Abstract
The life course is a multi-faceted phenomenon. It involves a complex interplay among psychological orientations and behaviors; past experiences and future actions; age and cohort influences; network, historical, and institutional contexts that provide an environment of opportunities and constraints; and the interconnections among social roles that change over time in that environment. All of these coalesce to set the stage for life chances and personal wellbeing throughout one’s life. The life course itself constitutes a social institution, cutting pathways through time and creating a gravity of sorts, varyingly attracting individual lives into role configurations conforming to age-graded norms. Research on the life course and the development of accompanying theories thus grapples with a wide array of issues, have numerous foci, and draw upon a number of disciplines in order to understand the social context of human lives over time (Elder, 1994).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Blau, P., & Duncan, O. D. (1967). The American occupational structure. New York: Wiley.
Booth, A., Crouter, D., & Shanahan, M. (1999). Transitions to adulthood in a changing economy: No work, no family, no future? Westport, CT: Praeger.
Caspi, A., Elder, G., & Herbener, E. (1990). Childhood personality and the prediction of life-course patterns. In L. Robins & M. Rutter (Eds.), Straight and devious pathways from childhood to adulthood (pp. 13–35). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Clausen, J. (1991). Adolescent competence and the shaping of the life course. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 805–842.
Clogg, C. (1995). Latent Class Models. In G. Arminger, C. Clogg, & M. Sobel (Eds.), Handbook of statistical modeling for the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 311–359), New York: Plenum Press.
Conger, R., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (1994). Families in troubled times: Adapting to change in rural America. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Duncan, O. D., Featherman, D., & Duncan, B. (1972). Socioeconomic background and achievement. New York: Seminar Press.
Elder, G. H. (1985). Life course dynamics: Trajectories and transitions, 1968-1980. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Elder, G. H. (1987). War mobilization and the life course: A cohort of World War II veterans. Sociological Forum, 2, 449–472.
Elder, G. H. (1994). Time, human agency, and social change: Perspectives on the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57, 4–15.
Elder, G. H. (1998). Children of the Great Depression. Boulder, CD: Westview Press.
Elder, G. H., George, L., & Shanahan, M. (1996). Psychosocial stress over the life course. In H. Kaplan (Ed.), Psychosocial stress: Perspectives on structure, theory, life course, and methods (pp. 247–292). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Eliason, S. R., Macmillan, R., & Stryker, R. (2002). Life histories in context: A comparative framework for analyzing the reciprocal shaping of social institutions and the life course. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics (SASE), Minneapolis, June 27–30.
Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103, 962–1023.
Featherman, D., & Carter, M. (1976). Discontinuities in schooling and the socioeconomic life cycle. In W. Sewell, R. Hauser, & D. Featherman (Eds.), Schooling and achievement in American society (pp. 133–160). New York: Academic Press.
Furstenberg, F., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Morgan, S. (1987). Adolescent mothers in later life. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Furstenberg, F. et al. (1999). Managing to make it. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
George, L. (1996). Missing links: The case for a social psychology of the life course. The Gerontologist, 36, 236–245.
George, L. K. (1999). Life course perspectives on mental health. In C. Aneshensel & J. Phelan (Eds.), Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health (pp. 565–584). San Diego: Academic Press.
Gerson, K. (1985). Hard choices: How women decide about work, career, and motherhood, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Greenberger, E., & L. Steinberg. (1986). When teenagers work: The psychological and social costs of adolescent employment. New York: Basic Books.
Hagan, J. (1991). Destiny and drift: Subcultural preferences, status attainments, and the risks and rewards of youth. American Sociological Review, 56, 567–582.
Hagan, J. (2001). Northern passage. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Han, S., & Moen, P. (1999). Clocking out: Temporal patterning of retirement. American Journal of Sociology, 105, 191–236.
Heinz, W. (1991). The life course and social change: Comparative perspectives. Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag.
