Family Research from the Life Course Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Huinink ◽  
Michael Feldhaus
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Family Dynamics ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Family Research ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Longitudinal Data Collection ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
The Life Course

This article presents an argument for overcoming some of the limits of current family research. To start, some major research questions concerning the future challenges of demographic change and its implications for modern welfare states are addressed. The authors propose an agenda for making progress in this field via two interrelated steps. First, they propose an integration of theoretical approaches explaining family dynamics and design a conceptual framework to model couples' and family dynamics as a process of purposeful individual action and decision-making over the life course. Second, methodological requirements of family research from this theoretical perspective are identified. Conclusions are drawn with regard to longitudinal data collection covering all dimensions of couples' and family dynamics and not just the structural dimensions.

Developmental and Life-Course Criminology

2018 ◽  
pp. 2-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lila Kazemian ◽  
David P. Farrington ◽  
Alex R. Piquero
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Developmental Approach ◽  
Life Course Criminology ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Life Course Framework ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Desistance From Crime

This chapter provides a brief overview of developmental and life-course criminology. These approaches are concerned with the study of the development of offending over the course of one's life, from onset to persistence and, eventually, desistance. Although these two theoretical approaches share many common features, they have distinctive focal concerns. Stemming from the field of sociology, the life-course perspective focuses attention on social structure and life events. The developmental approach, on the other hand, stems from the field of psychology and generally emphasizes the role of individual and psychological factors in the explanation of developmental processes. Moreover, the developmental approach investigates the onset of offending as well as the role of early risk and protective factors in the explanation of future offending. Meanwhile, the life-course framework examines the influence of turning points in offending trajectories and in the process of desistance from crime.

scholarly journals Incorporating a Life-Course Perspective in the Development of Research and Public Policy Impacting Older Refugees

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thrmiga Sathiyamoorthy
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Personal Issue ◽  
The Social ◽  
At Risk Populations ◽  
Facilitating Conditions ◽  
Most At Risk Populations ◽  
The Life Course

Older refugees are widely recognized as one of the most at-risk populations living with multiple intersecting barriers of political insecurity, financial insolvency, and poor health. Drawing upon secondary literature, this review essay builds upon a critique of multiculturalism to argue that the successful integration of older refugees is a two-way process. This process includes: 1) refugees making active attempts to embed themselves into Canadian society, and; 2) government facilitating conditions to help refugees integrate. The social integration of refugee elders is not a personal issue. It is a public problem that requires active government intervention via generous universal benefits.  I use the life-course theoretical perspective to undertake an analysis of public policies and existing research to identify structural determinants of older refugees’ integration.

scholarly journals Joint Family and Work Trajectories and Multidimensional Wellbeing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Comolli ◽  
L. Bernardi ◽  
M. Voorpostel
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Subjective Wellbeing ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Employment Trajectories ◽  
Family And Work ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Family Trajectories

AbstractInformed by the life course perspective, this paper investigates whether and how employment and family trajectories are jointly associated with subjective, relational and financial wellbeing later in life. We draw on data from the Swiss Household Panel which combines biographical retrospective information on work, partnership and childbearing trajectories with 19 annual waves containing a number of wellbeing indicators as well as detailed socio-demographic and social origin information. We use sequence analysis to identify the main family and work trajectories for men and women aged 20–50 years old. We use OLS regression models to assess the association between those trajectories and their interdependency with wellbeing. Results reveal a joint association between work and family trajectories and wellbeing at older age, even net of social origin and pre-trajectory resources. For women, but not for men, the association is also not fully explained by proximate (current family and work status) determinants of wellbeing. Women’s stable full-time employment combined with traditional family trajectories yields a subjective wellbeing premium, whereas childlessness and absence of a stable partnership over the life course is associated with lower levels of financial and subjective wellbeing after 50 especially in combination with a trajectory of weak labour market involvement. Relational wellbeing is not associated with employment trajectories, and only weakly linked to family trajectories among men.

scholarly journals Persistent short-term imprisonment: Belonging as a lens to understand its shifting meanings over the life course

Incarceration ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632198901
Author(s):  
Marguerite Schinkel ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Criminal Punishment ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Looking Back

This article takes a life-course perspective to the meaning of persistent short-term imprisonment and introduces the significance of ‘penal careers’. Examining a total of 62 interviews with men and women in Scotland with long careers of (progression through) criminal punishment, it uses to the concept of belonging as a lens to interpret their experiences. While some participants already felt early on in their career that they belonged in prison because of their shared characteristics with other prisoners, the repetition of imprisonment meant that they increasingly felt displaced from life outside and saw life in prison as ‘easier’ and ‘safer’. Nevertheless, looking back on their many sentences, they felt their cumulative meaning was ‘a waste of life’. The article concludes by considering steps towards tackling the conditions that create this sense of belonging in a place of punishment.

