Mental Health

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.