Abstract
The bond between age and time is central to a theoretical understanding of the life course and its foundational traditions, sociocultural and cohort-historical (Elder 1975). In the sociocultural perspective, age distinctions are expressed as social expectations regarding the timing of events and social roles, whether early, on time, or late. As normative age grades from childhood to old age, these age groups constitute a basis for self-other definition and evaluation as exemplified by the process of leaving childhood for the transition to young adult status. From a cohort-historical perspective, chronological age as birth year locates individuals in historical context and time through membership in a particular cohort, such as the Americans born during the first decade of the twentieth century.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alwin, D., & McCammon, R. J. (2003). Generations, cohorts, and social change. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 23–49). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Baltes, P. B., Cornelius, S. W., & Nesselroade, J. R. (1979). Cohort effects in developmental psychology. In J. R. Nesselroade & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), Longitudinal research in the study of behavior and development (pp. 61–87). New York: Academic.
Bhrolchain, M. N., & Beaujouan, E. (2013). Education and cohabitation in Britain: A return to traditional patterns? Population and Development Research, 39, 441–458.
Brotz, H., & Wilson, E. (1946). Characteristics of military society. American Journal of Sociology, 51, 371–375.
Brunillo, G. (2010). The effects of cohort size on European earnings. Journal of Population Economics, 23, 273–290.
Chaves, M. (2011). American religion: Contemporary trends. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Conger, R. D., & Elder, G. H., Jr., in collaboration with Lorenz, F. O., Simons, R. L., & Whitbeck, L. B. (1994). Families in troubled times: Adapting to change in rural America. Social institutions and social change. Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter.
Copen, C. E., Daniels, K., Vespa, J., & Mosher, W. D. (2012). First marriages in the United States: Data from the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth. National Health Statistics Reports. Retrieved at www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr//nhsr049.pdf on 12 Sept 2014.
Cotter, D., Hermsen, J. M., & Vanneman, R. (2011). The end of the gender revolution? Gender role attitudes from 1977 to 2008. American Journal of Sociology, 117, 259–289.
Crockett, A., & Voas, D. (2006). Generations of decline: Religious change in 20th-century Britain. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45, 567–584.
Dannefer, D. (2011). Age, the life course and the sociological imagination: Prospects for theory. In R. H. Binstock & L. K. George (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (7th ed., pp. 3–16). San Diego: Academic.
Easterlin, R. A. (1980). Birth and fortune: The impact of numbers on personal welfare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Easterlin, R. A. (1987). Birth and fortune: The impact of numbers on personal welfare (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the great depression: Social change in life experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1975). Age differentiation and the life course. Annual Review of Sociology, 1,165–190.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1986). Military times and turning points in men’s lives. Developmental Psychology, 22, 233–245.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1999). Children of the great depression: Social change in life experience (25th anniversary edition). Boulder: Westview Press.
Elder, G. H., Jr., & Caspi, A. (1990). Studying lives in a changing society: Sociological and personological explorations. In A. I. Rabin, R. A. Zucker, R. A. Emmons, & S. Frank (Eds.), Studying persons and lives (pp. 201–247). New York: Springer.
Elder, G. H., Jr., & Clipp, E. C. (1988). Wartime losses and social bonding: Influences across 40 years in men’s lives. Psychiatry, 51, 177–198.
Elder, G. H., Jr., & Conger, R. D. (2000). Children of the land: Adversity and success in rural America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Elder, G. H., Jr., Shanahan, M. J., & Clipp, E. C. (1994). When war comes to men’s lives: Life-course patterns in family, work, and health. Psychology and Aging, 9, 5–16.
Elder, G. H., Jr., Johnson, M. K., & Crosnoe, R. (2003). The emergence and development of life course theory. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 3–22). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
England, P., Shafer, E. F., & Wu, L. (2012). Premarital conceptions, postconception (“shotgun”) marriages, and premarital first births: Education gradients in U.S. cohorts of white and black women born 1925–1959. Demographic Research, 27, 153–166.
George, L. K. (2014). Taking time seriously: A call to action in mental health research. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 55, 1–14.
Haines, M. (2008). Fertility and mortality in the United States. Economic history association. Retrieved at eh.net/encyclopedia/fertility-and-mortality-in-the-United-States.pdf on 18 Sept 2014.
Hoffman, J. P. (2013). Declining religious authority? Confidence in the leaders of religious organizations, 1972–2010. Review of Religious Research, 55, 1–25.
Houtman, D., & Aupers, S. (2007). The spiritual turn and the decline of tradition: The spread of post-Christian spirituality in 14 western countries, 1981–2000. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46, 305–320.
