Table of Contents

The Life Course Perspective.- The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory.- Historical and Cross-National Variability in the Life Course.- Generations, Cohorts, and Social Change.- Stratified Incentives and Life Course Behaviors.- Normative Structuring of the Life Course.- Age Structuring and the Rhythm of the Life Course.- Movement Through the Life Course.- Parental Identification, Couple Commitment, and Problem Solving among Newlyweds.- Family Context and Individual Weil-Being.- Intergenerational Relations in Changing Times.- Educational Transitions, Trajectories, and Pathways.- From Work Trajectories to Negotiated Careers.- Government and the Life Course.- The First-Grade Transition in Life Course Perspective.- From Student to Worker.- Midcourse.- Desistance from Crime over the Life Course.- Desistance from Crime and Deviance as a Turning Point in the Life Course.- Migration, Human Development, and the Life Course.- Life Course Construction.- Self-Agency and the Life Course.- Connections between Childhood and Adulthood.- How and Why the Understanding of Developmental Continuity and Discontinuity is Important.- Adolescent Work and the Early Socioeconomic Career.- Methods and Interdisciplinary Approaches.- Distinguishing Age, Period, and Cohort Effects.- Event History Models for Life Course Analysis.- Panel Models for the Analysis of Change and Growth in Life Course Studies.- Characterizing the Life Course as Role Configurations and Pathways.- Linking Life Course and Life Story.- Personality Trait Development in Adulthood.- Biological Models of Behavior and the Life Course.- Socioeconomic Status and Health over the Life Course.- The Future of the Life Course.- Toward a Global Geography of the Life Course.- Reflections on the Future of the Life Course.- Life Course Research.- Success and Challenge in Demographic Studies of the Life Course.- The Future of the Life Course.- Future of the Life Course.

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Reviews

From the reviews: "This weighty collection of 34 research studies comprehensively examines the 'life course,' defined as '...the age graded socially-embedded sequence of roles that connect the phases of life.' The text's strenghts: comprehensiveness and comparative and historical perspectives.  Highly recommended. Reference collections, upper-division undergraduate and above." (S.D. Borchert, Lake Erie College, CHOICE)   "Many of the current luminaries or up-and -comers in life course research are included. On balance this is a terrific book.  And at 728 pages is is brimming with insights, syntheses, and reference material.  (Just for fun, it weights 3 lbs. 13 oz). This book is well worth the price and will be a welcome addition to any library." (Timothy J. Owens, Purdue University, Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews.)