Stress and Adversity over the Life Course
Trajectories and Turning Points

This book examines the influence of early stressful experiences over the life course.

Ian H. Gotlib (Edited by), Blair Wheaton (Edited by)

9780521550758, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 June 1997

312 pages, 14 b/w illus. 33 tables
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.2 cm, 0.575 kg

"Gotlib and Wheaton have provided researchers and practitioners concerned with the study of the effects of various stressors on mental health a new and particularly helpful tool- one that focuses on complexity and positive and negative outcomes and one that focuses on both specific types of stress and on the timing and accumulation of adversity across the life span while maintaining the call for increased rigor and definition in measurement. What they offer here is a way of thinking about stress and the life course that suggests not the inevitability of consequences, but the hope for a wider range of suggestions and solutions for further study and treatment." Contemporary Psychology

Although stress occurs at every stage of life, much research studies its effects over short-term periods, typically within circumscribed life stages. Little attention has been given to the possibilities that the consequences or impact of stress depend critically on the timing in the life course in which the individual is exposed to the stress, and that the sequence of prior stressors acts as a context for these effects. 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 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.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC]