scholarly journals Childhood Circumstances and Mental Health in Old Age: A Life Course Survey in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 6420
Author(s):  
Huoyun Zhu ◽  
Mengting Liao
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Community Environment ◽  
Peer Network

Current evidence and research of the life course approach on the association between life experiences and health in old age are fragmentary. This paper empirically examines the “long arm” effect of the childhood circumstances on mental health in later life using a large longitudinal dataset (CHARLS) conducted in 2014 and 2015. We operationalize the childhood circumstances as family economic conditions, community environment, and peer network to include the meaningful content and understand their interaction. The SEM results indicate that effects of those factors contributing to older people’s mental health are unequal and vary among age groups and genders. Of those, peer network in childhood determines to a large extent the mental health through the whole life course, while economic conditions and community environment are weakly associated with mental health. Furthermore, we find a distinct interaction mechanism linking those variables. The peer network completely mediates the effect of the community environment on the mental health of older adults and has a partial mediating effect on the economic conditions. Those findings suggest that social policies aimed at promoting older people’s mental health in the context of the active ageing and health ageing strategy should go beyond the old age stage and target social conditions early in childhood.

Socio-Economic Family Background and Adult Children’s Health in Germany: The Role of Intergenerational Transmission of Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Arránz Becker ◽  
Katharina Loter
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission Of Education

Abstract This study examines consequences of parental education for adult children’s physical and mental health using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel study. Based on random-effects growth curve models (N = 15,144 West German respondents born between 1925 and 1998 aged 18–80), we estimate gender-, age-, and cohort-specific trajectories of physical and mental health components of the SF-12 questionnaire for low and high parental education measured biennially from 2002 to 2018. Findings suggest more persistent effects of parental education on physical than mental health. In particular, both daughters and sons of the lower educated group of parents (with neither parent qualified for university) exhibit markedly poorer physical health over the whole life course and worse mental health in mid-life and later life than those of higher educated parents. Thus, children’s health gradients conditional on parental education tend to widen with increasing age. Once children’s educational attainment is held constant, effects of parental education on children’s health mostly vanish. This suggests that in the strongly stratified West German context with its rather low social mobility, intergenerational transmission of education, which, according to our analyses, has been declining among younger cohorts, contributes to cementing long-term health inequalities across the life course.

The Social Context and Resources of the Unmarried in Old Age

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pat M. Keith
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Social Resources ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Role Transitions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Life Course

A model of singleness in later life was developed to show how the social context may influence the personal and social resources of older, unmarried persons. The unmarried (especially the divorced) will be an increasing proportion of the aged population in the future, and they will require more services than will the married. Role transitions of the unmarried over the life course, finances, health, and social relationships of older singles are discussed with implications for practice and future research.

Sociology of normal ageing

2012 ◽  
pp. 1512-1516
Author(s):  
Sarah Harper
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Normal Ageing ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Disengagement Theory

Research on the sociology of normal ageing has focused on understanding the paradigms of ‘successful ageing’. In an apparent reaction to ‘disengagement theory’ which proposed that to withdraw from roles and relationships in old age was normal, a new conceptual framework was developed in the late 1960s and 1970s which attempted to explain how individuals adapted to the constraints of ageing and old age. This has been variously measured in terms of good health, high levels of physical and mental functioning, and active engagement with one's social and physical environment. While post-modernism and critical gerontology have attempted to refocus the debate, the emphasis of most research and writing has remained within the framework of understanding, explaining, and even facilitating, ‘success’ in old age. There is also a body of research which recognizes the importance of the life course perspective, and that throughout an individual's life, he or she is faced with continuities and discontinuities which have to be negotiated and resolved. Old age is but part of this life-long process. Changes which occur in later life, such as retirement and widowhood, will lead to discontinuities in roles and relationships, other aspects of our lives will undergo little change allowing continuity. Alongside this, perspectives from anthropology, history and the social constructionist school of thought have also been recently influential. This chapter will discuss concepts of age, generation, and cohort. It will consider the contribution of the life course approach to understanding ageing, and the manner in which other perspectives, such as social constructionism, narrative psychology and anthropology, have contributed to the sociology of normal ageing.

