The Role of Historical Change for Adult Development and Aging: Towards a Theoretical Framework About the How and the Why

The role of historical change for individual functioning and development has long been a central feature of life span psychological and life course sociological theory. However, the mechanisms underlying how historical change in contexts shapes individual functioning and development are less well understood. To better understand such open questions, we present the HIDECO (HIstorical changes in DEvelopmental COntexts) theoretical framework to structure and integrate potential pathways of historical change in (a) population distributions of key resources for successful aging, (b) social and family life, (c) modern technological and scientific progress, and (d) Zeitgeist and norms including societal definitions of social roles, attitudes, and age norms. We then summarize the conceptual perspectives and empirical findings from developed countries for each of these four intertwined layers of contextual embedding. In a last major step, we use the empirical articles compiled in this Special Issue to illustrate the utility of the HIDECO framework. In doing so, we work out a number of key insights gained in this Special Issue and identify some of the open questions that need to be tackled in the future.