Page 1

Children

of the Great

Depression

Children

of the

Great Depression

Social Change

Glen H. Elder, Jr.

in Life Experience

New York London

First published 1999 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Rout/edge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright � 1999 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in

any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter in-

vented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retriev-

al system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used

only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Elder, Glen H., Jr.

Children of the great depression: social change in life experience / by Glen H. Elder, Jr.- 25th

anniversary ed.

p. cm.

Originally published: Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

c1974. With new introd.

Includes bibliographical references CP. ) and index.

ISBN 0-8133-3342-3

I. Depressions- 1929- United States. 2. Family-Califomia-

Oakland- Longitudinal studies. 3. Students-Califomia-Oakland-

Social conditions- Longitudinal studies. l. Title.

HN80.0I 8E43 1998

303.44'09794'6--dc21

ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-3342-7 (pbk)

98-27535

CIP

Contents

List of Tables ix

List of Figures xiii

Foreword by Urie Bronfenbrenner xv

Foreword by John A. Clausen xvii

Acknowledgments xxiii

Crisis and Adaptation: An Introduction 1

The Depression Experience 3

The Research Problem and Approach 5

Socioeconomic Conditions in Oak/and and the

Nation 18

Researching the Past: A Cautionary Note 21

2 Adaptations to Economic Deprivation 25

Deprivation and Adaptatiolls in the Family 25

Status Change in Personality and Achievement

31

Adaptive Potential and Personality 34

11 Coming of Age in the Depression 41

3 Economic Deprivation and Family Status 43

Economic Deprivation and Father's Worklife 43

Social Factors in Economic Change 47

Family Adaptations in Economic Maintenance 49

Some Effects of Status Loss on Parents 53

Review 61

4 Children in the Household Economy 64

Children's Economic and Domestic Roles 65

Children's Tasks as a Developmental Experience

71

The Downward Extension of Adultlike

Experience 80

5 Family Relations 83

Economic Deprivation and Marital Power 87

v

1

3

Parents as Significalll Others 95

Views of Family alld Parents from Adulthood 107

Economic Challge in Family Experience:

A Summary View 113

6 Status Change and Personality 118

Children's Image of Self and Others 118

Self-Orientations and Social Status 120

Social Status and Striving 134

Social Change and the Self: A Concluding

Note 145

III The Adult Years 149

7 Earning a Living: Adult Lives of the Oakland

Men 153

Adult Status ill the Life Course of the Oakland

Cohort 155

Vocational Development in W orklife

Experience 164

Occupational A ttainment in the Life Course 173

Mell's Values: A Legacy of the Depression? 183

A Resume 200

8 Leading a Contingent Life: Adult Lives of the

Oakland Women 202

COlltingencies in a Woman's Life 203

Events and Patterns ill the Life Course 206

Economic Deprivation in the Life Course 213

HA Woman's Place Is in the Home" 222

The Depression Expl'l'ience ill Women's Roles 238

9 Personality in Adult Experience 240

Childhood Deprivation in Adult Health 240

Parenthood as Problem Situation and Growth

Experience 252

Reviewing the Past 258

Perspectives on Politics and the Future 262

IV The Depression Experience in Life Patterns 269

10 Children of the Great Depression 271

The Approach and Other Options 272

vi

Depression Experiences in Personality and the Life

Course 275

Central Themes from the Depression Experience

283

Contents

V Beyond "Children of the Great Depression" 299

11 Beyond "Children of the Great Depression" 301

Early Thinking and Paradigmatic Principles 302

The Emergence of Life Course Theory 312

Turning Lives Around 320

Reflections 330

Epilogue 333

Notes 335

References 338

Appendix A Tables 345

Appendix B Sample Characteristics. Data Sources. and

Methodological Issues 364

Appendix C On Comparisons of the Great

Depression 374

Notes 381

Selected Bibliography 421

Index 433

Tables

Median Family Income and Income Change

(1929 to 1933) 45

2 Children with Economic and Domestic

Roles 66

3 Mothers' Description of Children's Social

Sensitivity (1936) 122

4 Mothers' Description of Children's Emotionality

(1936) 124

5 Adult Status of Oakland Men 160

6 Socioeconomic Factors and Education in Adult

Status Attainment 162

7 Activity Preferences (1964) of Oakland

Men 187

8 Most Valuable Aspects of Marriage as Rated by

Men 194

9 Life Patterns of Women in Adulthood and

Marital Age 209

10 Career Patterns of Married Women (up to

1964) 234

11 Diagnostic Classification of Men and Women

(1954) 245

12 Clinical Ratings of Men and Women on

Psychological Functioning 248

13 Age of Oakland and Berkeley Cohort Members by

Historical Events 316

A-I Comparison of Selected Cities in the Depression on

Indicators of Economic Change 345-346

A-2 Sources of Family Support 346

A-3 Assistance from Public Agencies in Two Time

Periods 347

A-4 Interviewer Mean Ratings of Mothers 347

ix

2

A-5 Ratings of Girls' Dependability and Industry

in 1937 348

A-6 Social Independence of Children as Reported

by Mother 348

A-7 Parental Competence, Traditionalism, and

Role Performance as Determinants of

Mother Dominance 349

A-8 Associational Preferences of Boys and Girls 350

A-9 Persons Preferred by Children as Sources of

Advice and Assistance (1933-34) 350

A-I0 Boys' and Girls' Relations to Parents in High

School 351

A-Il Daughters' Adult Evaluation of Parents in the

Depression 351

A-12 Positive Evaluation of Mother and Father as

Parents (1958) by Closeness to Mother in

Adolescence 352

A-13 Emotional State of Boys and Girls (Junior High

Period) 352

A-14 Classmate Exclusiveness as Perceived by Boys

and Girls (High School Period) 353

A-15 Adult Observers' Ratings of Well-Groomed

Appearance (Junior High Period) 353

A-16 Adult Observers' Mean Social Ratings of Boys

and Girls (Junior High Period) 354

A-17 Emotional and Social Correlates of Social

Fantasy 354

A-18 Mental Ability and Academic Aptitude of Boys

and Girls 355

A-19 Motivational Orientations of Boys 356

A-20 Timing of Career Establishment 356

A-21 Average Number of Jobs and Employers 357

A-22 Achievement Motivation and Intelligence in

Occupational Mobility 357

A-23 Relation Between Occupational Attainment

(1958) and Selected Antecedent Factors 358

A-24 Selected Determinants of Activity Preference

among Oakland Men 358

A-25 Preference for Job Security over Risk / Greater

Gain 359

A-26 An Intergenerational Comparison of Educational

Attainment 359

A-27 Married Women's Status in Adulthood 360

x

Tables

A-28 Activity Preferences of Women 360

A-29 Years of Full-Time Employment for Women 361

A-30 Age at Which Children Were Most Enjoyable

and Greatest Problem (1964) 361

A-31 Political Party Affiliation of Oakland Adults

(1958-64) 362

A-32 Percentage Distribution of Families of

Adolescents in Three Samples 362

A-33 Intelligence and Family Characteristics of

Subjects in the Adolescent and Adult

Samples 363

xi

Tables

Figures

Linkages between Family Deprivation and Child

Characteristics ) ) 6

2 Years of Induction into and Discharge from

Armed Forces 156

3 Percentage Distribution of Men Ever Married by

Age at First Marriage and at Birth of First

Child 157

4 Paths Relating Occupational and Educational

Status in Adulthood to Achievement Motivation,

IQ, and Class Origin ) 75

5 Zero Order and Partial Correlation Coefficients

Relating Economic Deprivation, Vocational

Crystallization, and Occupational Status, by

Class Origin 1 79

6 Percentage Distribution of Women Ever Married

by Age at First Marriage and at Birth of First

Child 207

7 Paths Relating Woman's Educational Attainment

and Husband's Occupational Status to Pre-aduit

Academic Aptitude, Appearance, and Class 220

8 Activity Preferences of Women 224

9 Correlation Coefficients Linking Family

Preferences to Maternal Dominance, Involvement

in Household Tasks, and Economic Deprivation

226

xiii

2

10 The Different Historical Times of the Oakland

and Berkeley Cohorts 305

11 Intra- and Intergenerational Processes Linking

Problem Behavior and Unstable Family

Relations 307

12 Linking Drastic Income Loss to Children's

Behavior Through Family Processes 314

13 The Emergence of Life Course Theory: Research

Traditions and Their Concepts 318

C-l Unemployment Rates in Five Countries 377

Foreword-1998

In this volume, Glen Elder gives us two classics

in one. He does so by bringing together in one

place two closely related bodies of his work,

widely separated in their original date of publica-

tion, but highly relevant today both for advancing

developmental research and for addressing the

critical problems that confront American society

at this point in our history. In his earlier work

Children of the Great Depression, republished

here after a quarter of a century, Elder challenged

the then-prevailing, age- and stage-focused devel-

opmental theories and research designs by

demonstrating, with compelling data, the pro-

found effects of historical change on human de-

velopment not only in the formative years but

throughout the life course. That challenge still ap-

plies.

But Glen Elder has moved on. In a provocative

last chapter based on analyses of successive fol-

low-up studies conducted since the publication of

his 1974 volume, Elder reports further evidence

of a turnaround in developmentally disruptive

trends: "To an unexpected degree, these children

of the Great Depression followed a trajectory of

resilience into the middle years of life. They were

doing better than expected from the perspective

of their social origins" (pp. 15-16). Among the

subsequent life-course experiences identified as

contributing most to this emergence of resilience

and coping behavior were the following: taking

advantage of newly created opportunities for ob-

taining higher education; marriage as a source of

critical support during the young adult years; and,

especially, service in the military. The beneficial

xv

effects of these experiences were not simply addi-

tive; they reinforced each other. For example,

military service "frequently provided new options

for marriage and advanced education. Mobiliza-

tion into the armed forces exposed men to poten-

tial mates and opened up opportunities for sldll

training and higher education .... Related to each

of these developmental experiences is the educa-

tional opportunity offered by the GI Bill of

Rights ... . For example, nearly half of the Cali-

fornia veterans reported having completed an ed-

ucational degree on the GI Bill" (pp. 17-18).

Also, the benefits were especially effective where

they could make the biggest difference; for in-

stance, "for veterans with a delinquent past who

had entered the service at a young age. All of

these experiences enhanced occupational job sta-

tus, job stability, and economic well-being, inde-

pendent of childhood differences and socio-

economic origins up to the middle years" (p. 22).

As Elder himself said, "We don't need wars to

open up such opportunities."

His repeated references to the GI Bill culmi-

nate in both a warning and a call to action for our

times: "But not even great talent and industry can

ensure life success over adversity without oppor-

tunity" (p. 26).

xvi

Urie Bronfenbrenner

Jacob Gould Schurman

Professor Emeritus of

Human Development and

of Psychology, Comell

University

Foreword-1998

Foreword

Depressions, wars, and periods of extreme

social ferment often produce major reorienta-

tions of society. That the life course of indi-

viduals may also be reshaped by such periods

of crisis is apparent from personal experience

and from biographical studies. Some lives are

cut short or stunted, while others find purpose

and opportunity to achieve beyond all prior

imaginings. In periods of crisis, the element of

chance seems to play a major role in influenc-

ing life outcomes. At such times, we can

hardly specify an expectable life course beyond

the immediate impact of the crisis. The task

of delineating "net effects," of tracing out the

various patterns of impact, response, and ulti-

mate influence, seems almost insuperable.

Only by combining historical, sociological, and

psychological perspectives with detailed,

longitudinal data on individual experiences,

orientations, and behaviors can such an analy-

sis be accomplished. This is precisely what

Glen Elder has done in the present volume,

and the accomplishment deserves comment.

This volume testifies at once to the value of

long-range longitudinal research, to the dedi-

cation and foresight of those who established

the Oakland Growth Study more than forty

years ago, and to the extraordinary ingenuity

and persistence of Glen Elder, who took data

collected for totally different purposes, recon-

ceptualized them, and brought them to bear

on a set of significant sociological questions.

xvii

The Oakland Growth Study was established in

1931-32 by Herbert Stolz and Harold E.

Jones as a means of examining the physio-

logical, psychological, and social aspects of the

pubertal transition. Hence its original name,

the Adolescent Growth Study. From the time

the study members entered Junior High School

(at an average age of eleven or twelve) until

they graduated from Senior High School some

six years later, they were observed, questioned,

measured, and tested on more than a hundred

different occasions. Many of the techniques

used, the best available at the time, seem quite

primitive now. But they were applied with

care-one might even say loving care. The

predominant orientation of the early staff was

that of child psychology. The development of

the individual child was broadly viewed in its

physical, cognitive, and social aspects, but

relatively little attention was given to the

conceptualization and measurement of sociali-

zation experiences. Yet there was certainly a

recognition that parental behaviors and life

circumstances made a difference. Harold

Jones, in particular, was interested in the new

developments in American social science

relating to the measurement of social class.

He saw to it that detailed data were collected

on the characteristics of the home, the father's

occupation, and other facets of level of living.

It was my privilege to succeed Harold Jones

as Director of the Institute of Human Devel-

opment in 1960. As a newcomer to the insti-

tute, coming from a different discipline, I

found the magnitude of the data archive there

somewhat overwhelming. A major follow-up

study of the subjects as they neared age 40 was

approaching completion, under a grant from

the Ford Foundation. Coding and rating of the

new data were well under way, but analysis

plans were fragmentary. The successive deaths

of Else Frenkel-Brunswik and of Harold

Jones, the two persons who had planned the

xviii

Foreword

follow-up study, left the project without a

senior supervisor. An enormously complex

project had come very close to chaos.

When Glen Elder joined the staff in 1962,

fresh from a post-doctoral year at the Univer-

sity of North Carolina, he had already been

engaged in a large-scale study of adolescents

and their families. He brought to the program

a solid knowledge of sociological and social

psychological research and theory on adolescent

development along with a seemingly insatiable

curiosity and a prodigious amount of energy.

He was an ideal choice to work with me in

bringing a sociological perspective to bear on

the longitudinal data. It gradually became

apparent, however, that our originally planned

collaboration on a monograph on the family

relations and career development of the sub-

jects was to be a casualty of my inability to

find sufficient time and energy after meeting

my administrative commitments. This must

have been an extremely frustrating experience

for my associate, but he coped with it by

undertaking a series of analyses of career

development and marital histories that resulted

in important contributions to knowledge. Sub-

sequently, he conceived of viewing the data

in historical perspective and of explicitly

examining the ways in which the Great

Depression modified the lives of the families

and influenced the development of the children

who were subjects in the research.

The story that unfolds in the present volume

has high intrinsic interest and significance.

It is a seminal contribution to the sociology of

the life course. We know that "life chances"

depend on historical circumstances and on

one's location in the social structure. But we

are only beginning to formulate the nature of

the linkages between particular kinds of expe-

riences located in time and place, adaptive

responses to these experiences, and long-term

outcomes. Indeed, the great bulk of research

xix

Foreword

on socialization influences simply assumes that

particular patterns of relationship, guidance,

or activity will influence later outcomes. The

researcher is seldom able to follow the subjects

whom he studied in childhood and adolescence

into their adult years. If there is an attempt

to check on specific linkages between early

experience and later personality characteristics

or career lines, it usually entails starting from

known outcomes and working backwards,

using retrospective reports. But since the past

is almost inevitably revised in retrospective

reconstructions to accord with present perspec-

tives, the cloak of evidence is of insubstantial

fabric. Longitudinal studies or personal docu-

ments maintained over long periods of time

afford the only adequate bases for tracing the

linkages by which change comes about in

the life course. Only through the use of such

data can one delineate the sequence of events,

relationships, and interpretations that underlie

the individual's commitments to career,

family, and other spheres.

Even in longitudinal research there are

inevitably gaps in one's knowledge. One could

not possibly monitor or review all of the

salient experiences of a single individual, even

if one knew how to ask all of the relevant

questions. Under such circumstances, the

richer and more diverse the data collected by

earlier investigators, the greater the likelihood

that their successors will be able to address

research questions not previously formulated.

By the same token, however, the task of win-

nowing the data will be more complex and

time-consuming.

If available longitudinal data afforded a

basis for this particular study, the explicit

framework of cohort analysis here utilized goes

a long step beyond most longitudinal research.

