Life course research

{{short description|Interdisciplinary social science field}}

Life course research is an interdisciplinary field in the social and behavioral sciences. Developed during the 1960s, it aims to study human development over the entire life span. As such, it brings together aspects of human development that had previously only been studied separately.{{Cite book |last1=Burton-Jeangros |first1=Claudine |title=A Life Course Perspective on Health Trajectories and Transitions |last2=Cullati |first2=Stéphane |last3=Sacker |first3=Amanda |last4=Blane |first4=David |date=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-20483-3 |editor-last=Burton-Jeangros |editor-first=Claudine |location=Cham (CH) |chapter=Introduction |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-20484-0_1 |pmid=27683928 |editor-last2=Cullati |editor-first2=Stéphane |editor-last3=Sacker |editor-first3=Amanda |editor-last4=Blane |editor-first4=David |chapter-url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK385366/}} In the 1970s, scholars first started to commonly refer to their field as "life course research".{{Cite book |last=George |first=Linda K. |title=Handbook of the Life Course |date=2003 |publisher=Springer US |isbn=978-0-306-47498-9 |editor-last=Mortimer |editor-first=Jeylan T. |location=Boston, MA |pages=671–680 |language=en |chapter=Life Course Research Achievements and Potential |doi=10.1007/978-0-306-48247-2_31 |editor-last2=Shanahan |editor-first2=Michael J. |chapter-url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-0-306-48247-2_31}} The field includes research conceptualizing the life course as one of many different concepts, including developmental processes, cultural constructs, and demographic accounts.{{Cite journal |last=Mayer |first=Karl Ulrich |date=August 2009 |title=New Directions in Life Course Research |url=http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134619 |journal=Annual Review of Sociology |language=en |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=413–433 |doi=10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134619 |issn=0360-0572}}