how is life course approach good for research

What is life course research?

Developed in the social sciences in the 1960s, life course research represents a major shift in the study of human life. It aims at analysing human development throughout the lifespan, considering together processes originally examined separately (Elder 1998; Featherman and Lerner 1985; Sapin et al. 2014 ).

What is the best book on methods of life course research?

In Methods of Life Course Research: Qualita- G. H. Elder Jr. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Burton, L. M., and Bengtson, V. (1985). “Black Grand- mothers: Issues of Timing and Continuity in Roles.” Robertson.

What is the life course perspective?

Therefore the life course perspective promotes analyses that take into account both social and biological opportunities at a specific historical time. Both structure and agency contribute to an understanding of health inequalities (Abel and Frohlich 2012 ).

What is the best way to study the life course?

This is so in part because the designs most suited to life course study—such as long-term longitudinal studies, cohort-sequential designs, and the comparative study of cohort subgroups—are resource-intensive methods. There are several ways in which to mitigate this problem of collecting and reconstructing relevant research data on the life course.

Why is a life course approach important?

Investing in the life course approach Long-term investment in a life course approach can limit ill health and the accumulation of risk throughout life. Therefore, it can provide high returns for health and contribute to social and economic development.

What are the strengths of the life course perspective?

5. The life course perspective sees humans as capable of making choices and constructing their own life journeys, within systems of opportunities and constraints. 6. The life course perspective emphasizes diversity in life journeys and the many sources of that diversity.

How does the life course perspective enhance the study of aging?

The life course approach to ageing suggests that the rate of decline in function for a particular organ or system is not only dependent on contemporary influences but on the level of peak function attained earlier in life, which in turn depends partly on developmental processes and early environmental influences (Dodds ...

What is the main points of life course theory?

Life course theory has five distinct principles: (a) time and place; (b) life-span development; (c) timing; (d) agency; and (e) linked lives. We used these principles to examine and explain high-risk pregnancy, its premature conclusion, and subsequent mothering of medically fragile preterm infants.

What are the challenges of the life course approach?

The most complex and demanding challenge for the life course approach lies in taking a holistic view of people, including a wide range of environmental and individual risk factors and in developing means for effective interventions to reduce or modify such risk factors and behaviors during the different phases of life.

What are limitations of life course theory?

One limitation of the life course perspective is the significant focus on the individual rather than spending equal time and emphasis on macro influence on the life course.

What is an example of life course approach?

Examples include: an individual who gets married at the age of 20 is more likely to have a relatively early transition of having a baby, raising a baby and sending a child away when a child is fully grown up in comparison to his/her age group.

What is the life course and why is important in studies of the social determinants of health?

Life course approaches to health disparities leverage theories that explain how socially patterned physical, environmental, and socioeconomic exposures at different stages of human development shape health within and across generations and can therefore offer substantial insight into the etiology of health disparities.

Why is the life course perspective important in social work?

Understanding the impact of transitions within a person's life course is important for social work practice in order to help us understand other people's lives. Although people may experience the same life event, their response to the transition and the decisions they make will be different.

What are three themes of the life course perspective?

Three important themes of the life course perspective—timing of lives, diversity in life course trajectories, and human agency—are particularly useful for engaging diverse individuals and social groups.

What is life course analysis?

Life course analysis entails the collection of life course data together with the (statistical) analysis of the timing of events (when do they happen?),their sequencing (in which order do they happen?),and their quantum (how many events happen?).

What are the four main themes that frame life course theory?

Several fundamental principles characterize the life course approach. They include: (1) socio-historical and geographical location; (2) timing of lives; (3) heterogeneity or variability; (4) "linked lives" and social ties to others; (5) human agency and personal control; and (6) how the past shapes the future.

When did Elder conduct his life course analysis?

Elder served in various advisory capacities and conducted two workshops on analysis of life course data in 1989 and 1991 that began to codify some of the procedures for analyzing archival data on human lives (Elder, Pavalko, & Clipp, 1993).

What is the Elder study?

Elder's (1974) groundbreaking study, Children of the Great Depression, is a well-known exemplar of this approach . Of course, longitudinal research, even cohort-sequential studies, can be and often is conducted without the use of archival data.

Why is secondary analysis instruction important?

Instruction is needed because methods for secondary analysis, especially secondary analysis of qualitative data, are unfamiliar to many researchers and not taught in most graduate study programs. In addition, the availability of data cannot alone drive the research.

Where was the first discussion of a future book?

A conference at the National Academy of Sciences conference center at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in September 1990 became the occasion for our first discussion of a future book to assemble papers by experts on how to do life course [Page xv] research.

Where is the Murray Research Center?

The Murray Research Center for the Study of Lives founded at Radcliffe College, Harvard University, in 1976, became another meeting place for sharing our work and the works of other life course scholars. Giele was a visiting scholar there in 1987.

What is the life course approach?

In order to take on the responsibility of determining and addressing the source of a health issue from such a broad, complex perspective, the life course approach utilizes faculties from a wide spectrum of academic fields, such as biology, demography, psychology, sociology, and political science. Through the cooperation of professionals from these fields, the life course perspective has been implemented in order to address the major health problems of the modern world with a fittingly modern approach.

What is the life course?

The life course refers to the stages of one’s life as a cohesive period of growth and development, not a cluster of disjointed experiences. From this perspective, the health of the individual can be seen as a product of their exposure to their physical, economic, and cultural environments, and the changes in those environments.

When did the life course perspective start?

The historical beginnings of the life course perspective can be traced to the early 20th century, with its earliest forms emerging from a body of work known as the Chicago School. While the Chicago School is considered to have lasted through the 1930s, it was not until the 1960s that the life course perspective was utilized again, by UC Berkeley, in a longitudinal study, or the study of an individual throughout many years of their life.

Who developed the life course perspective?

This revaluation owes much of its success to a researcher named Glen H. Elder, whose paper, “Children of the Great Depression,” is considered to be the initial work of the modern version of the life course perspective.

Is treatment based approach to overcoming the innumerable obstacles facing the health of people across the world?

For centuries, the treatment-based approach to overcoming the innumerable obstacles facing the health of people across the world has proven to be incapable of truly eliminating all health issues. By treating the medical problems that arise within a population, the immediate health of an individual or community can be maintained in many cases. However, these medical problems are merely symptoms of a more complex sickness — one rooted in social conditions and historical context.

Is the life course theory a paradigm shift?

The success of implementing the life course approach has been noteworthy, to say the least, and life course theory could very likely could result in a “paradigm shift” according to Pies, where the most important goal of public health will be “addressing the structural and institutional racism” that has produced the severe health disparities burdening our nation.

What is life course theory?

course perspective, refers to a multidisciplinary. paradigm for the study of people’s lives, structural. contexts, and social change. This approach en-. compasses ideas and observations from an array of. disciplines, notably history, sociology, demogra-.

What are the principles of life course?

They include: (1) socio-historical. and geographical location; (2) timing of lives; (3) heterogeneity or variability; (4) “linked lives”. and social ties to others; (5) human agency and. personal control; and (6) how the past shapes the. future.

When was the research conducted on having children?

to have children). Research conducted in the 1970s

What does "life span" mean?

span. Life span refers to duration of life and char-