Cohort analysis has been an honored tech-

nique in demographic research. It has been

used less in sociological research and hardly at

xx

Foreword

all in social psychological inquiries. In cohort

analysis, the investigator explicitly recognizes

that human behavior must be viewed in its

historical context. Ideally, he compares expe-

riences in different cohorts, and this is a task in

which Glen Elder is currently engaged. The

current volume examines the experience of a

single cohort, but by ingenious subgroup

analysis the researcher is able to show that the

historical era impinged upon different families

in significantly different ways.

This volume represents the product of

nearly a decade of painstaking research effort,

although its author has carried out and pub-

lished many other, more limited, studies in the

same period. To watch this research reach

fruition has been a highly rewarding experience

for me, and I believe that the reader who

retraces the developmental steps of the Oak-

land study cohort will be similarly rewarded.

John A. Clausen

xxi

Foreword

Acknowledgments

The story of this project began more than

forty years ago in the pioneering vision of

Harold E. J ones and Herbert R. Stolz, then

research director and director of the Institute

of Child Welfare (now the Institute of Human

Development), University of California at

Berkeley. In 1932, they launched and directed

a longitudinal study of growth and develop-

ment with a sample of eleven-year-old children

from the northeastern sector of Oakland, and

later extended the project to the full life span.

Without financial resources that are now cus-

tomary, J ones and Stolz managed to establish

and maintain a broad program of data collec-

tion during the 30s. This program and periodic

adult follow-ups provided materials that were

well suited for a study of the Oakland children

as "children of the Great Depression." My

debt is great indeed to these men and other

staff members of the institute who labored so

long and well in developing this valuable data

archive on human development (supported by

the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation,

Ford Foundation, and USPHS Grant MH

06238) and to the Oakland children whose

lives span an unparalleled era of social-

historical change.

The initial stage of data preparation and

analysis was completed at the Institute of

Human Development during my tenure as

research sociologist (1962-67). Work on the

project continued at Chapel Hill after I

xxiii

accepted an appointment (1967) to the soci-

ology faculty of the University of North Caro-

lina. Final revisions in the manuscript were

made during a sabbatical year (1972-73) at

the Institute of Human Development sup-

ported by Grant GS-35253 from the National

Science Foundation. In all stages of this study

of the Depression experience, from its incep-

tion to the final manuscript, I have benefited

from John Clausen's encouragement, percep-

tive criticism, and wise counsel. I was first

exposed to the opportunities of longitudinal

research on the life course through his project

at the Institute, and my initial work on socio-

economic change in family and life patterns

was made possible by funds from this program

of research (Grant MH 05300, NIMH). If

this influence and more generally that of the

Chicago school (dating back to W. I. Thomas)

is as evident to my readers as to me, I shall

be very pleased.

I owe a special debt to the staff of the Insti-

tute of Human Development and that of the

Institute for Research in Social Science at

Chapel Hill for assistance in data preparation

and analysis; and to Ella Barney, Christine

Godet, N atalie Lucchese, Linda Anderson, and

Patricia Sanford for their expert care in pre-

paring drafts of the manuscript. M. Brewster

Smith, Mary Jones, and John Clausen made

valuable criticisms and comments on an early

version of the manuscript. An expanded draft

was read and criticized by Neil Smelser,

Reuben Hill, John Clausen, Mary Jones,

Dorothy Eichorn, and Robert J ackson. These

evaluations and related discussion prompted

many improvements in the book.

Chapters 7 and 8 draw upon material in

three articles that are based on the Oak'land

Growth Study sample: "Intelligence and

Achievement Motivation in Occupational Mo-

bility," Sociometry 31 (December 1968):

327-54; "Appearance and Education in Mar-

xxiv

Acknowledgments

riage Mobility," American Sociological Review

34 (August 1969): 519-33; and "Role Orien-

tations, Marital Age, and Life Patterns in

Adulthood," Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 18

(January 1972): 3-24. Permission of the pub-

lishers is acknowledged for quotations from

Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merritt Lynd,

Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural

Conflict, Harcourt, Brace, 1937; Studs Terkel,

Hard Times, Random House, 1970; C. Wright

Mills, The Sociological Imagination, Oxford

University Press, 1959; Joseph Adelson, "Is

Women's Lib a Passing Fad?" The New York

Times Magazine, 19 March, 1972; Mirra

Komarovsky, Blue-Collar Marriage, Random

House, 1962; Helena Z. Lopata, Occupation:

Housewife, Oxford University Press, 1971;

and Reuben Hill, Family Development in

Three Generations, Schenkman, 1970.

Throughout the course of this work, its ups

and downs, my wife, Karen, has been a con-

stant source of encouragement and under-

standing. Her good humor and vibrant outlook

were more than a match for a preoccupied

husband. With grateful appreciation, this book

is dedicated to her.

xxv

Crisis and

Adaptation:

An Introduction

The city had been shaken for nearly six years by

a catastrophe involving not only people's values

but, in the case of many, their very existence.

Unlike most socially generated catastrophes. in

this case virtually nobody in the community had

been cushioned against the blow; the great knife

of the depression had cut down impartially

through the entire population, cleaving open the

lives and hopes of rich as well as poor. The expe-

rience had been more nearly universal than any

prolonged recent emotional experience in the

city's history; it had approached in its elemental

shock the primary experiences of birth and death.

Middletown itself believes, not without some

jusfification, that many families have been drawn

together and "found" themselves in the depres-

sion. It is just as certainly true that in yet other

families, the depression has precipitated a perma-

nent sediment of disillusionment and bitterness,

shown in part by the rapidity with which the

divorce rate was climbing back toward its old

level in 1935. Where the balance lies as between

these two tendencies no one as yet knows.

[Newspaper Editorial] This Depression Has Its

Points. Great spiritual values have come out of

the depression . ... Many a family that has lost

its car has found its soul . . . . Nerves are not so

jaded. Bodies are better rested, and though fine

foods are not so plentiful, digestion is better . ..

Churches have been gaining . .. because some

who were once members of golf clubs can no

longer afford to play.

1

From Robert S. Lynd

and Helen M. Lynd,

Middletown

in Transition.

1

1

The Depression

Experience

It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times,

it was the age of

wisdom, it was the epoch

of incredulity, it was

the season of Light, it

was the season of

Darkness, it was the

spring of hope, it was

the winter of despair.

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

From various quarters we are reminded of the "greatness" of the Great

Depression, as seen in its costs to human lives and social institutions.

But there is evidence on the other side which shows that much was

learned, that the Depression was an instructive experience which

produced novel social adaptations. Polarities of this sort have long been

noted in the study of social change and crises (Sorokin 1942). Never-

theless, our theories and studies tend to slight the contrasting elements

and consequences of historical events. To some historians, for example,

the Great Depression is a watershed in the evolution of American

society, while others stress the degree of continuity between institu-

tional change in the post-1929 era and social reform during the late

nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (For a critical analysis of the

"discontinuity" thesis, see Kirkendall 1964.) In any specific analysis,

crisis situations are seldom viewed in terms of their potential for

adaptive change and pathology.

These diverse outcomes arise in part from variations in exposure to

the historical event (not all Americans suffered heavy economic losses

or unemployment in the 30s) and from the different resources of

individuals and their interpretations of the situation. Economic stagna-

tion and hardship visited all sections of the country as unemployment

approached one-third of the work force in 1933 and a much larger

percentage of Americans were placed on shortened hours and reduced

paychecks, but these conditions varied across segments of the popula-

tion, defined by age and sex, occupation, race, and residence.1

Evidence assembled by an economist suggests that this period was not a

time of great economic deprivation for at least half of the population.2

Severe physical want and poverty were concentrated among the urban

and rural lower classes, in particular, while status or reputation loss

and related anxieties were especially common in the middle classes. In

view of these variations and the diverse backgrounds of writers in the

30s, it is not surprising that we have markedly different interpretations

of what America was like in the Depression. "In a vast country,

3

contradictory impressions were inevitable in the observations of jour-

nalists, novelists, and storytellers of vastly different backgrounds and

predilections; contradictory viewpoints were often expressed by

the same writer."3

Questions of validity naturally arise from these contradictory reports,

but this is more of a problem in reports that rely solely on the memo-

ries of persons, a relatively common source of data in recent books on

this historical period (for example, Terkel 1970). The past is often

reconstructed to fit the present. While the "good old days" are an

enjoyable topic of conversation and improve with the telling, there is

little reward in remembering the "bad days," unless they reflect favor-

ably on one's present situation and successful ascent. In either case,

memories yield an inaccurate picture of life experience in the Depres-

sion. Noting that many Americans who lived through the Depression

are unwilling to talk about it, one writer observes that the passage of

time has had an anesthetic effect on memories of the painful and

unpleasant. "This may be nature's way of maintaining the emotional

stability of the human race, but it does not make for accurate history-

we remember only what we want to remember."4 As one critic

exclaimed, "It's strange, but everyone who writes about the thirties,

writes about them defensively."5

Reliable knowledge of social realities and life experiences in the

Great Depression thus depends on the availability of archival data. The

problem here is that such data are both limited and fixed. One does

not have the option of collecting additional information to fill in the

lacunae, which unfortunately are all too common. At most points in the

Depression, for instance, the country did not have accurate nationwide

statistics on the unemployment rate. Archival data from agency files

have proved to be an invaluable source of information for community

studies, but they offer very limited information on the SUbjective

situation and experiences of families and individuals, especially in

the lower strata.

Since the 1930s we have gained little reliable knowledge on family

life during the Depression, and this is even morc true of the experience

of children under varying conditions of economic hardship. We also

lack evidence on a question which has aroused much interest and

speculation-the psychosocial effects of growing up in the 1930s. An

example of this speculation is Herbert Gans's assumption that the "low

threshold for excitement" among Levittowners is due to their childhood

experience in the Depression: "Excitement is identified with conflict,

crisis, and deprivation. Most Levittowners grew up in the Depression,

and, remembering the hard times of their childhood, they want to

4

Crisis and Adaptation

protect themselves and their children from stress."6 Other explanations,

which apply to the aging process, arc equally plausible.

The Research

Problem and

Approach

This book is based on a study of the Depression experience in the lives

of some Americans who were born in 1920-21 and in the lives of their

parents, but it is more broadly concerned with the implications of

drastic socioeconomic change for family change and intergenerational

relations. We follow these children of the Depression from the early

30s in Oakland (California) through World War 11, the postwar era of

the 40s and 50s, and the early 60s.

Archival data in the Oakland Growth Study, located at the Univer-

sity of California (Institute of Human Development), offered a unique

opportunity to identify economic change in family life and its conse-

quences for persons born before the Great Depression. The project was

launched in 1931 to study the physical, intellectual, and social

development of boys and girls, and commenced data collection in 1932.

The J 67 children who were intensively studied from 1932 to 1939

were initially selected from the fifth and sixth grades of five elementary

schools in the northeastern section of Oakland, California. According

to the family background of enrolled students, two of the schools were

largely working-class, one was lower-middle-class, and the other two

were middle-class.

These children are representatives of only one of the age groups

which passed through the Depression, but the 1916-25 cohort has

historical significance as a major source of World War II veterans, the

postwar "baby boom," and the presumed generational gap (see Cain

1970, and Easterlin 1961). With few exceptions, the males served an

average of three years in the armed forces during the war, and the

females were occupied in the "familistic" postwar years with child

rearing. Most of the men and women married during the war and had

their first child shortly thereafter in a period of relative affluence. A

large proportion of their children who entered colleges were enrolled

during the student protests of the 1960s.

In a literal sense, these two generations are offspring of contrasting

childhoods, one marked by scarcity and the other by affluence. A sharp

contrast in childhoods also appears between the subjects and their

parents, who were born before the turn of the century and entered the

Depression in the prime years of life, their late 30s and early 40s. The

5

The Depression

Experience

nonrnanual fathers were generally self-employed merchants and pro-

fessionals in the "old middle class." Through marriage or occupational

achievement, most of the offspring of these men established careers

that are related to bureaucracies in the organizational society which

evolved from the Depression era.

I start with the fact of differential economic loss among families and

investigate its social and psychological effects; very little attention is

given to factors which account for variations in the breadwinner's

economic and job loss. The first half of the book centers on variations

in economic deprivation among families in the middle and working

classes, as expressed in the family structure, social experience, and

personality of the children; these effects are then traced in the later

chapters to careers, values, and psychological functioning in adulthood.

With socioeconomic change as the focal point, the study necessarily

leads to various outcomes in the life span, as I conceptually specify its

effects in family organization and life situations, and pursue their

implications for adult experience. The analysis thus resembles a funnel,

narrow or focused at the outset and broad in the adult years. It is

important to make special note of this feature since the analytic require-

ments differ markedly from those of studies which cent er on a single

outcome or dependent variable, for example, "What are the conditions

under which rationalized economic behavior makes its appearance?"7

When we are interested in the primary sources of variation in a

dependent variable, we tend to select independent variables for the

analysis which will enable us (according to theory) to account for a

creditable portion of this variation. What social factors, for example,

are likely to account for variation in egalitarian sex-role orientation

among women? for variation in the balance of marital power? In studies

of such questions, the amount of explained variance is a reasonable

criterion, among others, for evaluating both theory and results, but it

has less value when the analyst focuses upon the effects of an inde-

pendent variable or antecedent factor, as in the present study. Economic

deprivation was selected for study on theoretical and historical

grounds, not in terms of its presumed efficiency in predicting one or

more dependent variables. In this regard, two kinds of outcomes will be

of interest as we pose questions on the effect of economic deprivation

in the life course: Does economic deprivation have an effect on a

particular aspect of adult experience, and how does this effect compare

with that of other relevant variables, such as family social class?-the

question of relative effect; and, How is the effect linked to this aspect

of adult life?-a question which centers on the interpretative task.

6

Crisis and Adaptation

An Approach to

Family Change

In the realm of social change, the study is defined by its focus on actual

families and individuals in concrete situations, as compared with the

analysis of abstract social systems and structures. The socioeconomic

change of families (with parents and children) is a strategic point at

which to investigate the dynamics of generational change, of change

between old and young in the succession of generations. If family adap-

tations to change are constructed from customary lines of action and

features of the new situation, its perceived requirements and options, we

are led to expect some restructuring of the child's world-in relation to

others, and in tasks within the household and extrafamilial settings.

Whether intended or not, the actions of parents in response to situa-

tions of family change inevitably pattern or impinge on their children's

upbringing. Mothers who sought jobs in the Depression presumably did

so in order to supplement family incom~, but their actions may have

had a host of other consequences for the upbringing of their daughters.

For example, the working mother would establish a behavioral model

for her daughter and was likely to gain influence in family affairs,

while the daughter was drawn more fully into household operations.

Each of these conditions has implications for the learning or

reinforcement of values.

This approach enables the analyst to gain some insight into the

process by which change occurs,s an admittedly neglected feature

of prominent macrotheories on social change, for example, theories of

class conflict and sociocultural evolution. The problem before us is not

simply whether economic change produced family and generational

change, or the nature of that change; it includes questions concerning

the process by which such change occurred. What are the conceptual

linkages between economic change and the adult careers of men and

women who were children in the 30s? It may be clear from what has

been said that basic features of this approach are indebted to the early

work of WiIliam 1. Thomas, and especially to his classic study (with

F. Znaniecki) The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-20).9

Thomas trained his analytic eye on linkages between social structure

and personality and made a convincing case for studying such linkages

at points of discontinuity or incongruence between person and environ-

ment, as seen in his theory of crisis situations, of adaptations to new

situations. From the vantage point of the present study, we also

appreciate Thomas's emphasis on developmental concepts of life

experience, on the use of life records and histories.

7

The Depression

Experience

The study of families in concrete situations of change meshes well

with the analytic requirements of research on historical events in family

change. A number of major events in the present century directly

affected millions of family units-especially mass emigration (Europe

to America, rural to urban), World Wars I and 11 (which at least

temporarily removed fathers and sons through military service, and

drew women into the labor force) , and the Great Depression-but

events of this sort rarely enter accounts of family change. From the

typical text on family systems in America, one would never grasp

the implications of these event-structured conditions for the organiza-

tion, adaptations, and change of families. Some relevant studies are

available in the literature, from research on families in crisis to longi-

tudinal studies of family units, but the findings have not brought much

progress toward an understanding of family and intergenerational

change (cf. Goode 1968). While the present study is severely limited

as a study of family change, owing to archival resources, it does make

a preliminary venture in this direction by tracing the impact of socio-

economic change to the family and life course.

