The Life Course as Developmental Theory
1998/02/01 by Glen H Elder, Glen H. Elder · 3,060 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Adult development #Child development #Childhood development #Cognitive science #Context (archaeology) #Developmental Science #Developmental psychology #Developmental stage theories #Early Childhood Education and Development #Family Dynamics and Relationships #Gerontology #History #Human development (humanity) #Human life #Life course approach #Life span #Political science #Psychology #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06128.x
published in Child Development 69(1), 1-12 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1998/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract
The pioneering longitudinal studies of child development (all launched in the 1920s and 1930s) were extended well beyond childhood. Indeed, they eventually followed their young study members up to the middle years and later life. In doing so, they generated issues that could not be addressed satisfactorily by available theories. These include the recognition that individual lives are influenced by their ever-changing historical context, that the study of human lives calls for new ways of thinking about their pattern and dynamic, and that concepts of human development should apply to processes across the life span. Life course theory has evolved since the 1960s through programmatic efforts to address such issues.
Citations
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