of the Life Course....Pages 703-714 Back Matter....Pages 715-728 Mortimer (sociology, U. of Minnesota) and Shanahan (sociology, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) present a handbook that overviews the theoretical perspectives, concepts, and methodological approaches that animate life course studies in social psychology. Thirty-four chapters are organized into sections that discuss variability in life course across historical and cross-national settings, normative age-grading of the life course as reflective of social structures, the way life courses reflect social institutions, and individual-level processes of motivation in the life course. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Today, the life course perspective is perhaps the pre-eminent theoretical orientation in the study of lives, but this has not always been the case. Edited By Jeylan T. Mortimer, Michael J. Shanahan. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.