Concepts in the

Analytic Framework

The study relies most heavily upon five concepts: economic depriva-

tion, crisis or problem situation, adaptation, linkage, and cohort. Our

comparison of birth cohorts (mainly parents and children in the

Oakland study) will utilize the concepts of crisis, adaptation, and

linkage in an effort to assess and interpret the effects of economic

deprivation. Such comparisons rest on the assumption that social change

has differential consequences for persons of unlike age, which suggests

that age variations are related to variations in the meaning of a situa-

tion, in adaptive potential or options, and thus in linkages between the

event and the life course. We assume that children experienced the

effects of economic deprivation primarily through family adaptations,

for example, change in consumption and production activities.

Economic deprivation as decremenlai change. Economic deprivation

refers to a decremental mode of economic change, not to persistent

deprivation in chronic unemployment, public assistance, or poverty. By

decremental change, we mean a loss in the economic status of a family

between two points in time, between 1929. and the year most economic

indicators reached their lowest point in time, the year of 1933. For

most families, the lowest point did not remain a stable condition; as the

economy improved in the last half of the 30s and the nation mobilized

for war, family status generally improved accordingly.

8

Crisis and Adaptation

However drastic, economic declines of a temporary nature present

different implications for family and child than does a chronic state of

deprivation. During the 1960s, the concept of deprivation drew atten-

tion to lower-class populations of children and, with few exceptions,

tended to link social and economic forms of deprivation with patho-

logical outcomes in personality development. If conditions in the lower

strata are an extreme form of deprivation, their effects on the develop-

ment of children are by no means uniformly negative (U.S. Dept.

of HEW 1968). The association between these environmental factors

and psychological impairment is well known, but deprivation may

under some conditions eventuate in resourcefulness, adaptive skills, and

mature responsibility. This outcome is more likely in the case of

decremental change, which is not restricted to families in which parents

and children generally rank low on adaptive resources-cultural,

educational or intellectual, etc. The study of adaptive potential is

enhanced when the field of investigation is broadened to include

families from the middle class, and especially when their economic

decline is due mainly to structural dislocations in the economy (as

against deficiencies of the breadwinner). Such downward movement has

occurred since 1950 through plant closings, the curtailment of divisions

within large corporations, and general reductions in the employment

of skilled men, but the most dramatic example is seen in the Great

Depression. For the middle class, in particular, deprivational conditions

were novel events which called for new adaptations in economic

maintenance, family organization, and child socialization. The present

study includes a large proportion of deprived families which were

located in the middle class before the onset of hard times.

Crisis and adaptation. At first thought, crisis situations would seem

to require little clarification; most of us have a rather clear idea of what

the term refers to-social dislocation, disruption, strain. Crises are a

continuing source of fascination to students of human society, and with

good reason; they reveal the inner workings of group life, its unques-

tioned premises and problematic features, and arouse the adaptive

impulse in social transformations. As Nesbit observes, "no substantial

change in social group or organization, or in the structure of any form

of social behavior, takes place except under the impact of events that

cause crises" (1970, p. 328). And it is generally agreed that the Great

Depression was a crisis of this magnitude in American life, or more

generally in industrialized, Western societies; to study crises of this sort

is to explore the incipient process of adaptation and change. to But

what are the elements that make a crisis?

As applied in this study, crisis refers to a problematic disparity

between the claims of a family in a situation and its control of out-

9

The Depression

Experience

comes or, more specifically, to a gap between socioeconomic needs and

the ability to satisfy them.l1 Crises may thus arise when claims are

elevated well beyond control potential and realities, or when changes in

the situation markedly diminish control of outcomes. The former

condition is likely to emerge in periods of growth and affluence, the

latter in economic depressions. Assuming an initial stability in expecta-

tion, the breadwinner's loss of income would diminish his family's

control options while increasing its economic needs.

Crisis situations are a fruitful point at which to study change since

they challenge customary interpretations of reality and undermine

established routines. The disruption of habitual ways of life produce

new stimuli which elicit attention and arouse consciousness of self and

others. Control over events becomes problematic when old ways are

found lacking as means for dealing with social demands and satisfying

basic needs or standards. Situations enter the crisis stage when they

are interpreted or defined as such by a group or individual, and thus

constitute a problem which calls for novel solutions and lines of

adaptation. For the child in a family which has suddenly lost income

and status, adaptation may involve redefinition of self and others, the

restructuring or clarifications of goals, and the assumption of a new

status or role.

Crises do not reside within the individual or situation but rather

arise from interaction between an individual and a particular situation;

they emerge at the interface of individual and social situation, of group

and its social environment. A crisis situation thus refers to a type of

asynchrony in the relationship between person or group and the

environment. Adaptations to crisis situations are ways of dealing with

resources and options that are employed in order to achieve control

over the environment or life situation, to solve problems that arise from

the disparity between claims and control of outcomes. For the eco-

nomically deprived family, lines of adaptation would include a reduction

in consumption of material goods, reliance on more labor intensive

methods in securing goods and services, the employment of mother

and older children.

Just as crises emerge from the interaction of individual or group and

situation, so also do lines of adaptation. In terms of the individual, a

problematic disparity between claims and control activates conscious-

ness, attentional capacities, and methods of problem solving in. the

construction of new forms of adaptation. Environmental factors

influence this process through social options (perceived and objective),

adaptive requirements or situational demands, and support from others

in shared resources and social reinforcement. The degree of choice or

volition in the adaptational process is an empirical question. Under

10

Crisis and Adaptation

what conditions do actors have a particular choice among lines of

action? These distinctions are discuss en at greater length in chapter 2.

Two sets of individual characteristics bear upon the adaptational

p~ocess: claims or expectations with respect to outcomes, and modes of

adaptive potential. For parents and children in the present study, this

potential refers mainly to resources, to their mobilization and coordi-

nation. Some years ago, Thomas observed that the mind operates

through knowledge, which is based on "memory and the ability to

compare a present situation with similar situations in the past and to

revi3e our judgement and actions in view of the past experiences"

(Volkhart 1951, p. 218). Life organization, in Thomas's analytic

scheme, represents the totality of intellectual methods of controlling

reality, as formulated within the individual's career. Life organization is

thus constructed and reconstructed in the course of self-reflection at

crisis points "when new experiences cannot be practically assimilated

to the old ones" (Volkhart 1951, p. 157). In modern psychology, these

methods of control would include the array of coping mechanisms,

i.e., concentration, tolerance of ambiguity, empathy, objectivity, etc.12

Resilience and resourcefulness come to mind when we think of

personal attributes that make a difference in a person's ability to cope

with unusual problems and setbacks in life. From a developmental

perspective, we could trace these attributes to past experiences in

surmounting hardships. Experience of this sort is a major element of

preparation for the demands of problem situations, and various studies

have linked preparedness to effective adaptation. However, the crucial

factor in such experience is whether it is marked by failure or growth

through successful management (see Levine and Scotch 1970, esp.

chap. 10). Success experiences across different situations develop a

repertoire of adaptive acts, an array of skills enabling resourcefulness

and flexibility. Resilience connotes an image of the competent self,

consisting of personal worth, of self-confidence, inner security, and

self-control (Smith, in Clausen 1968). In chapter 2 we shall view the

mental ability and class position of parents and children as two general

indicators of their adaptive potential in situations of family change.

In this study we are interested in the responses of both individuals

and groups to socioeconomic change in the Depression; in the adapta-

tion of parents and children, on the one hand, and of the family unit, on

the other. Over the years, research has identified two general dimen-

sions of a family's adaptive potential in a crisis situation: adaptability

and integration. An example is Robert Angell's study (1936) of

middle-class families in the Depression.13 Selected components of

family adaptability, outlined in Reuben Hill's pioneering Families under

Stress (1949) roughly correspond to elements of adaptive potential

11

The Depression

Experience

that we specified on the individual level. These include flexibility of

commitment to physical standards of living, flexibility of role relation-

ships, and success in meeting prior crises. The picture becomes more

complex when we note that nuclear families with children are composed

of three units or subsystems: conjugal, parent-child, and sibling. Each

unit has its own requirements, even though interdependent, which

suggests that adaptations to economic hardship may vary widely in

effectiveness across these domains within the same family. As Hill

observes, "there is no guarantee that pairs which have worked out a

satisfactory marital relationship are competent to assume the responsi-

bilities of parenthood with its challenging troubles and sicknesses, its

jealousies and competitions, and its heavy obligations" (Hill 1949,

p. 321). We shall give special attention to adaptations in marriage and

parent-child relations.

When we speak of the consequences of adaptation we refer to

outcomes that are evaluated according to criteria which pertain to the

welfare of a group or individual. Since any line of action impinges on

the welfare of the actor and various others, these evaluative frame-

works can lead to markedly different assessments of consequences.

Consider the effects of a mother's employment. How does this activity

bear upon the family's economic welfare, the harmony or stability of

the marriage, child rearing, the psychological well-being of the mother

herself? In a value climate which did not favor the employment of

mothers, the benefits of earnings could be offset by greater marital

turmoil and the aggravated emotional state of the unemployed husband.

Economic benefits can be viewed as the intended consequence of a

mother's entry into the labor market; she seeks work in order to help

meet family needs, not to gain greater influence in marital or family

affairs or to disparage her husband as a breadwinner.

Under the compelling requirements of economic survival, ration ales

for adaptation are apt to be highly restricted in scope and time perspec-

tive. 14 Scope refers to the breadth of considerations at a point in time,

such as a narrow interpretation of the effects of aid from relatives and

public assistance. An emergency situation implies that short-run

considerations outweigh the potential consequences of action for the

future welfare of the family or individual. This characterization of

adaptations to change (in which the intended effects are narrowly

defined within the present) broadens the field of unintended outcomes

and takes issue with a prominent interpretation of social change in

child socialization: at points of change, the socialization of children is

altered through parental adaptations to the anticipated future of

their offspring.

12

Crisis and Adaptation

Inkeles argues that "parents who have experienced extreme social

change seek to raise their children differently from the way in which

they were brought up, purposively adapting their child rearing practices

to train children better suited to meet life in the changed world as the

parents see it."15 This perspective assumes a high degree of future

awareness, rationality, and choice in parental behavior, and thus seems

most applicable to situations in which family survival is not at stake.

In a survival context, the unintended consequences of family responses

to immediate needs play an important part in structuring a child's

experience. Change in the division of labor and authority pattern may

be adaptive for the family as a whole in the Depression, in terms of

survival, and yet ultimately handicap the life prospects of children;

what is adaptive for the social unit in a crisis situation may not be so

for the lives of individual members. As we shall see, the socialization

environment and the response of parents to children in deprived

situations during the 30s had much less to do with their anticipation of

life in the future than with the immediacy of survival requirements.

Linking socioeconomic change LO lite experience and personality. In

this study, we shall formulate analytic models which specify linkages

between socioeconomic change in the Depression and its psychosocial

effects within the life course. On the theoretical level, linkages provide

answers to the question of why economic change has particular effects;

they offer an interpretation of the relationship, an account of the

process or mechanisms through which social change influences

personality and behavior. 16

To illustrate the construction of theoretical linkages, let us consider

the hypothetical relation between the economic deprivation of a family

unit in the Depression and the marital orientation of daughters. We

assume that economic deprivation fosters a relatively early interest in

marriage among girls through interpersonal strains in the family and

domestic socialization. Two questions are posed by this analytic model;

does family deprivation have such an effect on marital orientation,

and is it mediated by the specified intervening variables? Another

question concerns the relative importance of the two proposed linkages;

does economic deprivation affect marital interest mainly through family

strains or through domestic influences in the household? To identify

the particular relevance of these global constructs for orientation to

marriage, we convert each to more specific and concrete manifestations.

Family strain is thus phrased as marital conflict and emotional

estrangement from father; domestic socialization as mother's centrality

in the family, the daughter's role in the household, and lack of parental

support for the daughter's higher education. This procedure in for mu-

13

The Depression

Experience

lating conceptual bridges between antecedent and consequent variables

will be employed repeatedly in the analysis, as we draw upon extant

theories and move beyond them.

There is little evidence of these bridges in conceptualizations of the

Depression experience in human lives. In the case of a hypothesized

association between family deprivation in the 30s and adult psycho-

logical health, we are left with questions of why and how, of theoretical

specification and empirical test. To interpret this relationship, we need

to specify and investigate the intervening linkages, which undoubtedly

include aspects of adult experience. Deficiencies of this sort are

especially common in speculation which links the work values of men

to early experiences in the Depression.17 A proponent of this "theory"

might argue that economic hardship and unemployment increased the

value of work and job security in the minds of young boys through

exposure to parental hardships and generalized deprivation in the

community. Even if data in the 30s show value differences along this

line, can we assume that they will persist into the adult years? If some

boys in a deprived group enter white collar careers and others end up

in manual jobs, is it likely that these differences in worklife will make

no difference in the relation between family background and adult values?

We have organized the analysis along the lines of a multistage

approach, beginning with an assessment of the most immediate effects

of economic deprivation, in terms of family adaptations, and conclud-

ing with adult outcomes of the Depression experience and their linkages

to economic change. Outcomes of the first part of the analysis thus

become potential linkages in the model as we move to the adult years.

The most general analytic model defines family adaptation and

conditions as linkages between economic deprivation and the child.

These linkages, which are discussed more fully in chapter 2, include:

change in the division of labor-the necessity for new forms of

economic maintenance alters the domestic and economic roles of family

members, shifting responsibilities to mother and the older children;

change in family relationships-father's loss of economic status and

resulting adaptations in family maintenance increase the relative power

of mother, reduce the level and effectiveness of parental control, and

lessen the attractiveness of father as a model; and social strains in the

family-status ambiguity, conflicts, and emotional distress are a conse-

quence of diminished resources, loss or impairment of parents, and

inconsistency in the status of the family and its members.

This approach will generate complex networks as we trace out the

effects of socioeconomic change to aspects of family life and beyond;

multiple lines of analysis branch out in different directions. Consider

14

Crisis and Adaptation

the implications of a change in the division of labor in which the

mother seeks employment, the daughter assumes a major role in the

household, and the eldest son acquires part-time work. Each of these

emergent activities presents an array of implications for parents,

children, and the family unit as a whole. Mother's entry into the labor

force has potential consequences for the household responsibilities of

other family members, for the balance of power in marriage, and the

parental role model. To manage such complexity, we shall break

networks of relationships into analytic segments and employ multi-

variate procedures.

In the course of this study, the concept of linkage will serve a useful

purpose if it but reminds us that an association between variables at

Tl and T~ is little more than a point of departure in the research

process; that we are still faced with the problem of accounting for the

relationship. In some cases, alternative interpretations will not have

the benefit of an empirical test, owing to data limitations. Or the data

may permit only a rough indication of intervening conditions. Even so,

there is a discipline in linking constructs, conceptually and empirically,

which alerts us to an essential dimension of the research task.

Cohort and subgroup comparisons. Three group distinctions enter

into our assessment of economic change in family adaptations and life

outcomes: birth cohorts, status groups within a particular cohort, and

economic sectors of status groups. Cohorts and their components are

associated with particular life experiences, opportwnities, and resources

which bear upon the deprivational experience of individuals in the

Depression. 18

As members of the same family unit, parents and children in the

Oakland sample would obviously share many situations in the

Depression, though not from the same vantage point, owing to genera-

tional differences in childhood environment, career, and life stage in

1930. Each generation is distinguished by the historical logic and

shared experience of growing up in a different time period, and by the

correlated activities, resources, and obligations of their life stage.

Particularly in times of rapid change, individuals are thought to acquire

a distinct outlook and philosophy from the historical world, defined by

their birthdate, an outlook that reflects lives lived interdependently in

a particular historical context.

In times of drastic change, the history and career stage of a cohort

shape situational interpretations and lines of adaptation. As each

cohort encounters an historical event, whether depression or prosperity,

it "is distinctively marked by the career stage it occupies" (Ryder

1965, p. 846). While the Oakland parents were directly implicated in

15

The Depression

Experience

the responsibilities and shame of family hardships, their children were

too young to experience personal failure in economic roles, or to

assume major obligations in this area. For the latter group, adaptive

options and vulnerability to family deprivation were structured by its

age status, social and developmental. At the time of maximum hardship

in the early 30s, the Oakland children were well beyond the depen-

dency stage of early childhood, with its consequences for intellectual

and emotional development, and they reached the age of majority after

opportunities had improved through nationwide mobilization for war.

