The Craft of Life Course Research

385 Pages·2009·3.192 MB·English

by  Glen H. Elder Jr. (ed.), Janet Z. Giele (ed.)

The CrafT of Life Course researCh

The Craft of
Life Course research
edited by
Glen h. elder, Jr.
Janet Z. Giele
The GuiLforD Press
New York London
© 2009 The Guilford Press
A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012
www.guilford.com
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval
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permission from the Publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The craft of life course research / edited by Glen H. Elder, Janet Z. Giele.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60623-320-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60623-321-4
(hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Life cycle, Human—Research—Methodology. I. Elder, Glen H.
II. Giele, Janet Zollinger.
HQ799.95.C73 2009
305.2—dc22
2009021253
Preface
This book is intended to show how experienced investigators do life
course research. Just as craftsmen introduce newcomers to a field by
showing them how expert work is done, this book is meant to impart
to other scholars and students in neighboring fields some of the new-
est and best research methods for studying the life course by showing
how leading practitioners do their work. Accordingly, we invited distin-
guished specialists on the life course to contribute chapters that draw
upon their own research, thereby providing a view of each project “from
the inside.” The book begins with an introductory chapter on life course
research as an evolving field. The three main sections of the book then
demonstrate several ways to collect different kinds of data, how to mea-
sure dynamic processes, and how to investigate the micro and macro
explanatory factors that have an impact on the course of lives.
In our opening section on methods of data collection, each chapter
walks the reader through a particular research process, such as design-
ing a longitudinal study of the life course, collecting life record data,
using ethnography to investigate hidden behavior in families, and pos-
ing research questions to fit a specific longitudinal data set. In Chapter
2 Robert M. Hauser describes nearly four decades of involvement in the
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) and tells how the project evolved
from a statewide investigation of high school seniors’ aspirations to a
long-term study of their lives. The WLS is now one of the premier data
archives in the world for the study of life course patterns and aging. In
Chapter 3, on collecting and interpreting life records, Dennis P. Hogan
and Carrie E. Spearin outline a variety of sources, such as tax records,
membership lists, street directories, and court documents, that can
enrich and supplement other longitudinal data. Ethnographic observa-
tion over time is the form of data collection taken up by Linda M. Bur-
ton, Diane Purvin, and Raymond Garrett-Peters in their account of the
v
vi Preface
Three-City Study of mothers on welfare (Chapter 4). Over time, the trust
that is established between ethnographers and respondents allows many
important, but previously hidden, experiences to be revealed, such as
past or ongoing physical and sexual abuse. The last chapter (Chapter 5)
in this section on data collection moves to another level, where Glen H.
Elder, Jr., and Miles G. Taylor explore how to make the most of longitu-
dinal data that are already available. Using such classic examples as the
Terman Study of gifted children begun in the 1920s, they demonstrate
how new questions can guide recoding and the addition of relevant new
data through follow-up of the original participants.
Part II of the book takes up a central concept of aging and life
course development, namely, the conceptualization and measurement
of dynamic processes by which earlier events and transitions shape and
influence later experience. Each chapter in Part II represents a marked
advance in clarifying and measuring the processes by which earlier life
events and transitions influence subsequent states. In Chapter 6, on
cumulative processes, Angela M. O’Rand discusses the concept of cumu-
lative advantage and disadvantage, and notes the underlying similarity
between conceptual models and strategies for measurement of social
inequality and accumulation of stress. It turns out that education is a
pivotal factor for improving the likelihood of both upward mobility and
better health. Life transitions often entail stress, and David M. Almeida
and Jen D. Wong (Chapter 7) show how the microstudy of daily stress
illuminates transition experiences and their health implications. They
observe a remarkable consistency in studies of stress—that it appears to
be higher for younger people than for older people, perhaps because
later life transitions are more expectable, and individuals learn adap-
tive strategies that can reduce stress as they grow older. In Chapter 8,
on trajectories, Linda K. George asserts that the central focus of life
course research is intraindividual change, and that the measurement
challenge is to identify which factors of timing, duration, sequence, or
turning points result in a given trajectory. Along with giving examples
of thematic and investigator-designed classifications of trajectories,
she carefully explicates the difference between two major quantitative
methods—hierarchical linear modeling and latent class analysis (both
of which are actually illustrated in this book in the chapters on stress and
crime). Finally, in Chapter 9, Elaine Eggleston Doherty, John H. Laub,
and Robert J. Sampson demonstrate the use of group-based trajecto-
ries in life course studies by identifying several major life patterns that
characterize delinquents. For example, the trajectories of incarceration
vary according to the age of males when they began offending, with the
highest curve for those institutionally raised youth who typically began
offending by the age of 7.
Preface vii
The chapters in Part III of the book focus on explanatory factors
that range from micro- to macrostructural and contextual influences
that affect life course outcomes. At the intrapersonal level, Michael J.
Shanahan and Jason D. Boardman (Chapter 10) show that genes are
expressed “across the life span” and consequently require a life course
framework to investigate interactions and correlations between genetic
and environmental influences. For example, they report the results of
a longitudinal study, which indicate that a genetic risk factor (DRD2, a
