Career Set: A Resource through Transitions and Crises

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Spence ◽  
Thomas D. Lonner

Following Foote the life histories of twenty-seven white, middle-aged, middle class, American mothers were analyzed for career-like components [4]. Motherhood dominates the lives of these women but is only one of several careers which ebb and flow throughout their lives. Treating careers as developmental subdivisions in the life course, we understand how women can progress through life transitions and crises. Properties of careers, such as the emergent symbols of success, the clockwork which sets the time limits for career objectives, and the bargaining which these women undertake to work out career conflicts, all contribute to the understanding of how career is placed beside career to create each woman's career set. The career set acts as a social and personal resource, providing consistent and continuous meaning throughout major periods of time even in the face of major career stress or loss.

1988 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-305
Author(s):  
Dennis P. Hogan ◽  
Takashi Mochizuki

Three features of early life course of Americans and Europeans during the twentieth century are of note: (1) the increased age-grading of transitions; (2) the closer spacing of different transitions, and (3) the more extensive overlap between economic and family transitions. Historical changes in the structure of individual life histories have been interpreted alternatively, as a consequence of industrialization and urbanization, or as the result of rising levels of the family and personal incomes available for consumption and investment in human capital skills. In this article we bring additional evidence to bear on this debate by comparing historical changes in the early life transitions of men and women in Japan and the United States. Trends in the transition to adulthood systematically relate to the structure of schools and labor markets in the two nations, drawing attention to the various life course implications of the institutional forms under which industrial societies may organize.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilay S Shah ◽  
Hongyan Ning ◽  
Amanda Perak ◽  
Norrina B Allen ◽  
John T Wilkins ◽  
...  

Introduction: Premature fatal cardiovascular disease rates have plateaued in the US. Identifying population distributions of short- and long-term predicted risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) can inform interventions and policy to improve cardiovascular health over the life course. Methods: Among nonpregnant participants age 30-59 years without prevalent CVD from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2015-18, continuous 10 year (10Y) and 30 year (30Y) predicted ASCVD risk were assigned using the Pooled Cohort Equations and a 30-year competing risk model, respectively. Intermediate/high 10Y risk was defined as ≥7.5%, and high 30Y risk was chosen a priori as ≥20%, based on 2019 guideline levels for risk stratification. Participants were combined into low 10Y/low 30Y, low 10Y/high 30Y, and intermediate/high 10Y categories. We calculated and compared risk distributions overall and across race-sex, age, body mass index (BMI), and education using chi-square tests. Results: In 1495 NHANES participants age 30-59 years (representing 53,022,413 Americans), median 10Y risk was 2.3% and 30Y risk was 15.5%. Approximately 12% of individuals were already estimated to have intermediate/high 10Y risk. Of those at low 10Y risk, 30% had high 30Y predicted risk. Distributions differed significantly by sex, race, age, BMI, and education (P<0.01, Figure ). Black males more frequently had high 10Y risk compared with other race-sex groups. Older individuals, those with BMI ≥30 kg/m 2 , and with ≤high school education had a higher frequency of low 10Y/high 30Y risk. Conclusions: More than one-third of middle-aged U.S. adults have elevated short- or long-term predicted risk for ASCVD. While the majority of middle-aged US adults are at low 10Y risk, a large proportion among this subgroup are at high 30Y ASCVD risk, indicating a substantial need for enhanced clinical and population level prevention earlier in the life course.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S6-S6
Author(s):  
Ioana Sendroiu ◽  
Laura Upenieks

Abstract Perceived life trajectories are rooted in structural systems of advantage and disadvantage, but individuals also shape their futures through setting goals and expectations. “Future aspirations” have typically been used in life course research to refer to one’s conception of their chances of success across life domains and can serve as a resource to help individuals persevere in the face of hardship. Taking a life course approach and using three waves of data from the MIDUS study, we utilize hybrid fixed effects models to assess the relationship between future aspirations and income. We find that, net of age, health, and a host of other time-varying factors, more positive future aspirations are indeed related to higher income over time, but that this relationship takes different shapes in different contexts. In particular, in lower quality neighborhoods, higher future aspirations lead to worse economic outcomes over the life course, while in higher quality neighborhoods, higher aspirations are indeed related to higher incomes. We thus argue that aspirations are only helpful in some contexts, and are inherently contextual not just in their sources but also in their effects.


2013 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 87-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique A.M. Gignac ◽  
Catherine L. Backman ◽  
Aileen M. Davis ◽  
Diane Lacaille ◽  
Xingshan Cao ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
John Field

The nature of transitions across the lifecourse is changing, as are the ways in which these transitions are understoodand investigated by social scientists. Much earlier debate on older adults’ transitions has tended to be rooted in acco-unts of relatively fixed social roles and age-based social stages. However, while we can detect some tendencies towardsdestandardization and restandardization of the lifecourse in later life, we can also see significant continuities in theinfluences of socio-economic position, gender, and ethnicity, as well as of generational position, that continue to affectpeople’s life chances, as well as the expectations and experiences of transition of older people. The paper examines theinterplay of these complex and contradictory structural positions and cultural locations on transitions, and considersthe ways in which older people use and understand learning, formally and informally, as a way of exercising agencyand recreating meaning. It will draw on recent research into the life histories of adults in Scotland, a relatively smallcountry with a typically European pattern of demographic change. The study was concerned with agency, identity,change and learning across the life course, and this paper will concentrate on the evidence relating to experiences oftransition in later life. It will particularly focus on the idea of ‘educational generations’ as a key concept that helps usunderstand how adults use and interpret learning in later life.


Author(s):  
Carel B. Germain

Life-cycle models assume universal, fixed, sequential stages of individual and family development and thus ignore the diversity of people, social and physical environments, and culture. The author proposes a new, interdisciplinary life-course model of development based on the concept of nonuniform pathways of development. This model incorporates new family forms, human diversity (race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and physical/mental states), and environmental diversity (economic, political, social). The model includes temporal orientations (historic, individual, and social time) to examine the influence of life transitions, life events, and other life issues on family development and transformations over time. A case example is provided.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (7) ◽  
pp. 912-931
Author(s):  
Guy Shani ◽  
Eyal Bar-Haim

This study explores the ramifications of local economic differences on entering adulthood in the context of globalization. The effect of globalization on patterns of entering adulthood is usually perceived as filtered by particularities at the national level and as differentiated mainly by class. However, economic differentiation within the same country at the regional and municipal level is mostly overlooked. To address this gap, the authors compare the achievement of first homeownership among middle-class households in two Israeli cities differing in the concentration of economic sectors and in housing prices. Utilizing in-depth interviews ( n = 60 [cases]; n = 106 [interviewees]), the study shows how unstable forms of employment and exponentially rising housing prices in one city, and stable employment accompanied by still affordable housing costs in the other, support non-traditional and traditional patterns of entering adulthood respectively. The authors then analyse the Israeli census to confirm different patterns of entering adulthood among educated residents of the two cities. Thus, the study demonstrates how local economies shape different patterns of entering adulthood within the same country and among members of a similar class, suggesting that the relationship between globalization, class and the life course is also mediated by place.


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