Stress and Adversity Over the Life Course

This book attempts to map the influence of early stressful experiences on later life outcomes, studying the trajectories of stressors over the life course. It examines the ramifications of stressful events at key life course transition points, and explores the diversity of outcomes for individuals who have suffered through trauma. Finally, the book suggests new methods for study of stress and adversity through the life course, where issues of timing, ordering, and sequencing of stressors are crucial.

List of contributors; 1. Trajectories and turning points over the life course: concepts and themes Blair Wheaton and Ian H. Gotlib; Part I. Trajectories: Long-Term Effects of Adverse Experience: 2. Childhood adversity and adult psychopathology Ronald C. Kessler, Jacquelyn Gillis-Light, William J. Magee, Kenneth S. Kendler and Lindon J. Eaves; 3. The impact of twenty childhood and adult traumatic stressors on the risk of psychiatric disorder Blair Wheaton, Patricia Roszell and Kimberlee Hall; 4. Intergenerational sanction sequences and trajectories of street-crime amplification John Hagan and Bill McCarthy; 5. School-leavers' self-esteem and unemployment: turning point or a station on a trajectory? David Dooley and JoAnn Prause; 6. Intergenerational consequences of social stressors: effects of occupational and family conditions on young mothers and their children Elizabeth G. Menaghan; 7. Women's roles and resilience: trajectories of advantage or turning points? Phyllis Moen; Part II. Turning Points: Changes in Life Trajectories: 8. Becoming unsupervised: children's transitions from adult-care to self-care in the afterschool hours Deborah Belle, Sara Norell and Anthony Lewis; 9. Children whose parents divorce: life trajectories and turning points Donald Wertlieb; 10. Life after high school: development, stress and well-being Susan Gore, Robert Aseltine, Jr, Mary Ellen Colten and Bin Lin; 11. Turning points in midlife Elaine Wethington, Hope Cooper and Carolyn S. Holmes; 12. Adaptation to retirement Robert S. Weiss; Part III. New Methods for the Study of the Life Course: 13. Construction and use of the life history calendar: reliability and validity of recall data Nan Lin, Walter M. Ensel and Wan-foon Gina Lai; 14. Using discrete-time survival analysis to study event occurrence across the life course John B. Willett and Judith D. Singer; Index.