The perception of major life events across the life course

Abstract

To better understand the effects of life events, research interest recently turned to the question of how life events are perceived (e.g., as positive, predictable, or controllable). However, research on this topic primarily focused on young adulthood, leaving it unclear whether and how the perception of life events varies across the life course. In this study, we examined the relationship between age and different perceived event characteristics using nationally representative data from the German Socioeconomic Panel Innovation Sample (N = 1,044). We found that people reported different event types across among age groups. Furthermore, the perception of life events varied across age and depending on whether an event was experienced at a normative age or not. These findings underline the necessity to take on a life-course perspective when examining life events and support theoretical claims on the relevance of age norms in life-event research.