scholarly journals The Life Course Construction of Inequalities in Health and Wealth in Old Age

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Michel Oris ◽  
Marie Baeriswyl ◽  
Andreas Ihle
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Differential Mortality ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Cumulative Processes ◽  
The Life Course

AbstractIn this contribution, we will mobilize the interdisciplinary life course paradigm to consider the processes through which individual heterogeneity in health and wealth is constructed all along life, from the cradle to old age. Considering altogether historical, family and individual times, the life course perspective has been developed in sociology, (lifespan) psychology and epidemiology, and has framed many important studies during the last four decades. The theory of cumulative disadvantage is for sure the most popular in social sciences, explaining how little inter-individual differences early in life expand all along life to reach maximal amplitude among the “young old” (before the selection by differential mortality at very old age). In lifespan psychology, the theory of cognitive reserve (educational level being a proxy) and its continuation, the theory of use or disuse (of cognition during adult life) have more or less the same explanatory power, cognition being a decisive precondition for active ageing and quality of life in old age. However, in spite of the success of those theoretical bodies, a prominent figure in the field, Glen Elder, recently observed that there is surprisingly little evidence for cumulative processes and that a wide variety of model specifications remain completely untested. This finding makes even more important a critical review of the literature which summarize several robust evidences, but also discuss contradictory results and suggest promising research tracks. This exercise considers the life course construction of inequalities in the distribution of objective resources older adults have (or not) “to live the life they own value” (to quote A. Sen 2001). But it is also crucial to consider the subjective component that is inherent to the understanding of well-being.

Ageing and Mental Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 549-572
Author(s):  
Neelam Verma
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Psychological Services ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Conditions ◽  
Treatment Services ◽  
Research Findings

Estimated research findings suggest that almost two-thirds of adults with psychiatric conditions do not receive the required treatment services. This chapter enables readers to understand various aspects of ageing, how physical and mental health aspects are correlated, and which mental health conditions are most common in later life. The chapter also discusses major models of mental health in the context of ageing. Major psychiatric and psychological conditions that are most common in old age are outlined along with a major milestone of old age (i.e., retirement: a major lifestyle change that pushes older people towards psychological problems and adjustment issues with a new phase of life). A brief description is presented on the current status of psychiatric and psychological services for mental health issues of the elderly. The chapter concludes by summarizing the contents of discussed areas. Studies are presented throughout the chapter to accompany and enrich the discussion and validate the chapter content.

Mental Health in Later Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisoun Milne
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older People ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Life Course Studies

Focusing on mental health rather than mental illness, this book adopts a life course approach to understanding mental health and wellbeing in later life. Drawing together material from the fields of sociology, psychology, critical social gerontology, the mental health field, and life course studies, it analyses the meaning and determinants of mental health amongst older populations and offers a critical review of existing discourse. The book explores the intersecting influences of lifecourse experiences, social and structural inequalities, socio-political context, history, gender and age-related factors and demands an approach to prevention and resolution that appreciates the embedded, complex and multi-faceted nature of threats to mental health and ways to protect it. It foregrounds engagement with the perspectives and lived experiences of older people, including people living with dementia, and makes the case for a paradigmatic shift in conceptualising, exploring and researching mental health issues and supporting older people with mental health problems. The book is essential reading for policy makers, health and social care professionals and students, third sector agencies, researchers and all of those concerned to more effectively and collaboratively address mental health issues in later life.

Time as a structuring condition for new intimate relationships in later life6

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Bildtgård ◽  
Peter Öberg
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Free Time ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Life Phase ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Theoretical Insight

It is often claimed that ‘love is ageless’. But is this really true? This chapter raises the question: is there something that sets intimate relationships in later life apart from relationships in earlier parts of the life course? While earlier chapters have considered how intimate relationships in later life are shaped by historical and cultural conditions, this chapter instead focuses on how they are shaped by the particular existential structure of later life. It is argued that old age is a life phase characterized by a paradox of time: that of having lots of available free time, but little time left in life – and that this existential structure shapes intimacy in later life. It is further argued that the scope of this theoretical insight is much wider than the topic of intimate relationships.

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