The human life course is filled with and subject to a wide range of personal difficulties, many of which are shared by others. Life events and processes such as birth, childhood, training for and entering an occupation, marriage, and procreation, growing older, death and dying are all subject to dilemmas, obstacles, and barriers. Social Problems across the Life Course offers accessible readings that examine the societal construction of social problems out of the personal troubles that people confront at major life stages. The essays provide an overview and illustrate the theory and principals that inform both the life course and social problems. Introductions by the editors vividly introduce the research and key theories in this unique anthology, perhaps the only one available to help students understand how life stages and personal and social problems interact.

Contributions by: Patricia A. Adler, Peter Adler, Christine Bowditch, Spencer E. Cahill, Sheldon Goldenberg, Robert Granfield, Thomas Koenig, Zella Luria, Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, Susan E. Martin, Frances B. McCrea, Madonna Harrington Meyer, David L. Morgan, Allan Schnaiberg, Jay D. Teachman, Barrie Thorne, David R. Unruh, Susan Walzer