Main description:

This seminal work focuses on human development from middle childhood to middle adulthood, through analysis of the research findings of the groundbreaking Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JYLS). The JYLS project, which began in 1968, has generated extensive publications over many years but this is the first comprehensive summary that presents the conceptual framework, the research design and methodology, and the findings. The study looks at the development over time of issues related to personality, identity, health, anti-social behavior, and well-being and is unparalleled in its duration, intensity, comprehensiveness and psychological richness.

The thorough synthesis of this study illustrates that there are different paths to adulthood and that human development cannot be described in average terms. The 42-year perspective that the JYLS provides shows the developmental consequences of children's differences in socioemotional behavior over time, and the great significance of children's positive socioemotional behavior for their further development until middle age.

Not only will the book be an invaluable tool for those considering research methods and analysis on large datasets, it is ideal reading for students on lifespan courses and researchers methodologically interested in longitudinal research.

Contents:

List of figures

List of tables

List of boxes

Preface

PART I: Introduction to the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development

Chapter 1: How the longitudinal study began

A historical context for the study of aggression

Positive behavior in an impulse control model and the goals of the study

The search for alternatives to aggression

The impulse control model

The goals of the longitudinal study

Research conditions in Finland and in the longitudinal study

Chapter 2: The execution of the longitudinal study

The research sample and the major waves of data collection

Attrition and the representativeness of the sample

Additional data collections

Assessment methods

Peer nomination and teacher rating

Personal interview

Self-reports and other methods

Data analysis

Chapter 3: Reflections on the research process

The evaluation of choices

Recommendations for launching a longitudinal study

What is development?

PART II: The development of personality and psychological functioning

Chapter 4: Theoretical frameworks for the study of socioemotional development

From cognitive control of impulses to self-control

Updated framework

The model for the Unfolding of Socioemotional Behavior

Self-regulation and executive functions

Towards cumulative theoretical reasoning

Three layers of personality for organizing research findings

Chapter 5: The person as social actor

Questions to be answered

Socioemotional behavior in childhood and adolescence

Agreement between informants

2 Continuity in socioemotional behavior

The person-situation controversy

Children grow and adult styles of life emerge

The two-dimensional framework across generations

The unfolding of the styles of life from age 8 to 27

The developmental background of the styles of life

A person-oriented approach to personal styles at age 27

Personality profiles at ages 33 to 50

Maturation, adjustment, or growth in adult personality

Childhood socioemotional behaviors as predictors of adult personality characteristics

Roots of the personality profiles and the clusters of personal styles

The roots of adult agreeableness and continuity in aggression

Paths from childhood socioemotional behavior to adult personality

Chapter 6: The person as motivated agent

The transition to adulthood

Age-stratified or individualistic transitions?

Life changes in early adulthood

Patterns and timing of adult transitions

The length and timing of one's education

The structure of education

Predictors of the choice of education

"Off-time" education and other post-comprehesive educational trajectories

Goals and values

Common elements in the life structure of adults

Values in middle age

Individual life structures and unifying life themes

Chapter 7: The person as autobiographical author and an "experiencer" of life

A holistic approach to personality

Self-reflections

Identity formation

Personal control over one's own life

Optimism and self-esteem

Turning points

A study of turning points

Individual differences in the experience of turning points

A qualitative analysis of turning points

Chapter 8: Personality and psychological functioning

Personality and well-being

The concept of mental well-being

Continuity in well-being

The personality traits associated with mental well-being

The model for personality and psychological functioning

Explanations for the associations between personality traits and psychological functioning

PART III: The development of social functioning

Chapter 9: Social development and social functioning

Conceptual approaches to social functioning

The spheres of life

Processes in social functioning

Chapter 10: Problems in social functioning

Antisocial development

Antisocial behavior

From aggression to antisocial behavior

Proactive and reactive aggression as predictors of criminal offending

Accumulation of problems

Multi-problem predictors of problem behaviors
Dynamic processes in the accumulation of problems
Continuity from risk factors to social functioning problems

Offender groups compared

Offender groups

Differences in personality

Social background

Life success of the offender groups in adulthood

Conclusions and suggestions for prevention

Chapter 11: Health behavior

Substance use

The start and continuity of the use of alcohol

Problem drinking in middle age

Socioemotional characteristics associated with drinking

Social backgrounds of the use of alcohol

Smoking cigarettes

Health risks

Health in early adulthood

The predictors of accidents and impairment

Subjective health and metabolic syndrome in middle age

Temperance in adulthood

Chapter 12: The family and its care functions

A partnership in the family

The structure of the family

The relationship between the partners

Adult attachment

Parenting

Delights and stresses in parenting

Parental identity

Child-rearing practices

Relationships in the chain of generations

Chapter 13: Work as a sphere of life

Occupational status and career line in women and men

Success in career path

Constructive behavior in childhood as the antecedent of success in the work domain

Satisfaction with work

Occupational well-being and personality

Job insecurity

Unemployment and psychological distress: selection or causation?

Health consequences of the unstable career line

The consequences of economic strain for the family and parenting

Work-family balance

A stress theory approach to work-family interface

A role enhancement theory approach to work-family interface

Successful reconciliation

Recovery from work and the content of free time

PART IV: Epilogue

Chapter 14: Navigating through the spheres of life

Middle age: a prime time

Midlife transition

The person functioning in the different spheres of life

Chapter 15: The integrated model for individual differences in social and psychological functioning

Chapter 16: A credo

References

Author index

Subject index