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Integrating Varieties of Life Course Concepts

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  • Duane F. Alwin

Abstract

A body of work referred to as the "life course" framework (also known as "life course theory," the "life course paradigm," and the "life course perspective") has been increasingly used to motivate and justify the examination of the relationships among variables in social and behavioral science, particularly in the study of population health and aging. Yet, there is very little agreement on what some of these concepts mean, and there is hardly any agreement on what the "life course" is. This article focuses on the different ways in which the concept of "life course" is used in the contemporary study of aging and human development, particularly with regard to health and well-being. Clarification is given for how "life course" is distinguished from "life span" and "life cycle," among other "life" words. This work reviews the conceptual literature on the life course, beginning with its formative years in the 1960s and 1970s, through to the present time. Detailed research of several literatures across disciplines revealed five different uses of the term "life course": (a) life course as time or age, (b) life course as life stages, (c) life course as events, transitions, and trajectories, (d) life course as life-span human development, and (e) life course as early life influences (and their cumulation) on later adult outcomes. To the extent the concept of life course has a multiplicity of meanings that are at variance with one another, this is problematic, as communication is thereby hindered. On the other hand, to the extent the concept of life course involves a rich tapestry of different emphases, this is a good thing, and the diversity of meanings should be retained. This paper proposes a conceptual integration based in part on Riley's age stratification model that resolves the various meanings of life course into one general framework. Coupled with a demographic conceptualization of the life course, this framework embeds the concept of "life course" within a broader perspective of life-span development. This framework is proposed as an integrated perspective for studying the causes and consequences of "life course events and transitions" and understanding the manner by which "life events" and the role transitions they signify influence the life-span development of outcomes of interest across stages of the life cycle. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

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  • Duane F. Alwin, 2012. "Integrating Varieties of Life Course Concepts," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 67(2), pages 206-220.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:67b:y:2012:i:2:p:206-220
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbr146
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    1. Newton, Nicky J. & Ryan, Lindsay H. & King, Rachel T. & Smith, Jacqui, 2014. "Cohort differences in the marriage–health relationship for midlife women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 64-72.
    2. Peiyi Lu & Mack Shelley & Yi‐Long Liu, 2021. "Reexamining the poverty cycle in middle and late adulthood: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study 2002–2014," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 140-151, April.
    3. Judith Treas, 2015. "Editor's choice Incorporating Immigrants: Integrating Theoretical Frameworks of Adaptation," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(2), pages 269-278.
    4. Carroll, Brídín & Walsh, Kieran & Scharf, Thomas & O'Donovan, Diarmuid & Keogh, Sinéad, 2023. "Positive health and ageing policies for older Irish travellers and older people who have experienced homelessness in Ireland: Life-course meanings and determinants," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    5. Weller, Susie & Lyle, Kate & Lucassen, Anneke, 2022. "Re-imagining ‘the patient’: Linked lives and lessons from genomic medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    6. Gignac, Monique A.M. & Backman, Catherine L. & Davis, Aileen M. & Lacaille, Diane & Cao, Xingshan & Badley, Elizabeth M., 2013. "Social role participation and the life course in healthy adults and individuals with osteoarthritis: Are we overlooking the impact on the middle-aged?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 87-93.
    7. Huimin Yan & Lihu Pan & Zhichao Xue & Lin Zhen & Xuehong Bai & Yunfeng Hu & He-Qing Huang, 2019. "Agent-Based Modeling of Sustainable Ecological Consumption for Grasslands: A Case Study of Inner Mongolia, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-24, April.
    8. Ang, Shannon, 2019. "Intersectional cohort change: Disparities in mobility limitations among older Singaporeans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 223-231.
    9. Pannhorst, Matthias & Dost, Florian, 2019. "Marketing innovations to old-age consumers: A dynamic Bass model for different life stages," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 315-327.
    10. Kimberly S. Van Haitsma & Kimberly Curyto & Katherine M. Abbott & Gail L. Towsley & Abby Spector & Morton Kleban, 2015. "A Randomized Controlled Trial for an Individualized Positive Psychosocial Intervention for the Affective and Behavioral Symptoms of Dementia in Nursing Home Residents," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(1), pages 35-45.
    11. Bo Hu, 2021. "Childhood adversity and healthy ageing: a study of the Chinese older population," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 523-535, December.
    12. Guinea-Martin, Daniel, 2016. "Beyond occupation : the evolution of gender segregation over the life course," UC3M Working papers. Economics 23223, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    13. Unay-Gailhard, İlkay, 2016. "Job access after leaving education: A comparative analysis of young women and men in rural Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 19(10), pages 1355-1381.
    14. Ryan, Jean & Wretstrand, Anders & Schmidt, Steven M., 2015. "Exploring public transport as an element of older persons' mobility: A Capability Approach perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 105-114.

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