Only through a focus on the scope of development across the first two decades of life can we evaluate whether paths on which we embark in infancy, childhood, and adolescence are the ones on which we continue to walk in adult life. Accordingly, the text answers several important questions about child development:
* Is there a necessary connection between developments in infancy and the behaviors we see in the later, childhood and adolescent periods?
* Are there ways in which children may change--for better or worse--as they move from one point of life to the next?
* Are there particular aspects of either children’s biology (for instance, genes or hormones) and/or their contexts (for example, families, schools, community settings, or cultures) that either promote connections across life (continuity) or lead to change (discontinuity)?
* If children can change, and if the bases of these changes can be identified, can means be found to improve child development? and
* Can the study of child development help people across the rest of the life span live lives of greater health, opportunity, and achievement?
This book takes a developmental systems approach to change across the life-span to answer these questions about children.