Persons born ten years before the Oakland children would have

entered the labor force during the worst phase of the economic collapse,

while the welfare of persons in the 1929 cohort would have been

entirely dependent on conditions in their families. These differences

clearly suggest the risk of generalizing across cohorts on the Depression

experience.

In cohort analysis, it is recognized that a specific stimulus condition

in an historical period tends to vary in its effect across different subsets

of the age group, defined by class, sex, ethnicity, etc. Karl Mannheim

has referred to these subsets as generation units (1952, pp. 276-322).

On class variation, we know that middle-class families which have

never encountered hard times are especially susceptible to the psychic

trauma of joblessness and loss of property. They are most likely to

define unemployment and income losses as stressful, and "to overesti-

mate the hardships which they define as threats to their social position

and aspirations of their children" (Hansen and Hill 1964, p. 803). But

one cannot assume that a particular stimulus has similar intensity and

duration among even a majority of the members of a specific status

group. Available records show a wide range of deprivational experi-

ences among middle-class families in the Depression and even among

the families of unemployed men. Since behavior is a function of both

group or individual and situation, their properties must be included in

any assessment of adaptations to economic deprivation.

This study focuses on intragroup variation, in contrast to the tradi-

tional intercohort model; on deprivational categories of families and

individuals within class groups of a specific birth cohort. The analysis is

structured around four groups of parents and children, defined by

social class in 1929 and relative income loss between 1929 and 1933.

Within the middle and working class, we shall compare the life

experience and personality of persons who were brought up in relatively

nondeprived and deprived families. The income loss of nondeprived

families averaged slightly less than 20 percent, which is roughly equiva-

lent to the decline in cost of living up to 1932. Most deprived families

16

Crisis and Adaptation

in both social classes suffered economic losses which exceeded half of

their 1929 income.

The children selected for the study were born during the first two

years of the twenties, were preadolescents and adolescents during the

Depression decade, and graduated from high school just before World

War n. All of the children selected for the study were white, most

were Protestant, and approximately three-fifths came from middle-class

homes. The group of nonmanual families was almost entirely working

class (as against lower class). Three-fourths of the families were intact

throughout the Depression and were headed by native-born parents.

The median IQ of the children, based on an average of scores on the

1933 and 1938 Stanford-Binet, was approximately 113.

Willingness of parents to cooperate and their stated intention to

remain in the city in the foreseeable future were the primary criteria

used in selecting the subjects and their families for the study. While

these procedures are likely to produce some bias toward the selection

of middle-class families, a comparison of the Oakland Growth Study

sample with cross-section samples of children in the junior and senior

high schools attended by the subjects showed no significant percentage

difference in this direction (see table A-33; note that all tables

numbered with the prefix "A" are to be found in Appendix A).

Approximately 53 to 63 percent of the children in these schools were

middle-class. All of the children attended the same junior high school

and with few exceptions they also entered the same high school. In the

early thirties, the junior high school served approximately 1,000

children and was staffed by 38 teachers. The larger high school, with

some 1,900 students and 92 staff members, was primarily geared to

college preparatory studies.

During the 1930s, data on the children were obtained from staff

observations and ratings of social and emotional behavior, from self-

report questionnaires and teachers, and from interviews with mothers. 19

One hundred and forty-five members of the adolescent sample were

contacted in at least one of three adult follow-ups. The first follow-up

(1953-54) entailed a series of interviews, personality inventories, and

a psychiatric assessment. The second (1957-58) involved primarily

a series of lengthy interviews, averaging twelve hours. The third (1964)

included interviews and a mailed questionnaire. From these data, a life

history protocol was constructed up to 1958 for each member of the

study. No differences were found between the adolescent and the adult

samples in IQ, family social class in 1929, ethnicity, and household

structure. A more complete description of the sample and major

sources of data are presented in the appendix.

17

The Depression

Experience

Socioeconomic

Conditions in

Oakland and the

Nation

Interpretations of the analysis must take into account the degree to

which socioeconomic conditions in Oakland were comparable to condi-

tions in other urban centers and areas of the country. Even though

children in the Oakland study closely resembled their schoolmates in

family characteristics, results from the analysis would have very limited

generality if socioeconomic conditions in Oakland and the surrounding

Bay area were substantially less severe than in other cities. Given the

systemic character of the economy, it is not surprising that economic

declines in major industries were interdependent and extended across

state boundaries. Thus we find that New York and California were

among those states with the highest rate of unemployment. However,

the full brunt of the Depression was felt approximately six months later

in California than among the industrial states of the Northeast

(Huntington 1939, p. 7).

Oakland is situated on the east shore of San Francisco Bay and is

part of a densely populated area composed of Berkeley on the north

and a number of smaller communities on the south. In 1929, the city

was a rapidly growing metropolis with a population of 284,000, serving

as a major transportation and distribution center for the Bay Area and

the West. The civilian labor force was equally divided among service,

distribution, and conversion industries. A total of 126 national indus-

tries in the city had 48,000 employees on the payroll in 1929. Ship-

building, utilities, rail and air transportation facilities were prominent

employers. Just prior to the Depression, the vice-president of the

American Trust Company in the city observed that "industrially,

Oakland has ranked among the three fastest growing cities of this

country." This picture of economic health changed dramatically in the

Depression.

On most indicators of the national economy, the lowest point in the

first half of the thirties was reached during the first months of 1933,

and this was true of California and Oakland as well. Thereafter a

steady rise occurred in employment, commerce, and industrial activity

up to the sudden but less prolonged decline of 1937-38. For the nation

as a whole, employment in manufacturing industries had dropped to

55 percent by 1933 (1926 = 100); in California the comparable

figure was 54 percent (Huntington 1939).

Using available unemployment data, a study sponsored by a research

group in social economics at the University of California estimated

18

Crisis and Adaptation

that approximately one-third of the normally employed in the United

States were unemployed in 1933. By the latter part of 1934, nearly a

fourth of this group was still unemployed. The unemployed category

included persons out of a job, able to work, and looking for a job on

the day preceding the enumerator's call, and persons who were tempo-

rarily laid off from their job. In California and Oakland, approximately

30 percent of the normally employed were out of work in 1932. And

between 1928 and 1933, the average number of families receiving

publicly funded relief in Alameda county, of which Oakland is a part,

increased sevenfold. Comparable increases were reported for Los

Angeles and San Francisco.

Another indication of the relative status of Oak land in the Depression

was obtained by comparing the city with selected metropolitan centers

on three indicators of economic conditions: the number of building

permits issued, as a measure of construction activity; net sales in retail

trade, an index of commercial activity; and employment in retail trade.

The six cities included in the comparison were San Francisco, Los

Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. On all three

indexes, the economic decline between 1929 and 1933 in Oakland was

comparable to the average decline in the other cities (see table A-I).

In 1933, the number of building permits issued was only 40 percent in

the city of Oakland. The decline was greater in Detroit, Cleveland,

and Philadelphia, but the average loss for all of the comparison cities

was very close to the Oakland figure (42 percent).

An upswing in construction activity between 1933 and 1937 was

more pronounced in Oakland than in the other major cities, although

no differences in recovery appear in retail sales and employment. Net

sales in retail trade averaged 50 percent for the six comparison cities in

1933, as compared to 51 percent for Oakland. Employment in retail

trade reached a low point of 70 percent in 1933 for the comparison

cities, and did not differ appreciably from the decline in Oakland.

Overall it appears that Oakland is within the middle range on these

measures of economic conditions. Economic decline was more severe

in Detroit and Cleveland, and less so in San Francisco and Atlanta.

The most appropriate index for comparing the economic loss of

families in the longitudinal study, in Oakland and in the country as a

whole, is median family income. As noted earlier, economic deprivation

in the Oakland study is based on relative loss in reported family

income from 1929 through 1933, the low point on economic indicators.

In 1929, the median income of families in the sample was $3,179, in

comparison to $1,911 in 1933-a decline of slightly less than 40 per-

cent. We were unable to obtain data on family income for Oakland,

and precise data for the country were not available before 1935.

19

The Depression

Experience

According to rough estimates, the average family income for American

families in 1929 was $2,300; this figure dropped by nearly 40 percent

to approximately $1,500 in 1933. A similar .decline was found by

comparing national income data from unaudited taxpayer returns in

1929 and 1933, although the average figures for each year ($3,156 and

$1,989) are substantially inflated by the exclusion of individuals who

reported no net income in these years.20 If the percentage loss of

income shown in these data is reliable, economic decline in the

Oakland sample does not appear to be out of line with the average loss

among families in the country as a whole.

Some evidence of citizen attitudes and reactions concerning eco-

nomic conditions in Oakland is found in the more popular views

expressed in letters to the local newspaper. One such viewpoint

expressed the belief that city employees should receive substantial cuts

in wages and salaries to bring them in line with the economic status of

the average resident: civil service employees were living high off public

funds, teachers' salaries were too high, and firemen and policemen

should voluntarily take reductions in their wages. On the other side of

the issue, City Hall was a frequent target of abuse for its efforts to

economize through the reduction of funds for schools and public

services.

In view of these conditions, the attitudes and perceptions of some

high officials in City Hall strangely reflect an entirely different world.

Concerning the economic health of the city in 1933, the mayor

observed that "Oakland is one of the few American cities to have

remained completely solvent throughout this period of economic strife."

Congruent with this image is a local history of Oakland during the

Depression which presents a more positive description of socio-

economic conditions than is warranted by statistics collected by state

and federal agencies.21 Given the investment of city officials in a

prosperous community and optimistic future, it would not be surprising

if they selectively used observations and statistics to construct this

image. Denial of economic realities and human suffering was one of the

more common political responses during the early years of the Depres-

sion. In their classic study of a Midwestern community, Middletown in

Transition (1937), the Lynds describe the tenacious commitment of

business and political leaders to an optimistic future and their insensi-

tivity to the physical want and suffering of severely deprived residents.

Though statistics on Oakland and other cities in the Depression are

both scarce and unsatisfactory on a number of counts, there is no

evidence that economic conditions in Oakland were out of line with

those in other major cities.

20

Crisis and Adaptation

Researching the

Past:

A Cautionary Note

A study based on archival data inevitably faces a certain disparity and

degree of tension between ideal models and possibilities in the research

process. The problem at hand establishes a set of requirements for

suitable data and features of the research design, but the investigator's

options are constrained by decisions and actions in the past. Archival

data are givens which have a tendency to be not quite what the

researcher would like. To be sure, history, as well as longitudinal

research, could be more adequate or accurate than it is if "people

would only take more care and leave appropriate records of their

conduct,"22 though appropriateness itself is historically bounded.

Criteria change with intellectual cycles and social problems, along with

methodological preferences. Given these circumstances, there is virtue

in data collection whose scope leaves open a wide range of possibili-

ties for research.

The Oakland Growth Study was not designed in any explicit sense

for research on the effects of economic deprivation in the Great

Depression, though staff members were very much aware of these

effects in the lives of parents and their offspring. The most crucial and

fortunate aspect of the data archive, in terms of the present study, was

the availability of socioeconomic information for 1929 and 1933. Of

all years in the Depression, these two were the most important for a

comparative assessment of economic change.

From its inception, the Oakland study focused more on the biological

and psychological aspects of human development than on sociocultural

phenomena, and yet the files contained substantial information on

family life, school and social experiences, and on the larger milieu of

the 30s. As of 1962, most of this information had not been coded or

processed for statistical analysis. From the standpoint of family life in

the Depression, the archive's major deficiency is the lack of information

on fathers. They were not regarded by behavioral scientists in the 30s

as a key figure in socialization, and they appear in the present study

only as perceived by other family members; no data were directly

obtained from them.

Overall, the primary sources of information include staff observers,

the subjects themselves, and their mothers, classmates, and teachers.

As one might expect, research procedures in the study provide a

historical portrait of the "state of the art" at the time. Study partici-

pants were not recruited from a probability sampling frame, and the

21

The Depression

Experience

sample size is modest at best; little attention was given to sampling and

the problems associated with generalization. On the positive side,

repeated use of identical instruments permitted the construction of

relatively stable measurements of a number of key variables for the first

and latter half of the Depression decade. These instruments are

described in detail in Appendix B, along with an evaluation of sources

of error and modes of statistical analysis.

Other sample problems are inherent in the design of long-term

longitudinal studies. These include sample attrition, and effects of study

participation. We have noted that attrition between the adolescent and

adult years did not produce a difference between the family characteris-

tics and intelligence of the study sample at these two points in time.

However, continued participation in the study may well have had some

effect on the subjects, and there is no satisfactory way to assess this

impact. Despite these various limitations, the Oakland study offers

greater resources and options than other sources of data on children of

the Depression and their lives in adulthood.

At first thought, there appears to be no reason why information

which is missing in the data archive of a longitudinal study could not

be obtained from the adult subjects through either retrospective or

contemporaneous reports. This option is frequently not available, how-

ever, and for a number of important reasons. The researcher in a

long-term project, such as the Oakland study, does not have the

privilege to collect the data he needs when he needs it, unless his plans

coincide with the overall plan for data collection. Unregulated requests

for data would thoroughly disrupt orderly data collection and exhaust

the goodwill of the subjects. The interests of the individual researcher

should be subordinated to the long-term interests of the project. This

necessary limitation is clearly illustrated by the following conflict of

interests. In the present study, a comparative analysis of persons from

the Depression and postwar generations would have been possible with

appropriate data on the subjects' offspring. However, such contact

was in direct conflict with a major follow-up that was scheduled in

the near future.

If we could return to the 1920s and design a study of families and

children in the light of current knowledge and resources, we would

employ probability procedures in sampling and a panel design which

extends from the pre-Depression era through the 1930s and follows

the children into their adult years. A panel design would enable both

pre- and postmeasurements, relative to conditions in the Depression,

and thereby facilitate causal analyses of family and individual change

resulting from economic deprivation. Despite valiant efforts to promote

well-designed studies of families and children in the Depression, the

22

Crisis and Adaptation

best-known studies are small in scale, were launched after 1929, and

used selective, unrepresentative samples. Research from the Depression

era does not include a single study which satisfactorily incorporates

the above features, and even the available demographic data on socio-

economic conditions are deficient by contemporary standards. Never-

theless, an investigation of human lives and experiences in this

extraordinary period of history has no satisfactory alternative to the

adaptation of existing records for research purposes, however limited,

using ingenuity and proper caution. The moral for the secondary

analyst is "to make the best of what we have" (Hyman 1972, p. 281).23

Historical accounts of human adaptations to crisis situations are

generally distinguished by their emphasis on either a narrative chronol-

ogy of events and action or analysis within a conceptual framework.

Both strategies have made substantial contributions toward under-

standing the past, and each generates knowledge or data which is

invaluable for the other, though it is difficult to satisfy both aims in a

single work. The flow of events is interrupted, for example, when the

author steps back to "take stock" and then proceeds with the narrative.

Indeed, the sacrifice may be such that neither aim is adequately met.

First priority in the following account is given to a comparative analysis

of children who grew up in relatively nondeprived and deprived

families within the middle and working classes; and especially to con-

ditions which link their social experience, personality, and life course to

economic deprivation and class origin in the 30s. But we also intend

to place the analysis within the historical context and the sequential

pattern of events in the life course of the Oakland cohort. Hopefully,

this approach will tell a story of how the lives of these Americans were

shaped by the Depression experience.

Human adaptations in crisis situations have been researched in a

large number of studies which suggest hypotheses that are directly

relevant to the life situation of the Depression children (see chapter 2).

But we are less concerned with the test of key hypotheses than with

the overall pattern of results, with their direction, size, consistency,

and overall configuration. In small longitudinal samples, the meaning-

fulness of results is especially dependent on this overview. Statistical

tests will be used at points, but only as one criterion, among others, for

evaluating differences and relationships. Even findings of borderline

significance in small samples may yield challenging clues and problems

for future study.

The value of this research can be assessed from at least two vantage

points: as a contribution to our understanding of social change,

expressed through family change and intergenerational relations

generally, and as a source of insight into family life and individual

23

The Depress:on

Experience

adaptations in the Great Depression and the life consequences of such

adaptations for veterans of this historic epoch. Given the best of all

possible worlds, the results will make contributions to our knowledge in

both areas, though failure to break new ground on the human effects

of economic deprivation would not be fatal as long as we gained some

understanding of these effects in the Depression experience. The

Depression generations have been a major force in the profound

changes that have occurred in American society since the 1930s; yet

their varied experiences in the 1930s are largely unknown, and no

study has related these experiences to personality formation and adult

careers. Continuities and contrasts between parents and their

Depression-reared offspring in family relations and values may be an

important factor in understanding contemporary intergenerational

relations and family change.

