Understanding personal relationships throughout the life course is one of the most crucial issues in the behavioral and social sciences. This book brings together perspectives from different disciplines on individual development and personal relationships across the life span. The book addresses two pertinent dimensions of personal relationships: 1) structures of relationship networks (e.g. kin vs non-kin, peripheral vs intimate, short-term vs long-term) and 2) processes (i.e. change or stability) and outcomes of personal relationships across the life span. The book stimulates discussion of personal relationships as resources for and outcomes of individual development throughout the life course. Different qualities of personal relationships serve as catalysts for individual development. At the same time, relationship qualities reflect changes of developing individuals. The book does not give exclusive priority to one phase of the human life span. Rather, each chapter addresses social development across the entire life span from childhood to later adulthood.

From the moment of birth to the moment of death, peoples' lives are intermingled and survival is determined by personal relationships. Those with strong ties live longer and in better health than people who are lonely or isolated. Yet scholarship has rarely considered personal relationships across the entire life span. This edited volume integrates research on people's relationships from childhood to later adulthood. Chapters look at specific types of relationships as well as at the functions that underlie them such as the way people think about relationships and their emotional reactions as well as their motivation for relationships.