Behavioral development among adults is viewed from a life-span perspective. Derived from sociological literature, a life-span perspective is interpreted as a conceptualization of achievement associated with success and failure in school and in the world of work. Remarks are organized around the question of whether achievement in adults' world of work can be foretold in the scholastic achievement of childhood and adolescence. Data are taken from research on social inequality and mobility. The most pertinent concerns in that literature are to describe and explain the processes that allocate people to hierarchically ranked social positions throughout their lives. Patterns of continuity and discontinuity from one generation to another, one individual to another, and with regard to one individual across the life span are indicated by many factors including IQ tests, peer recognition, earnings, occupational status, and social standing. Findings from a review of recent literature by sociologists including O.D. Duncan, G.H. Elder, D.L. Featherman, R.A. Van Dusen, and H. Winsborough indicate that there is an overall trend toward greater continuity between the scholastic achievement of youth and the occupational and economic attainments of adults. Additional research is suggested on the sequence of institutional contexts--the home, school, and work/economy--in which achievement behavior takes place across the life cycle. (DB)