More generally, we find that most research on the psychosocial

effects of economic deprivation is based on cross-sectional samples of

lower-class populations. By focusing on extreme, persistent deprivation

and its correlation with disability, we have ignored the social-psycho-

logical problem of downward mobility from the upper classes, whether

temporary or not. The present study of decremental change in the

Depression includes a sizable proportion of children from families

which were located in the middle class before the Depression, and

directs attention to adaptive resources in the relation between depriva-

tion and human development, as indexed by class position and

intelligence. Downward mobility, unemployment, and economic loss are

experienced by significant numbers of high-status families in contempo-

rary society and have become serious problems in some areas during

the economic recession of the late 60s and early 70S.24 Even voluntary

career changes among the highly skilled occasionally entail substan-

tial economic loss and stringent austerity. Results from this longitudinal

investigation should be of value in broadening present knowledge

concerning the psychosocial effects of parental career change on

children, and the conditions associated with specific deprivational

effects in childhood and the adult years, whether pathogenic or growth-

promoting.25

A valuable outcome of any research is its heuristic contribution,

and this is especially true of studies in relatively uncharted domains.

In these contexts, longitudinal projects become a valuable source of

hypotheses and are uniquely suited, as Kessen has noted,26 for posing

fresh perspectives and opening up new areas for fruitful study. These

outcomes are perhaps the most appropriate measure of the present

study's contribution to an understanding of human adaptation to

socioeconomic change.

24

Crisis and Adaptation

2

Adaptations to

Economic

Deprivation

A CriSIS is a CriSIS

precisely because men

cannot act effectively to-

gether . .. . Some

emergency action is

required.

Tamotsu Shibutani

Improvised News

Economic change in the Depression produced a crisis for many

families, and called out a wide range of adaptive responses. According

to available records, deprived families generally followed a course of

adjustment from crisis to disorientation or disorganization and then to

partial recovery through new modes of action and eventual stabilization

(see Bakke 1940; Hansen and Hill 1964). The lines of adaptation

worked out by parents in turn impinged upon the experiences of

their children.

As a point of departure for the current research, we shall first

examine theory and findings from other studies which have focused on

the adaptation of families to depression and deprivation. Particular

a:tention is given to the division of labor in economic maintenance, to

marital power and parent-child relations, and to their implications for

the family experience of children. The latter half of the chapter relates

status change to personality and achievement, and explores the role

of adaptive potential in mediating the effects of economic hardship on

psychological well-being.

Deprivation and

Adaptations in the

Family

Economic deprivation tends to generate pressures for change in three

areas: in family maintenance, in the perceived status or position of the

family, and in the breadwinner's status within the family. The story of

family maintenance in the Depression can be expressed as three modes

of adaptation: family needs or claims, consumption (the purchase of

goods and services), and economic resources (earnings, savings,

property, financial aid, etc.). The initial problem of economic depriva-

tion concerned the disparity between income on the one hand, and

family needs and its customary level of consumption on the other.

Some families could maintain their financial status, despite loss of the

25

breadwinner's earnings, by relying upon savings, loans, and the new

earnings of other family members. But as the economic situation

worsened, pressure increased to bring needs and consumption in line

with financial realities. One consequence of this accommodation is

reflected in change toward a more labor-intensive household economy;

more goods and services were provided through the labor of family

members-family gardens, canning, making clothes, laundering, etc.

Status interests in expenditures were generally subordinated to the

material needs of the family as economic hardships became more

severe. In a New England community, the adjustments of unemployed

workers and their families were found to be correlated with a reality

orientation toward the present and diminished comparisons between

the former way of life and immediate possibilities (Bakke 1940,

chap. 7). During the initial phase of unemployment, these families

generally looked to the past and defined their situation in terms of it.

Only minor recreational costs and luxuries were pared. As supplemen-

tary earnings and other sources of income proved insufficient for family

needs, the past receded before the emergencies of the present. Basic

needs were redefined, and expenditures were structured accordingly.

The higher the status of the family before economic decline, the

more status considerations entered into decisions on the allocation of

resources: the "higher the climb," the harder it was for families to

accept the reality of status loss. Even among blue-collar families,

studies show that "families whose previous standard of living had been

relatively high, who had a concept of themselves as a 'high-class

family-maintaining standards, codes, and responsibilities appropriate

to that status,' fought most energetically to postpone any departure

from that status" (Bakke 1940, p. 237).1 This was attempted in part by

withholding information from friends and neighbors, and by maintain-

ing a social front through status expenditures, for example, painting

the house, buying shutters, heating all rooms when friends were

expected.

Social defenses are symptomatic of an attachment to "the way things

were." Comparisons with past gratifications and standards only served

to intensify discontent in deprived families and made readjustments

more difficult and prolonged. Readjustments among workers' families

were "attended by real frustration" as present possibilities were com-

pared with the way things used to be. Discontent became less acute

with the passage of time as the urgency of present problems directed

attention toward "today's opportunities rather than yesterday'S

achievements" (Bakke 1940, p. 175).

Income and occupational change produced various forms of incon-

sistency in the status of families; of the three major sources of family

26

Crisis and Adaptation

prestige-the husband's income, occupation, arId education-only the

latter (along with the wife's education) was not subject to downward

shifts in the Depression. Loss of both income and occupational position

thus produced discrepancies between past and present, and with level

of education.2 Not infrequently, college-educated men were forced to

take jobs that were well below their qualifications in order to support

the family. If income and occupation are viewed as rewards for the

investment required in obtaining an education, we might expect some

degree of anger and frustration among men when rewards fall well

below common expectations on outcomes. However, widespread

deprivation in the 30s may have lowered expectations as men and their

families became aware that their misfortune was shared by countless

other families and as they attributed this state to external circumstances.

Another implication of status inconsistency is the ambiguity of the

family's social position. Education, income, and occupation all yielded

varied impressions of status relative to other families. Economic

misfortune could be used by neighbors to evaluate a family's position,

in lieu of the higher educational and occupational level of the father

which formed the self-evaluation of family members. In view of the

relatively greater status investments of middle-class families, we expect

feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration to be IPore strongly associated

with economic deprivation in this stratum than in the working class

(see chapter 3).

While some degree of inconsistency in the status of families repre-

sents a common structural feature of industrial societies, we do not as

yet fully understand its implications for family life. Recent empirical

assessments have led some analysts to regard status inconsistency in

contemporary American society as a "trivial" factor in preferences on

social change; inconsistency adds little to the explanation beyond the

main effects of status factors.3 If this judgment applies to the present

age, it is surely less applicable to periods of drastic change, such as the

Great Depression. Status inconsistency is an outstanding characteristic

of drastic socioeconomic change, and the nature of this change is

likely to make this state a conscious matter. Sudden dislocations gen-

erally heighten consciousness; they are likely to become a problem with

personal and social significance. This is an important consideration if

we assume that status incongruence makes a difference in family life

when it is perceived as a problem.

Economic deprivation and related changes in father's status had

direct consequences for two areas of family life in the Depression: the

division of labor in family maintenance; and family relationships,

including relative power in husband-wife and parent-child relation-

ships. A heavy loss of income increased dependence on alternative

27

Adaptations to

Economic Deprivation

forms of family support and reinforced labor-intensive aspects of the

household economy. Both of these developments are conducive to the

greater involvement of mothers and children in economic and domestic

activities.

The Division of

Labor in Family

Maintenance

Role failure on the part of the husband and father tends to shift

economic responsibilities to other family members. As economic condi-

tions worsened in the 30s, employment became more compelling to

women and acceptable to their husbands, despite hostile sentiment in

the community (Bakke 1940, p. 184).4 In the working class, women's

place was in the home, except in extreme emergencies, and prolonged

unemployment of the male breadwinner created such an emergency.

Wives of laboring men sought employment when savings were nearly

depleted and credit extended beyond acceptable limits, though few did

so with small children in the home.

If economic conditions led to maternal employment and a curtail-

ment of paid services, they would also favor the involvement of

children in domestic roles, in addition to economic resourcefulness

outside the home. We suspect that contributions to the family welfare

were structured along sex-role lines, with boys specializing in economic

roles and girls carrying domestic chores. Available evidence suggests

that challenging demands were placed upon older children in the

Depression and that they frequently responded with unusual effort and

competence. From studies of crisis situations, we find that role change

on the part of the parents sometimes initiates a compensatory change

of roles among children which serves to maintain the family (see Perry

et al. 1956). Children are known to have assumed major responsibili-

ties that were formerly handled by a parent who was incapacitated or

who had regressed to a childlike state. In chapter 4 we shall compare

the roles of children in the household economy of nondeprived and

deprived families within the middle and working class.

Conditions in the Depression denied some young people the pro-

tected, nonresponsible experience of adolescence by extending adultlike

tasks downward to childhood. As Albert Cohen recalls, there were no

"teenagers" in the Depression.5 In more affluent times, adolescence is

vulnerable to an entirely different encroachment, the upward extension

of childlike submission and dependence to the adult years. As surplus

labor in a consumption-oriented society, contemporary youth are

28

Crisis and Adaptation

excluded from productive roles during a prolonged stage of preadult

dependency. Both an extended adulthood and childhood have their

costs, but the former condition did at least involve the young in valued

tasks and a cause beyond the self. Children from economically

deprived families were an important factor in the household economy,

according to available evidence; their labor and monetary contributions

were needed. Moreover, juvenile delinquency was not more prevalent

in the Depression, but less so than in subsequent, more affluent decades

(see Glaser and Rice 1959). In some respects at least, it is perhaps

true that "affluence can destroy the young as easily as poverty."6

Beyond their contribution to family welfare, domestic tasks and work

experience are commonly regarded as valuable for developing favored

habits and attitudes, including resourcefulness, responsibility, and

self-reliance. Implied by the practice of assigning household duties to a

child is the assumption that important lessons are gained from this

experience; "habits of industry, order, and regard for the rights and

ideas of others, and the fundamental habit of subordinating his activities

to the general interest of the household."7 In the scientific literature

on child rearing, participation in domestic tasks is described as

responsibility training,8 while folk theories tend to compare the liabili-

ties of idleness to the virtues of work-self-reliance, practice in

managing money, and social responsibility. Reliable empirical support

for these benefits is exceedingly scarce,9 and this is partly due to the

variable nature of task experience. If industry and responsibility are a

product of tasks that are both demanding and meaningful, we would

expect these qualities to be relatively common among children from

deprived families, especially in the middle class. Moreover, work

experience outside the home requires some measure of independence

from parental control.

Marital Decision-

Making and Family

Relations

In normal times and crises, the occupational success of men is gen-

erally related to their power and status in the family. Wife dominance

is most prevalent in the lower class, where the economic status of men

is precarious and unrewarding, and such conditions were common in

the Depression (see, e.g., Scanzoni 1970). When father's authority in

the family derived mainly from cultural traditions or affection among

family members, it was most likely to survive economic failure. In the

only study which systematically explored the causal effects of unem-

29

Adaptations to

Economic Deprivation

ployment, the wife's attitude was a determining factor in status change

(Komarovsky 1940) .10 Male authority based on affection or tradition

was distinguished from authority supported by economic productivity

and fear (utilitarian) in a sample of forty-nine families in the New

York area. Where authority was based on affection, the husband's

influence was upheld by personal qualities and harmonious relations.

Tradition as a basis of authority referred to the wife's belief that

family leadership is the husband's right and responsibility. Unemploy-

ment proved to be a significant cause of authority loss among husbands

only in families in which the wife, prior to the Depression, held

utilitarian attitudes. This result corresponds with differences in male

authority in the lower-class families of two minority groups. Male

authority in the Mexican-American household is supported by cultural

tradition; it is the right of the husband and father to exercise authority.

Male authority lacks traditional normative support in the black,

lower-class family and is consequently highly vulnerable to economic

circumstances. 11

Given the interdependence of family roles, change in conjugal

relations tends to have corresponding effects on parent-child interaction.

This is shown by findings obtained in two studies of families in the

Depression (Komarovsky 1940, and Bakke 1940) .12 In both cases,

father's loss of power and status in the marital relationship was found

to be related to a corresponding loss in relations with children. Fathers

in wife-dominant families seldom maintained their authority over

children. The upgrading of mother's position in deprived families

generally increased her salience in the attitudes of children.

In previewing two major lines of family adaptation for the subse-

quent analysis, we have emphasized the potential role of these adjust-

ments in mediating the effects of economic conditions on children in the

Oakland study. We linked the involvement of girls in domestic tasks

and of boys in gainful employment to the requirements of economic

deprivation for family maintenance and then to personal characteristics

which have been attributed to these task experiences. Likewise, power

relations between husband and wife were related to conditions of

family support on the one hand, and to parent-child relations on

the other.

There is yet another general link between deprivation and the

experience of children which is formed by the social strains of family

change, by the resource costs, inconsistencies, and conflicts associated

with economic loss and status adjustments. Social change alters routine

relations in which the self is anchored and defined, making both inter-

action and social bonds problematic.

30

Crisis and Adaptation

Status Change in

Personality and

Achievement

Since children are assigned the status of their family, any change in this

position affects their status and identity relative to peers and other

adults. Along with achievements and future prospects, family status is

clearly a major determinant of their life situations and rewards. As

noted earlier, economic deprivation in the Depression created dispari-

ties among factors which position families in the social structure, and

these differences were inconsistent with normative expectations.

The most obvious discrepancies occurred between economic status

before and after income loss, between income and occupational status

of father, and between income and the educational status of father and

mother. Conditions of this sort may have impinged on children in at

least three ways: in the resulting status ambiguity and tension between

and within families; in status frustration or discontent among parents;

and in change in the relative attractiveness of parents as role models.

In the world of peers, economic decline produced a highly visible clash

between the past and present status of children by curtailing expen-

ditures for clothing and recreation.

Status inconsistency fosters consciousness of self and other by

undermining expectations and evaluations that structure interaction and

define the self. Behavior becomes self-conscious in situations of conflict

which arouse attitudes in the self that are activated in others.13 In

order to appreciate the consequences of status incongruence for

coordinated action, it is best to start with the occupant of a single

status. The actor's position structures the expectations that others have

of him, that he has of himself, and that he has regarding the appro-

priate behaviqr of others toward him. A relatively stable position,

uncomplicated by conflicting statuses, defines an expectable, routine

situation. Interaction is non problematic, and self-identity reflects the

integration and coherence of the environment.

Mu:tiple statuses do not adversely affect the orientational function of

expectations as long as they are congruent, but when change places the

individual in a position of status incongruence, he presents conflicting

stimuli to others and to himself. Role complementarity breaks down in

this context and "feeds back into the awareness of the participants

in the form of tension, anxiety or hostility, and self-consciousness"

(Speigel 1960, p. 365; see also ZoJlschan 1964, pp. 258-80). Failure

of complementarity was a common source of misunderstandings,

disappointments, and conflict between husband and wife in the cycle

31

Adaptations to

Economic Deprivation

of readjustment among families of the unemployed in the Depression.

This failure and fearful anticipation of it are recorded in transactions

between families and in relationships between children from deprived

families and their peers.14

Uncertainty and conflicting expectations about appropriate behavior

in the roles of parent, spouse, and breadwinner define an unpredictable

environment for parents and children. Kasl and Cobb suggest that

stress resulting from the status incongruence of parents is expressed

in an unstable self-image, frustration, unsatisfactory marital and

parent-child relations, and arbitrary parental authority (Kasl and

Cobb 1967). The hypothesized effects of these conditions on children

include inconsistent or unfavorable attitudes toward the self, poor

identification with parents, and feelings of rejection. These self-attitudes

may also arise from the effects of status change on the child's relation

to peers, such as a decline in the quality of clothing.

Self-consciousness and imaginal role taking represent an adaptation

to threatening, novel, or fluid situations in which the actions and

attitudes of others are unknown or unpredictable. Tensions associated

with uncertainty and conflict "intensify the discrimination between

stimuli which are felt to be 'internal' and those felt to be 'external.' The

self increasingly becomes an object to itself when its impulses are not

reflexively in keeping with other's expectations, and then it receives

responses not completely in keeping with its own. The self grows in

self-consciousness when it does not view itself exactly as others do"

(Gouldner and Peterson 1961, p. 43).

