The aims of this course are for the student to develop their knowledge and understanding of the life course perspective within different areas of research. The course also aims to develop the students’ knowledge of how a life course perspective can be used in the formation of public health strategies and methods within crime prevention.

The course begins with an overview of how a life course perspective is used within different research areas, as well as discussions about how different theories concerning factors occurring at separate points in time under a life course effects developments in health and the development of antisocial behavior. Furthermore, the course will focus on different methodological applications for the study of life course and the advantages and disadvantages of these. Aspects of long term consequences of exposures of different kinds of social environments and how these interact with individual preventative risk- and protective factors will also be highlighted. Moreover, the meaning of “trajectories” and “transitions” for different developmental patterns shall be studied. Great emphasis is placed on the discussion about how a life course perspective can be used in your own research, as well as how this perspective can serve as a foundation for preventative strategies and measures.

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to:

1. define the meaning of applying a life course perspective in their research,

2. give examples of, and motivations for, how a life course perspective is used to contribute to research within the fields of, for instance, health and illness, antisocial behavior and criminality,

3. apply a life course perspective to the development of public health and crime prevention measures, and

4. critically evaluate research and prevention strategies from a life course perspective.

The teaching takes the form of lectures, seminars and group work.

To achieve a Passing Grade (C, D or E) requires that the student fulfill the learning outcomes by attending seminars and lectures, oral presentations of group work as well as submit a short essay in which the student presents their own or expected research area based on the course literature. This essay will be discussed at a seminar together with other course participants and the examiner. Achievement of the Grade of Distinction (A or B) requires that the examined course work is characterized by originality and meta-theoretical understanding.

A student who fails to achieve a passing grade in the course examination will be given the opportunity to be re-examined twice according to same course content and with the same requirements. In addition, students also have the right to be examined on the same course the next time the course is offered according to the same regulations. If the course has been discontinued or undergone major changes, the student has a right to re-examination on two occasions within one year, based on the syllabus that was in place at the time the student registered for the course. Examination and re-examination take place at the times specified in the schedule.

Bateson P, Barker D, Clutton-Brock T et al. (2004) Developmental plasticity and human health. Nature;430:419-21.

Braveman, P. & Barclay, C (2009) Health disparities beginning in childhood: a life-course perspective. Pediatrics, 124: 163-175.

Carlsson, C. (2013). Masculinities, persistence, and desistance. Criminology, 51(3): 661-693.

Elder, G.H (1998) The Life Course as Developmental Theory. Child Development, 69 (1):1-12.

Elder, G. H. & Giele, J. Z. (2009). The craft of life course research. New York: Guilford Publications.

Gibson, L. C. & Krohn, M. D. (2012). Handbook of life-course criminology. Emerging trends and directions for future research. New York: Springer.

Gluckman PD, and Hanson MA. (2004) Living with the Past: Evolution, Development, and Patterns of Disease. Science; 305: 1733 -1736.

Gluckman PD, Hanson MA, and Pinal C.(2005) The developmental origins of adult disease. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 1:130-41.

Graham H, and Power C. (2004) Childhood disadvantage and health inequalities: a framework for policy based on lifecourse research. Child: Care, Health & Development 30:671-8.

Irwin LG, S A, and Hertzman C. (2007) Early Child Development: A Powerful Equalizer. Final report for the World Health Organizations’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health. WHO.

Janson, C-G. (2000) Seven Swedish Longitudinal Studies in the Behavioral Science. Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research, Stockholm.

Kuh D., and Ben-Shlomo Y, Lynch J, Hallqvist J, Power C. (2003) Life course epidemiology – glossary. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 557:778-783.

Kuh D., and Ben-Shlomo Y. (2004) A Life Course Approach to Chronic Disease Epidemiology. Oxford University Press. Oxford. Valda delar.

Laub, J. H., and Sampson, R. J. (1993) Turning points in the life course: Why change matters in the study of crime? Criminology, 31: 301-325.

Laub, J. H., and Sampson, R. J. (2006) Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Maggi, S., Irwin, L. J., Siddiqi, A., & Hertzman, C. (2010). The Social determinants of early child development: An overview. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 46: 627-635.

Mortimer J. T. and Shanahan M. J. (2003) Handbook of the Life Course. Kluwer Academic, New York. Valda delar.

Piquero, A., and Mazerolle, P: (2001) Life-Course Criminology. Wadsworth, Belmont. Valda delar.

Savage, J., (2009) The Development of Persistent Criminality. OUP USA, New York.

Sunnqvist, C., Persson, U. Lenntorp, B. & Träskman-Bendz, L. (2007). Time geography: a model for psychiatric life charting? Journal of Psychiatric and mental health nursing, 14(3): 250-257.

Additional articles from scientific journals will also be included.

The course coordinator/examiner is responsible for ensuring that a summary course evaluation is conducted at the end of the course. The coordinator will relay these results to the students at a prearranged time. Memory notes from the feedback, including proposals for changes to the course, will be documented and made available on the course website, and will also be relayed to the students who begin the course the next time it is given.