of human development should apply to processes across the life span. Life course theory has evolved since the 1960s through programmatic efforts to address such issues. INTRODUCTION A central premise ties together the studies presented in this article: the notion that changing lives alter devel-opmental trajectories. I address the developmental rele-
These include the recognition that individual lives are influenced by their ever-changing historical context, that the study of human lives calls for new ways of thinking about their pattern and dynamic, and that concepts of human development should apply to processes across the life span. Life course theory has evolved since the 1960s through ...
GLEN H. ELDER JR. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The life course has emerged over the past 30 years as a major research paradigm. Distinctive themes include the relation between human lives and a changing society, the. timing of lives, linked or interdependent lives, and human agency. Two lines of research.
A fundamental assumption of life course theory is that lives are lived in a reasonably ordered manner in patterns shaped by age, social structures, and historical change (Elder & Johnson, 2003). Life course theory has five distinct principles: (a) time and place; (b) life-span development; (c) timing; (d) agency; and (e) linked lives.
Glen Elder theorized the life course as based on five key principles: life-span development, human agency, historical time and geographic place, timing of decisions, and linked lives.
Life course theory (LCT) looks at how chronological age, relationships, common life transitions, life events, social change, and human agency shape people's lives from birth to death. It locates individual and family development in cultural and historical contexts.Aug 12, 2014
The subfield of the discipline of sociology referred to as “Aging and the Life Course” is concerned with understanding the interplay between the development of human lives and changing social structures across the entire span of life.
According to the Minsk Declaration (2), the life-course approach recognizes that all stages of a person's life are not only intricately intertwined with each other, but also connected with the lives of others born in the same period, and with the lives of past and future Page 18 2 generations of their families.
The life course perspective recognizes the influence of historical changes on human behavior. 3. The life course perspective recognizes the importance of timing of lives not just in terms of chronological age, but also in terms of biological age, psychological age, social age, and spiritual age.
Glen Elder, in particular, began to advance core principles of life course theory, which he describes as defining "a common field of inquiry by providing a framework that guides research on matters of problem identification and conceptual development" (1998, p. 4).
Life course theory argues that individuals pursue criminal activities because they fail to develop a structured, routine life that conforms to social norms. People without permanent addresses, good spouses, and steady jobs tend to live chaotic and unstructured routines.
The life course approach emphasizes that the health of one age group should not be considered in isolation from that of others, and raises broad social and environmental, as well as medical, considerations.
Life course theory suggests that the development of a criminal career is a dynamic process. Behavior is influenced by individual characteristics as well as social experiences, and the factors that cause antisocial behaviors change dramatically over a person's life span.
In this perspective, each life stage exerts influence on the next stage; social, economic, and physical environments also have influence throughout the life course. All these factors impact individual and community health.
A life course perspective enables the identification of a high-risk phenotype and markers of risk early, supporting current efforts for primary prevention of NCDs by providing timely interventions in early life.
Socialization prepares a person to live within human society. It means the person acquires and adjusts to the customs and norms of the society. ... Socialization occurs throughout childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. These categories are generally known as life course stages.Nov 3, 2021
Elder, Jr. The pioneering longitudinal studies of child development (all launched in the 1920s and 1930s) were extended well beyond childhood. Indeed, they eventually followed their young study members up to the middle years and later life.
The principle of (2) prosperous decade, and then encountered the eco- timing in lives states that: the developmental impact of a nomic collapse as adolescents through the hardship succession of life transitions or events is contingent on experience of parents and relatives.
The talented men and women such cumulative adversities are resourceful paths to in Lewis Terman's sample (born between 1903 and adulthood, most commonly associated with families the 1920s)also encountered the Great Depression and that have ties to the land (Elder & Conger, in press).
In the 1980s, hard times returned to rural America Some individuals are able to select the paths they fol- with a collapse of land values reminiscent of the low, a phenomenon known as human agency, but Great Depression's jolt. This event led to collabora- these choices are not made in a social vacuum.
Life course theory, a sociological framework, was used to analyze the phenomenon of becoming a mother, with longitudinal narrative data from 34 women who gave birth prematurely after a high-risk pregnancy, and whose infant became medically fragile. Women faced challenges of mistimed birth and mothering a technologically-dependent infant.