The emergence of self-consciousness among children in deprived

families would thus sensitize them to the emotional stress and attitudes

of parents and others. Self-consciousness implies a state of acute

sensitivity to social cues. By heightening social sensitivity, crisis

situations in the family are likely to augment the influence of significant

others and foster self-assessments, with their implications for personal

change. Accordingly we expect self-consciousness, emotionality, and

feelings of insecurity to be most characteristic of children from deprived

families in the middle and working class (chapter 6). These proposed

effects of deprivation closely correspond with clinical descriptions of

persons in situations of social and cultural marginality. According to

the classic description, marginal persons who stand on the borders

of diverse worlds are excessively self-conscious, hypersensitive, moody,

and nervous. 15

Economic conditions which severely limit options and resources are

known to foster apathy, restricted needs and goals, and identity fore-

closure.16 This may describe the life situation and adaptations of some

working-class children in the Oakland sample, but it has much less

32

Crisis and Adaptation

relevance in the late 1930s to the situation of middle-class children

from deprived families. By and large, hope and a general commitment

to the future are likely to have remained strong among these families

during hard times, or at least were restored by improved economic

conditions toward the end of the decade. In this context, family

hardship may have increased the importance of future achievements as

a basis of status and self-definition among the young. This outlook is

derived from the assumption that status incongruence is a source of

cognitive strain and emotional stress, that individuals strive to minimize

these states and maximize their social position, and that young people

derive status beyond the family from their projected status, defined by

potential and goals. While family status is not subject to change by

dependents, anticipated status can be so adjusted and may have gained

significance as a basis of self-definition through family losses.

If economic deprivation increased the importance of future status

among middle-class youth, it also made this goal more problematic

through loss of family resources and gave them more responsibility for

status attainment. The Depression "made work seem not only precious

but problematic-precious because problematic" (Riesman 1950,

p. 344) . As family support for achievement declines, personal resources

gain significance in determining status prospects and attainment. When

a goal acquires importance and its achievement depends largely on

personal resources, both goal and means are likely to receive consider-

able thought among capable youth. Experimental research indicates

that both the importance of a goal and the expectation that one can

achieve it leads to thought about the means, to selective interest in

aspects of the environment that are relevant to goal striving, and to

overt action (see Stotland 1971, p. 17).

In relation to the Oakland sample, these correlates of goal orientation

suggest that boys from deprived families will show earlier certainty

about what they want to do in adulthood than youth in nondeprived

families, and that this orientation will be most characteristic of boys

who rank high on personal efficacy and expectations of goal attainment,

i.e., those of middle-class or high intellectual status. In this hypothesis,

we assume that crystallization of goal orientation is fostered by think-

ing about a future status and the steps leading to it (chapter 7). One

might also view this orientation as an outgrowth of inconsistency of

family status and the need to reduce status ambiguity. Some reduction

is achievable through the determination of status destination.

A key factor in the adult achievement of the Oakland children is

opportunity. The increased importance of a future status, crystallized

goals, and determination count for little if structural conditions do not

afford the opportunity for education and desired employment. Per-

33

Adaptations to

Economic Deprivation

ceived opportunity is also a basis of hope and future orientation.

Increased financial need and status change in the deprived family would

limit its role in status placement and may have pushed the young into

full-time work roles at a relatively early age.17 Moreover, both early

entry into work roles and marriage acquire value as a source of inde-

pendent status under conditions of restricted opportunity. Life opportu-

nity is greater in the middle class than in the working class, and the

cultural environment of the middle-class family is more supportive of

achievement. For these reasons, we expect the most adverse effects of

economic deprivation 01' life achievement among persons from the

working class, and particularly among those of low ability.

Life achievement and especially psychological health in adulthood

hinge on the amount of emotional stress associated with family depri-

vation and its image on the developing personality. Hyperconsciousness

of self may be adaptive as a response to the demands of a problematic

environment, but it may also result in excessive vigilance and fearful-

ness. For a given situation or context, we need to know the conditions

which increase the level of emotional distress and the probability of

psychological disorders. This problem leads us to a consideration of

adaptive potential and its role in determining the psychological effects

of economic deprivation in the Depression and their persistence into

the adult years. The concluding section of this chapter is devoted to a

discussion of these issues.

Adaptive

Potential and

Personality

If we constructed estimates of adult psychological health, based solely

on the deprived life-situations of persons in the Depression, they would

be extraordinarily low. In the 30s such estimates were informed by

assumptions which viewed the human organism as vulnerable to

environmental pressures and constraints. This image of man is found

in psychoanalytic theory and is expressed in the prognosis of a psycho-

analyst during the early years of the Depression decade: fear, loss of

confidence, continued submission and masochism and discouragement

were seen as the psychological heritage of children who experienced

the "devastating effects of the breakdown of morale in parents."18

Some conditions resulting from severe deprivation are thought to have

etiological significance for psychiatric disorders, including situations

which block striving sentiments associated with physical security,

orientations to self and society, and recognition.19 But the relation

34

Crisis and Adaptation

between these conditions and psychological functioning depends on

many factors, including individual differences in adaptive potential.

Even in the records of extreme deprivation during the Depression,

such as the classic study of Marienthal (Austria), the health of chil-

dren is not adequately explained by socioeconomic conditions in the

family (Jahoda et al. 1970). Marienthal, a village of some 1,500

inhabitants, became an unemployed community when its only employer

-a large textile plant-closed down. With the exception of eighty

persons, the entire village had been out of work for a period of three

years at the time of a sociographic report. The population was living

on an average of five pence a day; meat served at meals consisted

mainly of horseflesh, while a little bread and coffee was common fare at

suppertime. Under these extraordinary conditions, the investigators

found that the wants and desires of parents and children had contracted

or narrowed, thus reducing the full impact of poverty. Impairment of

physical health among the children decreased with the employment

of family members, but even in the healthy group most family members

were unemployed. To explain variations in health, more information

would be needed on the adaptive resources of both parents and

children.

To understand why some persons successfully adapt to challenging

situations and others do not requires knowledge of their resources and

motivation, the support provided by the family and larger environ-

ment,20 and characteristics of the event or situation itself. The alchemy

of a crisis situation involves all three elements which together determine

how a person defines and responds to events. In the Oakland sample,

class position bears directly upon personal resources and environmental

support for coping, while intellectual skills in problem solving,

resourcefulness, and mastery are assets in meeting the demands of

problem situations. In what follows, we shall relate these factors to

adaptive potential and explore their implications for the enduring

effects of economic deprivation on psychological health in adulthood.

Variations in

Adaptive Potential

by Class and

Intelligence

Social support for individual adaptation includes both preparation and

reinforcement. The former refers to socialization and the mechanisms

by which persons are prepared for life situations. A positive image of

self, problem-solving skills, and a sense of competence are key aspects

35

Adaptations to

Economic Deprivation

of this preparation within the family. Reinforcement includes incentives

for engaging in productive behavior and modes of evaluation, both

approval and disapproval. Reinforcement affects "not only what the

person wants to do, but perhaps even more important, the means he

can use in dealing with particular challenges" (Mechanic 1968,

p. 310). Social support through preparation and reinforcement are

thus social complements to the individual's coping abilities and

motivation.

Middle-class families cannot match the firsthand experience of

lower-class families with economic hardships and the lessons they pro-

vide, but they offer their children a wider range of problem-solving

experience and skills and provide greater emotional support.21 In

addition to their economic advantage, middle-class parents tend to know

more about the workings of their community than do lower-status

parents, and are more familiar with available avenues for solving

problems.

Conceptions of reality that arise out of life situations in the lower

classes reduce the value of prior hardship experience in promoting

adaptive responses to economic change. Orientations in the lower class

are more often distinguished by feelings of distrust and fearfulness, by

a rigid and oversimple conception of reality, and by a fatalistic belief

that one's life is subject to the whim of external forces. Born of

capricious circumstances, restricted job experience, and limited educa-

tion, these beliefs handicap the ability to cope with ambiguity,

uncertainty, and change.22

Similar differences in adaptive assets appear in social-class compari-

sons of children. Middle-class children are less prepared for economic

adversity and family strains, with respect to prior experience, but they

are better equipped in resources and orientation to work out adaptive

responses to the complexities and challenge of change (see Elder 1971,

esp. pp. 29-113). Given reasonable prospects to exercise control

through ability and effort, motivation to cope is likely to result from

the status changes associated with economic deprivation. As an index

of adaptive potential, we expect class position to make a significant

difference in the psychological effects of deprivation among members of

the Oakland sample: psychological health will be more adversely

affected by economic deprivation in the working class than in the

middle class.

Frustration and extreme discomfort in a crisis situation arise when a

person is highly motivated to act but lacks skills appropriate to the

problem at hand. According to research on natural disasters, individual

adaptation varies by motivation, familiarity with relationships, and

knowledge of what to do (Barton 1969, p. 68). Improvised activities

36

Crisis and Adaptation

Beyond “Children of the Great Depression”

Baltes, Paul B. , and Margret M. Baltes , eds. 1990. Successful Aging: Perspectives from the

Behavioral Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Bandura, Albert . 1997. Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W. H. Freeman.

Bennett, Sheila K. , and Glen H. Elder Jr, . 1979. “Women’s Work in the Family Economy: A

Study of Depression Hardship in Women’s Lives.” Journal of Family History 4(2):153–176.

Block, Jack , in collaboration with Haan, Norma . 1971. Lives Through Time. Berkeley, Calif.:

Bancroft.

Bronfenbrenner, Urie . 1979. The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard

University Press.

Bronfenbrenner, Urie . 1989. “Ecological Systems Theory.” In Six Theories of Child

Development: Revised Formulations and Current Issues, edited by Ross Vasta , pp. 185–246.

Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.

Callan, Emily , Jay Mechling , Brian Sutton-Smith , and Sheldon H. White . 1993. “The Elusive

Historical Child: Ways of Knowing the Child of History and Psychology.” In Children in Time and

Place, edited by Glen H. Elder, Jr. , John Modell , and Ross D. Park , pp. 192–223. New York:

Cambridge University Press.

Cairns, Robert B. , Glen H. Elder Jr.,, and E. Jane Costello , eds. 1996. Developmental

Science. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Caspi, Avshalom , and Glen H. Elder Jr. , 1988. “Emergent Family Patterns: The

Intergenerational Construction of Problem Behavior and Relationships.” In Relationships with

Families, edited by Robert Hinde and Joan Stevenson-Hinde , pp. 218–240. Oxford, UK: Oxford

University Press.

Clausen, John A. 1993. American Lives: Looking Back At the Children of the Great Depression.

New York: Free Press.

Clipp, Elizabeth Colerick , and Glen H. Elder Jr. , 1996. “The Aging Veteran of World War II:

Psychiatric and Life Course Insights.” In Aging and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, edited by

Paul E. Ruskin and John A. Talbott , pp. 19–51. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press,

Inc.

Coles, Robert . 1975. “Book Review of Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life

Experience.” Social Forces 54(1):300.

Conger, Rand D. , Glen H. Elder Jr., , in collaboration with Lorenz, Frederick O. , Ronald L.

Simons , and Les B. Whitbeck . 1994. Families in Troubled Times: Adapting to Change in Rural

America. Hawthorne, N.Y.: Aldine DeGruyter.

Duncan, Greg J. 1988. “The Volatility of Family Income Over the Life Course.” In Life-Span

Development and Behavior, edited by Paul B. Baltes , David L. Featherman , and Richard M.

Lerner , vol. 9: pp. 317–358. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Dunn, Judy , and Robert Plomin . 1990. Separate Lives: Why Siblings Are So New York: Basic

Books.

Easterlin, Richard A. 1980. Birth and Fortune: The Impact of Numbers on Personal Welfare.

New York: Basic Books.

Eichorn, Dorothy H. , John A. Clausen , Norma Haan , Marjorie Honzik , and Paul H. Mussen ,

eds. 1981. Present and Past in Middle Life. New York: Academic Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1974. Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Elder, Glen H. Jr. , 1979. “Historical Change in Life Patterns and Personality.” In Life-Span

Development and Behavior, edited by Paul B. Baltes and Orville G. Brim Jr ,., vol. 2: 117–159.

New York: Academic Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1980. “Adolescence in Historical Perspective.” In Handbook of Adolescent

Psychology, edited by Joseph Adelson , pp. 117–159. New York: Wiley.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1981. “Social History and Life Experience.” In Present and Past in Middle

Life, edited by Dorothy H. Eichorn , John A. Clausen , J. Haan , M. P. Honzik , and P. H.

Mussen , pp. 3–31. New York: Academic Press.

Elder, Glen H. Jr. , 1984. “Families, Kin, and the Life Course: A Sociological Perspective.” In

Review of Child Development Research: The Family, edited by Ross D. Parke , pp. 3–31.

Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr , ed. 1985. Life Course Dynamics: Trajectories and Transitions, 1968–1980.

Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1986. “Military Times and Turning Points in Men’s Lives.” Developmental

Psychology 22(2):233–245.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1987. “War Mobilization and the Life Course: A Cohort of World War II

Veterans.” Sociological Forum 2(3):449–472.

Elder, Glen H. Jr. , 1992. “Children of the Farm Crisis.” Paper presented at the Society for

Research on Adolescence, March, Washington, D.C.

Elder, Glen H. Jr. , 1995. “The Life Course Paradigm: Social Change and Individual

Development.” In Examining Lives in Context: Perspectives on the Ecology of Human

Development, edited by Phyllis Moen , Glen H. Elder, Jr. , and Kurt L�scher , pp. 101–139.

Washington, D.C.: APA Press.

Elder, Glen H. Jr. , 1996. “Human Lives in Changing Societies: Life Course and Developmental

Insights.” In Developmental science, edited by Robert B. Cairns , Glen H. Elder Jr.,, and E. Jane

Costello , pp. 31–62. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Elder, Glen H. Jr. , 1997. “The Life Course As Developmental Theory.” 1997 Presidential

Address at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, April 5,

Washington, D.C.

Elder, Glen H. Jr. , 1998. “The Life Course and Human Development.” In Handbook of Child

Psychology, edited by William Damon . Vol. 1, Theoretical Models of Human Development,

edited by Richard M. Lerner , pp. 939–991. New York: Wiley.

Elder, Glen H. Jr.,, and Avshalom Caspi . 1990. “Studying Lives in a Changing Society:

Sociological and Personological Explorations.” In Studying Persons and Lives, edited by Albert

I. Rabin , Robert A. Zucker , Robert A. Emmons , and Susan Frank , pp. 201–247. New York:

Springer.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , Avshalom Caspi , and Geraldine Downey . 1986. “Problem Behavior and

Family Relationships: Life Course and Intergenerational Themes.” In Human Development and

the Life Course: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Aage B. S�rensen , Franz E. Weinert ,

and Lonnie R. Sherrod , pp. 293–340. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

Elder, Glen H. Jr., , and Christopher Chan . In press. “War’s Legacy in Men’s Lives.” In A Nation

Divided: Diversity, Inequality and Community in American Society, edited by Phyllis Moen and

Donna Dempster-McClain . Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , and Elizabeth C. Clipp . 1988. “Wartime Losses and Social Bonding:

Influences Across 40 Years in Men’s Lives.” Psychiatry 51 (May):177–198.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , and Elizabeth Colerick Clipp . 1989. “Combat Experience and Emotional

Health: Impairment and Resilience in Later Life.” Journal of Personality 57(2):311–341.

Elder, Glen H. Jr.,, and Rand D. Conger . In press. Leaving the Land: Rural Youth At Century’s

End. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , Geraldine Downey , and Catherine E. Cross . 1986. “Family Ties and Life

Chances: Hard Times and Hard Choices in Women’s Lives Since the Great Depression.” In

Life-Span Developmental Psychology: Intergenerational Relations, edited by Nancy Datan ,

Anita L. Greene , and Hayne W. Reese , pp. 167–186. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

Elder, Glen H. Jr.,, and Xiaojia Ge . In press. “Human Lives in Changing Societies: The Life

Course and Its Chinese Relevance.” Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly.

Elder, Glen H. Jr.,, and Tamara K. Hareven . 1993. “Rising Above Life’s Disadvantages: From

the Great Depression to War.” In Children in Time and Place: Developmental and Historical

Insights, edited by Glen H. Elder , John Modell Jr.,, and Ross D. Parke , pp. 47–72. New York:

Cambridge University Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , and Jeffrey K. Liker . 1982. “Hard Times in Women’s Lives: Historical

Influences Across Forty Years.” American Journal of Sociology 88(2):241–269.

