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 thesedisciplines.

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Preface; J.T. Mortimer, M.J. Shanahan. I: The Life Course Perspective. 1. The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory; G.H. Elder Jr. et al. II: Historical and Cross-National Variability in the Life Course. 2. Generations, Cohorts, and Social Change; D.F. Alwin, R.J. McCammon. 3. Stratified Incentives and Life Course Behaviors; T. Kariya, J.E. Rosenbaum. III: Normative Structuring in the Life Course. 4. Age Structuring and the Rhythm of the Life Course; R.A. Settersten Jr. IV: Movement through the Life Course. A: Institutional Structuring of Life Course Trajectories. 5. Parental Identification, Couple Commitment and Problem Solving Among Newlyweds; I. Tallman. 6. Family Context and Individual Well-Being: Patterns and Mechanisms in Life Course Perspective; P. Uhlenberg, M. Mueller. 7. Intergenerational Relations in Changing Times; N.M. Putney, V.L. Bengtson. 8. Educational Transitions, Trajectories and Pathways; A.M. Pallas. 9. From Work Trajectories to Negotiated Careers: the Contingent Work Life Course; W.R. Heinz. 10. Government and the Life Course; L. Leisering. B: Transitions. 11. The First Grade Transition in Life Course Perspective; D.R. Entwisle, et al. 12. From Student to Worker; A.C. Kerckhoff. 13. Midcourse: Navigating Retirement and a New Life Stage; P. Moen. C: Turning Point. 14. Desistance from Crime over the Life Course; R.J. Sampson, J.H. Laub. 15. Desistance from Crime and Deviance as a Turning Pointin the Life Course; C. Uggen, M. Massoglia. 16. Migration, Human Development, and the Lifecourse; G. Jasso. V: Life Course Construction. A: Agency. 17. Self-Agency and the Life Course; V. Gecas. B: Connections between Early and Subsequent Life Phases. 18. Connections between Chidhood and Adulthood; J.D. McLeod, E.P. Almazan. 19. How and Why the Understanding of Developmental Continuity and Discontinuity is Important: The Sample Case of Long-term Consequences of Adolescent Substance Use; J.E. Schulenberg, et al. 20. Adolescent work and the Early Socioeconomic Career; J.T. Mortimer, et al. VI: Methods and Interdisciplinary Approaches. A: Modes of Studying the Life Course. 21. Distinguishing Age, Period, and Cohort Effects; N.D. Glenn. 22. Event History Models for Life Course Analysis; L.L. Wu. 23. Panel Models for the Analysis of Change and Growth in Life Course Studies; C.N. Halaby. 24. Characterizing the Life Course as Role Configurations and Pathways: A Latent Structure Approach; R. Macmillan, S.R. Eliason. 25. Linking Life-Course and Life-Story: Social Change and the Narrative Study of Lives Over Time; B.J. Cohler, A. Hostetler. B: Interdisciplinary Collaborations. 26. Personality Trait Development In Adulthood; B.W. Roberts, et al. 27. Biological Models of Behavior and the Life Course; M.J. Shanahan, et al. 28. Socioeconomic Status and Health Over the Life Course: Capital as a Unifying Concept; J.R. Frytak, et al. VII: The Future of the Life Course. 29.