LEAH Seminar Life Course Perspective/Approach Jerald R. Herting October 19, 2012

Caveats Social demographer/sociologist Statistician-type Exposed to all sorts of health, psychology, prevention, research… and have found myself thinking apply life course frame

Life Course the social pathways of human lives age-graded sequence of socially defined roles and events that are enacted over historical time and place how events, context, and sequence influence aging and development---current state Bottomline: Context (broadly defined) matters

macro and micro –Fundamentally a perspective that is macro (aggregated unit) in orientation –Fundamentally a perspective that is micro (individual ego i ) in orientation

Life course as theoretical orientation Creates common field of inquiry by providing a framework for descriptive and exploratory work Leads to specifying particular research problems Leads to selection of certain variables over others Sets up research design and data analytical approaches

Key Concepts

Social Pathways Trajectories of behaviors and roles that are followed by individuals and groups a) not without variation/heterogeneity Typically these are under constraints of social institutions and subject to historical context

Trajectories Sequences of roles/states Transitions between roles/states Concurrent or joint trajectories/sequences

turning points Choice points that fundamentally alter trajectories Limit/expand future choices or alter the likelihood of transitions

Time time time time… see whats become of me… Historical --- context Individual --- age/development/cummulative Age/period/cohort –fundamental concern

Key Principles Principle of life span development Principle of agency

Principle of time and place Principle of timing

Principle of linked lives

What does one do with this Mental Health and Social Adaptation Following the Transition from High School –Aseltine and Gore Ethnography and the Meaning of Adolescence in High Risk Neighborhoods –Burton Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults –Felitti, Anada, Nordenburg et al Gender, Resources Across the Life Course, and Cognitive Functioning in Egypt –Yount

Names Glen Elder (key sociologist type) Jeffrey Arnett (emerging adulthood) Urie Bronfennbrenner (not explicitly)

Comparing Female Life Course