Elder, Glen H. Jr.,, Jeffrey K. Liker , and Catherine E. Cross . 1984. “Parent-Child Behavior in

the Great Depression: Life Course and Intergenerational Influences.” In Life-Span Development

and Behavior, edited by Paul B. Baltes and Orville G. Brim Jr., , vol. 6: 109–158. New York:

Academic Press.

Elder, Glen H. Jr.,, Jeffrey K. Liker , and Bernard J. Jaworski . 1984. “Hardship in Lives:

Depression Influences from the 1930s to Old Age in Postwar America.” In Life-Span

Developmental Psychology: Historical and Generational Effects, edited by Kathleen McCluskey

and Hayne Reese , pp. 161–201. New York: Academic Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , and Yoriko Meguro . 1987. “Wartime in Men’s Lives: A Comparative Study

of American and Japanese Cohorts.” International Journal of Behavioral Development

10:439–466.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , and Artur Meier . 1997. “Troubled Times? Bildung und Statuspassagen von

Landjugendlichen. Ein Interkultureller und Historischer Vergleich.” Berliner Journal Far

Soziologie 7(3):289–305.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , John Modell , and Ross D. Parke , eds. 1993. Children in Time and Place:

Developmental and Historical Insights. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , Eliza K. Pavalko , and Elizabeth C. Clipp . 1993. Working with Archival

Data: Studying Lives. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , Eliza K. Pavalko , and Thomas J. Hastings . 1991. “Talent, History, and the

Fulfillment of Promise.” 54 (August):215–231.

Elder, Glen H. Jr.,, and Richard D. Rockwell . 1979. “Economic Depression and Postwar

Opportunity in Men’s Lives: A Study of Life Patterns and Health.” In Research in Community

and Mental Health, edited by Roberta G. Simmons , pp. 249–303. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , Michael J. Shanahan , and Elizabeth Colerick Clipp . 1994. “When War

Comes to Men’s Lives: Life Course Patterns in Family, Work, and Health.” Psychology and

Aging, Special Issue 9(1):5–16.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. , Weiqiao Wu , and Jihui Yuan . 1993. “State-Initiated Change and the Life

Course in Shanghai, China.” Carolina Population Center: Unpublished manuscript.

Featherman, David L. 1975. “Aftermaths of Hardship: Book Review of Children of the Great

Depression: Social Change in Life Experience.” Science 189:211–213.

Freeman, Howard E. 1975. “A Very Relevant Longitudinal Study: Book Review of Children of

the Great Depression.” Contemporary Psychology 20(6):511–512.

Furstenberg, Frank F., Jr. 1975. “Review Essay: Book Review of Children of the Great

Depression: Social Change in Life Experience.” American Journal of Sociology 81(3):647–652.

Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr. , 1993. “How Families Manage Risk and Opportunity in Dangerous

Neighborhoods.” In Sociology and the Public Agenda, edited by William J. Wilson , pp.

231–258. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.

Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.,, Thomas D. Cook , Jacquelynne Eccles , Glen H. Elder Jr.,, and

Arnold Sameroff . In press. Managing to Make It: Urban Families and Adolescent Success.

Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.

Giele, Janet A. , and Glen H. Elder Jr. ,, eds. 1998. Methods of Life Course Research:

Quantitative and Qualitative. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.

Glueck, Sheldon , and Eleanor Glueck . 1968. Delinquents and Nondelinquents in Perspective.

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Granovetter, Mark S. 1973. “Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology

78(6):1360–1380.

Hagestad, Gunhild O. , and Bernice L. Neugarten . 1985. “Age and the Life Course.” In

Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. 2d edition, edited by Robert H. Binstock and Ethel

Shanas , pp. 46–61 New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Hareven, Tamara K. 1978. Transitions: The Family and the Life Course in Historical

Perspective. New York: Academic Press.

Hareven, Tamara K. 1982. Family Time and Industrial Time. New York: Cambridge University

Press.

Hareven, Tamara K. 1991. “Synchronizing Individual Time, Family Time, and Historical Time.”

In Chronotypes: The Construction of Time, edited by John Bender and David E. Wellbery , pp.

167–182. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Hareven, Tamara K. 1996. “What Difference Does It Make?” Social Science History

20(3):317–344.

Havighurst, Robert J. , J. W. Baughman , E. W. Burgess , and W. H. Eaton . 1951. The

American Veteran Back Home. New York: Longmans, Green.

Holahan, Carole K. , and Robert R. Sears . 1995. The Gifted Group in Later Maturity. Stanford,

Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Jargowsky, Paul A. 1997. Poverty and Place: Ghettos, Barrios, and the American City. New

York: Russell Sage.

Jones, Mary Cover , Nancy Bayley , Jean W. Macfarlane , and Marjorie H. Honzik , eds. 1971.

The Course of Human Development: Selected Papers from the Longitudinal Studies, Institute of

Human Development, the University of California, Berkeley. Waltham, Mass.: Xerox College

Publishing.

Kahn, Robert L. , and Toni C. Antonucci . 1980. “Convoys Over the Life Course: Attachment,

Roles, and Social Support.” In Life-Span Development and Behavior, edited by Paul B. Baltes

and Orville G. Brim Jr. ,, vol. 3: 253–286. New York: Academic Press.

Lerner, Richard M. 1991. “Changing Organism-Context Relations As the Basic Process of

Development: A Developmental Contextual Perspective.” Developmental Psychology

27(1):27–32.

Macfarlane, Jean W. 1963. “From Infancy to Adulthood.” Childhood Education 39:336–342.

Macfarlane, Jean W. 1971. “Perspectives on Personality Consistency and Change from the

Guidance Study.” In The Course of Human Development: Selected Papers from the

Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Human Development, the University of California, Berkeley,

edited by M. C. Jones , Nancy Bayley , J. W. Macfarlane , and Margery P. Honzik , pp.

410–415. Waltham, Mass.: Xerox College Publishing.

Macfarlane, Jean W. , Lucile Allen , and Marjorie P. Honzik . 1954. A Developmental Study of

the Behavior Problems of Normal Children Between Twenty-One Months and Fourteen Years.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

Magnusson, David , and Lars R. Bergman , eds. 1990. Data Quality in Longitudinal Research.

New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mayer, Karl Ulrich , and Johannes Huinink . 1990. “Age, Period, and Cohort in the Study of the

Life Course: A Comparison of Classical A-P-C Analysis with Event History Analysis or Farewell

to Lexis?” In Data Quality in Longitudinal Research, edited by David Magnusson and Lars R.

Bergman , pp. 211–232. New York: Cambridge University Press.

McLoyd, Vonnie C. 1990. “The Impact of Economic Hardship on Black Families and Children:

Psychological Distress, Parenting, and Socioemotional Development.” Child Development

61:311–346.

Merton, Robert K. 1968. Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.

Mills, C. Wright . 1959. The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.

Modell, John . 1975. “Levels of Change Over Time: Book Review of Children of the Great

Depression: Social Change in Life Experience.” Historical Methods Newsletter 8(4): 116–127.

Modell, John . 1989. Into One’s Own: From Youth to Adulthood in the United States 1920–1975.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

Nesselroade, John R. , and Paul B. Baltes , eds. 1979. Longitudinal Research in the Study of

Behavior and Development. New York: Academic Press.

Neugarten, Bernice L. 1968. Middle Age and Aging: A Reader in Social Psychology. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press.

Neugarten, Bernice L. , and Nancy Datan . 1973. “Sociological Perspectives on the Life Cycle.”

In Life-Span Developmental Psychology: Personality and Socialization, edited by Paul B. Baltes

and K. Warner Schaie , pp. 53–69. New York: Academic Press.

Olson, Keith W. 1974. The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges. Lexington, Ky: University

Press of Kentucky.

Riley, Matilda White , Marilyn E. Johnson , and Anne Foner , eds. 1972. Aging and Society: A

Sociology of Age Stratification. Vol. 3. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Rutter, Michael . 1985. “Resilience in the Face of Adversity: Protective Factors and Resistance

to Psychiatric Disorder.” British Journal of Psychiatry 147:598–611.

Rutter, Michael , ed. 1988. Pp. 184–199 in Studies of Psychosocial Risk: The Power of

Longitudinal Data. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rutter, Michael , and Nicola Madge . 1976. Cycles of Disadvantage: A Review of Research.

London: Heinemann.

Ryder, Norman B. 1965. “The Cohort As a Concept in the Study of Social Change.” American

Sociological Review 30(6):843–861.

Sampson, Robert J. 1992. “Family Management and Child Development: Insights from Social

Disorganization Theory.” In Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 3: Facts, Frameworks,

and Forecasts, edited by Joan McCord , pp. 63–93. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books.

Sampson, Robert J. , and John H. Laub . 1996. “Socioeconomic Achievement in the Life Course

of Disadvantaged Men: Military Service As a Turning Point, Circa 1940–1965.” American

Sociological Review 61(3):347–367.

Scarr, Sandra , and Kathleen McCartney . 1983. “How People Make Their Own Environments:

A Theory of Genotype—Environment Effects.” Child Development 54:424–435.

Stouffer, Samuel A. , Arthur A. Lumsdaine , Marion Harper Lumsdaine , Robin M. Williams Jr. ,

M. Brewster Smith , Irving L. Janis , Shirley A. Star , and Leonard S. Cottrell Jr. , 1949. The

American Soldier, Volume II: Combat and Its Aftermath., Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Press.

Thomas, William I. , and Dorothy Swaine Thomas . 1928. The Child in America: Behavior

Problems and Programs. New York: A. A. Knopf.

Thomas, William I. , and Florian Znaniecki . 1918. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America,

Volumes 1–2. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press.

Volkart, Edmund H. 1951. Social Behavior and Personality: Contributions of W. I. Thomas to

Theory and Social Research. New York: Social Science Research Council.

Wilson, William J. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public

Policy. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.

Young, Copeland H. , Kristen L. Savola , and Erin Phelps . 1991. Inventory of Longitudinal

Studies in the Social Sciences. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.

References

Aiken, Michael ; Ferman, Louis A. ; and Sheppard, Harold L. 1968 Economic Failure, Alienation,

and Extremism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Allen, Vernon L. , ed. 1970 Psychological Factors in Poverty. Chicago: Markham.

Altbach, Philip G. , and Peterson, Patti 1971 “Before Berkeley: Historical Perspectives on

American Student Activism.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

395:1–14.

Angell, Robert Cooley 1936 The Family Encounters the Depression. New York: Charles

Scribner’s Sons.

Atkinson, John W. , ed. 1958 Motives in Fantasy, Action, and Society. Princeton: Van Nostrand.

Bahr, Stephen J. , and Rollins, Boyd C. 1971 “Crisis and Conjugal Power.” Journal of Marriage

and Family 33:360–367.

Baker, George , and Chapman, D. W. , eds. 1962 Man and Society in Disaster. New York:

Basic Books.

Bakke, E. W. 1940 Citizens without Work. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Barker, Roger 1968 Ecological Psychology. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Barton, Allen 1969 Communities in Disaster. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday.

Bengtson, Vern L. , and Lovejoy, Chris 1973 “Values, Personality, and Social Structure: An

Intergenerational Analysis.” American Behavioral Scientist 16:880–912.

Bensman, Joseph , and Vidich, Arthur J. 1971 The New American Society. Chicago:

Quadrangle Books.

Bernard, Jessie 1971 Women and the Public Interest. Chicago: Aldine.

Bird, Caroline 1966 The Invisible Scar. New York: McKay and Co.

Blau, Peter M. , and Duncan, Otis Dudley 1967 The American Occupational Structure. New

York: John Wiley and Sons.

Block, Jack (in collaboration with Norma Haan) 1971. Lives through Time. Berkeley: Bancroft

Books.

Blood, Robert O., Jr. , and Wolfe, Donald M. 1960 Husbands and Wives. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free

Press.

Blumer, Herbert 1939 An Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki’s “The Polish Peasant in Europe

and America.” New York: Social Science Research Council, Bull. 44.

Blumer, Herbert 1958 “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” Pacific Sociological

Review 1:3–7.

Blumer, Herbert 1971 “Social Problems as Collective Behavior.” Social Problets 18:298–306.

Bowerman, Charles E. , and Glen H. Elder, Jr . 1964 “Variations in Adolescent Perceptions of

Family Power Structure.” American Sociological Review 29:551–567.

Bradburn, Norman M. 1969 The Structure of Psychological Well-Being. Chicago: Aldine.

Breer, Paul E. , and Locke, Edwin A. 1965 Task Experience as a Source of Attitudes.

Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press.

Bronson, Wanda S. ; Katten, Edith S. ; and Livson, Norman 1959 “Patterns of Authority and

Affection in Two Generations.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 58:143–152.

Brunswik, Else Frenkel 1942 “Motivation and Behavior.” Genetic Psychology Monographs

26:121–265.

Burgess, Ernest W. ; Locke, Harvey J. ; and Thomes, Mary Margaret 1971 The Family: From

Tradition to Companionship. 4th ed. New York: Van Nostrand.

Butler, Robert N. 1963 “The Life Review: An Interpretation of Reminiscence in the Aged.”

Psychiatry 26:65–76.

Cain, Leonard D., Jr . 1970 “The 1916–1925 Cohort of Americans: Its Contributions to the

Generation Gap.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological

Association, Washington, D. C., September 1, 1970.

Cavan, Ruth S. , and Ranck, Katharine H. 1938 The Family and the Depression: A Study of 100

Chicago Families. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Chafe, William Henry 1972 The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and

Political Roles, 1920–1970. New York: Oxford University Press.

Christensen, Harold T. , ed. 1964 The Handbook of Marriage and the Family. Chicago: Rand

McNally.

Clausen, John A. , ed. 1968 Socialization and Society. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. (See

especially chap. 7, by M. Brewster Smith , “Competence and Socialization,” and chap. 2, by

Alex Inkeles , “Society, Social Structure, and Child Socialization.”)

Coles, Robert 1967 Children of Crisis. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.

Cooley, Charles H. 1922 Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Charles Scribrner’s

Sons.

Dizard, Jan 1968 Social Change in the Family. Chicago: Community and Family Study Center.

Dohrenwend, Bruce P. , and Dohrenwend, Barbara S. 1969 Social Status and Psychological

Disorder: A Causal Inquiry. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Easterlin, Richard A. 1961 “The American Baby Boom in Historical Perspective.” American

Economic Review 51:869–911.

Easterlin, Richard A. 1968 Population, Labor Force, and Long Swings in Economic Growth: The

American Experience. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1968 “Achievement Motivation and Intelligence in Occupational Mobility: A

Longitudinal Analysis.” Sociometry 31:327–354.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1969a “Appearance and Education in Marriage Mobility.” American

Sociological Review 34:519–533.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1969b “Occupational Mobility, Life Patterns, and Personality.” Journal of

Health and Social Behavior 10 : 308–323.

Elder, Glen H., Jr .1970 “Marriage Mobility, Adult Roles, and Personality.” Sociological

Symposium no. 4:31–54.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1971 Adolescent Socialization and Personality Development. Chicago: Rand

McNally.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1972 “Role Orientations, Marital Age, and Life Patterns in Adulthood.” Merrill-

Palmer Quarterly 18:3–24.

Elder, Glen H., Jr. 1973 “On Linking Social Structure and Personality.” American Behavioral

Scientist 16:785–800.

Erikson, Kai 1970 “Sociology and the Historical Perspective.” American Sociologist 5:331–338.

Estvan, Frank 1952 “The Relationship of Social Status, Intelligence, and Sex of Ten- and

Eleven-Year-Old Children to an Awareness of Poverty.” Genetic Psychology Monographs

46:3–60.

Farber, Bernard 1972 Guardians of Virtue: Salem Families in 1800. New York: Basic Books.

Festinger, Leon 1957 A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson.

Flacks, Richard 1970 “Social and Cultural Meanings of Student Revolt: Some Informal

Comparative Observations.” Social Problems 17:340–357.

Foote, Nelson N. , ed. 1961 Household Decision-Making. New York: New York University

Press.

Freud, Anna , and Burlingham, Dorothy T. 1943 War and Children. New York: International

Universities Press.

Fromm, Erich 1941 Escape from Freedom. New York: Farrar and Rinehart.

Gerth, Hans , and Mills, C. Wright 1953 Character and Social Structure. New York: Harcourt,

Brace and World.

Gewirtz, Jacob L. , and Baer, Donald M. 1958 “Deprivation and Satiation as Social Reinforcers

on Drive Conditions.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 57:165–172.