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.
Decreasing oxygen and ventilator settings allowed mothers more freedom to interact with their infants and less worry about extubation and overstimulation. Mothers learned to manage the infant’s technology, including nasal cannulae, oxygen generator concentrators, and tube feedings.
Mothers frequently referred to informational technology (electronic fetal monitoring [EFM], ultrasonography, photography, infant monitors) and supportive technology (ventilators and feeding tubes). Both types of technology were simultaneously reassuring and confusing as meanings of these data were often ambiguous.
Becoming a mother means moving from a known to an unknown reality (Mercer, 2004). The decision to become a mother is characterized by ambivalence, calculation of the timing of pregnancy, and determination of effects on significant relationships (Sevon, 2005).
Linked lives. The core life course principle is linked lives, the perspective that lives are lived interdependently and reflect sociohistorical influences (Marshall & Mueller, 2003).
First, a social relations approach was used to examine the effects social structures such as marriage and family had on individuals. Subcategories of this approach include functionalism, exchange theory, and ecological systems theory.
An enormous body of life course research describes individual developmental trajectories (life pathways) in accordance with the sequence, impact, and cumulative influence of life events on a range of outcomes from childbearing to transition into and out of the workforce.
Using recent research from the fields of public health, medicine, human development, and social sciences, the LCHD framework shows that. Health is a consequence of multiple determinants operating in nested genetic, biological, behavioral, social, and economic contexts that change as a person develops.
The design of human physiological systems, such as the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, has evolved in response to the selection pressures of evolution (Worthman 1999). In addition to each system's unique attributes, all systems are functionally enmeshed and physiologically connected to one another.
The timing of experiences during physiologically sensitive periods, the relationship of health development to externally defined social transitions, and the synchronization of developmental events and transitions are likely to play an important role in health development.
This figure illustrates how risk reduction strategies can mitigate the influence of risk factors on the developmental trajectory, and how health promotion strategies can simultaneously support and optimize the developmental trajectory.
For example, the future measurement of biomarkers, such as cortisol or corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) levels in young children, or a set of emerging biomarkers, may have uses in identifying children at developmental risk for disease or disabilities that will be diagnosed decades later.
The current study utilizes feminist life course theory to examine the perspectives of women who have aspired or have entered into the superintendency in the United States. Life course theory suggests that our “role histories” often inform our choices about careers.
Life transitions reflect pivotal moments in the life course when choices are made and ultimately acted upon. By consequence, they are rich in significance and imbued with meaning reflective of both the social and cultural freedoms as well as perceived constraints reflective of the moment. Life course theory suggests that in naming these moments of constraint or freedom, we bring insight to micro and macro-level decision-making as well as the choice sets upon which those decisions are made. For example, the ways in which we might interpret perceived barriers by aspiring and established superintendent within this existing cohort of respondents would, according to life course theory, need to be considered in relation to where they were located along the pathway to the superintendency.
Given the inextricable link between the world of work and the socio-historical contexts that inform perceptions of that work, we need additional longitudinal studies on the superintendency in order to understand changes in aspiring females’ perceptions over time. This study was able explore to how a cohort of women perceived accessibility to the superintendency to key aspects of a woman’s life cycle and life history. However, future studies could take this approach a step further by establishing more direct causal links between women’s professional work choices and normative contexts for those choices. In addition, further studies might examine perceptions of aspiring male superintendent candidates so that differences and similarities between males and females might be investigated.
The third domain of particular interest to the respondents focuses on the quality of organizational resources. This domain considers the importance of physical resources to our respondents’ determinations over the necessary conditions for their success. We see that “modernized facilities” appears as the one significant difference between groups, with aspiring superintendents placing greater emphasis on the condition of districts facilities as compared to current superintendents. That said, both groups indicated a high degree of emphasis on good “curriculum and instructional programs.” It may be that this is a product of what prior research has considered women’s continued association with curriculum and curriculum-related issues ( Brunner and Kim, 2010 ).
Cohort designed certification and doctoral programs provide participants with the opportunity to learn from their peers and develop professional networks that benefit them throughout their careers. These networks can provide immediate and long-term benefits that enhance and enrich job performance in ways that other professional development options cannot. The increasing emphasis in Ed.D. programs around action research improves their theoretical and conceptual understanding of their work and brings immediate value-added benefit to their workplace.