Kaufmann, E., Goujon, A., & Skirbekk, V. (2012). The end of secularization in Europe? A socio-demographic perspective. Sociology of Religion, 73, 69–91.
Kraaykamp, G. (2012). Employment status and family role attitudes: A trend analysis for the Netherlands. International Sociology, 27, 308–329.
Lambert, Y. (1999). Religion in modernity as a new axial age: Secularization or new religious forms? Sociology of Religion, 60, 303–333.
Leuchtenburg, W. E. (1964). The New Deal and the analogue of war. In J. Braeman, R. H. Bremner, & E. Walters (Eds.), Change and continuity in twentieth-century America. New York: Harper and Row.
Livingston, G., & Cohn, D. (2012). U.S. birth rate falls to a record low: Decline is greatest among immigrants. Pew Social Trends. Retrieved at www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/11/29/overall_trends.pdf on 18 Sept 2014.
Mannheim, K. (1952). The sociological problem of generations. In K. Mannheim (Ed.), Essays on the sociology of knowledge (pp. 276–322). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Mayer, K. U. (2009). New directions in life course research. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 413–433.
Mettler, S. (2005). Soldiers to citizens: The G. I. Bill and the making of the greatest generation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Modell, J. (1975). Levels of change over time. Periodicals archive online, September, 116–127.
Modell, J. (1989). Into one’s own: From youth to adulthood in the United States, 1920–1975. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Pampel, F. (2011a). Cohort changes in the socio-demographic determinants of gender egalitarianism. Social Forces, 89, 961–982.
Pampel, F. (2011b). Cohort change, diffusion, and support for gender egalitarianism in cross-national perspective. Demographic Research, 25, 667–693.
Parker, C. S. (2009). Fighting for democracy: Black veterans and the struggle against white supremacy in the postwar south. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Raley, B. K., & Bumpass, L. (2003). The topography of the divorce plateau: Levels and trends in union stability in the United States after 1980. Demographic Research, 8, 245–260.
Riley, M. W. (1987). On the significance of age in sociology. American Sociological Review, 52, 1–14.
Riley, M. W., Johnson, M. E., & Foner, A. (1972). Aging and society (A sociology of age stratification, Vol. 3). New York: Russell Sage.
Rossi, A. S. (Ed.). (1985). Gender and the life course. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
Ryder, N. B. (1965). The cohort as a concept in the study of social change. American Sociological Review, 30, 843–861.
Sampson, J. R. (2012). Great American city: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schaie, K. W. (1965). A general model for the study of developmental problems. Psychological Bulletin, 64, 92–107.
Schoen, R., & Canudas-Romo, V. (2006). Timing effects on divorce: 20th century experience in the United States. Journal of Family and Marriage, 68, 749–758.
Schoon, I. (2006). Risk and resilience: Adaptations in changing times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schwadel, P. (2010). Age, period, and cohort effects on U.S. religious service attendance: The declining impact of sex, southern residence, and Catholic affiliation. Sociology of Religion, 71, 2–24.
Schwadel, P. (2011). Age, period, and cohort effects on religious activities and beliefs. Social Science Research, 40, 181–192.
Shu, X. L., & Zhu, Y. F. (2012). Uneven transitions: Period- and cohort-related changes in gender attitudes in China, 1995–2007. Social Science Research, 41, 1100–1115.
Slack, T., & Jensen, L. (2008). Birth and fortune revisited: A cohort analysis of underemployment, 1974–2004. Population Research and Policy Review, 27, 729–749.
Sommerville, C. J. (1998). Secular society, religious population: Our tacit rules for using the term secularization. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 249–253.
Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2012). Median age at first marriage by sex: 1890–2010. Washington, DC.: U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved at www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/marriage/data/acs/ElliottetalPAA2012figs.pdf on 4 Aug 2013.
Voas, D., & Crockett, A. (2005). Religion in Britain: Neither believing nor belonging. Sociology: The Journal of the British Sociological Association, 39, 11–28.
Voye, L. (1999). Secularization in the context of advanced modernity. Sociology of Religion, 60, 275–288.
Wu, L. I. (2008). Cohort estimates of nonmarital fertility for U.S. women. Demography, 45, 193–207.
Yang, Y., & Land, K. (2013). Age, period, cohort analysis: New models, methods, and empirical applications. New York: Chapmen and Hall/CRC Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Elder, G.H., George, L.K. (2016). Age, Cohorts, and the Life Course. In: Shanahan, M., Mortimer, J., Kirkpatrick Johnson, M. (eds) Handbook of the Life Course. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20879-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20880-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)