Ginsburg, S. W. 1942 “What Unemployment Does to People: A Study in Adjustment to Crisis.”

American Journal of Psychiatry 99:439–446.

Glaser, Barney G. , and Strauss, Anselm L. 1964 “Awareness Contexts and Social Interaction.”

American Sociological Review 29 : 667–679.

Glaser, Daniel , and Rice, Kent 1959 “Crime, Age, and Employment.” American Sociological

Review 24:679–689.

Goode, William J. 1968 “The Theory and Measurement of Family Change.” In Indicators of

Social Change: Concepts and Measurements, edited by Eleanor Bernert Sheldon and Wilbert

E. Moore . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Gorer, Geoffrey 1967 “What’s the Matter with Britain?” New York Times Magazine 31.

Goslin, David A. , ed. 1969 Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research. Chicago: Rand

McNally. (See especially chapters by Reuben Hill and Joan Aldous, “Socialization for Marriage

and Parenthood”; and by Leonard Cottrell, “Interpersonal Interaction and the Development of

the Self.”)

Gouldner, Alvin , and Peterson, William 1961 Notes on Technology and the Moral Order.

Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

Greven, Philip J., Jr. 1970 Four Generations: Population, Land, and Family in Colonial Andover,

Massachusetts. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

Hamblin, Robert L. 1958 “Leadership and Crisis.” Sociometry 21:322–335.

Hansen, Donald A. , and Hill, Reuben 1964 “Families under Stress.” In The Handbook of

Marriage and the Family, edited by Harold T. Christensen , chap. 19. Chicago: Rand McNally.

Hareven, Tamara K. 1971 “The History of the Family as an Interdisciplinary Field.” Journal of

Interdisciplinary History 2 : 399–414.

Harrington, Michael 1962 The Other America. New York: Macmillan.

Hawthorn, Geoffrey 1970 The Sociology of Fertility. London: Macmillan and Co.

Heer, David M. 1963 “The Measurement and Bases of Family Power.” Marriage and Family

Living 25:133-39.

Hill, Reuben 1949 Families under Stress. New York: Harper and Bros.

Hill, Reuben 1970 Family Development in Three Generations. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman.

Hinkle, L. E., Jr. , and Wolff, H. A. 1957 “The Nature of Man’s Adaptation to His Total

Environment and the Relation of This to Illness.” A.M.A. Archives of Internal Medicine

22:449–460.

Hobbs, Daniel, Jr. 1965 “Parenthood as Crisis: A Third Study.” Marriage and Family Living

27:367–372.

Hobsbawm, E. J. 1971 “From Social History to the History of Society.” In Historical Studies

Today, edited by Felix Gilbert and Stephen R. Graubard , pp. 1–26. New York: W. W. Norton.

Hoffman, Lois W. 1960 “Effects of Employment of Mothers on Parental Power Relations and the

Division of Household Tasks.” Marriage and Family Living 22:27–35.

Huntington, Emily H. 1939 Unemployment Relief and the Unemployed. Berkeley and Los

Angeles: University of California Press.

Hyman, Herbert H. 1942 “The Psychology of Status.” Archives of Psychology 38, no. 269.

Hyman, Herbert H. 1972 Secondary Analysis of Sample Surveys: Principles, Procedures, and

Potentialities. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Ingersoll, Hazel L. 1948 “A Study of the Transmission of Authority Patterns in the Family.”

Genetic Psychology Monographs 38:225–302.

Inkeles, Alex 1955 “Social Change and Social Character: The Role of Parental Mediation.”

Journal of Social Issues 11, no. 2: 12–23.

Jackson, Elton F. 1962 “Status Inconsistency and Symptoms of Stress.” American Sociological

Review 27:469–480.

Jackson, Elton F. , and Burke, Peter J. 1965 “Status and Symptoms of Stress: Additive and

Interaction Effects,” American Sociological Review 30:556–564.

Jahoda, Marie ; Lazarsfeld, Paul F. ; and Zeisel, Hans 1970 Marienthal. Chicago: Aldine.

Jones, Mary C. 1958 “A Study of Socialization Patterns at the High School Level.” The Journal

of Genetic Psychology 93:87–111.

Kagan, Jerome , and Moss, Howard 1962 Birth to Maturity. New York: John Wiley and Co.

Kasl, Stanislav , and Cobb, Sidney 1967 “Effects of Parental Status Incongruence and

Discrepancy on Physical and Mental Health of Adult Offspring.” Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology Monograph 7, no. 2, pt. 2.

Kirkendall, Richard S. 1964 “The Great Depression: Another Watershed in American History?”

In Change and Continuity in Twentieth-Century America, edited by John Braeman , Robert H.

Bremner , and Everett Walters . New York: Harper and Row.

Knudsen, Dean O. 1969 “The Declining Status of Women: Popular Myths and the Failure of

Functionalist Thought.” Social Forces 48:183–193.

Kohn, Melvin L. 1969 Class and Conformity: A Study in Values. Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press.

Komarovsky, Mirra 1940 The Unemployed Man and His Family. New York: Columbia University

Press.

Komarovsky, Mirra 1962 Blue-Collar Marriage. New York: Random House.

Koos, Earl L. 1946 Families in Trouble. New York: King’s Crown Press.

LaFollette, Cecile T. 1934 A Study of the Problems of 652 Gainfully Employed Married Women

Homemakers. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Langner, Thomas S. , and Michael, Stanley T. 1963 Life Stress and Mental Health. New York:

Free Press.

LeMasters, E. E. 1963 “Parenthood as Crisis.” Marriage and Family Living 25:196–201.

Lenski, Gerhard 1954 “Status Crystallization: A Non-vertical Dimension of Social Status,”

American Sociological Review 19 (1954): 405–413.

Leslie, Gerald R. , and Johnsen, Kathryn P. 1963 “Changed Perceptions of the Maternal Role.”

American Sociological Review 28:919–928.

Leuchtenburg, William E. 1984 “The New Deal and the Analogue of War.” In Change and

Continuity in Twentieth-Century America, edited by John Braeman , Robert H. Bremner , and

Everett Walters . New York: Harper and Row.

Levine, Sol , and Scotch, Norman A. , eds. 1970 Social Stress. Chicago: Aldine (See especially

chapter 10, by R. Scott and A. Howard , “Models of Stress.”)

Levinger, George 1965 “Marital Cohesiveness and Dissolution: An Integrative Review.” Journal

of Marriage and the Family 27:19–28.

Linder, Staffan B. 1970 The Harried Leisure Class. New York: Columbia University Press.

Linton, Ralph 1942 “Age and Sex Categories.” American Sociological Review 7:589–603.

Lipset, Seymour M. , and Todd, Everett C. 1971 “College Generations—from the 1930s to the

1960s.” The Public Interest 25:99–113.

Lopata, Helena Z. 1971 Occupation: Housewife. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lynd, Robert S. , and Lynd, Helen Merritt 1937 Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural

Conflicts. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co.

McClelland, David C. 1961 The Achieving Society. Princeton, N. J.: Van Nostrand.

Macfarlane, Jean W. 1964 “Perspectives on Personality Consistency and Change from the

Guidance Study.” Vita Humana 7:115–126.

McGrath, Joseph E. , ed. 1970 Social and Psychological Factors in Stress. New York: Holt,

Rinehart, and Winston.

McMulvey, Mary C. 1961 “Psychological and Sociological Factors in Prediction of Career

Patterns of Women.” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University.

Malewski, Andrzej 1966 “The Degree of Status Incongruence and Its Effects.” In Class, Status,

and Power, edited by Reinhard Bendix and Seymour M. Lipset , 2d ed., pp. 303–308. New

York: Free Press.

Mannheim, Karl 1952 “The Problem of Generations.” In Essays on the 1952 Sociology of

Knowledge, translated and edited by Paul Kecskemetic , pp. 276–322. London: Routledge and

Kegan Paul.

Maslow, Abraham H. 1954 Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row.

Mauss, Armand L. 1971 “The Lost Promise of Reconciliation: New versus Old Left.” Journal of

Social Issues 27:1-20. (The entire issue is devoted to Old and New Left.)

Mayhew, Henry 1968 London Labour and London Foor. Vol. 1. New York: Dover. (Originally

published by Griffin, Bohn, and Co. In 1861-62.)

Mechanic, David 1968 Medical Sociology. New York: Free Press.

Miller, Daniel R. 1970 “Personality as a System.” In A Handbook of Method in Cultural

Anthropology, edited by Raoul Naroll and Ronald Cohen , pp. 509–526. Garden City, N. Y.: The

Natural History Press.

Miller, Daniel R. , and Swanson, Guy E. 1958 The Changing American Parent. New York: John

Wiley and Sons.

Mills, C. Wright 1951 White Collar. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mills, C. Wright 1959 The Sociologie al Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.

Minturn, Leigh , and Lambert, William 1964 Mothers of Six Cultures. New York: John Wiley and

Sons.

Mitchell, Broadus 1947 Depression Decade: From New Era through the New Deal, 1929–1941.

New York: Rinehart and Co.

Miyamoto, Frank 1970 “Self, Motivation, and Symbolic Interactionist Theory.” In Human Nature

and Collective Behavior: Papers in Honor of Her bert Blumer, edited by Tamotsu Shibutani , pp.

271–285. Englewood Clif�s, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

Mogey, John M. 1957 “A Century of Declining Paternal Authority.” Marriage and Family Living

19:234–239.

Moss, J. Joel 1964 “Teenage Marriage: Cross-National Trends and Sociological Factors in the

Decision of When to Marry.” Acta Sociologica 8:98–117.

Mussen, Paul H. , ed. 1960 Handbook of Research Methods and Child Development. New

York: John Wiley and Sons. (See especially William Kessen , “Research Design in the Study of

Developmental Problems.”)

Mussen, Paul H. , ed. 1970 Carmichael’s Manual of Child Psychology. New York: John Wiley

and Sons.

Nam, Charles 1964 “Impact of the GI Bills on the Educational Level of Male Population.” Social

Forces 43:26–32.

Nesbit, Robert A. 1969 Social Change and History. New York: Oxford University Press.

Nesbit, Robert A. 1970 The Social Bond. New York: Knopf.

Nye, F. Ivan , and Hoffman, Lois W. , eds. 1963 The Employed Mother in America. Chicago:

Rand McNally.

Ogburn, William F. 1964 William F. Ogburn on Culture and Social Change: Selected Papers.

Edited and with an Introduction by Otis Dudley Duncan . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Parsons, Talcott , and Fox, Renee 1952 “Illness, Therapy, and the Modern Urban American

Family.” Journal of Social Issues 8:31–44.

Perry, Stewart E. ; Silber, Earle ; and Bloch, Donald A . 1956 The Child and His Family in

Disaster: A Study of the 1953 Vicksburg Tornado. Washington, D.C.: National Research

Council, Study no. 5.

Plant, James 1937 Personality and the Cultural Pattern. New York: The Commonwealth Fund.

Potter, David M. 1954 People of Plenty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Pruett, Lorine 1934 Women Workers through the Depression. New York: Macmillan.

Rahe, Richard H. 1969 “Life Crisis and Health Change.” In Psychotrophic Drug Response:

Advances in Prediction, edited by Philip R. A. May and J. R. Wittenborn . Springfleld, Ill.:

Charles C. Thomas.

Reissman, Frank ; Cohen, Jerome ; and Pearl, Arthur , eds. 1964 Mental Health of the Poor.

New York: Free Press.

Riesman, David 1950 The Lonely Crowd. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Riley, Matilda White ; Johnson, Marilyn ; and Foner, Anne 1972 Aging and Society: A Sociology

of Age Stratification. Vol. 3. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Rosenberg, Morris 1965 Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton

University Press.

Rossi, Alice S. 1964 “Equality between the Sexes.” Daedalus 93:607–652.

Runciman, W. G. 1966 Relative Deprivation and Social Justice. Berkeley and Los Angeles:

University of California Press.

Ryder, Norman B. 1965 “The Cohort as a Concept in the Study of Social Change.” American

Sociological Review 30:843–861.

Ryder, Norman B. 1967 “The Emergence of a Modern Fertility Pattern: United States, 1917–66.”

Paper presented at a conference on “Fertility and Family Planning: A World View,” University of

Michigan, 15–17 November 1967.

Sanford, Nevitt 1966 Self and Society. New York: Atherton Press.

Scanzoni, John H. 1970 Opportunity and the Family: A Study of the Conjugal Family in Relation

to the Economic-Opportunity Structure. New York: Free Press.

Sennett, Richard 1970 Families against the City. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Shanas, Ethel , and Streib, Gordon F. , eds. 1965 Social Structure and the Family: Generational

Relations. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

Sherif, Muzafir 1958 “Superordinate Goals in the Reduction of Intergroup Tensions.” American

Journal of Sociology 53:349–356.

Simons, Rita J. , ed. 1967 As We Saw the Thirties. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. (See

especially Hal Draper’s essay, “The Student Movement of the Thirties: A Political History.”)

Slater, Philip 1970 The Pursuit of Loneliness. Boston: Beacon Press.

Slote, Alfred 1969 Termination: The Closing at Baker Plant. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

Smelser, Neil J. 1967 “Sociological History: The Industrial Revolution and the British Working-

Class Family.” In Essays in Sociological Explanation, by Smelser . Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:

Prentice-Hall.

Sorokin, Pitirim A. 1942 Man and Society in Calamity. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co.

Spiegel, John P. 1968 “The Resolution of Role Conflict within the Family.” In A Modern

Introduction to the Family, edited by Norman W. Bell and E. F. Vogel , pp. 361–381. New York:

Free Press.

Srole, Leo ; Langner, T. S. ; Michael, S. T. ; Opler, M. K. ; and Rennie, T. A. C. 1962 Mental

Health in the Metropolis. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Sternsher, Bernard 1969 The Negro in Depression and War: Prelude to Revolution, 1930–45.

Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

Sternsher, Bernard 1970 Hitting Home: The Great Depression in Town and Country. Edited by

Bernard Sternsher . Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

Stotland, Ezra 1969 The Psychology of Hope. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Stouffer, Samuel A. , and Lazarsfeld, Paul F. 1937 Research Memorandum on the Family in the

Depression. New York: The Social Science Research Council.

Straus, Murray A. 1962 “Work Roles and Financial Responsibility in the Socialization of Farm,

Fringe, and Town Boys.” Rural Sociology 27:257–274.

Straus, Murray A. 1968 “Communication, Creativity, and Problem Solving Ability of Middle- and

Working-Class Families in Three Societies.” American Journal of Sociology 73:417–430.

Sullivan, Harry Stack 1947 Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry. New York: Norton.

Super, D. E. ; Starishevsky, R. ; Matlin, N. ; and Jordan, J. P. , eds. 1963 Career Development:

Self-Concept Theory. Princeton, N. J.: College Entrance Examination Board.

Taft, Philip 1964 Organized Labor in American History. New York: Harper and Row.

Terkel, Studs 1970 Hard Times. New York: Pantheon.

Thernstrom, Stephan 1964 Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth-Century City.

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Thernstrom, Stephan 1973 The Other Bostonians: Class and Mobility in the American

Metropolis, 1880–1970. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Thomas, Dorothy S. 1927 Social Aspects of Business Cycles. New York: Knopf.

Thomas, William I. , and Znaniecki, Florian 1918–1920 The Polish Peasant in Europe and

America. Vols. 1 and 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1968 Perspectives on Human Deprivation.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Volkhart, Edmund H. , ed. 1951 Social Behavior and Personality: Contributions of W. I. Thomas

to Theory and Research. New York: Social Science Research Council.

Warner, William F. and Abegglen, James 1963 Big Business Leaders in America. New York:

Atheneum.

Weinstock, Allan R. 1967 “Family Environment and the Development of Defense and Coping

Mechanisms.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 5:67–75.

Wilensky, Harold L. 1961 “Orderly Careers and Social Participation: The Impact of Work History

on the Social Integration of the Middle Mass.” American Sociological Review 26:521–539.

Wolff, Sula 1969 Children under Stress. London: Penguin Press.

Zawadski, B. , and Lazarsfeld, Paul F. 1935 “The Psychological Consequences of

Unemployment.” Journal of Social Psychology 6:224–251.

Zollschan, George K. , and Hirsch, Walter , eds. 1964 Explorations in Social Change. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin. (See especially David Kirk’s essay, “The Impact of Drastic Change on Social

Relations: A Model for the Identification and Specification of Stress.”)