Hogan, D. P. (1978). The variable order of events in the life course. American Sociological Review, 43, 573–586.
Johnson, D., & Booth, A. (1998). Marital quality: A product of the dyadic environment or individual factors? Social Forces, 76, 883–904.
Long, J. S. (1997). Regression models for cagtegoriat and limited dependent variables. Sage.
Marini, M. (1978). The transition to adulthood: Sex differences in educational attainment and age at marriage. American Sociological Review, 43, 483–507.
Marini, M. (1984). The order of events in the transition to adulthood. Sociology of Education, 57, 63–84.
Marini, M., & Singer, B. (1984). Causality in the social sciences. Sociological Methodology, 18, 347–409.
Modell, J. (1989). Into one’s own: From youth to adulthood in the United States, 1920–1975. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Modell, J. (1999) When history is omitted. In A. Booth, A. Crouter, & M. Shanahan (Eds.), Transitions to adulthood in a changing economy: No work, no family, no future? Westport, CT: Praeger.
Modell, J., Furstenberg, F., & Hershberg, T. (1976). Social change and transitions to adulthood in historical perspective. Journal of Family History, I, 7–32.
Neugarten, B., Moore, J., & Lowe, J. (1965). Age norms, age constraints, and adult socialization. American Journal of Sociology, 70, 710–717.
Newcomb, M., & Bentler, P. (1988). Consequences of adolescent drug use: Impact on the lives of young adults. Newbury Park: Sage.
Oppenheimer, V., & Lewin, A. (1999). Career development and marriage formation in a period of rising enequality: Who is at risk? What are their prospects? In A. Booth, D. Crouter, & M. Shanahan. (Eds.), Transitions to adulthood in a changing economy: No work, no family, no future? (pp. 189–225). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Polivka, A., & Miller, S. (1994). The CPS after the redesign: Refocusing the economic lens. A paper prepared for the CRIW Labor Statistics Measurement Issues Conference, Washington, D.C., December 15–16.
Raftery, A. (1995). Bayesian model selection in social research. Sociological Methodology, 25, 111–163.
Rindfuss, R., Swicegood, G., & Rosenfeld, R. (1987). Disorder in the life course: How common and does it matter? American Sociological Review, 52, 785–801.
Robins, L., & Rutler, M. (1990). Straight and devious pathways from childhood to adulthood. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sampson, R., & Laub, J. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sampson, R., & Laub L. (1996). Socioeconomic achievement in the life course of disadvantaged men: Military service as a turning point, circa 1940-1965. American Sociological Review, 61, 347–367.
Schneider, B., & Stevenson, D. (1999). The ambitious generation: America’s teenagers, motivated but directionless. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sewell, W., & Hauser, R. (1974). Education, occupation, and earnings: Achievement in the early career. New York: Academic Press.
Shanahan, M. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
Shanahan, M., Elder, G., & Miech, R. (1997). History and agency in men’s lives: Pathways to achievement in cohort perspective. Sociology of Education, 70, 54–67.
Shanahan, M., Miech, R., & Elder, G. (1998). Changing pathways to attainment in men’s lives, historical patterns of school, work, and social class. Social Forces, 77, 231–256.
Thomas, W., & Znaniecki, F. (1927). The Polish peasant in Europe and America. New York: A A. Knopf.
U.S. Department of Labor. (2000). The national longitudinal surveys handbook 2000. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Warren, J., Hauser, R., & Sheridan, J. (2002). Occupational stratification across the life course: Evidence from the Wisconsin longitudinal study. American Sociological Review.
Wheaton, B. (1990). Life transitions, role histories, and mental health. American Sociological Review, 55, 209–223.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Macmillan, R., Eliason, S.R. (2003). Characterizing the Life Course as Role Configurations and Pathways. In: Mortimer, J.T., Shanahan, M.J. (eds) Handbook of the Life Course. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48247-2_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48247-2_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-47498-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-306-48247-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive