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Handbook of the Life Course pp 407–429Cite as

Mental Health

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Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

One of the most important developments in the sociology of mental health has been its synthesis with the life course perspective. This synthesis has been relatively recent with the vast majority of work in this area having been produced over the past 15 years. This chapter begins with a selective review of the advances that have emerged from the synthesis of the life course perspective with the sociology of mental health, with an emphasis on the stress process paradigm. A particularly important feature of this synthesis has been the focus on trajectories of mental health over the life course. The chapter includes a consideration of some challenges that confront this line of investigation and suggests some new directions that might stimulate fresh ways of studying trajectories. The intersection of physiological processes with socio-environmental influences on mental illness is also discussed in this chapter. In recent years, the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) has become a focus for researchers interested in the ways in which fetal and early postnatal health may be associated with adult health outcomes, including mental health. Other researchers have focused on how social experiences in childhood may stimulate pro-inflammatory responses in individuals that result in elevated risk for symptoms of mental health problems. Still others researchers have considered the roles of gene-environment interactions and correlations and the ways in which gene-environment processes may play out across the life course. All of these models are essentially life course models, but the sociology of the life course and the sociology of mental health have largely been absent from these considerations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Sociology, Paediatrics, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    William R. Avison Ph.D., FCAHS

  2. Division of Children’s Health and Therapeutics, Children’s Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada

    William R. Avison Ph.D., FCAHS

  3. Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada

    William R. Avison Ph.D., FCAHS

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Michael J. Shanahan

  2. Life Course Center and Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Jeylan T. Mortimer

  3. Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

    Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson

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Avison, W.R. (2016). Mental Health. In: Shanahan, M., Mortimer, J., Kirkpatrick Johnson, M. (eds) Handbook of the Life Course. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_19

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