ABSTRACT
A life-course perspective provides a necessary dimension and an integrating framework for the study of aging and intergenerational relations because it is both developmental and historical. This chapter examines changes in demographic behavior, in family and household organization, in the timing of life-course transitions, and in kin assistance in American society, as they have affected generational supports in the later years of life by historical and life-course perspective. The life-course paradigm is developmental and historical by its very nature. Its essence is the synchronization of "individual time," "family time," and "historical time." The timing of life transitions involves the balancing of individuals' entry into and exit from different work, family, and community roles over their life course, especially the sequencing of their work lives and educational and family transitions in changing historical contexts.
