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A Life Course Perspective on Behavior and Health

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Principles and Concepts of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

The life course is a framework that provides a way to integrate macro-level factors – social, cultural, environmental – with individual-level influences that collectively contribute to health. Life course principles focus on individual choice and decision-making, promote an awareness of larger social and historical contexts, and foster an understanding of the timing of events and the various roles that change in a lifetime. These principles are (1) human development and aging as lifelong processes, (2) human agency, (3) historical time and place, (4) timing, and (5) linked lives. The life course emphasizes the importance of trajectories, as well as transitions and turning points, as core concepts in its framework. Trajectories are sequences or long-term patterns and are formed by linking states and transitions across successive years. Statistical approaches that integrate repeated observations over time and identify different paths of progression are central to characterizing trajectories and far different than using discrete observations at baseline and at one or more subsequent points in time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Timothy P. Daaleman

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    John Preisser

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  1. Timothy P. Daaleman
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Correspondence to Timothy P. Daaleman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Edwin B. Fisher

  2. Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA

    Linda D. Cameron

  3. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Alan J. Christensen

  4. Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Ulrike Ehlert

  5. School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China

    Yan Guo

  6. Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Brian Oldenburg

  7. Departments of Medical Psychology, Academic Medical Center (AMC) and VU University Medical Center (VUMC), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Frank J. Snoek

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Daaleman, T.P., Preisser, J. (2018). A Life Course Perspective on Behavior and Health. In: Fisher, E., et al. Principles and Concepts of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-93826-4_16

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