When placed in the context of such things as career and career choice, timing becomes particularly salient to decision-making. When, how, and where we are in our lives inevitably drives individual level assessments over what career options are possible, the palatability of risk-taking, degrees of self-efficacy, and so on. Therefore, it is important to consider how timing may also drive women’s perceptions about the superintendency. To what extent does timing factor into feasibility for these women?
In 1993, the three top barriers identified (“sex role stereotyping,” “sex discrimination,” and “lack of role models/mentors”) mirrors in many ways the sociohistorical context of the time. As we know, women maintained only a marginal presence in top district leadership.
The life course perspective is a theoretical model that has been developing over the last 40 years across several disciplines. It is intended to look at how chronological age, common life transitions, and social change shape people’s lives from birth to death. Sociologists, anthropologists, social historians, demographers, ...
The attention that the life course perspective places on the impact of historical and social change on human behavior is important because of our rapidly changing society. The life course perspective differs from other psychological theories in this way.
LITERATURE REVIEW OF MAJOR THEMES. In 1994, Glen Elder identified four dominant themes in the life course approach: 1) interplay of human lives and historical time, 2) timing of lives, 3) linked or interdependent lives, and 4) human agency in making choices. The literature for these themes is reviewed below, along with two other related themes ...
He found that the life course of the group that were young children at the time of the economic downturn were more seriously affected by family hardship than the group that were in middle childhood and late adolescence at the time.
The resettlement experience requires establishment of new social networks, may involve changes in socioeconomic status, and presents serious demands for assimilating to a new physical and social environment. Gender, race, social class, and age all add layers of complexity to the migration experience.
The pattern of mutual support between older adults and their adult children is formed by life events and transitions across the life course. For example,the traditional pattern of intergenerational support (parents supporting children) is often disrupted if one generation migrates and another generation stays behind.
Men’s and women’s life pathways have started to become more similar, but this is primarily because women’s schooling and employment patterns are moving closer to men’s, and not because men have become more involved in the family domain (Sattersten and Lovegreen,1998).
He moved to the city, which meant he had a better chance at getting a good job with a pension that provided financial security for his future. However, living in a city also meant Jose was physically inactive during his adulthood. He enjoyed a diet high in calories, fat and sugar.
Although the surgery to repair this issue is relatively straightforward, the medical facilities and financial resources to carry out the procedure were not available. This meant Halima suffered from incontinence her entire life.
Analyn. As a girl, Analyn did not have the opportunity to go to school. This had consequences throughout the lifecourse. She worked at a market, but her income was low and insecure. She wanted to make sure she could pay for her children to go to school and enjoy the education she never had.
Life Course Theories: Life course theories represent an integrated approach to explaining criminality, and accept that multiple social, personal, economic, and other factors influence crime. Life course theories further argue that in order to understand criminality, one must consider these multiple causal factors over the life course, ...
Elliott’s Integrated Theory. The second multi-factor theory that will be examined is Elliott’s integrated theory (Elliott, Ageton and Canter, 1979). This theory combines the principles of strain, control and social learning theories into a single theoretical framework.
They refer to the points of interruption or the cessation of criminogenic behaviour as turning points. Turning points that allow adults to desist from crime include marriage and the development of a career. Marriage and a career are examples of events that, Sampson and Laub argue, create social capital.
Interactional Theory. Interactional theory is another integrated life course theory of criminality, and was developed by Thornberry (1987) and Thornberry and Krohn (2005). There are three fundamental aspects of interactional theory. The first is that the theory takes a life course perspective.
The most notable difference between social control theory and age-graded informal social control theory is that the latter acknowledges the role of both state dependence (e.g., social control processes) and population heterogeneity (e.g., self-control) in the continuity of delinquent behaviour.
Rooted in the life course developmental perspective, Sampson and Laub’s theory reminds us that the relevant institutions of informal social control vary by age. For example, during adolescence, social bonds to family, peers and the school are important.
According to the theory, the child’s risk emerges from inherited or acquired neuropsychological variation, initially manifested in subtle cognitive deficits, difficult temperament, or hyperactivity. The environment’s risk comprises factors such as inadequate parenting, disrupted family bonds and poverty.