Title: American lives : looking back at the children of the Great Depression /
Authors: Clausen, John A.
Publisher: Free Press ; Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; Maxwell Macmillan International,
Year: 1993
Subjects: Social Conditions.; Socioeconomic Factors; Success United States Psychological aspects Longitudinal studies.; Performance United States Longitudinal studies.; Success United States Psychological aspects Case studies.; Performance United States Case studies.; Performance Longitudinal studies.; Performance Case studies.; United States
Abstract: To what degree is the course of human life prefigured by the childhood and adolescent years? John A. Clausen, long associated with the now famous Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, draws on sixty years of research from this, the largest long-term inquiry into human lives ever conducted, to answer this question. He demonstrates that "adolescent planful competence," a combination of self-confidence, dependability, and an investment in intellectual matters, has a significant and continuing influence on many aspects of our adult lives, even into old age. Over three hundred men and women born in the 1920s in California's Bay Area were studied intensively through their school years and periodically followed up since then by the Berkeley researchers. The study members lived through the Great Depression, several wars, and a sexual revolution.^
Contents: Introduction : adolescent planful competence and the shaping of the life course -- The studies, their context, and the data -- Introduction to the life histories -- A finder of resources : Stuart Campbell -- Still learning at seventy : Mary Wylie -- Antecedents of planful competence -- Uphill all the way : Karl Schultz -- Destined for the law : Henry Barr -- Competence in men's lives : beyond the job -- Programmed for marriage : Alice Neal -- Against all adversity : Beth Green -- Planful competence in women's lives -- Women's lives : marriage and changing roles -- Family relationships -- The later years : looking forward and back -- Epilogue.