Foster Care in a Life Course Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 692 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Fred Wulczyn
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Foster Children ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Local Variation ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Policy Priority ◽  
The Life Course

To understand what placement outside of one’s home means to the young people involved, we must understand foster care from a life course perspective. I analyze young people’s experiences in foster care from this perspective, accounting for when foster care happens, how long it lasts, and what happens when foster care placements end. I show that the population of children coming into foster care is younger and less urban than it was 20 years ago. I also show reliable measures of exposure to foster care over the life course. Children who enter care early in life are the children who spend the largest proportion of their childhood in foster care—a fact that rarely weighs on the policymaking process. We know very little about state and local variation in foster care placement rates, not to mention the influence of social services, the courts, foster parents, and caseworkers over foster children, so I close by arguing investment in research should be a clear policy priority.

scholarly journals SUITABLE? THE RHETORICAL AND LIFE COURSE IMPLICATIONS OF SERENA WILLIAMS AND THE CATSUIT

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S537-S537
Author(s):  
Brianne M Stanback
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Life Course ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Los Angeles Times ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Sports Illustrated ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract Rhetorical inquires have shown connections between representation and power, workplace fashion and development of ethos, and the rhetoric of glamour through women’s fashion and dress. One element absent from that conversation is how the life course, which typically differs for women because of existing power structures advantaging men, may impact the experience of women as they age, their choice of dress, and the rhetorical implications of those decisions. To explore dress and rhetoric from a life course perspective, this project traces the evolution of Serena Williams’ work apparel across her professional tennis career to the catsuit worn at the 2018 French Open, which is the focus of the project. Press reports on the 2018 catsuit by Nike, New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Business Insider, BBC Sport, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, interviews given by Williams, and the television documentary, Becoming Serena, will be analyzed for their treatment of Williams’ work attire and the life course. Responses to the catsuit emphasize attitudes about gender, race, and class, either discounting or ignoring the life course implications such as motherhood and changes in health status. Despite professional success, responses about the catsuit may reflect that Williams faces the same jeopardies, and invisibility, common to many women as they age, and the rhetorical perspective provides new methodological and pedagogical possibilities for instruction in aging.

scholarly journals Myten om velferdsavhengighet

2018 ◽  
pp. 59-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Chelsom Vogt
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Life Course ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Welfare Dependency ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Historical Developments

Title: The Myth of Welfare Dependency. Summary: The myth of welfare dependency has long historical roots and is influential in both policy and research. The central idea is that receiving welfare benefits decreases people’s motivation for work and fosters a culture of dependency. The myth originates in an Anglo-American context but is also evident in a Nordic context. Nordic welfare states, with their comparatively high levels of benefits, are presumably especially at risk of encouraging welfare dependency. This article questions the myth of welfare dependency, by presenting a life-course perspective that directs our attention to relations between historical developments and individual life-course processes. Viewed from a life-course perspective, it becomes clear that the myth of welfare dependency is based upon a number of problematic premises: an individualistic and static conception of lives and relationships, a narrowly defined concept of welfare, and on several misconceptions of how welfare state policies, especially of the Nordic variety, function in practice. The dichotomy of dependence and independence upon which the myth rests is untenable when confronted with empirical life-course research, and has highly-skewed implications in terms of both gender and social class.

scholarly journals Development of Violence Across the Lifespan: A Preliminary Model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Janneke Van't Klooster
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Rehabilitation Unit ◽  
Preliminary Model ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Pathways Model ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Adult Rehabilitation ◽  
Age Range

<p>Violence has serious implications for both the victim and the wider community. The current adult rehabilitation programmes accept violent offenders ranged from 20 years and older. This age range could have serious rehabilitation consequences, as a twenty year olds violence and violence related goals may differ substantially to a 70 year old. For this reason an understanding of the development of violence and violence related goals can aide rehabilitation and punitive policies. A review of recent research highlights there are many methodological and empirical gaps in the development of violence whereby the current research aimed to assuage this issue. The current research used grounded theory to develop a model on the development of violence over the life-course. For this research twelve men currently incarcerated at Rimutaka Prison in a violence rehabilitation unit were interviewed. This method developed two models. The “Influences on violence development” model outlines how environment and personal choices had an impact on the development of violence. The “development of violence” model outlines the increasing severity and frequency of violence over time, and the increasing complexity of violence related goals. This model is nested within the influences on violence development model. Comparing the current models to Loeber et al's (1993) pathways model, and Sampson and Laub's life-course perspective on offending, has found support for both models. Thus this model's theoretical value lies within its ability to draw together other areas of research and provide a holistic understanding of both how and why violence develops. One implication of these models is the understanding of the varying influences of environment on violence, upon both different individuals and different ages. This implies that rehabilitation should perhaps follow a more individual based focus. There are many limitations to the research, the most salient one being lack of saturation in the model and low sample size.</p>

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