The book opens with the goals and theoretical considerations in defining turning points. An overview of the methods presented in subsequent chapters is then provided. Chapter goals include discriminating "local" from long-term effects, identifying variables altering the connection between trajectories at different life stages, locating non-normative turning points, coping with practical distributional problems in trajectory analyses, and changes in the meaning and connections between variables in the transition to adulthood. From an applied perspective, the book explores such topics as antisocial/aggressive trajectories at different life stages, the impact of imprisonment on criminal behavior, family contact trajectories in the transition to adulthood, sustained effects of substance abuse, alternative models of bereavement, and identifying brain changes associated with the onset of a new brain process.
Ideal for advanced students and researchers interested in identifying significant change in data in a variety of fields including psychology, medicine, education, political science, criminology, and sociology.
Dr. Patricia Cohen is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where she has been since her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from New York University. She is best known for her texts on multiple regression analyses written with her husband Jacob Cohen, and for the over 200 published articles on the onset and course of mental illness based on her 30 year study of a general population cohort of children, the Children in the Community study.