Life course approach
The life course approach, also known as the life course perspective or life course theory, refers to an approach developed in the 1960s for analyzing people's lives within structural, social, and cultural contexts. Origins of this approach can be traced to pioneering studies as Thomas' and Znaniecki's "The Polish Peasant in Europe and America" from the 1920s or Mannheim's essay on the "Problem of generations".[1] The life course approach examines an individual's life history and sees for example how early events influence future decisions and events such as marriage and divorce[2], engagement in crime[3], or disease incidence[4]. A life course is defined as "a sequence of socially defined events and roles that the individual enacts over time"[5]. In particular, the approach focuses on the connection between individuals and the historical and socioeconomic context in which these individuals lived.[1][6] The method encompasses observations including history, sociology, demography, developmental psychology, biology, public health and economics. So far, empirical research from a life course perspective has not resulted in the development of a formal theory.[7]
Life course scholars
- Robert Crosnoe (sociologist)
- Glen Elder (sociologist)
- Kenneth Ferraro (sociologist)
- Mark Hayward (demographer)
- Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson (sociologist)
- Jeylan Mortimer (sociologist)
Further reading
- Elder, G.H. (1974). Children of the great depression. Social change in life experience. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
- Elder, G. H. (1998). "The Life course as developmental theory." Child Development, 69: 1–12.
- Elder, G.H. and Giele, J.Z. (eds.) (2009). The Craft of Life Course Research. New York: Guilford Press.
- Heinz, W.R., Huinink, J. and Weymann, A. (eds.) (2009). The life course reader. Individuals and societies across time. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus.
- Hutchison. E. (2003). Dimensions of human behavior; person and environment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Mayer, K.U. (2009). "New Directions in Life Course Research", Annual Review of Sociology 35: 413–433.
- Gavrilova N.S., Gavrilov L.A. Genetic Influences in Later Life. In: D. Carr (Editor), Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development, Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2009, vol.3, pp.165-170
References
- ^ a b Elder, Glen H.; Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson and Robert Crosnoe: The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory. In: Jeylan T. Mortimer and Michael J. Shanahan (ed.). Handbook of the Life Course. Springer, 2003, ISBN 0306474980, pp. 3–19.
- ^ James M. White; David M. Klein, ed (2007). Family theories (3 ed.). Sage. pp. 122. ISBN 9781412937481. http://books.google.com/?id=LXepvNAosc8C&dq=life+course+theory. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
- ^ Piquero, Alex R. and Zenta Gomez-Smith (2007). Ritzer, George. ed. Crime, Life Course Theory of. doi:10.1111/b.9781405124331.2007.x. http://www.sociologyencyclopedia.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405124331_chunk_g97814051243319_ss1-151. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
- ^ A Life Course Approach to Chronic Disease Epidemiology (Diana Kuh and Yoav Ben-Shlomo ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. ISBN 0192627821.
- ^ Janet Z. Giele and Glen H. Elder Jr., (eds) Methods of Life Course Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Sage Publications, 1998 ISBN 0 76191437 4
- ^ "Life Course Theory - Historical Development, Key Principles And Concepts, Selected Research Applications". http://family.jrank.org/pages/1074/Life-Course-Theory.html. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
- ^ Mayer, Karl U. (2009). "New Directions in Life Course Research". Annual Review of Sociology 35: 423–424.
External links
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Life course development framework
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- Life course approach
- Individual life-span theory
- Family development theory
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