LifE - Pathways from Late Childhood to Adulthood. Context and Development in Adolescence as Predictors of Productive Life-Courses

Principal Investigators of the LifE-Study are:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Helmut Fend, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lauterbach, Dr. phil. Fred Berger, Dr. phil. Urs Grob, Prof. Dr. Werner Georg and Prof. Dr. Katharina Maag Merki

LifE-Pathways from Late Childhood to Adulthood. Context and Development in Adolescence as Predictors of Productive Life-Courses

Link to the webpage of the LifE-Study (German only)

There is still comparatively little well-founded knowledge on the determinants of different trajectories of development from childhood and adolescence into adulthood. To both science and society it is of high interest to investigating effects of personal and social resources in adolescence on various life outcomes in early and middle adulthood.

The LifE-study covers the age span from 12 to 45 years. Emphasis is put on the predictive power of differential experiences at school, with family members and peers during adolescence on relevant life outcomes in early and middle adulthood. Life outcomes are indicated by characteristics of the social and occupational careers and psychological health.

Overall, data not only include extensive information on the characteristics of the participant‘s family, school environment and peer network, but also detailed indicators of personality development and action-theory based personal characteristics of coping. Therefore, it represents an interdisciplinary as well as thematically broad approach to modelling developmental processes during the transition from adolescence into adulthood.

Data collection took place in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 2002. The second follow-up postal-based questionnaire survey is currently conducted and will be finished in July 2012.

The research project is a joint venture of the Universities of Potsdam, Constance and Zurich. Funds are provided by the main Science Foundations in Germany and Switzerland.