Handbook Of The Life Course

E-Book Overview

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.


E-Book Content

Handbook of the Life Course Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research Series Editor: Howard B. Kaplan, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas HANDBOOK OF DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION Theory, Science, and Practice Edited by Zili Sloboda and William J. Bukoski HANDBOOK OF THE LIFE COURSE Edited by Jeyaln T. Mortimer and Michael J. Shanahan HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Edited by John Delamater HANDBOOK OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY Edited by Jonathan H. Turner HANDBOOK OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION Edited by Maureen T. Hallinan HANDBOOK OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER Edited by Janet Saltzman Chafetz HANDBOOK OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL HEALTH Edited by Carol S. Aneshensel and Jo C. Phelan HANDBOOK OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE MILTARY Edited by Giuseppe Caforio A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. Handbook of the Life Course Edited by Jeylan T. Mortimer University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota Michael J. Shanahan University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBook ISBN: Print ISBN: 0-306-48247-9 0-306-47498-0 ©2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©2003 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers New York All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: and Kluwer's eBookstore at: http://kluweronline.com http://ebooks.kluweronline.com To Glen and Karen Elder, who have inspired and supported generations of life course scholars This page intentionally left blank Contributors Karl L. Alexander, Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218-2685 Elbert P. Almazan, Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405 Duane F. Alwin, Department of Sociology and Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 Vern L. Bengtson, Department of Sociology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-2539 Avshalom Caspi, Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, London, SE5 8AF United Kingdom Bertram J. Cohler, Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 Robert Crosnoe, Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Au