Stress and Adversity Over the Life Course: Trajectories and Turning Points. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Spring, 1998

GOTLIB, Ian H., & WHEATON, Blair (Eds.). Stress and Adversity Over the Life Course: Trajectories and Turning Points. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 301pp. $49.95 (h).

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 impact and consequences of stress depend critically on the life stage in which the stress occurs, or that a sequence of prior stressors acts as a context for such 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 new methods for the study of stress and adversity through the life course, where issues of timing and sequence of stressors are crucial.