[The long-term influence of socio-economic disadvantage on the psychosocial adjustment of women].
On the basis of a prospective longitudinal study of over 15,000 women this paper examines the long-term influences of socio-economic disadvantages on psychosocial adjustment. The study draws on data from two British cohort studies carried out 12 years apart from each other. A contextual developmental perspective is adopted to analyse the pathways linking childhood experiences to adult functioning in a changing socio-historical context. The study suggests a causal chain process linking the early and persisting experience of socio-economic adversity to behavioural maladjustment of girls during childhood and adolescence. Socio-economic adversity and behavioural maladjustment in adolescence, in turn, predict the development of depressive symptoms in adulthood. The influence of socio-economic adversity on individual development, however, also depends on the wider socio-historical context in which development takes place. It is concluded that for a better understanding of psychosocial adjustment across the lifespan we have to consider the interactions of a changing individual in a changing context.
Schoon
Ingrid
I
School of Social Sciences, Dep. of Psychology, City University, Northampton Square, GB-London EC1V OHB, Great Britain. I.Schoon@city.ac.uk
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010553:Personality Development; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011610:Psychosocial Deprivation; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment; D006113:United Kingdom