dopamine receptor) is associated with lower rates of school completion
in boys, but if the child comes from a higher socioeconomic status, the
influence of this risk factor is greatly reduced. In Chapter 11, on life sto-
ries, Janet Z. Giele shows that qualitative themes expressed in life histo-
ries reveal marked differences at the personal level in self-concept, moti-
vation, relational, and adaptive style. Among college-educated white
and black women, these differences are strongly associated with being
a career woman or a homemaker. At the interpersonal level, Phyllis Moen
and Elaine Hernandez (Chapter 12) draw upon extensive research on
linked lives to outline ways of thinking about and measuring the impact
of “social convoys” of family and friends on major life transitions and
trajectories. Important life transitions, such as when to retire, are very
often affected by the needs of a spouse or an aging parent. In the clos-
ing chapter (Chapter 13), Hans-Peter Blossfeld systematically reviews
cross-national research on life course phenomena at the societal level
through the use of comparative methods to assess differences in major
social institutions as a source of life course variation across European
countries. He finds, for example, that characteristic national patterns in
fertility behavior, educational attainment, and women’s employment are
associated with societal differences in family, market, education, and
social welfare institutions.
As editors, we first joined forces some years ago to undertake our
first volume on methodological issues in life course studies, Methods of
Life Course Research (Giele & Elder, 1998b). The thinking and collabora-
tion that brought us together began over two decades ago, when our
research interests converged through professional friendship, mutual
involvement in life course studies, and participation in interdisciplin-
ary committees. In that first volume, as in this book, we invited leading
practitioners of life course studies to prepare a chapter that revealed
the process of doing such work, with abundant references to their own
research.
After a decade of notable expansion in the variety of available lon-
gitudinal data and the life course studies being conducted, it is instruc-
tive to note how this second book is different from the first. The field of
life course studies has matured. There appears to be more consensus on
viii Preface
methods of data collection and on analytical strategies, and the chap-
ters in this book reflect such changes. Longitudinal survey research and
panel studies are the principal ways to chart changes in the life course
over time, with other methods, such as linkages to life records, eth-
nographic observation, or archival enrichments, as important supple-
ments. Likewise, there appears to be a methodological convergence on
measurement of cumulative processes by the use of growth curves and
latent classification of trajectories. In regard to explanatory strategies,
there also appears to be progress in identifying multiple levels for causal
analysis (intrapersonal, personal, interpersonal, and societal), both
within and across levels. All in all, this book, which represents the cur-
rent work of outstanding life course researchers, is testimony to major
advances in the methods by which investigators actually do life course
research.
In the course of this project, we have been assisted in countless
ways. Most of all, we are indebted to C. Deborah Laughton, our editor
at The Guilford Press. She embraced our plan, helped us work through
the book’s structure, and generously guided and supported us with
wise counsel and enthusiasm. Terry Poythress at the Carolina Popula-
tion Center (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) played a key
role in assisting us with communications, coordination of activities, and
other technical matters as we brought our book manuscript to press.
This included the painstaking task of building a unified set of refer-
ences. Her expertise kept us moving along, and we thank her profusely
for all she has done to ensure a successful outcome. It has been a great
pleasure to work with our distinguished list of authors as they sought to
identify and present some of the most significant developments in their
domain to a broad audience. We appreciate their patience and dedica-
tion in working through multiple revisions.
As editors, we are grateful for the support of institutions that have
helped us to sustain our work on life course projects. A Senior Scholar
Award to Glen Elder from the Spencer Foundation provided both time
and essential resources in the development of the book manuscript. He
especially appreciates many years of financial support from the National
Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for longitu-
dinal studies of lives and families in changing environments. His life
course studies began at the Institute of Human Development at the Uni-
versity of California at Berkeley in the early 1960s, and both directors
and staff encouraged and supported the continuation of this work. In
addition, he wishes to thank the MacArthur Foundation and the U.S.
Army Research Institute for generous research support. In Chapel Hill,
his home for many years, the Carolina Population Center, the Center
Preface ix
for Developmental Science, and the Institute on Aging have made the
University of North Carolina a rewarding place to conduct longitudinal
studies of the life course, human development, and aging.
For Janet Giele, an interest in life course research grew as she stud-
ied the changing lives of women. Beginning with comparison of the
lives of 19th-cenury temperance and suffrage leaders, she turned to
analyzing survey data from 20th-century cohorts of women graduates
of Wellesley, Oberlin, and Spelman. Her foray into qualitative analysis
of life stories began with a Radcliffe Institute fellowship and additional
funding from the Murray Research Center and Brandeis University. Her
research on women’s lives has received support over the years from the
Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the University of
Michigan, the Lilly Endowment, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ger-
man Institute for Economic Research, and the German Marshall Fund.
She is especially grateful for the collaboration and stimulation of col-
leagues and students at Brandeis and the Heller School, particularly the
former Policy Center on Aging, the former Family and Children’s Policy
Center, and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies.